Category talk:Substitutions

What's a substitution? Heroe!(talk) (contribs) ^{Random Page!} 19:26, 11 May 2007 (EDT)

• Oops. A substitution is when you use a template as it exists. For instance, if I were to use a template as is, without the subst:, then it will change as I change the template. If I substitute the template instead, then it will drop in the template as it is, and it will not be changed on that page. A good example of this is template:newepchecklist. We drop it in and use it for that week. As we grow and evolve, we've made several changes to that template (addition of characters, new pages, etc.) However, when we make those changes to the template, it has no effect on the previous weeks' checklists, since they were all substituted. Many of us (including you) substitute our signatures--the code shows up right there on the page and won't be changed unless you go back and manually change each signature. One user who does not substitute his signature is Ohmyn0--when he makes a change to his signature, it changes throughout the entire site automatically. — RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 20:07, 11 May 2007 (EDT)

Signature substitutions?

Is it possible to create a substitution for a personal signature? To change the default eXplicit 14:35, 1 November 2007 (EDT) into something different and use {{subst:exsig}}

Similar to User:Heroe's green signature, but use a substitution. If so, how so? Can I create a subpage e.g. User:Explicit/Signature to do it?

Thanks --eXplicit 14:35, 1 November 2007 (EDT)

• Yes. Basically, you just need to create a userpage as above, and then change your nickname in your Special:Preferences to eXplicit (talk/contribs) 14:56, 1 November 2007 (EDT)

. In general, it's better to subst signatures from userpages rather than simply transcluding them. You don't get a What Links Here page, and your old sigs don't update automatically when you change it, but transclusions are a bit of a pain on the server, and considering one user might have thousands of signatures transcluded, it adds up quickly.--Hardvice (talk) 14:42, 1 November 2007 (EDT)

• • Ok thanks! Will have a play now --eXplicit 14:44, 1 November 2007 (EDT)
• It's absolutely possible to substitute any page on this wiki, including user pages. For instance, if I were to substitute User:Ryangibsonstewart/sig, I would just type {{subst:User:Ryangibsonstewart/sig}}, and it would look like this:

RyanGibsonStewart (talk)

One thing you can do is create another "autosig" page (User:Ryangibsonstewart/autosig, for example), which doesn't have all the code, just the original sig template. Then, I subst that page in my preferences, and every time I sign my name, only the template shows up, not all that yucky code. Does that make sense? -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 14:46, 1 November 2007 (EDT)

• Makes sense yeah - thanks :) -- eXplicit 14:48, 1 November 2007 (EDT)
  • Of course, that still creates a transclusion every time you use a signature...--Hardvice (talk) 14:55, 1 November 2007 (EDT)
    • Hmm - if I set my nickname to {{subst:User:Explicit/autosig}} and type ~~~ it displays it as so: {{subst:User:Explicit/autosig}} - what am I doing wrong? :\ --User:Explicit 15:07, 1 November 2007 (EDT)
      • Is "Raw Signatures" checked or unchecked? It needs to be checked, or it will automatically create a link.--Hardvice (talk) 15:13, 1 November 2007 (EDT)
        • Thanks a bunch - that fixed it <3 Hopefully this will also help others in the future :) -- eXplicit _{(talk/contribs) 14 December 2025 - 17:06 EDT}