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Propose banning non-standard / raw signatures.
I would like to see the funcionality to customise signatures in any way banned (yes, I realise my own sig is currently customised, this has no bearing on this discussion). I would like to see all signatures as just a standard-formatted link to the user's page. I don't think user's should be able to edit this at all, by changing colours, adding other links, swapping in a name other than their username, nothing. Non-standard signatures are confusing, often garish, with indecipherahle single-character links to separate pages, all sorts. But my main beef with them is that signatures (and user pages too) and becoming increasingly more "myspace.com" than anything and detracting from wikipedia as a serious scholarly enterprise. I would like to start a big discussion on this. Are there any arguments whatsoever for allowing customised signatures? - PocklingtonDan 19:01, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
Just to clarify I am proposing this as being implemented at a technical level, so there is no longer any ability to customise a signature. We would agree on a standard template for signature (probably something simple, useful and uncontroversial like "USERNAME (TALK) - TIMESTAMP") and that's all that happens ever for anyone when they sign a post, with no option in preferences to have anything else. As pointed out, this is the opposite of instruction creep, it simplifies everything for everyone and gets rid of a feature that doesn't really add anything to wikipedia. This would be trivial to implement for the coding teamt oo. - PocklingtonDan 19:45, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
- And the template can be in MediaWiki namespace so that it can be modified by admins for all users as may be needed in the future. —Doug Bell talk 19:51, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
I don't see this as likely to be implemented, nor necessary. While over-formatting is obnoxious, it's only rarely actually disruptive. Sigs aren't in articles, so it's not like they're hurting the readers any. Additionally, anything particularly harmful (like putting a category in your sig, or using it to canvass AfD votes) would be easily dealt with on a case by case basis. --tjstrf 21:03, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
Heavily customised sigs do give me a belly ache, but I don't think campaigning for complete change is feasible right now, considering how many people do have colourful signatures. It would be nice if we could limit the links in the signatures to the user page and the user talk page, perhaps the users' contributions as well. No external links, no links to any space outside userspace. Canvassing votes in sigs should definitely be stopped. But setting out hard and fast guidelines is a bit like instruction creep. riana_ dzasta 01:15, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
I find it useful when people put contributions links in their signatures (it makes it much easier to figure out what they're talking about when they don't give context, which happens quite a lot at the Help Desk). If there is to be a mandatory signature (which I don't think would be a good thing, although I'd comply with the rule if it gained consensus), it should probably have a contribs link too, more or less like {{user}}. (If you do want to ban complicated sigs, it'll need to be done on a policy as well as a technical level; it would be pretty easy to write a user script that expanded ~~~~ to anything at all upon saving a page, before the software even saw what was being submitted.) --ais523 15:08, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
I like this idea, even though it would reduce me to being nearly Cyde. The amount of over-formatting we're seeing is getting quite ridiculous. Or I would definitely support some hard-coded limitations on sigs, e.g. setting a maximum length, the kind of tags that can be used, etc. -- Cyde Weys 00:10, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
Argumentation on formatted signatures
I have an answer to all arguments in 'Against':
- Hit <enter> in-between comments and encourage short sigs (e.g. mine: --NS) in long bulletted lists (like e.g. here).
- Hah, I actually think it has come to be the opposite!
- Never happened to me, helps me spot them.
- Never seen that due to a sig (or anything for that matter) in both ie6 and FireFox.
Can I please have some comments from those contesting the arguments in 'For'? Are there any more arguments? NikoSilver 17:13, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
Look, Sherool. This whole debate is subjective. There are things you will not understand in the For position, as there are things I don't understand in the Against position. Let's assume that each side speaks for itself, and then we see how we sort it out. To give you an example, I personally don't understand how the code annoys some people in the edit window coz I have the ability to filter it out instantly with my brain. I do respect others though when they say they have trouble with it.
Same with the colors. I like seeing people being people like in real life (wearing clothes) and signing with different colors, and I find it practical in certain occasions (spotting comments etc coz I hate ctrl+F since I want to be able to look both above and below what I'm searching for, while ctrl-F highlights just the bottom word on your scrolling screen -which is largely irrelevant as a talk altogether, so let's both drop it). I also don't understand why some people dislike them, but then again, I respect that too.
Same I understand people who want links, or people who argue they clutter. Same I understand that a vandal will also have to modify a sig to impersonate you (and that many will). Same I understand that spamming your talkpage/contribs links is as bad as spamming your userpage (so don't sign at all?) :-) I also understand the ones who find this helpful in accessing those links.
Same (and most important of all) I understand users when they say that they contribute better because they don't feel deprived of their fundamental human rights of self-identification and diversification. Who don't feel like article-writing-workers of the Outer Party, and who can crack a smile once in a while with certain perceptive sigs. I find this euphoria very inspiring, and very productive. And I expect you from your side to please respect that too. NikoSilver 01:57, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
E9
-- Though I am getting very scared looking at mine... How did I make all that? There is a solution to all that though: They could leave {{template links}} in. Then mine would say {{User:E9/Template:Signature}} instead of all that virtually uneditable stuff. Despite the fact that my signature is on this page, I will proceed to add three tildes on the next line: ~~~
Reducing signature length
See Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Reduce the size limit for sigs? for the most recent raising of this issue, and vote for Bug 8458 if you have a bugzilla account. —Quiddity 22:55, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
Nice signatures
I think we should have galleries for nice signatures. I'm the only person I know who puts any effort into theirs.
Obviously you didn't put enough effort into yours to compress the unneeded code. Your coding has 980 characters. I can cut it down to 451. In my humble opinion, that's... bad coding on your part :( So much for unintentional (?) WP:POINT violations. A sig of that length may be forbidden in the future. Sorry.
Just for the record, I cut it down to
The line-break problem still exists; for that, you would need to use a span. Please study this code, and see http://www.w3schools.com/css/ if you need help. I hope that you will choose to go with something more conventional, and less hard on one's eyes (less noise on the both the page and into the edit box), like mine (152 characters). I would appreciate *so* much if you don't use a background for your whole sig, and read Color theory. Thank you! Grace notes T § 01:08, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
- I've put a lot of effort into my sig, including completely changing my user account name. It's now much shorter, and better for it. Guy 01:56, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
- How can I make a signature look like ROCKABOOMs? Mine just looks like this MichaelLinnear 06:15, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
As for bad signatures... I found one even further outside this guideline added to my talk page ages ago (see this diff). Not only is it 17 paragraphs long, it contains div markup, template parameters, fair-use images, and CSS floats. --ais523 17:44, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
See a Gallery of the most extreme signatures. Making it almost competitive to have the most eye-catching (and hence annoying) sigs possible. --Quiddity 18:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Reducing signature length
See Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Reduce the size limit for sigs?] for the most recent raising of this issue, and vote for Bug 8458 if you have a bugzilla account. —Quiddity 22:55, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
Since signing posts is a guideline, why not make it automatic with submit butt
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