Knowledgebase

How to manage and put your user account signature in comments in MediaWiki

In MediaWiki there's a quick and easy way to put your signature when you add comments on talk/discussion pages. Actually you can put your signature in any page content, but its purpose is primarily for adding it to comments so that other users know who posted the comment. This is a feature that's available to registered users.

Add Signature to Comments

In order to add your signature you only have to type the symbol ~ four times. So when you put:

~~~~

in the content of a page and you save the edit, MediaWiki will automatically turn that into your signature. By default, the signature is the username of your account. In addition to it, MediaWiki also automatically adds the time and date the comment was made. The username in the signature is a link to the personal page of your account (if you have created one), and MediaWiki also adds to the signature a link to the talk page associated with your personal page.

You can put the signature above or below the comment.

Signature Settings

Each user can configure in their user account options some settings related to their signature. To do this, after you log in go to Preferences button>User profile tab>Signature section on the page that opens. There you'll see listed your current signature. If you haven't changed it, it should be the same as your username. If you want to, you can have a different signature. Just type it in the text field labeled New signature. Under It there's a checkbox Treat signature as wikitext (without an automatic link). It's unmarked by default which means that when you put your signature MediaWiki will automatically turn it into a link to your user page, and a link to its associated talk page will also be added. If you mark the checkbox, then the signature will not be a link but just regular text and no link to the talk page will be included.

Keep in mind that when you change your signature and/or edit the option Treat signature as wikitext (without an automatic link) this will not affect the signatures that you've already put in comments. It will affect the signatures that you add after the change.

Was this answer helpful?

 Print this Article

Also Read