View source for Uncyclopedia:Signatures

__NOTOC__{{nutshell|We will ban you forever if you have an annoying signature.}}
{{shortcut|[[UN:SIG]]}}
Your sig is a beautiful and fragile thing. It is your mark of pride, your avatar in the [[Forum:Village Dump|virtual gladiatorial pit]] that is [[Uncyclopedia]]. It is your voice. It tells us that it was ''you'' who wrote those comments, not some [[IP|number]] or [[User:rcmurphy|arbitrary thing]], and it gives context and meaning to what you say. Sometimes.
:'''As such, your signature should:'''
:#Clearly identify you.
:#Direct users to your userpage so that they can leave you any additional [[Special:Block|feedback]] they might have.
:#Clearly identify when you said whatever you said.
:#Not misrepresent your contributions to Uncyclopedia.
:#Avoid disrupting the page as a whole
:#Not be responsible for the untimely death of other users

As a wiki, there are a large number of places on this website where numerous users come together to share ideas and leave comments for each other, and have none of them read by any of the other users. Appending a signature onto the end of your comments in these places is important, for it allows you to feel almost as though you're important enough to have made a difference.

Unfortunately, it is quite possible to create a signature which disrupts such communication. Some <span class="sigexpand"> <span class="sighidden" style="position: absolute; z-index: 5"><span style="position: relative; height: 50px; right: 155px; bottom: 30px; background-color: deepskyblue; -moz-border-radius: 1em; padding: 9px; text-align: center; border: 1px solid silver; white-space: nowrap; display: block;"><span style="font-family:Arial Unicode MS">[[☃]]</span><small><small> [[WotM]] [[UotM]] [[PotM]] [[AotM]] [[NotM]] [[Uncyclopedia:Foolitzer Prize|FP]] [[Template:FIYC|FIC]] [[Template:Deletion Award|MDA]] [[Uncyclopedia:Emmanuel Goldstein Award of Excellence in the Distribution of Misinformation|MI]] [[Template:Purplespleen|PS]] [[Template:Burninator|Bur.]] [[VFH|<span style="text-decoration:overline">VFH</span>]] [[VFP|<span style="text-decoration:overline">VFP</span>]] [[Template:Cookie|<span style="text-decoration:overline">CM</span>]] [[Special:Listusers/sysop|+S]]</small></small><span style="font-family:Arial Unicode MS">[[☃]]</span><br />[[Image:Cthulhusmiley.gif|20px|See how absolutely awesome I am, I just want everyone to know that!]]&nbsp;&nbsp;"''awesome''"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'''[[User:Spang|SPANG]]'''''!!''&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"''mind blowing''"&nbsp;&nbsp;[[Image:Cthulhusmiley.gif|20px|Pay attention to me!]]<br /><span style="font-family:Arial Unicode MS">[[☃]]</span><small example="your penis"><small><small> GUN KUN DUN </small> '''[[user_talk:spang|talk!]] [[Special:Contributions/Spang|contribs!]] [http://en.uncyclopedia.co/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=Spang logs!] [[user:spang/Things I've done|articles!]] [[user:spang/javascript|js!]] [[Template:random colour|random colours!]]'''<small> CUN OUN MUN </small></small></small><span style="font-family:Arial Unicode MS">[[☃]]</span></span></span><font color=blue>signatures</font></span> have the ability to be quite disruptive, and make it difficult for others to follow the flow of ideas and comments on a page. Due to this, we've had to come up with a few rules for signatures.


===So Speaketh the Burning Bush:===
'''Usually, the main problems are size and bad coding.''' Code well and keep it within a reasonable size and all should be well.

*Bad coding is simple to address - don't do it, problem solved.
**Check your code, close your tags, and close them in order. If there is a font effect inside a span, close the font effect before closing the span, or weird things are apt to occur. This is bad.
**Some things are browser-dependent - even if it looks fine in Chrome, it may completely explode in Firefox, or vice versa. This is bad. If you're having trouble with any of it, just ask someone. This stuff is usually easy enough to fix if one knows how. Otherwise, this could be bad.
*Because having a small penis is evidently a rather common affliction, however, many people also feel the need to make their signatures big. This is a little more difficult to resolve due to rather more deep-seated needs not being met, but you should really talk to your psychiatrist about that, not us. This is not as bad as you think; average size is about 5.5 in.
**Anything exceeding line-height will increase the height of the line it is on accordingly, or in layman's terms, will break apart the lines of text, leaving gaps. This is bad. It's sorta like 1.5 spacing your text, except it's due to the fact that someone felt the need to make their signature big, due to having a [[penis|small penis]]. Browsers and configurations vary, but [[:Category:It's news because I say it's news|studies]] have determined that more than 15px is sufficiently visible cross-browser that that is where the line has been drawn. '''25px high max'''. Otherwise, it's bad.
***This includes any images placed into your sig - the ''height'' must be 25px or less. Depending on the aspect ratio, this could mean the width could be much greater or much less than 15px, but if you have a single image longer that 200px after scaling, that's probably not a very good sign in general. That is bad.
***A good way to make an image 15px tall rather than 25px wide is by putting <code>|x25px|</code> in the file link. The "x" before the number signifies that the 15px is for height, not width.
***Large text such as with <nowiki><big> or larger font points will also break formatting and will not be tolerated. Likewise, <sup> or <sub></nowiki> are not <span class='sigexpand'>allowed.<span class='sighidden'> Unless, maybe, if you're really nice about it, or something... no, seriously, just don't. This is bad.
**Signatures that are excessively long also tend to break up text on a page. This is bad. For that reason, signatures must be shorter than this line of Xs: 
**:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
***We're still not 100% sure how that works with different fonts/browsers. Basically, if you drop your sig under 55 Xs and it's longer, no go. 
***In other words, don't do this: 
**:{{User:Lyrithya/sig|annoying=long}}
**:This is bad.
*Should you use one of the obnoxious pop-out sigs, length is potentially even more of an issue, as every time someone mouses over it, the overall length of the page is apt to increase, which can cause all manner of fun effects. This is bad. Same goes for coding. Mess one of these up, and not just your signature will prove jittery, but the entire page will bounce at random mouseovers. This is even worse.
*Include a timestamp of some sort when you sign. This is normally done automatically by signing with four tildes (''i.e.'', <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>), although [[User:Aleister in Chains|some people]] take a different approach. Regardless, it is important that people are able later to sort out the context, or rather, who did what when. Don't ask why; it just is.

====In conclusion:====
*Must have a link to your userpage. A direct link to your talkpage would be nice as well.
*Must clearly identify you.
*Must have a timestamp of some sort.
*No more than 15px high. This is bad.
*No more than 55 characters long (measured by Xs). This is bad.
*No overflowing code. This is bad.

Beyond that, anything goes... at least until it proves exceedingly annoying and gets added to the list.

====Creating a signature template====
:''From [[Uncyclopedia:How To Get Started Editing#Signature templates]]:
{{#dpl:
 mode=userformat
 |title=Uncyclopedia:How_To_Get_Started_Editing
 |include=#Signature templates
}}