Forum:Signature templates on central

I've noticed that this wiki (being the Central Wikia wiki) is starting to get busy, with more interaction from a wide variety of Wikia users. This has several advantages, but also several disadvantages. One of those disadvantages is that many users bring along their habit of using templates for signatures to Central.

While signature templates are tolerated on some Wikia (and especially on Uncyclopedia), it should not propagate beyond where a wikia's community has deemed it okay. It (along with any transclusions, but a bit moreso as these never go away, in talk archives) is a minor but measurable server resource drain (in fact, the software actively attempts to subst any templates, to prevent this), and it is a pain to nip in the bud fix later rather than sooner.

As it is just now becoming a bit widely distributed here (but still less than 20 users), I am therefor proposing that we of the Central Wikia Cabal discuss whether to illegalize template signatures.

If agreed upon, the following user signature transclusions will need to be subst:'d:
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:-ts-/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Brain40/Sig.
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Clorox/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Dantman/sig.main
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Darth_Sauron/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Defchris/Signature
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Florian_K/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:General_Eisenhower/Sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Ghel%C3%A6/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Leon2323/sig2.css
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Mathx314/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Nerd42/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Rainer/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Seriously/signature
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Slade/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Squishy_Vic/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:The_thing/sig
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/User:WestonWyse/Sig

This may seem a bit unfair, evil, cabalistic, and other negative adjectives as well, but template signatures are somewhat of an unnecessary abuse of the MediaWiki system, IMHO (and my opinion on this has changed over the last year or so, I am of course quite guilty of helping propagate this behavior on Uncyclopedia). However, A feature coming next week might help people customize their wikia-wide signatures a bit easier. --Splarka (talk) 00:49, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * In vote against illegalizing them I'll explain the reason or two I use a template instead of a full signature:
 * I administrate 4 different Wikia and am active on central. To me it's always been a little pesky when communicating with staff or other users on other Wikia where one side of the conversation is on my talkpage on one Wikia, and the other end is on their talkpage on another Wikia. The annoyance comes in replies because you need to type some change into the addressbar itself. What I though I'd find nice is if the talkpage link inside of a signature would just lead back to a Wikia where that person would be active.
 * So when I randomly decided to add myself to the Wikians page. I found a good idea for my own signature. I ended up creating one which had links to my local userpage and talkpage, and userpages and talkpages on the wikia I am active on. So this way anyone could simply use one of the lettered links after the talk link to reply on a active talkpage of mine. Much easier than navigating back to wherever they started the conversation.
 * The issue with this is when I placed my signature into my preferences. I use a vandalism template on The Gaiapedia and one of the required parameters there is a signature so that a user will know who is giving out the warning. Unfortunately after I saved the page when I gave out a warning, I realized that the pipe I used in the signature broke the template. And because of this, to make sure I didn't break any templates, or anything else I had to sign I changed my signature into a template.
 * There are also reasons that my sig might change. I am part of the Wikia Anime Project and because the project is growing my signature may need to be updated later on to include new wikia to link to.
 * I also may want to add some Wiki specific content to my signatures. Such as how Leon adds a link to his smartsig system in his signature to inform other users on how to make a wiki specific signature. To do this I'd actually change User:Dantman/sig to include another transclusion other than User:Dantman/sig.main which is mirrored exactly on all wikia I go to.
 * The last thing to think about, is when users use a lot of code to add something either style wise or functional to their signature. This could be coloring that other users use. Or more legitimately the code I use to add the functional links to my signature.
 * Would you rather reply to a comment where this is the signature:


 * Instead of this:

Dantman(CGANI)(talk 01:23, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Size should also be considered. The effect caused by signature transclusions is proportional to how large the wiki's communication space is (i.e, talkpages and forumpages). It is true that central is big, but the rules against signature templates on Wikipedia were created because of it's sheer size. But Central is only a fraction of a size of Wikipedia and Central will never become that big. It may be measurable, but removing signature transclusions on central won't make much difference. Mar 20, 2007 @ 07:24 (UTC) 07:24, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Transclude the template of the signature. Take a look to User:Leon2323/smartsig --Ciencia Al Podertalk-@WikiDex 16:40, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * All you need is a good, global sig. See Angela's, Splarka's or mine for an example. No need for signature templates. Grr...I really dislike them. --Jack Phoenix (Contact) 17:36, 20 March 2007 (UTC)