Help:Talk pages

Every wiki page has an associated talk page which can be used for discussion and communicating with other users. Talk pages can be accessed by clicking the “” tab at the top of the page. Simply edit the page as normal to add a comment.

A talk page is actually very similar to any other wiki page, but it is in the “Talk” namespace, to keep it separate from the articles in the “” namespace (see Help:namespaces). As with any wiki page, it can be edited, linked to, and has edit history.

Editing conventions on talk pages
Having discussions on a free-form wiki page will seem strange at first. It helps if everyone follows some simple editing conventions:


 * Always sign comments. Use the four tildes “ ” wiki syntax (or the signature button button_sig.png in the toolbar above the editing textbox). For more information see Help:Signatures.
 * Start a new discussion with a  at the bottom of the page (or use the “” tab)
 * Indent replies with colons at the beginning of the line.

Example
Here is an example discussion, following the talk page conventions:

Editing discussions
Having discussions on a free-form wiki page will seem strange at first. It has some advantages over the conventional rigid forum format, but it can get a little messy. As with other wiki pages, anyone can help with tidying up discussions, to conform to the editing conventions e.g. add signatures and headings where they are missing.

Clearly we also have the opportunity to edit other people's comments. It is generally bad etiquette to modify somebody else's wording (better to just add a comment with corrections) But it can be acceptable to...


 * Modify discussion headings
 * Change wording or append words to the discussion headings, to better describe the topic of discussion. Note that good descriptive headings become important when many discussions start to fill the page.


 * Move discussions to a different page
 * If discussions are put in the wrong place on the wiki, and would be better associated with a different talk page, then a discussion may be moved by cut & paste. This is potentially confusing for the people posting, but can be important for keeping things tidy. It is helpful to leave link to the new discussion, explaining that it was moved, or at the very least place a link within the edit summary. The discussion may be temporally left on place for a few days or weeks, before tidying it.


 * Delete discussions when they are out-of-date
 * Discussions can often get left lying around on a talk page long after the issue is no longer relevant. It's usually a good idea to reply to saying "I think this is now resolved", but sooner or later it's time to just blow away the old discussions (they are of course preserved in the editing history).


 * Split a post into several discussions
 * It may be appropriate to do this, if somebody has raised several points which need to be answered separately. However, please always be respectful to other people's words. Does their post still make sense if split up?

Building articles - Discussing articles
It is usually best to keep focused on the task of building a wiki article, and use discussion pages only to support this process. The topic of conversation should generally revolve around what needs to be done to make the associated article better.

Remember that editing the article itself is often a more effective means of communicating. It can be more difficult, requiring that any views be assured to be balanced (the wiki does not deal in opinion - consider that opinions will diverge, while fact will tend to consensus), but it can also be more rewarding. This is how the community of wiki editors will make progress. Often it will feel more natural to engage in heated debate on a talk page (or indeed any other contact channel) but in fact the wiki article itself can offer a powerful means of reaching middle-ground. Think about how to portray both sides of the argument (e.g. listing advantages and disadvantages) and any debate will often simply evaporate.

User talk pages
A "user talk page" is a talk page associated with somebody's "user page" (See Help:User page). This is a place to leave messages for a particular wiki user.

This can function as a kind of messaging system. Users receive the following prominent notification when new messages have been left on their talk page:

The message will continue to be displayed on all pages until users visit their talk page.

They may be notified by email as well, although this cannot always be relied upon (since the email notification feature must be activated by supplying a valid email address, and clicking a confirmation link). If no response is received to a user talk page message, try looking for other contact details which they may have been supplied on the user page.

Note that the messages are not private, and others can join in the conversation.