My sig (on en:wp) is a link to a subpage of my userpage, which then redirects to my userpage. I was advised that it is probably against the new rules, but it is unclear. It states "but a signature that includes only links to another wiki, or only redirects from a former username, will be invalid". But my signature does not contain only links to another wiki or username, and in fact contains no links to another wiki or username. It is a local link to a subpage of my userpage. So it is not clear to me that this runs afoul of the new rules. Please advise. --w:User:Lethe 2601:19B:C00:A55:9492:14C4:BD6A:3D09 18:23, 26 January 2021 (UTC)
Topic on Talk:New requirements for user signatures
@Lethe Your signature must contain a link to User:Lethe, User talk:Lethe, or Special:Contributions/Lethe. You can add links to whatever else you would like, but it must link to one of those pages. I do not believe MediaWiki considers redirects when validating signatures, but I haven't tested it. You can test it yourself by making a change to your signature and trying to save it. For best results, you should link directly to your user page, user talk page, or contributions. Oh, and by the way, you're editing logged-out.
You can check what the software thinks about your existing signature in your preferences – if it would become invalid, you'll see a warning message in the Signature section.
My practical advice (after reading the message on your talk page where you explain that this is for tracking your mentions on Special:WhatLinksHere) is to have one "normal" link (perhaps the talk page one) to satisfy these requirements, and one link through the redirect to do your tracking.
I have edited my signature to include a link to my contributions page, which I believe makes it comport with the rules. I'll note that the existence of subst'ed signatures makes the software-imposed compliance check circumventable even for users who are not grandfathered in, like I would've been. If you want a noncompliant signature, simply save your signature preferences with a compliant template, and then edit the template afterwards. Why anyone should want to do this is beyond me, so it may not be worthwhile to make the software check rule it out. w:User:Lethe ~~~~
The requirements are mostly meant to prevent mistakes (e.g. forgetting to link your user page, or messing up the HTML syntax) rather than intentional abuse, so I don't think that's a problem.
Also, in the unspecified future when "all signatures will need to conform", the validity will be checked whenever the signature is used rather than only when it's changed in preferences, so this method won't let you circumvent it. Right now it is only done when changing preferences, since that was the easiest way to "grandfather-in" old signatures.
I see. Thanks for explaining. w:User:Lethe 2601:19B:C00:A55:FC7C:894D:1494:2E8D 18:49, 3 February 2021 (UTC)