The iPhone Wiki:Signing talk page entries

We appreciate contributions to The iPhone Wiki, such as discussions on talk pages. However, talk page entries should contain some sort of way to attribute their author. If there isn't any attribution, people would have a hard time understanding who's conversing, and when someone jumps in the conversation gets messier. Let's follow a mock example, with attributions and all.

What's so different about the new iPhone's restore process? --Person A 00:11, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Apple is able to prevent downgrades. --Person B 01:10, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Really? How? --Person C 01:21, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Whenever you update/restore the firmware in iTunes, iTunes appends your device's "ECID" to the firmware files, and also sends it to Apple's servers. The servers provide new signatures, known as "SHSHs," so the signature is not broken by the new appendage. Should Apple stop signing for certain firmware versions, you can't go to those firmwares. --Person B 01:24, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

You forgot to mention that the SHSHs can be saved somewhere (on your computer or Cydia's servers) and then used when you want to go to that firmware. --Person D 09:47, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Evidence please? I have yet to hear this from a credible source... Not that I don't trust you. --Person E 09:44, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

I guess saurik's not credible enough. --Person F 10:02, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

---

Now let's take a look at the same chat without the signatures. You can't tell who's in the conversation, and who's talking to whoever.

What's so different about the new iPhone's restore process?

Apple is able to prevent downgrades.

Really? How?

Whenever you update/restore the firmware in iTunes, iTunes appends your device's "ECID" to the firmware files, and also sends it to Apple's servers. The servers provide new signatures, known as "SHSHs," so the signature is not broken by the new appendage. Should Apple stop signing for certain firmware versions, you can't go to those firmwares.

You forgot to mention that the SHSHs can be saved somewhere (on your computer or Cydia's servers) and then used when you want to go to that firmware.

Evidence please? I have yet to hear this from a credible source... Not that I don't trust you.

I guess saurik's not credible enough.

How to sign

Frankly, I don't mind (much) how you sign, as long as it acknowledges you are the writer. However, the standard method for MediaWiki-based wikis is --~~~~. This will result in something like the following:

--Person A 06:09, 29 February 2003 (UTC)

If your talk page entry has no signature, it will have something similar to this added to the end by somebody else:

--The preceding unsigned comment was added by Person A (talk) 06:09, 29 February 2003. Please consult this page for more info on how to sign pages, and how to fix this.

Flagging unsigned entries

See the Template:Unsigned page on how to use the template.

Fixing signatures

FIxing signatures is fine by us. Just make sure the attribution is entirely correct. Here's a simple way to fix your signatures.

So, let's say you made a comment on a talk page entry, and it was tagged with the "unsigned" template.

--The preceding unsigned comment was added by Person A (talk) 06:09, 29 February 2003. Please consult this page for more info on how to sign pages, and how to fix this.

Probably the simplest way to fix this is to copy the timestamp. Then, replace the {{unsigned}} template with a normal signature from you, and save the page. The signature will now look like this:

--Person A 11:32, 31 April 2004 (UTC)

Just replace the incorrect timestamp with the one you copied, and that's it!

--Person A 06:09, 29 February 2003 (UTC)