Template:User link/doc

Usage
This template provides a way to link to a userpage and display just the username, like Example. This may not save much typing for a short username like "Example", but it may be more useful with long usernames such as Guywhositsbehindphilip12. This template is commonly used to ping a user to a discussion (when not using something like ).

Example


or the shortcut form

gives

The template's second parameter, which is optional, takes the link's label; for example, a link to the long username used above can be shortened while viewing the text like this:

which gives

Alternative
The desired result can also be achieved using the pipe trick feature of the MediaWiki software. For example, the wikitext

gives
 * Example

Notifications
The template does not notify a user, nor is it intended to. Its purpose is to create a link to a user page, nothing more. Under some circumstances, a notification is sent, but that is a side-effect: it happens whenever the conditions described at WP:Echo are met. These conditions include the addition of a link to a user page at the same time as the addition of a signature, regardless of the template (or other method) used to create that link. To ensure that the user receives a notification, use reply to instead.