Help:Talk Pages


This is a guide in the use of talk pages.

Every page on this wiki (articles, categories, images etc) has an additional page attached to it, referred to as a talk page or discussion page. This is accessed by clicking "Discussion" at the top of the page.

In most situations, a talk page is for discussing the article/page itself. This would include suggestions for things to add or remove, changes that need to be made, questioning whether something is true and so on.

Talk pages should not be used for a general discussion on the subject matter of an article. For example, Talk:Vehicles is used for discussing what should be listed on the Vehicles page and in what style, NOT for talking about your favourite vehicle.

Talk pages are located at their respective _talk: namespace. For main-namespace articles (such as Vehicles), they are located at Talk:Vehicles). For pages in other namespaces, such as Template:Navbox, the talk page is located at Template talk:Navbox and so on.

Each user also has their own talk page, located at User_talk:Username. This is used when you need to inform the user of something, ask them a question, ask them for help etc. Users will be notified of all changes to their own talk page.


Discussions

Discussions should be kept in one place, on one talk page. This is to avoid confusion, and so everyone can see the whole discussion.

Where two pages are being discussed (such as when a Merge is being proposed), there should be one talk page used rather than spreading the discussion across both.

On user_talk pages, replies to long discussions should be given on the same page as the discussion started, rather than hopping between your talk page and theirs. However if you reply on your own page, they will not be notified, so you may need to remind them, or ask them to 'Watch' your talk page. An exception is for quick replies where a long discussion is unlikely, in these situations it's fine to reply on the asker's talk page.


Signatures

Every comment you leave on a talk page must be signed. You do this by adding four tildes (~~~~) to the end of your comment. When you save, this will add your name and the date/time.

This must only be done on talk pages, to sign your comments, never in articles. You can always click the History button or see Recent Edits to see who made a certain edit.

Example:

Code Result
This is a comment - ~~~~ This is a comment - Montario 21:25, 2 August 2011 (BST)

Structure

When starting a new conversation, click 'Add Message' at the top, rather than 'Edit'. This will allow you to enter a title, and will mean you don't need to enter an edit summary.

When replying to a conversation on a talk page, you should first indent your reply, by using a colon : at the start of every paragraph. The next reply should use two colons (::) and so on, until about 5 indents when the next person should start off without any indents. If you're replying to a reply, you can un-indent again to put your comment in line with your previous comment.

For example:

Person 1
:Person 2
::Person 3
:Person 2
::Person 4
:::Person 5<br>Continued<br>Continued
::::Person 6
Person 7
:Person 8
:Person 8 continued

This will produce:

Person 1

Person 2
Person 3
Person 2
Person 4
Person 5
Continued
Continued
Person 6

Person 7

Person 8
Person 8 continued