This template is particularly helpful in discussions that are not threaded, to indicate which user's comment is referenced. If you feel that this template unnecessarily personalizes the discussion, you may still use the {{talkback}} template on the user's talk page to indicate that you have replied to a comment. IP addresses are only notified if you post to their user talk page.
Usage
{{reply to|Username}} Message text. ~~~~
The edit that adds this template must meet the following requirement for notifications to work:
- The edit must add new lines of text, not just edit existing lines.
- The edit must be signed by adding
~~~~ to the end of the message.
- If you have specified a custom signature, it must contain a plain wiki link (
[[ ]]) to your user page, user talk page, or contributions page; it cannot be embedded in a template.
- The edit must either be entirely within an existing section (it cannot have new section headers in the middle) or start a new section (starts with a new section header).
- Only sections of level 2 and above count.
- If the number of detected to-be-pinged users exceeds 50, no notifications will be delivered.
See Wikipedia:Notifications and mw:Help:Echo#Technical details for more information.
It is not necessary to use this template to ping the user if you are already linking to the username from your post, neither is it necessary when posting on their own talk page.
Note: Wikipedia does not support using the at sign in a reply to notify the user you are replying to, as many discussion boards do. While Wikipedia shows the results of using this template with an at sign, you must either use a template or directly link to the user's user page (e.g. [[User:Example|@Example]]) to ping them.
@Username Message text. ~~~~
Single recipient
Use the following syntax:
{{reply to|Username}} Message text. ~~~~
For example, {{Reply to|Jimbo Wales}} generates "@Jimbo Wales:" and notifies Jimbo Wales.
The comment must be signed and belong to a named section of a "Talk" or "Wikipedia" namespace page in order for the notification to work.
Multiple recipients
You can reply to up to 50 people at once.
Warning: If the total number of detected to-be-pinged users in an edit exceeds 50, no notifications will be delivered. This is a software limit, and applies to the entire edit, even if the mentions are split between multiple templates. If you need to ping more than 50 users, it will need to be spread across multiple edits, and each edit needs to add new lines and be signed by you.
Use the following syntax:
{{reply to|User1|User2|User3|User4|User5|User6|User7|User8|User9|User10|...}} Message text. ~~~~
For example, {{reply to|Example|Jimbo Wales}} will produce:
@Example and Jimbo Wales:
Specify a nickname
You can display any text in place of a username by using |labelX=, where X is the index of a positional parameter, counting from 1. For example:
- "
{{reply to|Example|label1=Exemplar|Example2|label2=John}}" produces "@Exemplar and John:"
You can also use |label= in place of |label1=. For example:
- "
{{reply to|Example|label=John}}" produces "@John:"
Specify a prefix
To change the "@" prefix, use |prefix=custom prefix. For example:
- "
{{reply to|Example|prefix=Hello }}" produces "Hello Example:"
Or you can remove the prefix entirely by using |prefix=. For example:
- "
{{reply to|Example|prefix=}}" produces "Example:"
Customise punctuation
By default, the template will insert a colon after the final name. To change this, specify the required character using the |p= parameter. For example:
- "
{{reply to|Example|p=—}}" produces "@Example—"
The parameter omits leading or trailing spaces. Use instead. For example:
- "
{{reply to|Example|p= –}} Text message" produces "@Example – Text message"
To simply remove the colon, use the parameter with an empty value:
- "
{{reply to|Example|p=}}" produces "@Example"
Customise conjunction
By default, the template will use the word "and" between multiple names. To change this, specify the required conjunction using the |c= parameter. For example:
- "
{{reply to|Example|Example2|c=or}}" produces "@Example or Example2:"
- "
Neither {{reply to|Example|Example2|Example3|c=nor}}" produces "Neither @Example, Example2, nor Example3:"
To simply remove the conjunction, use the parameter with an empty value:
- "
{{reply to|Example|Example2|c=}}" produces "@Example, Example2:"
Or don't use!
If you are using the |prefix= and |p= together to just display one user name, then there is no need to use this template. Simply code [[User:username|]] or {{u|username}}. This will generate the same notifications as are generated by the template.
Error messages
Username not given
Sometimes, when the recipient's username contains an equal sign, for example {{reply to|test=test}}, it will show:
Error in Template:Reply to: Username not given.
To fix this, simply add 1= at the beginning of the username, 2= at the second username, 3= at the third username and so on:
{{reply to|1=test=test}}
More than 50 names specified
If more than 50 names are specified in the template, it will show:
Error in Template:Reply to: More than 50 names specified.
This is a limitation of the notification system, as documented at mw:Manual:Echo. Note that the system limitation is per edit, so while splitting a longer list between two templates will avoid this error message, none of the notifications will be sent. In the rare case you need to notify more than 50 people, it will need to be done in multiple edits.
