User:Therealzwaa

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Wikipedia:Teahouse#Exclude my User page and my private Sandbox from the User contributions list\?

Hi! My custom signature failed to link to my user page or user talk page. That's fixed now, but I have issues with the instruction (it's bad!), where do I turn to report the following?

In Preferences, under "Signature", there's a checkbox that says (colors is for my emphasis and comments only, not for exact copy):

"Treat the above as wiki markup. If unchecked, the contents of the box above will be treated as your nickname and link automatically to your user page.
If checked, signing with ~~~ or ~~~~ will insert the above markup in place of your username, including any wikicode or formatting. Custom signatures should link to your user page or your user talk page. Do not use images, templates, or external links in your signature. Please ensure your custom signature complies with the relevant guideline. Note: to use a displayed pipe ("|") character (i.e. not opart of a piped link), please use | for the pipe character; otherwise, it may cause templates to fail. Comments on talk pages should be signed with "~~~~", which will be converted into your signature and a timestamp."

That instruction is really confusing: as a novice editor (which I was back when I checked the checkbox) I didn't even understand it! Why are there no simple examples to save time? Why is one forced to read a lot of redundant information just to find the most basic and simple custom signature?? I fully intended to find out how it works, but then I forgot all about it until I fixed it today.
The key phrase in the instruction is this:
" Custom signatures should link to your user page or your user talk page"
but that's obviously wrong since custom signatures must link, not "should". And the instruction fails to mention that if you check the checkbox your signature is by definition "custom" even if it contains nothing but plain text!

Anyway, the instruction that applies to when the checkbox is checked should lead with those facts (though perhaps not in so many words), and provide an example, and not be so generic (for clarity, "Custom signatures" should be "your custom signature"), and stress, not that you "should" but indeed, must link the signature.

That [you must link the signature] is also contained in the statement "Please ensure your custom signature complies with the relevant guideline", among other things, but failing to mention that the link requirement can actually be found in that guideline is a big flaw, and BTW, in that short statement, all of a sudden it's "your custom signature" and not "custom signatures", so the generic language isn't even consistent.

I humbly suggest, that:

1. If the checkbox is checked, the code on the page checks the signature box for wiki markup, and if none is found, it will automatically change it to [[User talk: the username | the signature]]
2. The instruction for when the checkbox is checked should in stead lead with something closer to this:
   " […] If checked, the markup text in the signature box above must link to your user page or your user talk page, as per this description.
   Simple examples:
   [[User: your username | your signature]]
   or
   [[User talk: your username | your signature]]"
3. Somewhere after (2), the entire guideline (not just the links part) can be referenced:
   " […] Please ensure your custom signature complies with the relevant guideline."

zwaa 06:54, 14 November 2019 (UTC)