Help:Talk pages: Difference between revisions

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 discussion page tab near the top of the page to reach it (or if on mobile, just the word bubble ).

Once there, you can add your comment. A talk page is in the "Talk" namespace to keep it separate from the articles in the "(Main)" namespace (See Help:Namespaces). As with any wiki page, you can edit a talk page, link to it, and view its editing history.

Editing discussions[edit source]

Talk pages are formatted as Structured Discussions. Such pages perform differently than other wiki pages. They allow users to create "Topics" with a title and message body. Then, anybody may reply under that topic. Each message will identify its creator. Once you have participated in a topic discussion, you will receive a notification whenever anybody else replies later.

Building articles - Discussing articles[edit source]

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 you to balance your views alongside those of others, 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 a 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 you may find the debate evaporates.

User talk pages[edit source]

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. You can reach a user's talk page by first navigating to that user's page, and then clicking the discussion tab at the top (if on mobile, look for the tab with the word bubble ). You can reach your own user talk page here.

This can function as a kind of messaging system. Users receive a notification and/or will see the following prominent alert 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 you don't get a response to your user talk page message, try looking for other contact details that they may have supplied on their user page.

Note that the messages on a user talk page are not private, and others can join in the conversation.

See Also[edit source]

• Help:Structured Discussions