User:JamesHaigh/signature

This is my current Wikipedia signature for the current time (refresh):

—James Haigh (talk) 2024-12-05T01:43:41Z

It's features and considerations are:

Includes the em dash already.
Timestamp complies to RFC 3339.
The 'T' is faded to aid readability (since it's just a delimiter and humans generally prefer a space as a delimiter).
The 'Z' is a link to RFC 3339.
- If a user hasn't visited RFC 3339, I'm assuming that they would be less likely to know what the 'Z' means or to be accustomed to seeing the character directly appended to the time. Assuming default colours (black on white; unvisited links as blue; visited links as dark blue), or a colour scheme with a similar effect, it is more obvious that the 'Z' is a link and the visual separation also aids readability of the time.
- If the user has visited RFC 3339 (and they keep their browser history) then the link becomes more subtle and the 'Z' somewhat blends in to the rest of the timestamp, although there is still a touch of colour separation.
The rendered signature is shorter (40char), even in May (vs. 44char), especially in September (vs. 50char).
The signature's code is a reasonable length (163char).
Both the rendered signature and the code are of constant length throughout the year.
Includes seconds.
The timestamp can easily be selected (since most of it isn't a link), and when copied as plaintext it still compiles to RFC 3339.
The whole signature word wraps as a single unit so it consistently looks neater.
Only have to type 3 tildes (~~~) for the whole lot (as opposed to '--~~~~' or '—~~~~').

Change of signature

(This originally started out in my sandbox.)

Old signature

--~~~~ → --JamesHaigh (talk) 20:58, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

(~~~ → JamesHaigh (talk))

New signature candidates

Prefixed em dash; added space in name; used RFC 3339 for timestamp:

—[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) [[RFC 3339|{{subst:#time: Y-m-d"T"H:i:s}}Z]] → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-11T20:58:18Z

Attempts to make the 'T' and 'Z' more subtle, and thus the whole timestamp more readable:

—[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) [[RFC 3339|{{subst:#time: Y-m-d"T"H:i:s}}Z]] → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-11T20:58:18Z

—[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) [[RFC 3339|{{subst:#time: Y-m-d"T"H:i:s}}Z]] → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-11_T20:58:18_Z

—[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) [[RFC 3339|{{subst:#time: Y-m-d"T"H:i:s}}Z]] → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-11T20:58:18Z

Attempt to make it wrap between date and time, not on the hyphens (unfortunately,  doesn't seem to work on Wikipedia so I've deviated from RFC 3339 by adding a space):

—[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) [[RFC 3339|{{nowrap|{{subst:#time: Y-m-d}}}} T{{subst:#time: H:i:s}}Z]] → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-12 T22:58:59Z

Given up with the space; further improving readability by using 'color' to fade out the 'T' and 'Z':

—[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) [[RFC 3339|{{nowrap|{{subst:#time: Y-m-d"{{color|grey|T}}"H:i:s}}}}{{color|grey|Z}}]] → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-12T22:58:59Z

Enhanced contrast further (assuming black on white colour scheme); no longer feel the need to use 2 nested ... elements:

—[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) [[RFC 3339|{{color|black|{{nowrap|{{subst:#time: Y-m-d"{{color|lightgrey|T}}"H:i:s}}}}}}{{color|grey|Z}}]] → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-12T22:58:59Z

Given up with wrapping entirely, nowrap the whole signature for consistency; shorten the signature code by using the link colour for the 'Z':

—{{nowrap|[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) [[RFC 3339|{{color|black|{{subst:#time: Y-m-d"{{color|lightgrey|T}}"H:i:s}}}}Z]]}} → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-12T22:58:59Z

Removed black colouring and placed the link just on the 'Z'; should look ok in any colour scheme and has also shortened the code:

—{{nowrap|[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) {{subst:#time: Y-m-d"{{color|lightgrey|T}}"H:i:s}}[[RFC 3339|Z]]}} → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-12T22:58:59Z

No longer feel the need to make the 'T' and 'Z' smaller; also shortens the code:

—{{nowrap|[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) {{subst:#time: Y-m-d"{{color|lightgrey|T}}"H:i:s}}[[RFC 3339|Z]]}} → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-12T22:58:59Z

Stylised timestamp as code:

—{{nowrap|[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) <code>{{subst:#time: Y-m-d"{{color|lightgrey|T}}"H:i:s}}[[RFC 3339|Z]]</code>}} → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-12T23:14:10Z

New signature

Selected 2nd to last candidate; fixed breakage caused by forced inclusion of 'SUBST:' in the signature box (how annoying!):

~~~ = —{{nowrap|[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) {{subst:#time: Y-m-d}}{{color|lightgrey|T}}{{subst:#time: H:i:s}}[[RFC 3339|Z]]}}

→

~~~ = —{{SUBST:nowrap|[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) {{subst:#time: Y-m-d}}{{SUBST:color|lightgrey|T}}{{subst:#time: H:i:s}}[[RFC 3339|Z]]}}

~~~ → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-13T02:00:34Z

(~~~~ → —James Haigh (talk) 2013-03-13T02:00:34Z 02:00, 13 March 2013 (UTC))

Current time (no subst):

—James Haigh (talk) 2024-12-05T01:43:41Z (refresh)

Substituted code of ~~~ (163 characters, 165B):

—[[User:JamesHaigh|James Haigh]] ([[User talk:JamesHaigh|talk]]) 2013-03-13T02:00:34[[RFC 3339|Z]]