This template is used to trigger a notification to one or several registered user(s) you are replying to in a discussion without displaying any text. The notification will only work successfully if you sign your post in the same edit in which you use this template. If you make a mistake in placing this template or in signing, see en:Help:Fixing failed pings. It is an alternative to the {{Reply to}} template. It works on any talk page or Wikipedia namespace page.

IP addresses are only notified if you post to their user talk page (they will get notification through a orange "You have new messages" bar).

{{Hidden ping|Username}}Message text. ~~~~

The edit that adds this template must be signed with new signature tildes at a minimum, or the notification(s) will not work. See en: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.

Single recipient

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Use the following syntax:

{{Hidden ping|Username}}Message text. ~~~~

For example, {{hidden ping|Jimbo Wales}}This is a message that Jimbo might be interested in. would display "This is a message that Jimbo might be interested in." and notify 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

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You can reply to up to 50 people at once. Use the following syntax:

{{hidden ping|User1|User2|User3|User4|User5|User6|User7|User8|User9|User10|...}}Message text. ~~~~

For example, {{hidden ping|Example|Jimbo Wales}} would notify Example and Jimbo Wales if used in a signed comment.

Warning: If the total number of detected to-be-pinged users in an edit exceeds 50, no notifications will be delivered. An error message will be displayed when previewing the page, but not once the page has been saved.

Error messages

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As the intention of this template is that it not produce any output, error messages are only displayed when previewing a page. Once the page has been saved, this template will not display any output.

Error in Template:Hidden ping: Input contains forbidden characters.

This error indicates that one or more of the usernames specified contained a character that is not allowed in Wikipedia usernames.

Error in Template:Hidden ping: Username not given.

This indicates that no usernames were specified. This error can also be produced when the recipient's username contains an equal sign, for example {{hidden ping|test=test}}. 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: {{hidden ping|1=test=test}}

Error in Template:Hidden ping: More than 50 names specified.

If the total number of detected to-be-pinged users in an edit exceeds 50, no notifications will be delivered. An error message will be displayed when previewing the page, but not once the page has been saved. This is a limitation of the Echo software that provides the notifications (as of August 2015).

See also

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  • Module:Hidden ping – the Lua module on which this template is based
  • {{Reply to}} – Links to one or more users names preceded by the @ sign and followed by a colon
  • {{user link}} – Links to a single user's page (without the @ sign and colon)
  • {{noping}} – Links a user's name without triggering the echo notification system
  • {{talkback}} – Allows a user to direct the attention of another user to a discussion via a notification
  • Manual:Echo – the manual page for the underlying Echo feature that provides the notifications
  • en:Help:Fixing failed pings (on English Wikipedia)