Help:Talk pages: Difference between revisions

From BoyWiki
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 8: Line 8:
'''Talk pages''' are a key feature of Wiki, offering the ability to discuss articles and other issues with other participents/users. They are not to be used as a chat room, soapbox, battleground or for general discussion of the article topic.
'''Talk pages''' are a key feature of Wiki, offering the ability to discuss articles and other issues with other participents/users. 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 an article put a note in the article's '''[[Help:Using talk pages|talk page]]''' and not in the article itself. You do that by clicking the "talk" 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.
If you have a question, concern or comment related to improving an article put a note in the article's '''talk page''' and not in the article itself. You do that by clicking the "talk" 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.


If you are responding to someone else's remarks, put your comment below theirs. You should indent it properly (see section below).  If you're not responding to someone else, but are posting about something new, use the "New section" tab at the top of the talk page to create a new section, which automatically goes at the bottom of the page.
If you are responding to someone else's remarks, put your comment below theirs. You should indent it properly (see section below).  If you're not responding to someone else, but are posting about something new, use the "New section" tab at the top of the talk page to create a new section, which automatically goes at the bottom of the page.
Line 25: Line 25:
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.
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.


There are several ways of indenting in Wikipedia:
There are several ways of indenting:


=== Plain indentations ===
=== Plain indentations ===
Line 70: Line 70:


== Example discussion ==
== 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! [[Wikipedia:User page|JayRandumWikiUser]] 02:49, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)
: Well, last time I was in New York, the elephants I saw were green. — [[Wikipedia:User page|try2BEEhelpful]] 17:28, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)
:: I think you should find a source for your claims. [[Wikipedia:User page|Living × Skepticism]] 20:53, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)
::: Okay, these elephant journals agree with me:
:::* ''Elephants Monthly''
:::* ''Elephants World''
::: — [[Wikipedia:User page|try2BEEhelpful]] 19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)
:::: Well, those two sources are [[WP:Reliable sources|unreliable]]. According to ''New York City Animal Control'', there are no elephants, purple or otherwise, in New York outside of zoos. [[WP:User page|IloveNYC&elephants]] 17:28, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)
: I live in Australia, where the elephants look like kangaroos! The people below agree with my statement: [[Wikipedia:User page|-DontGdayMateMe]] 17:28, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
:# [[Wikipedia:User page|ElefantLuvr]] 01:22, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)
:# [[Wikipedia:User page|AisleVoteOnAnything]] 05:41, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)
:# [[Wikipedia:User page|alittlebehindthetimes]] 18:39, 27 Jan 2004 (UTC)
:: I think you should have a source. Remember [[WP:Verifiability|verifiability]]. [[WP:User page|IloveNYC&elephants]] 20:56, 28 Jan 2004
Note that if you want to include a list in your comments, add colons before each item, for example:
: <tt><nowiki>::: Okay, these elephant journals agree with me:</nowiki><br/></tt>
: <tt><nowiki>::: * ''Elephants Monthly''</nowiki><br/></tt>
: <tt><nowiki>::: * ''Elephants World''</nowiki><br/></tt>
: <tt><nowiki>::: ~~~~</nowiki></tt>
-----
Again, signing your message (posting) is done by:
* Writing <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> for your name and date ([[Wikipedia:User page|try2BEEhelpful]] 19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC))
You can add a signature only, or a date only, but this is unusual.  Here's how:
* Writing <nowiki>~~~</nowiki> for the name ([[Wikipedia:User page|try2BEEhelpful]]), or
* Writing <nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki> for the date only (19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)).
Votes are often signed with names only.


== Experiment ==
== 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.
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 [[Wikipedia talk:Tutorial/Talk pages|Discussion page]]'''</div>
<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 [[talk:Tutorial/Talk pages|Discussion page]]'''</div>


== Other project pages ==
In addition to Talk pages, there are some other categories of behind-the-scenes pages that help Wikipedians communicate with each other, and serve a variety of other roles in building Wikipedia. These different areas are often referred to as '''namespaces''' &mdash; as in, "the '''Talk''' namespace".


Pages in the '''Wikipedia''' namespace (also known as the "[[Wikipedia:Project namespace|Project namespace]]") provide information about Wikipedia and how to use it.
Content written in a '''Template''' page will be displayed in articles that contain the corresponding template reference. For example, the content written in [[Template:Pp-protected]] will appear in any article that contains the <nowiki>{{pp-protected}}</nowiki> tag. Take a look at [[Wikipedia:Template messages]] to see what templates have already been created. You can use the corresponding tags in articles. You can also create new templates.
All of these project pages also have Talk pages of their own.


<div style="float:right; background-color:#f5faff; color: #000; padding: .2em .6em; font-size: 100%; border: 1px solid #cedff2; margin-bottom:10px;">'''For more information, see [[BoyWiki:Namespace]]'''</div>
<div style="float:right; background-color:#f5faff; color: #000; padding: .2em .6em; font-size: 100%; border: 1px solid #cedff2; margin-bottom:10px;">'''For more information, see [[BoyWiki:Namespace]]'''</div>
Line 126: Line 88:


[[Category:BoyWiki]]
[[Category:BoyWiki]]
</noinclude>

Revision as of 20:58, 11 April 2014

Understanding Talk pages

Talk pages are a key feature of Wiki, offering the ability to discuss articles and other issues with other participents/users. 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 an article put a note in the article's talk page and not in the article itself. You do that by clicking the "talk" 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.

If you are responding to someone else's remarks, put your comment below theirs. You should indent it properly (see section below). If you're not responding to someone else, but are posting about something new, use the "New section" tab at the top of the talk page to create a new section, which automatically goes at the bottom of the page.

You should always sign your comments by typing ~~~~ for your username plus a time signature. Then, when you click "Save page", your signature will be inserted automatically. Otherwise your posting will still appear but without your name. (For your convenience, there is a button at the top of the edit box with a signature icon which inserts "--~~~~" when clicked.)


User talk pages

Every editor (every person with a username) 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 across the top of Wikipedia pages (if you're signed in) 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 intend to use this approach, it is a good idea to post a notice to that effect, at the top of your talk page, so people know they have to keep an eye on the page to see your response, rather than getting your response on their page.

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.

There are several ways of indenting:

Plain indentations

The simplest way of indenting is to place 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.

For example:

This is aligned all the way to the left.
: This is indented slightly.
:: This is indented more.

is shown as:

This is aligned all the way to the left.
This is indented slightly.
This is indented more.

Bullet points

You can also indent using bullets, which are also used for lists. To insert a bullet (when your edit is saved), type an asterisk (*). Similar to indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.

A brief example:

* First list item
* Second list item
** Sub-list item under second
* Third list item

Which is shown as:

  • First list item
  • Second list item
    • Sub-list item under second
  • Third list item

Numbered items

You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or "octothorpe" (#). This is usually used for polls and voting, and otherwise is fairly rare. Again, you can affect the indent of the number by the number of #s you use.

Example:

# First item
# Second item
## Sub-item under second item
# Third item

Shows up as:

  1. First item
  2. Second item
    1. Sub-item under second item
  3. Third item

Example discussion

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.

Try a sample discussion at this page's Discussion page


For more information, see BoyWiki:Namespace