Help:Talk page

From IT frameworks

There are two types of discussion pages, more commonly called talk pages — standard talk pages, which are used to discuss an article, a template, a category, etc., and user talk pages, which are used to communicate with other users or leave them messages. Every page has an associated talk page, except pages in the Special: namespace. If there has never been any text on a talk page, the link to the talk page from the article, category, etc., will be red. You can still discuss the page — you will just be the first person to edit the respective talk page.

Article talk pages are provided for discussion of the content of articles and the views of reliable published sources. Talk pages are useful such that they may contain information that is not on the article, but such information is often unverified and thus unreliable. Talk pages should not be used by editors as platforms for their personal views nor should they be used as User pages.

Accessing a talk page

To access a talk page look for a tab or link labelled discussion, or discuss this page. These tabs or links will be found either at the top of the page or on the left hand side (near edit this page). Users using the Classic skin will see "Discuss this page" instead.

The name of a standard talk page is "Talk:" plus the article's title. For example, the talk page of the article Incidents is Talk:Incidents. For a page name that has a prefix, "talk" is added to the prefix before the colon. For example, the talk page associated with the user page [[User:Name]] is [[User talk:Name]]. This page is in the Help: namespace, so the talk page for this page is Help talk:Talk page. The Main Page is in the main namespace (because it has no prefix), so its talk page is simply Talk:Main Page.

From a standard talk page you can reach the article for which it is the discussion page by using the tab labelled "article" next to the tab "discussion". For pages in other namespaces, there is a different label; for example, "user page" for the User: namespace, and "project page" for the IT governance: namespace.

You have new messages

After someone else edits your user talk page, the alert "You have new messages" is automatically displayed on all pages you view until you view your user talk page.

Using talk pages

You should sign and date your contributions on all talk pages by typing four tildes: (~~~~), which will yield this: Username 19:36, 10 January 2006 (UTC).

On a talk page, "this page" usually refers to the main page (i.e. the page the talk page is associated with). If the talk page itself is referred to, write "this talk page".

When debating the name of the page or discussing merging it with another page, always mention the current page name. Otherwise after renaming (moving) a page, references to "this page name" become ambiguous.

The "Post a comment" feature (the tab labeled "new section", at the top of a talk page) allows you to start a new section without needing to edit the whole page. The section header becomes the edit summary at the time you save the page, so there is no edit summary box displayed when you use this feature.

The practice of posting similar messages to more than a few users' talk pages, for example to solicit a certain action, is very strongly discouraged.

Formatting

Start a new section to discuss a new topic. Start new topics at the bottom of the page.

For a top-level heading, put it on a separate line surrounded by '=='. Example: == Heading ==

Add comments concerning current discussions below the latest entry in the section where they are relevant, or below the specific comment to which they apply, paying attention to indentation.

Indentation

Because the wiki software platform provides for a wide range of formatting styles, proper or at least consistent formatting is essential to maintaining readable talk pages. This is commonly called threading a discussion, and it helps other readers figure out which comments are in reply to a previous comment, and which are not.

The reference of a comment is determined by the number of colons (':') in front of it. If a reply is made to a statement, you should add a colon to the number of colons used in the statement being replied to. The first comment in a section will have no colons in front of its paragraphs; the second will have one colon in front of each paragraph; and each subsequent commenter will add one more colon.

When a long discussion has many indents (many colons before each paragraph), the discussion may be awkward to read, particularly for people with smaller computer screens. Eventually, for everyone's convenience, an editor will remove all the colons from his or her next reply, usually briefly noting the formatting change. Replies to that comment are formatted as if it were the first comment in a new discussion.

This is easy to read

Coding:

How's the soup? --John
:It's great!! --Jane
:Not too bad.. --George
::I made it myself! --John
I think the soup-discussion should be moved to [[Talk:Soup]].. --Jane
:I tend to disagree. --George

What is shown:

This is not

Coding:

How's the soup? --John
It's great!! --Jane
Not too bad.. --George
I made it myself! --John
I think the soup-discussion should be moved to [[Talk:Soup]].. --Jane
I tend to disagree. --George

What is shown: