Forum:Custom Signature Formatting

Currently, many custom signatures on the wiki display their source code. This make it harder to edit discussions as some people with long usernames' signatures take two lines of text, making it harder to find the bottom of the post. This could be easily fixed by putting the signature template (for me, it's User:Vdiu/Signature) in another template (User:Vdiu/Sig). This way, there is not a ton of code on the talk pages. If you look at the source code of User:Vdiu/Signature, you can see that it takes about 8 lines. By using this method, possible 8 lines of code can be reduced to one.--
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.Vdiu | Talk | Contributions . 07:16, 8 May 2024 (UTC)

Using unsubstituted templates in signatures is not allowed because the template can be edited later on, affecting all inclusions in all messages. The most amount of characters a signature is allowed to have is 250; your signature has three times that. — BabylonAS 07:33, 8 May 2024 (UTC)

In other words, if you're using an unsubstituted signature like above (please resolve it following the MCW:SIGN guidelines), then all pages you've used it on will have to be rebuilt by the wiki once you modify the template. This causes server load, and can get very heavy if not controlled by this guideline. Because talk pages usually contain an incredible amount of signatures by many different people. Instead, when substituted, the template's code will already be resolved immediately upon using it in your signed reply, and will therefore not be affected by further changes to the template. Effectively this guideline means that you're not allowed to keep all your signatures "hot" linked to a template (i.e. for an instant cascading effect upon modifying said template). - Jack McKalling (talk) 09:21, 8 May 2024 (UTC)