Help:Categorizing discussions
In order to make open discussions on the wiki more manageable, they are separated into distinct categories. This article provides an explanation of each discussion category.
Overview
Discussions are separated based on who will primarily be interested in them: new contributors, experienced editors or admins. For example, new contributors are primarily interested in easy discussions, while admins are interested in proposals on protected pages.
New discussions are created with {{Talk|date = {{subst:Date}}}}. These discussions start off as uncategorized and land in the open discussions category. It is up to more experienced editors to read these discussions and categorize them. This ensures that new discussions are always seen by at least one editor.
As explained below, discussions with ready-to-implement proposals are placed in the solved discussions category where they receive admins' special attention. This should hopefully motivate readers to create discussions that are easy to understand and implement — see the {{Proposal}} template for how to do so.
Open discussions
The following has been transcluded from Category:Open discussions.
Pages in this list contain discussions that have not been categorized. Once all of them have been categorized, this category will only contain new discussions, which will help them get fixed before they become stale.
Please categorize a random discussion in this list in order to help with this goal.
Please close discussions in subcategories where possible, to maintain a reasonable number of active conversations, without those lists being cluttered up with "stale" discussions.
Good first discussions
The following has been transcluded from Category:Good first discussions.
These are discussions that can be advanced by new contributors. Experienced editors should leave these to them.
They can be identified by the box on the right.
Add discussions to this category using {{Talk|good_first_discussion}}.
Discussions needing discussion
The following has been transcluded from Category:Discussions needing discussion.
- provides a proposal that can be merged as is, but as of 2024-06-26,
- that proposal has not remained unchanged and uncontested for 30 days.
These discussions are great for experienced editors. Please pick a random discussion in this category and make sure it provides a sensible proposal.
Discussions are added to this category using {{Talk|discussion_needed|date = 2024-06-26}}. Please change them to {{Talk|solved|date = 2024-06-26}} after 30 days of being uncontested.
Discussions needing help
The following has been transcluded from Category:Discussions needing help.
Tip: To get this fixed sooner, use {{Proposal}}.
Before working through these discussions, editors are encouraged to take a look at Category:Open discussions and Category:Discussions needing discussion, which provide easier tasks.
These are discussions that require proposals, further discussion, testing, or research.
These discussions are great for experienced editors. Please pick a random discussion from this category.
To move a discussion on a protected page (e.g. a page in the Handbook) along, use {{Proposal}} to propose changes.
Minor discussions on non-protected pages can be fixed directly, or delegated to new contributors using {{Talk|good_first_discussion|date = 2024-06-26}}.
Discussions are added to this category using {{Talk|help_wanted|date = 2024-06-26}}. Please change them to {{Talk|discussion_needed|date = 2024-06-26}} once they provide proposals that can be merged as is, in order to ensure that they get special attention.
Solved discussions
The following has been transcluded from Category:Solved discussions.
- it provides a proposal that can be merged as is,
- that proposal has been unchanged and uncontested for 30 days, and
- all participants have reached a consensus.
These discussions are for admins.
Discussions in Category:Discussions needing discussion are added to this category using {{Talk|solved|date = 2024-06-26}} once they meet the requirements in the box.
Pending discussions
The following has been transcluded from Category:Pending discussions.
These discussions are for admins.
These are discussions waiting for some process to complete.
Discussions on protected pages are added to this category using {{Talk|pending|date = 2024-06-26}} if they belong here.
Discussions needing clarification
The following has been transcluded from Category:Discussions needing clarification.
These are discussions that are on hold until their author responds.
Discussions should be added to this category using {{Talk|waiting|date=2024-06-26}} if they cannot possibly be completed without further communication from the author. Examples are:
- Discussions that are ambiguous or can't be understood, and require further clarification
- Discussions that are waiting for the author to finish some task