HumbleWiki:Tutorial Talk pages



Talk pages are a key feature of Wikipedia, offering the ability to discuss articles and other issues with other Wikipedians. They are not to be used as a chat room, soapbox, battleground or for general discussion of the article topic.

If you have a question, concern or comment related to improving the article put a note in the article's Talk page and not in the article itself. You do that by clicking the "discussion" tab at the top of the page. Do not worry if the link shows up in red; it is all right to create the talk page if it does not already exist.

When you post a new comment, put it at the bottom of the talk page. The exception is, if you are responding to someone else's remarks, put your comment below theirs. You can indent your comment by typing a colon (:) at the beginning of a line.

You should sign your comments by typing   for just your username, or  ~  for your username and a time signature (see the example discussion below). This way, when you save the page, your signature will be inserted automatically. Otherwise your comments, etc., will still appear but without your name. Most of us use time signatures because it makes following discussions much easier. For your convenience, there is a button at the top of the edit box with a signature icon inserts "--~" when pressed.

You can get a username by creating an account (it is 100% free). If you do not have an account, or if you have one but have not logged in, your computer's external IP address is used instead.

User talk pages
Every contributor has a user talk page on which other contributors can leave messages. This includes contributors who have not created an account. If someone has left you a message, you will see a note saying "You have new messages", with a link to your user talk page.

You can reply in either of two ways. One is to put a message on the user talk page of the person you are replying to. The other is to put your reply on your own talk page beneath the original message. Both are common on Wikipedia; however, be aware that replying on your own talk page runs the risk that your reply won't be seen, if the user does not look at your talk page again. If you choose this approach, it is a good idea to post a notice at the top of your talk page so people know they have to keep an eye on it.

Indenting
Indenting can improve the layout of a discussion considerably, making it much easier to read. A standard practice is to indent your reply one level deeper than the person you are replying to. Its can be achieved by placing a Colon (:) at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be. A newline (pressing Enter or Return) marks the end of the indented paragraph.

You can also use indent in combination with 'bullets points' or 'Numbered items' previously discussed.

Example discussion
Here is an example of a well-formatted discussion:

Hi. I have a question about this article. I'm pretty sure purple elephants only live in New York! JayRandumWikiUser 02:49, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * Well, last time I was in New York, the elephants I saw were green. &mdash; try2BEEhelpful 17:28, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * I think you should find a source for your claims. Living &times; Skepticism 20:53, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * Okay, these elephant journals agree with me:
 * Elephants Monthly
 * Elephants World
 * &mdash; try2BEEhelpful 19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * I live in Australia, where the elephants look like kangaroos! The people below agree with my statement: -DontGdayMateMe 17:28, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * ElefantLuvr 01:22, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * AisleVoteOnAnything 05:41, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * alittlebehindthetimes 18:39, 27 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Note that if you want to include a list in your comments, add colons before each item, for example:


 *  ::: Okay, these elephant journals agree with me: 
 *  ::: * Elephants Monthly 
 *  ::: * Elephants World 
 *  ::: ~ </tt>

Also, signing your message off is done by:
 * Writing for the name (try2BEEhelpful), or
 * Writing ~ for the name and date (try2BEEhelpful 19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)), or
 * Writing for the date only (19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)).

You should usually sign with both name and date, but votes are often signed with names only.

Experiment
Experiment! This time, instead of editing a sandbox, leave a message on the talk page by clicking "Discuss this page" or "Discussion". Remember to sign your user name. You might want to try responding to someone else's post. Remember, you should use "Show preview" to see if your formatting works before you save.

<div style="float: right; background-color:#f5faff; color: #000; padding: .2em .6em; font-size: 100%; border: 1px solid #cedff2; margin-bottom:3px;">Try a sample discussion at this page's Discussion Page

<div style="float:right; margin-top: 0.0em; margin-bottom:3px; background-color: #cedff2; color: #000; padding: .2em .6em; font-size: 130%; border: 1px solid #B8C7D9;">'''Continue the tutorial with whatever next →