Recent changes on the version of the MediaWiki software running Wikipedia altered the way signatures work. If your signature is not working now (but was working previously), check the following:
You are not using "raw signatures"
You probably were using the following trick:
Example]][[User talk:Example|
This will not work anymore, since wiki markup (and HTML markup) is not allowed on "simple" signatures (it is escaped as HTML entities, e.g. [ instead of [).
To fix it, add the code which was automatically added ([[User:Example| to the beginning and ]] to the end) and turn on "raw signatures".
You are using "raw signatures"
You will probably be seeing the following message when looking at your preferences:
- Invalid raw signature; check HTML tags.
This means you are using invalid markup on your signature. Some possible causes with their corresponding solutions:
- Unclosed tags
- If you are opening a tag without the corresponding closing tag (for instance:
[[User:Example|<font color="white">Example]]), you should close the tag (for instance:[[User:Example|<font color="white">Example</font>]]). It's also a good idea to put the tags outside the link if possible (for instance:<font color="white">[[User:Example|Example]]</font>). - Mismatched tags
- If the tags are mismatched (for instance:
<s><u>hi</s></u>), fix them (for instance:<s><u>hi</u></s>).
It's also recommended to use quotes on all attributes (for instance, use <font color="white"></font> instead of <font color=white></font>).