Help:Fixing failed pings

Step-by-step instructions

Low-traffic pages method

If you mis-signed in a thread at a 'low-traffic page' – where your further edits are unlikely to be interrupted by, or cause, an edit conflict (such as an article's talk page that is not in the midst of wide discussion by many users):

1. Click edit (we suggest using a side edit section link, targeting just the thread involved)
2. Place your cursor at the end of the existing text and click return/enter (or other method to invoke a new line)
3. Paste the "pingee's" linked username and four tildes (~~~~):
4. Save (suggested edit summary: "fixing ping")
5. Immediately click edit again for the section, cut what you placed in the last edit, and save (alternatively, you can revert your edit in the page history) (suggested edit summary: "Completing ping fix")

High-traffic pages method

If you mis-signed in a thread with the section header "How do I fix my ping?" – at a 'high-traffic page', where your further edits are likely to be interrupted by, or cause, an edit conflict (such as at the Teahouse, a section of the Village pump, etc.):

1. Click edit (we suggest using a side edit section link, targeting just the thread involved)
2. Copy the existing section header, and paste it below the end of the thread, followed by the "pingee's" linked username and four tildes:

   == How do I fix my ping? ==

   [[User:Name|Name]] ~~~~

3. Save (suggested edit summary: "fixing ping")
4. Immediately click edit for the duplicate section you created, cut it entirely including the section header, and save (alternatively, you can revert your edit in the page history) (suggested edit summary: "Completing ping fix")

If you see a post in which markup is present for you to have been pinged, but you did not receive a notification (and you have not turned off the default of receiving notification of "Mentions" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-echo), check the page history to see whether the user attempted to fix a botched ping by any invalid method explained above. If they did, you might point them to this page. The template {{ping fix}} may be used for this purpose.

See also

• {{Ping fix}} – for informing users that their attempted fix of a botched ping will not work and links to this page
• Wikipedia:Notifications – Wikipedia's information page on the system; (its talk page – where feedback and bugs can be reported)
• Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-echo – links to your preferences related to notifications
• mw:Manual:Echo – technical details of the MediaWiki software providing the notifications facility
• mw:Notifications – overview of the MediaWiki notifications systems