Signing your posts on talk pages, both in the article and non-article namespaces, is a good practice and facilitates discussion by helping identify the author of a particular comment. Other users can then navigate to a talk page and address their comments to the specific, relevant user(s). Discussion is an important part of collaborative editing because it helps all users to understand the progress and evolution of a work.
- To sign a message: type four tildes (~~~~) or press the signature button (
). - When editing a page, main namespace articles should not be signed because the article is a shared work, based on the contributions of many people and one editor should not be singled out above others.
Modifying your signature
When signing with -- ~~~~, your default signature will appear with a link to your user page and a time-stamp, like this:
- --Catharine.Au 11:50, 18 March 2011 (EDT)
This default signature can be customized by modifying the Signature option in your Preferences.