Help:Talk page
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There are two types of discussion pages, more commonly called talk pages:
- The talk or discussion page that is attached to each and every article. Anytime you are looking at an article, there's a horizontal menu bar at the top of that article that says page, then discussion, then view source or edit (depending on whether or not you are signed in as a user) and then history. The tab labelled discussion is the talk page for that article. This is where you discuss the article.
- User talk pages, which are used to communicate with other users or leave them messages.
Every article has an associated talk page, except pages in the Special category. If there has never been 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. They should not be used by editors as platforms for their personal views.
Accessing a talk page
To access a talk page look for a tab or link labeled talk or discussion. These tabs (or links) will be found at the top of any article.
The name of a standard talk page is "Talk:" plus the article's title. For example, the talk page of the article Michigan Supreme Court elections is Talk:Michigan Supreme Court elections. 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:Madison is User talk:Madison.
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, assuming you have a registered account.
Using talk pages
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 small "+" sign on a separate tab, 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 displayed when you use this feature.
Formatting
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.
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. This style of conversation is easy to read.
Example:
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How's the soup? --[[User:Madison|Madison]] |
The above will produce this:
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How's the soup? --Madison
|
Placing material from the article on a talk page
Sometimes it is necessary to display a sentence or paragraph from the article on the talk page so that other editors can easily understand what is being discussed.
In order to place quoted material within the body of a talk page, just indent one space. Include line breaks or it will run as one long line off the page to the right. This method is only effective for a small amount of text.
Indent one space to quote words, phrases, or short sentences.
You can even move text inward.
