User:RudolfRadna/How To Get Started Editing Uncyclopedia

User:Hrodulf/menu

{{HowTo}}

Welcome! Sorry, but you're probably not as funny or as good a writer as you thought you were! But don't despair! Keep reading and find wisdom!

This is just a little bit of useful advice for n00bs. It's not a joke. However, it may still be funny anyway.

So you're on uncyclopedia for the first time. You have a great idea. Maybe it's about a joke you heard the other day. Maybe it's about your favorite tv star. Maybe it's even an 80s reference, or a gag about sentient sand particles. You get the idea.

Anyway, you take your great idea, and you type it in, and you can't think of anything else, so you click save and figure you did a great job, right?

Wrong.

Think of Uncyclopedia as a jungle. There's lots of animals, and they do lots of different things. A lot of them kill little articles like the three sentence jobbie about Fonzie getting pregnant you just uploaded.

But what can I do? I'm just a n00b!

Here's a few tips on how not to get summarily deleted, specifically for n00bs:

• If you have an idea, but don't have the time or the ideas to expand it into a full article, try adding it to an article that already exists instead of creating a new article. From my personal experience, it is a lot easier to add to a new article and have your changes survive on the site than it is to create a totally new article.

• If you're committed to creating a new article, do yourself a big favor, register and compose your article on your userpage. You can create a user page by typing "User:YourName" in the search box to the left and up a bit (sorry n00b, but don't actually type the literal letters "YourName," type the name you registered under . . . I'm so sorry that I actually need to say this, but take it all in stride and laugh at the craziness!), click the "go" box, and then click on the red link right at the top of the page, right after where it says "You searched for:."

Once you've created your userpage, you can type your page contents into the userpage like any other article on the site. Check out other people's userpages for ideas on how to organize and format your page. You can create subpages to your user page also, just type in "User:YourName/MySubPage" (No, don't really type in MySubPage, call the sub page whatever you wan- ok, you get it. Sorry. Stop looking at me like that, I said I was sorry!) in the search box, and create the page just like you created your user page. Make sure you remember to add a link to your subpage from your userpage by typing something like this somewhere on your user page: "here's how to get to my subpage: [[User:YourName/MySubPage|MySubPage]]". You can use subpages of your user page for anything, but a great way to use them is to work on articles without worrying about them being deleted.

Here's why having a userpage and subpages is important: think of uncyclopedia like a theatre (I know, first it was a jungle, now it's a theatre . . . just go with me on this for a second). When you go to the theatre, you want to see a completed play, right? Think if you sat down in your seats and wanted to watch a play, but instead of the play, the playwright comes out and says "Well, I want to do a lot of gags about Belgium really just being Backup France here, but I havn't written them yet . . . . maybe I'll think of something while we're waiting . . . . anyone in the audience have any ideas?" . . . . you get my point.

Writing on your user page is like writing at home. Writing on the uncyclopedia main space is performing live before a pretty vicious audience. Know the facts and make the right choice: do your compositional process on your user page, and once your (hopefully to someone other than you) brilliant, hilarious article is ready and fully expanded into an uncyclopedia article (see other pages on how to do this), then put it into the main space and see what people think of your writing. This will work a lot better than just laying down your idea and watching it die in the jungle theatre that we have wrought here . . . .

Lots of luck, and remember, if you start an article as a sub-page of your userpage, you won't lose it even if it gets deleted from the main space.

Creating a Menu for your Subpages

Now that you have created subpages to your userpage, you need to create a menu, or else you'll lose track of them (they will be there, but you may forget where they are, and as you make more subpages, it can be problematic to link them all to your main userpage, as it tends to take up too much space).

Using the same procedure you used to create your subpage, create a page called User:YourName/Menu, and edit the page, typing something like "This is an index to my subpages" and then typing "My subpage [[User:YourName/YourSubpage]]. Get into the habit of updating your menu whenever you create a subpage. You can also organize the menu by type of subpage. See User:Hrodulf/menu for an example of how to do this.

Now you'll always be able to find your subpages. Be sure to put a link to your menu page on your main userpage also by typing [[User:YourName/Menu]] at the top, for easier navigation. Put a link to the menu at the top of all your subpages also, for the same reason.

How to Upload Images

As for how to upload images, log in, click upload file from the left hand menu, and fill out the form that pops up. It's easy! Just be aware that if you upload a lot of stupid images that other people don't find funny, it will make the admins angry(ier), and you won't like the admins when they're angry(ier), and also, be aware that if a file you upload is for your userpage, let people know that so it will be less likely to get erased (there's a comment box to explain why you're uploading the image in the form).

How to make your own userpage userbox templates

First, don't actually create them in the "template:" namespace! They will get erased!

You have to understand that any code at all can be a template. You can insert any code from any page onto any other page just by putting the name of the page between double brackets. For instance, {{User:Hrodulf/ExampleTemplate}} will copy this "dummy" example template anywhere you want it, like this:

This is a test

See, it's that easy!

And you don't have to do it with userboxes, images, and text: any code from any page you put in between double brackets will be put anywhere you place the double bracketed pagename. Not that you should go around doing that willy-nilly, that's vandalism and will get you banned, but it can be useful for things like creating userbox templates for your userpage. Here's how to do it:

Type in User:YourName/MyTemplate (Don't really type YourN- ok the joke's old) into the uncyclopedia search box

Click search, and click on the red link at the top of the page that says User:YourName/MyTemplate.

Now you can edit the code for the page. I recommend you cut and paste the example template code for now. Cut and paste the following into your new page:

<div style="float: left; border:solid black 10px; margin: 1px;">
{| cellspacing="0" style="width: 338px; background: orange; font-size: 26px; font-family: impact"
| [[Image:Testpattern.jpg|200px]]
| This is a test
|}</div>


Now you can edit the code! Change the image from Testpattern.jpg to whatever you want, change the image size (200px means 200 pixels) to whatever you want, change the background color from orange to whatever you want (experiment and look at other pages' codes to figure out the details), change the border from solid black to another color, or make it invisible by making it white instead, or change the font codes (the text doesn't doesn't have to be large and bold, again, look at other articles to get ideas about how to format your text). If you can't figure out how to do something, ask for help in the village dump, or look around until you find something you like, and copy and paste the code for it.

Click save to save your template.

Now anytime you code {{User:YourName/MyTemplate}} into a page, your template will appear.

Another way to use templates

Want to invoke a template code, but don't want a link from the template page to the page you're editing? Invoke the template this way: {{Subst:User:YourName/MyTemplate}}. It will have the same effect, only instead of linking the template page to the page you're editing, it will actually insert the template page code natively onto the page you're editing. This can be useful if you want to change part of the template every time you use it, for instance, if it is a signature template, and you want to change the time and date every time you make use of it. That reminds me, I forgot all about . . . .

Signature templates

Notice how some users have lots of cool colors and pictures when they sign on talk pages and in the village dump? Well, you can have that too, if you want! Just create a user subpage called User:YourName/sig, code your signature template (don't use it until it's how you want it to be, you can check out other users' signature templates if you need to get ideas for colors and formatting (don't swipe sig templates wholesale, this is just if (like me) you're clueless about wiki coding and need some code you can modify by changing colors, text and images)), and then when you sign a page, insert {{Subst:User:YourName/sig}} instead of clicking the signature button or typing four tildes.

Doing this will require you to either manually insert the time and date, or to update the time and date in your signature template every time you use it, unless you put some special code into your template that allows tildes to be subst:ed into the page you're editing. The tildes will be converted into the current time and date on the page you're editing when you click save, resulting in a signature template with the date and time stamp built in. See User:Hrodulf/sig for an example. (The code that adds the date and time stamp to the template is "<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>").

The tildes must be surrounded by the "<nowiki></nowiki>" flags in order for this method to work, and the template must be invoked by the subst: method.

Another reason why you should use subst instead of directly linking- if you make changes to a directly linked signature template, without meaning to, you are effectively editing every page you signed with that template. This can create obvious problems, such as losing date and time information).

Give UnNews a try!

An option, if you don't have time to write a lengthier article, or just don't have that much to say, is to make an unnews piece out of it. This is not to say that you can just write anything you want there and it won't be NRV'd or deleted, but generally unnews pieces are allowed to be shorter than uncyclopedia articles, so it's a great place for n00bs to flex their comedy muscles. Read other unnews articles to get an idea of the style and format you should use, and remember to focus on a fractured take on current events, or a zany event that isn't actually happening, but would make the world a more interesting place if it were.

Be timid in updating certain pages.

We in the cabal (there is no cabal) don't mind a little unannounced tweaking on a random page here or there. That's what a wiki does, after all. But some edits are more significant than others. So be timid in making certain changes.

To be more precise, before you click the "edit" tab, tell us what you're planning to do in the Village Dump (there's an easy to use menubar that allows you to create a new forum topic; don't forget to link to your forum from the talk page of any relevant article you may have already created so people can find it!) before doing something major (such as changing templates, namespace menu pages, reskins, and pretty much anything else that will affect the uncyclopedia experience of a substantial portion of the user population). It's not that we don't trust you. It's just easier if you talk to us first so we can participate in a discussion of ideas that will change uncyclopedia in a significant way. Collaboration works better than chaos, and changes that have a heavy impact are better discussed than simply done.

So remember, before you do anything, think to yourself: "will this edit more likely then not enter the uncyclopedia consciousness of substantially more people than myself and the admins reviewing the "recent changes" page? If so, take it to the Village Dump first. Who knows, maybe the idea will get even better than you thought it would be if you talk before taking action! You could say that having the courage to include others in your creative process is bolder than just making an edit out of the blue . . .

A few words about personality conflicts

During your time at Uncyclopedia, it's possible that you may have problems with other people here. Part of life is learning to deal with other people whose ideas or goals are different than yours. Just like in real life, other people on Uncyclopedia won't always be respectful to you, or nice.

You have to decide for yourself how to deal with this, but keep in mind that if you let a few people you don't get along with get to you, you're going to find it difficult to deal with many real life situations involving people not related to you.

Remembering a few simple rules will help avoid major personality conflicts:

1)If you're really mad, just turn the computer off for awhile. Don't type mad. Remember, you might not be mad forever, but whatever words you save here will be here forever.

2)Remember that this is a comedy site, a parody of Wikipedia. It isn't the most important thing in the world (which is, coincidentally, sex). Try to keep things in perspective.

3)If you're still upset, take it to the village dump and get other people's perspective on your problem. This may help you understand the other person's point of view, and diffuse any major problems you have with other people here.

4)Don't make it personal. Chances are you don't know the people here, and they don't know you. What's the point of getting mad at people you don't even know?

UPDATED VERSION

Some advice about userpages, subpages, and their role in creating new content for Uncyclopedia

This is a short page of useful information for new users.

Unless you have a full-blown idea for an article that's completely written and in final form, it's generally a bad idea to put it into the uncyclopedia main space as a new article. This is because short material is generally deleted by other users for quality assurance.

If you have an idea, but don't have the time or the ideas to expand it into a full article, try adding it to an article that already exists instead of creating a new article. It is generally a lot easier to add to a new article and have your changes survive on the site than it is to create a totally new article.

If you still want to create a new article, instead of creating it in the main space, try putting the article on a subpage to your userpage. That way you can be free to complete it at your own pace without being subjected to deletion and NRV tagging of your work.

It is not necessary, but it is advisable for you to register and establish a userpage. Otherwise, you will have to use your ip address as your userpage. This is inadvisable, since other users could share an ip address with you.

You can create a user page by typing "User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs" in the search box to the left and up a bit, click the "go" box, and then click on the red link right at the top of the page, right after where it says "You searched for:."

Once you've created your userpage, you can type your page contents into the userpage like any other article on the site. Check out other people's userpages for ideas on how to organize and format your page.

You can create subpages to your user page also, just type in "User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MySubPage" in the search box, and create the page just like you created your user page. Make sure you remember to add a link to your subpage from your userpage by typing something like this somewhere on your user page: "here's how to get to my subpage: [[User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MySubPage|MySubPage]]". You can use subpages of your user page for anything, but a great way to use them is to work on articles without worrying about them being deleted.

Having a userpage and subpages is important, because it allows you to keep track of what you're writing, and to control the pace and quality of your own work, before finalizing it and eventually putting it into the main space. Even after putting a finished article into the main space, it may be a good idea to keep an archival copy on your userpage in case it gets deleted and you want to continue working on it.

It is important not to forgot to type "user:" in front of the name you registered as, and your subpage location, since if you don't do this, your subpage won't link up correctly to your user page, and will be considered to be in the main space and may be deleted.

Creating a Menu for your Subpages

Now that you have created subpages to your userpage, you need to create a menu, or else you'll lose track of them (they will be there, but you may forget where they are, and as you make more subpages, it can be problematic to link them all to your main userpage, as it tends to take up too much space).

Using the same procedure you used to create your subpage, create a page called User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/Menu, and edit the page, typing something like "This is an index to my subpages" and then typing "My subpage [[User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MySubpage]]. Get into the habit of updating your menu whenever you create a subpage. You can also organize the menu by type of subpage. See User:Hrodulf/menu for an example of how to do this.

Now you'll always be able to find your subpages. Be sure to put a link to your menu page on your main userpage also by typing [[User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/Menu]] at the top, for easier navigation. Put a link to the menu at the top of all your subpages also, for the same reason.

Give UnNews a try!

An option, if you don't have time to write a lengthier article, or just don't have that much to say, is to make an unnews piece out of it. This is not to say that you can just write anything you want there and it won't be NRV'd or deleted, but generally unnews pieces are allowed to be shorter than uncyclopedia articles, so it's a great place for new users to flex their comedy muscles. Read other unnews articles to get an idea of the style and format you should use, and remember to focus on a fractured take on current events, or a zany event that isn't actually happening, but would make the world a more interesting place if it were.

Be cautious in updating certain pages.

Some edits are more significant than others. The cabal (there is no cabal) doesn't mind a little unannounced tweaking on a random page here or there, but some edits are more significant than others.

In particular, before doing something major such as changing templates, namespace menu pages, reskins, and pretty much anything else that will affect the uncyclopedia experience of a substantial portion of the user population, please give people a heads up in the Village Dump (there's an easy to use menubar that allows you to create a new forum topic; don't forget to link to your forum from the talk page of any relevant article you may have already created so people can find it!). This will allow for feedback and keep people working together. Collaboration works better than chaos, and changes that have a heavy impact are better discussed than simply done.

Generally speaking, the more your edit changes Uncyclopedia, and the more people who are likely to see it, the more cautious you should about making it without heading to the Village Dump first.

Don't Mess With Success

It's tempting to work on Featured Articles and classics: your work will be seen, and its satisfying to feel that you've contributed to a quality article. However, the better the article, the more likely it is your edit will decrease its quality rather than increase it- even if you are a good writer. Be conservative with the good articles; if you feel like being experimental then create a new article or edit a bad one.

Think about being a surgeon. Every time you operate, you could improve things, or you could screw it up and end up with a corpse on the operating table. Doctors take this into account, and don't operate unless they think the benefits outweigh the risk. Although our work at Uncyclopedia is only occasionally so bad it actually kills, being a writer is a bit similar. Good comedy writing depends a lot on style, tone, and the "voice" of the writer being carefully balanced. A few poorly placed lines about Oprah and Zombie Jesus can kill an article's humor as quickly as slicing through a jugular vein kills the patient. Doctors operate on unhealthy people, not healthy, fit ones. Edit the bad articles to make them better, and leave the good ones alone unless you're sure you know what you're doing. Remember, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And please read How To Be Funny And Not Just Stupid if you haven't already!

Deletions

One way to think of sculpting, say, an elephant is to start with a block of rock, and then remove everything that doesn't look like an elephant. The point being that art is just as much a process of removing as a process of adding, the "creative process" can be incredibly destructive.

The upshot is: you don't have to be a good writer to contribute to Uncyclopedia. If you've got an eye for good writing, you can contribute just as much to the quality of Uncyclopedia with what you delete as what you add. If you see something of marginal quality, report it to our Vote For Deletion. If it's worse, and recently created, stick an NRV (No Redeeming Value) tag on it. If it's a true abomination, do a QVD (Quick Vote For Deletion). Uncyclopedia has thousands of pages, so taking the time to take out our trash is much appreciated.

A note of caution- different people have different senses of humor. As you'll see in our Featured Article discussions, one person's Featured Article is sometimes another persons Vote For Deletion. If something doesn't appeal to you but you think someone else might get it, then either leave it be or do a VFD where its fate can be hashed out by committee. Focusing on the worst articles will do the most good with the least collateral damage. Think of it as being a cop who's out to get the serial killers instead of the guy smoking a joint.

A few words about personality conflicts

During your time at Uncyclopedia, it's possible that you may have problems with other people here. Part of life is learning to deal with other people whose ideas or goals are different than yours. Just like in real life, other people on Uncyclopedia won't always be respectful to you, or nice.

You have to decide for yourself how to deal with this, but keep in mind that if you let a few people you don't get along with get to you, you're going to find it difficult to deal with many real life situations involving people not related to you.

Remembering a few simple rules will help avoid major personality conflicts:

1. If you're really mad, just turn the computer off for awhile. Don't type mad. Remember, you might not be mad forever, but whatever words you save here will be here forever.
2. Remember that this is a comedy site, a parody of Wikipedia. It isn't the most important thing in the world. Try to keep things in perspective.
3. If you're still upset, take it to the village dump and get other people's perspective on your problem. This may help you understand the other person's point of view, and diffuse any major problems you have with other people here.
4. Don't make it personal. Chances are you don't know the people here, and they don't know you. What's the point of getting mad at people you don't even know?
5. If despite all of the above, you've stumbled into an argument, about anything, and there's no chance of ever convincing the other person to accept your way of seeing whatever you're arguing about, just acknowledge that you have a difference of opinion, if it comes to that, and that this is normal and totally acceptable, and that whatever the issue you were arguing about will probably work itself out in time anyway. Hard to keep an argument going after someone says that.

If you get NRV'd

If despite everything, you still get NRV'd, try contacting the person who placed the NRV, and find out why if you can. If you can't, you have to decide whether to try to improve what you wrote, or let it be huffed.

If you decide to improve it, put it on a subpage of your userpage as noted above, and try to fix it. Otherwise, let nature take its course and just wait for some admin to huff it.

How to improve articles that have been NRV'd

Length

The major NRV issue for most users is length. If an article is only a few lines long, it really just isn't an article, it's an idea. Try to elaborate your idea if you can, if you can't, chances are it really wasn't such a worthwhile idea in the first place. Move on to something else that you can write more about.

Style

This is trickier, but some users dislike childish or stupid humor. While it may bother you to have to change what you think is funny, to a certain extent, everyone on uncyclopedia, regardless of their unique sense of humor, has to conform, to at least some degree, in return for the privilege of being allowed to edit here. You may think something like, say, putting goatse all over your article is hilarious (for the record, it is). However, most of uncyclopedia (the part that isn't me) would probably disagree.

Developing ideas

One way to develop ideas is to get a piece of paper, and write your idea in the middle. Then, in circles around it, write other ideas, and how they are connected to your main idea. This is called free-association, and can be a great way to develop a structure or content for your article. You can also do this using index cards, but you may want to try on one piece of paper first. It's simpler that way.

Satire is key

Not all the humor on uncyclopedia has to be satire, but satire is a great way to develop ideas. We all have experienced things in life that are ridiculous, for instance, advertisements on television or radio that make a product of suspicious or in fact, little actual value, seem desirable and worthwhile. Or the greed and corruption of all too many of the powerful and influential in this world of ours. Or the stubborn refusal of many people to abandon beliefs that are obviously nonsensical and/or destructive, be they political, economic, religious, ethical, et cetera. You get the idea. Have a pet peeve? Think some aspect of your everyday life is the stupidest thing imaginable? Hate the fact that you're twenty years old and some insurance lobbyist convinced the government decades ago that, for the sake of all that is holy and good on planet earth, it should be illegal for you to drink a beer? Write about it in a satirical way! You won't change a thing, but we'll all have a laugh.

Research can spur your creativity

I'm not proposing that you plagarize or use actual facts. What I am proposing is that you get information from somewhere, and use it as a "diving board" into creating your own ideas. For instance, if you're writing an article about, say, lions, look up lions on the internet, and see if you can find some text about them. By learning about real lions, and what they actually do, you may be able to a better job writing an article about fake lions, and what they don't do.

Don't be afraid to give up and start over

While writing requires effort and a lot of revision, that doesn't mean that every idea you have can or should be developed into an article. If you've been working on the same idea for awhile and havn't had much progress, it's probably time to move on to something else. You can always save what you did and revisit it later, or find some other way to use the same or a similar idea in a new way. Avoid getting into a rut and always working on the same material; that isn't condusive to creativity.

If you get banned

1)If you get banned, and it isn't for an extended period, try to figure out why you were banned (if there was a reason) and avoid doing whatever you did in the future after the ban expires. While it's understandable that most Uncyclopedians, being prone to see the lighter side of life, may have an innate distrust and/or disrespect for authority, on Uncyclopedia, the admins are the authority, and just like in real life, like it or not, they have the power, and most of you don't. Act accordingly, or you'll find that what happens to you in real life if you flout authority will happen to you here also.

2)If you get banned, and it is for an extended period, either plead for mercy in #uncyclopedia at server irc.freenode.net (thereby probably tripling the length your ban), or just find something to do other than editing Uncyclopedia. Stamp collecting is very nice, and nobody has ever been banned from it . . . yet. If you don't know what IRC or MIRC is, look it up online.

How to Upload Images

As for how to upload images, log in, click upload file from the left hand menu, and fill out the form that pops up. It's easy! Just be aware that if you upload a lot of stupid images that other people don't find funny, it could get you banned. Be aware that if a file you upload is for your userpage, let people know that so it will be less likely to get erased (there's a comment box to explain why you're uploading the image in the form).

How to make your own userpage userbox templates

First, don't actually create them in the "template:" namespace! They will get erased!

You have to understand that any code at all can be a template. You can insert any code from any page onto any other page just by putting the name of the page between double brackets. For instance, {{User:Hrodulf/ExampleTemplate}} will copy this "dummy" example template anywhere you want it, like this:

This is a test

See, it's that easy!

And you don't have to do it with userboxes, images, and text: any code from any page you put in between double brackets will be put anywhere you place the double bracketed pagename. Not that you should go around doing that willy-nilly, that's vandalism and will get you banned, but it can be useful for things like creating userbox templates for your userpage. Here's how to do it:

Type in User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MyTemplate into the uncyclopedia search box

Click search, and click on the red link at the top of the page that says User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MyTemplate.

Now you can edit the code for the page. I recommend you cut and paste the example template code for now. Cut and paste the following into your new page:

<div style="float: left; border:solid black 10px; margin: 1px;">
{| cellspacing="0" style="width: 338px; background: orange; font-size: 26px; font-family: impact"
| [[Image:Testpattern.jpg|200px]]
| This is a test
|}</div>


Now you can edit the code! Change the image from Testpattern.jpg to whatever you want, change the image size (200px means 200 pixels) to whatever you want, change the background color from orange to whatever you want (experiment and look at other pages' codes to figure out the details), change the border from solid black to another color, or make it invisible by making it white instead, or change the font codes (the text doesn't doesn't have to be large and bold, again, look at other articles to get ideas about how to format your text). If you can't figure out how to do something, ask for help in the village dump, or look around until you find something you like, and copy and paste the code for it.

Click save to save your template.

Now anytime you code {{User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MyTemplate}} into a page, your template will appear.

Another way to use templates

Want to invoke a template code, but don't want a link from the template page to the page you're editing? Invoke the template this way: {{Subst:User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MyTemplate}}. It will have the same effect, only instead of linking the template page to the page you're editing, it will actually insert the template page code natively onto the page you're editing. This can be useful if you want to change part of the template every time you use it, for instance, if it is a signature template, and you want to change the time and date every time you make use of it. That reminds me, I forgot all about . . . .

Signature templates

Notice how some users have lots of cool colors and pictures when they sign on talk pages and in the village dump? Well, you can have that too, if you want! Just create a user subpage called User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/sig, code your signature template (don't use it until it's how you want it to be, you can check out other users' signature templates if you need to get ideas for colors and formatting (don't swipe sig templates wholesale, this is just if (like me) you're clueless about wiki coding and need some code you can modify by changing colors, text and images)), and then when you sign a page, insert {{Subst:User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/sig}} instead of clicking the signature button or typing four tildes.

Doing this will require you to either manually insert the time and date, or to update the time and date in your signature template every time you use it, unless you put some special code into your template that allows tildes to be subst:ed into the page you're editing. The tildes will be converted into the current time and date on the page you're editing when you click save, resulting in a signature template with the date and time stamp built in. See User:Hrodulf/sig for an example. (The code that adds the date and time stamp to the template is "<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>").

The tildes must be surrounded by the "<nowiki></nowiki>" flags in order for this method to work, and the template must be invoked by the subst: method.

Another reason why you should use subst instead of directly linking- if you make changes to a directly linked signature template, without meaning to, you are effectively editing every page you signed with that template. This can create obvious problems, such as losing date and time information).

One more note- don't advertise articles in your signature file. Apparently, the admins don't like that.