Help:Talk pages

Further information: Help:Don't lose the thread and Help:Introduction to talk pages

For more help regarding the topic covered by this page, please ask at The Lounge

The purpose of an article's talk page (accessible via the talk or discussion tab) is to provide space for editors to discuss changes and improvements to its article. Article talk pages should not be used by editors as platforms for their personal views on a subject.

When talk pages in other namespaces, including user talk pages where some latitude is allowed, are used for discussion and communication between users, discussion should be directed solely toward the improvement of the encyclopedia. Communication, courtesy, and consideration apply not only to article talk pages but everywhere editors interact.

Central points

Essential information: Don't lose the thread

Maintain Justapedia policy

There is reasonable allowance for speculation, suggestion, and personal knowledge on talk pages, with a view to prompting further investigation, but it is usually a misuse of a talk page to continue to argue any point that has not met policy requirements. Pay particular attention to Justapedia:Biographies of living persons, which applies to talk pages as well as to articles: "Editors must take particular care adding information about living persons to any Justapedia page."

Creating talk pages

Talk pages are generally created by clicking a red "Talk" tab and creating the page, like any other page.

Do not create empty talk pages indiscriminately simply so that one will exist for future use.
There is no need to add discussion warning templates to every talk page, or even to every talk page that contains a discussion.

Good practices for talk pages

Essential information: Don't lose the thread

• Check whether there's already a discussion on the same topic. Duplicate discussions (on a single page, or on multiple pages) are confusing and time-wasting, and may be interpreted as forum shopping. If the subject is a controversial or popular one, consider checking the talk-page archives before opening a new thread. (Many talk pages have a Search archives box near the top.)
• Comment on content, not on the contributor or It's the edits that matter, not the editor: Keep the discussions on track as described at Don't lose the thread and focused on the topic - don't go off at a tangent.
• Use English: discussions should normally be conducted in English. If using another language is unavoidable, try to provide a translation. Do not expect editors to translate your content, many modern browsers have machine translation built-in, or use Google translations
• Be concise: Long posts risk being ignored or misunderstood (Too long; Didn't read). If you really need to make a detailed, point-by-point post, see below for tips.
• Keep discussions focused: Discussions naturally should finalize by agreement, not by exhaustion.
• Avoid repeating your posts: Your fellow editors can read your prior posts, so repeating them wastes time and space and may be considered bludgeoning the discussion.
• Do not start the same discussion on multiple pages but if appropriate, advertise it elsewhere via a link. If you find a fragmented discussion, consider moving all posts to one location as described at Don't lose the thread and linking from the old locations to the new. State clearly in edit summaries and on talk pages what you have done and why.
• Avoid excessive emphasis: ALL CAPS and enlarged fonts may be considered shouting and are rarely appropriate. Bolding may be used to highlight key words or phrases but should be used judiciously. Italics are often used for emphasis or clarity but should be avoided for long passages. Exclamation marks similarly should be used judiciously. Overuse of emphasis can undermine its impact! If adding emphasis to quoted text, say so.
• Keep the layout clear: Use standard formatting and indentation. If you include references, add {{reflist-talk}} or {{sources-talk}} after your comment, to keep citations within your thread. See Talk page layout.
• Use separate subsection headings to discuss multiple changes: If you arrive at the "discussion" part of the "bold, revert, discuss" (BRD) cycle, and the subject involves a number of separate changes you would like to see, try to break down the different changes, and your reasons and reliable sources for each one, under separate subsection headings (===Example===). Mixing it all into one long post complicates discussion.
• Sign your posts with four tildes (~~~~), which automatically turn into your username and a timestamp, like this: ExampleUser 13:21, 9 May 2008 (UTC).
  Even if you don't sign, it is impossible to leave an anonymous comment because your username is visible in the page history. Continued and deliberate refusal to sign posts may result in sanctions.
• The minor flag is only for typographical corrections, formatting fixes, and similar changes that do not substantively change content.

Behavior that is unacceptable

Stay in the top three sections of this pyramid.

Please note that some of the following are of sufficient importance to be official Justapedia policy. Violations (and especially repeated violations) may lead to the offender being blocked from editing Justapedia.

• No personal attacks or insults.

• Misrepresentation of other people: The record should accurately show significant exchanges that have taken place and in the correct context. This usually means:
  • Being precise in quoting others.
  • When referencing other people's contributions or edits, use "diffs". The advantage of diffs in referring to a comment is that the diff will always remain the same, even when a talk page gets archived or a comment gets changed
  • Generally, do not alter others' comments, including signatures. Exceptions to this are described in the next section.
• Do not claim to be an administrator
• Do not use the talk page as a forum for discussing the topic

Editing others' comments

It is not necessary to bring talk pages to publishing standards, so there is no need to correct others' spelling errors, grammar, etc. Doing so can be irritating. The basic rule, with exceptions outlined below, is to not edit or delete others' posts without their permission.

Never edit or move someone's comment to change its meaning, even on your own talk page.

Striking out text (with <del>...</del>) constitutes a change in meaning. It should be done only by the user who wrote it, or as otherwise provided in this talk page guideline.

Generally, you should not break up another editor's text by interleaving or interpolating your own replies to individual points. This causes confusion with who said what and obscures the original editor's intent.

In your own posts, you may wish to use the {{Talk quotation}} or {{Talkquote}} templates to quote others' posts.

Cautiously editing or removing another editor's comments is sometimes allowed, but normally you should stop if there is any objection. If you make anything more than minor changes, it is good practice to leave a short explanatory note such as "[potential libel removed by ~~~~]".

Examples include:

• • fixing indentation levels,
  • fixing list markup (to avoid disruption of screen readers, for instance),
  • using <code>, <nowiki> and other technical markup to fix code samples, and
  • providing wikilinks if it helps in better navigation.
  • Another helpful template is {{Reflist-talk}}, which causes <ref>...</ref>-type material to be emitted immediately instead of at the end of the entire page.
• Fixing layout errors: This could include:
  • moving a new comment from the top of a page to the bottom,
  • adding a heading to a comment not having one,
  • repairing accidental damage by one party to another's comments,
  • correcting unclosed markup tags that mess up the entire page's formatting,
  • accurately replacing HTML table code with a wikitable,
  • etc.

• Fixing links: if the linked-to page has moved, a talk page section has been archived, the link is simply broken by a typographical error, or it unintentionally points to a disambiguation page etc. Do not change links in others' posts to go to entirely different pages. If in doubt, ask the editor in question to update their own post, or add a follow-up comment of your own suggesting the alternative link. Only fix a link to a template that has been replaced or deprecated if the effect of the new template is essentially the same as what the poster used (otherwise, simply allow the post to red link to the old template, as a broken post is preferable to one with altered meaning). Internal links made using full URLs may be converted to wikilinks or protocol-relative URLs (by dropping the part before the "//"), so that they will work across protocols (http:// vs. https://) and between our desktop and mobile sites.
• Hiding or resizing images: You may hide an image (e.g., change [[File:Foo.jpg|...details...]] to [[:File:Foo.jpg|...details...]] by adding a colon) once discussion of it has ended. This is especially appropriate for "warning" and "alert" icons included in bot-posted notices which are usually quickly resolved. It's OK to re-size images to a smaller size if they take too much space on a talk page.
• Non-free images: Non-free images must not be displayed on talk pages. If they are being discussed, they must be hidden by linking them with a colon—as described in "Hiding or resizing images", above. If they are included for decorative purposes, they must be removed.
• Deactivating templates, categories, and interlanguage links: You may prevent templates from being transcluded (e.g., change {{Template name}} to {{tl|Template name}}) if the poster clearly intended to discuss the template rather than use it. You may deactivate category links (e.g., change [[Category:Foobar]] to [[:Category:Foobar]] by inserting a colon) to prevent the page being inappropriately added to a discussed category. You may deactivate interlanguage links (e.g., change [[it:Foobar]] to [[:it:Foobar]] by inserting a colon) when the link to a page on another language's Justapedia is meant to appear inline rather than to serve as an interlanguage link for the page.
• Hiding old code samples: You may redact (replace with a note, or collapse) large code samples once discussion of the sample has ended; for instance fulfilled {{Edit fully-protected}} requests.
• Review pages: Peer reviews, good article reviews, and featured article candidates are collaborative processes in which a reviewer may provide a list of comments on an article; most editors expect the responses to be interspersed among these comments. An example is here; note that you should not modify the comments themselves in any way.
• Removing or striking through comments made by blocked sock puppets of users editing in violation of a block or ban. Comments made by a sock with no replies may simply be removed with an appropriate edit summary. If comments are part of an active discussion, they should be struck instead of removed, along with a short explanation following the stricken text or at the bottom of the thread. There is not typically a need to strike comments in discussions that have been closed or archived.
• Empty edit requests. It is acceptable to remove empty edit requests from a Talk page, if considered necessary. Consider using {{Empty edit request}} on the User Talk page of a user who has posted an empty edit request.

In the past, it was standard practice to "summarize" talk page comments, but this practice has fallen out of use. On regular wikis with no "talk" tab, the summary would end up as the final page content. Justapedia has separate tabs for article content and discussion pages. Refactoring and archiving are still appropriate, but should be done with courtesy and reversed on protest.

Editing own comments

"JP:REDACT" redirects here. For information about redaction from logs or page history, see Justapedia:Revision deletion and Justapedia:Oversight.

So long as no one has yet responded to your comment, it's accepted and common practice that you may continue to edit your remarks for a short while to correct mistakes, add links or otherwise improve them. If you've accidentally posted to the wrong page or section or if you've simply changed your mind, it's been only a short while and no one has yet responded, you may remove your comment entirely.

But if anyone has already replied to or quoted your original comment, changing your comment may deprive any replies of their original context, and this should be avoided. Once others have replied, or even if no one's replied but it's been more than a short while, if you wish to change or delete your comment, it is commonly best practice to indicate your changes. An exception to this rule may be permitted if there is only one reply and it invokes JP:MUTUAL.

Non-compliance

Persistently formatting your comments on a talk page in a non-compliant manner, after friendly notification by other editors, is a mild form of disruption. After you have been alerted to specific aspects of these guidelines (such as indentation, sectioning, and signatures), you are expected to make a reasonable effort to follow those conventions. Other editors may simply ignore additional posts that flagrantly disregard the talk page formatting standards.

Closing discussions

Main page: Justapedia:Closing discussions

Closing a discussion means summarizing the results, and identifying any consensus that has been achieved. A rule of thumb is that discussions should be kept open at least a week before closing, although there are some exceptions to this.

Any uninvolved editor may write a closing statement for most discussions, not just admins. However, if the discussion is particularly contentious or the results are especially unclear, then a request specifically for a closing statement from an uninvolved administrator may be preferable.

Requesting a close

Any participant in a discussion may request that an uninvolved editor or admin formally close any type of discussion (not just RFCs), if any one or more of the following criteria are true:

• the consensus remains unclear to the participants,
• the issue is a contentious one, or
• there are wiki-wide implications to the decision.

Please do not request a closing statement from an uninvolved editor unless one of these three criteria have been met.

You may request that an uninvolved editor formally close a discussion by placing a note at Justapedia:Closure requests. Please ensure that any request there seeking a close is neutrally worded, and do not use that board to continue the discussion in question. If you are requesting attention specifically from an admin, then please state that clearly in your request.

Marking a closed discussion

When an issue has been resolved without controversy, this may be marked simply by adding the {{Resolved}} template at the top of the thread, adding a brief statement of how the issue was dealt with. If you took action yourself to resolve the issue you may instead use the {{Done}} template in your own final comment stating what you did. Adding one of these templates will help future readers to spot more quickly those issues that remain unresolved.

When a more complex discussion has been closed, to discourage any further comments you may optionally use the {{Archive top}} and {{Archive bottom}} templates (although some particular types of discussion, such as those which concern whether to delete or rename a page, have their own specialized templates) — {{Archive top}} and {{Archive bottom}} templates should not be used by involved parties to end a discussion over the objections of other editors. For example:

{{Archive top|result=Consensus below is in favor of this proposal. (detailed explanation) ~~~~}}
Discussion text...
{{Archive bottom}}

... which produces:

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Discussion text...

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Technical and format standards

Layout

See also: Justapedia:Talk page layout

• Start new topics at the bottom of the page: If you put a post at the top of the page, it is confusing and can easily be overlooked. The latest topic should be the one at the bottom of the page, then the next post will go underneath yours and so on. This makes it easy to see the chronological order of posts. A quick way to do this is to use the "New section" tab next to the "Edit" button on the talk page you are on.
• Avoid excessive use of color and other font gimmicks: The advice at Justapedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Color is as applicable to talk pages as it is anywhere else. And your post is not more important than anyone else's, so it should not be in huge, purple text.
• Separate multiple paragraphs with whitespace: If a single post has several points, it makes it clearer to separate them with a paragraph break (i.e. a blank line).

Indentation and screen readers

Summary: JP:LISTGAP fixes: don't change list type, don't skip indentation levels, no extra spaces between replies.

• Avoid adding blank lines between any lines that begin with wikitext symbols for lists, because this increases the complexity of the generated HTML code and creates accessibility problems for people using screen readers. These symbols include:
  • asterisks (*), which make bulleted lists;
  • hash symbols (#), which make numbered lists;
  • semi-colons (;), which make the first half of an HTML association list (rendered as bold-faced text); and
  • colons (:), which make the second half of an HTML association list, but which are popularly used for the resulting visual indentation effect.
• Thread your post: Use indentation as shown in Help:Using talk pages § Indentation, to clearly indicate to whom you are replying, as with usual threaded discussions. Normally colons are used, not bullet points (although the latter are commonly used at AfD, CfD, etc.).

New topics and headings on talk pages

• Start new topics at the bottom of the page: If you put a post at the top of the page, it is confusing and can also get easily overlooked. The latest topic should be the one at the bottom of the page.
• Make a new heading for a new topic: It will then be clearly separated into its own section and will also appear in the TOC (table of contents) at the top of the page. A heading is easy to create with == on either side of the words, as in ==Heading==. The "Post a comment" feature can be used to do this automatically. (If you are using the default skin, you can use the "New section" tab next to the "Edit this page" tab instead.) Enter a subject/heading in the resulting edit page, and it will automatically become the section heading.
• Don't create a new heading that duplicates an existing heading: If you are responding to a comment or adding to a discussion on a particular topic, respond after the comment or at the bottom of the existing section.
• Make the heading clear and specific as to the article topic discussed: It should be clear from the heading which aspect of the article (template, etc.) you wish to discuss. Don't write "This article is wrong" but address the specific issue you want to discuss. A related article Edit, actual or potential, should be traceable to that Talk-page heading.
• Keep headings neutral: A heading should indicate what the topic is, but not communicate a specific view about it.
  • Don't praise in headings: You might wish to commend a particular edit, but this could be seen in a different light by someone who disagrees with the edit.
  • Don't criticize in headings: This includes being critical about details of the article. Those details were written by individual editors, who may interpret the heading as an attack on them.
  • Don't address other users in a heading: Headings invite all users to comment. Headings may be about specific edits but not specifically about the user. (Some exceptions are made at administrative noticeboards, where reporting problems by name is normal.)
  • Never use headings to attack other users: While no personal attacks and assuming good faith apply everywhere at Justapedia, using headings to attack other users by naming them in the heading is especially egregious, as it places their names prominently in the Table of Contents, and can thus enter that heading in the edit summary of the page's edit history. As edit summaries and edit histories are not normally subject to revision, that wording can then haunt them and damage their credibility for an indefinite time period, even though edit histories are excluded from search engines. Reporting on another user's edits from a neutral point of view is an exception, especially reporting issues to administrators at Ask an Admin
• Create subsections if helpful: Talk page discussions should be concise, so if a single discussion becomes particularly long, it may then become helpful to start a subsection (to facilitate the involvement of editors with a slower computer or Internet connection). Since the main section title will no longer appear in edit summaries, choose a connotative title; for example, in the section References used more than once, the subsection title References: arbitrary break might be used. If creating arbitrary breaks, ensure that sections end with a clear indication of the poster. (This method is preferable to using templates like {{Hidden}}.)

Links, time, and page name

• Make links freely: Links to articles are as useful on talk pages as anywhere else, and links to non-existent articles can help get them onto the most-wanted articles list.
• Use Coordinated Universal Time, when referring to a time, e.g., the time of an edit or page move.
• When mentioning the name of the page, cite the current name: This applies when a page is moved (i.e. retitled). In such a case, the Talk page is usually also moved. If you continue to use the old name, it will be confusing, especially for new editors to the article.

Archiving

For the guideline on pages in article space, see JP:TOOLONG. For the guideline on user talk pages, see JP:OWNTALK.

Large talk pages are difficult to read and load slowly over slow connections. As a rule of thumb, archive closed discussions when a talk page exceeds 75 KB in wikitext or has numerous resolved or stale discussions – see Help:Archiving a talk page. Apart from the exception described in JP:OWNTALK, discussions should be archived, not blanked.

If a thread has been archived prematurely, such as when it is still relevant to current work or was not concluded, unarchive it by copying it back to the talk page from the archive, and deleting it from the archive. Do not unarchive a thread that was effectively closed; instead, start a new discussion and link to the archived prior discussion.

Centralized talk pages

Often, there are a number of related pages that would benefit from one single talk page for discussions. For example, a list article may have grown too large and was split alphabetically. Or there may be a set of templates that are used together or interrelated MediaWiki interface pages.

Before implementing a centralized talk page, consider first gaining consensus for your proposal. The main discussion would usually be on the proposed centralized talk page with notices on the pages to be redirected. Notices may be placed on related pages as needed; for example, at The Exchange.

If consensus is gained, then:

1. Archive current discussions on all the talk pages to be centralized; see Help:Archiving a talk page
2. Check each talk page for subpages. These are usually archived discussions, but other subpages are sometimes created, such as drafts or reviews. See Justapedia:Subpages#Finding subpages.
3. On the centralized talk page, list the redirected pages. {{Central}} is useful for this.
4. On the centralized talk page, list all of the archived talk pages. {{Archive banner}} is useful for this.
5. Redirect each talk page to the desired talk page; see Justapedia:Redirect. It is recommended that an editnotice be created for the redirected talk pages; see Justapedia:Editnotice. {{Editnotice central redirected}} is useful for this.
6. It is recommended that an editnotice be created for the centralized talk page. {{Editnotice central}} is useful for this.
7. Ensure that involved editors realize that they need to add the centralized talk page to their watchlist.

User talk pages

See also: Justapedia:User pages § Ownership and editing of user pages

User talk pages are subject to the general userpage guidelines on handling inappropriate content (see User pages § Handling inappropriate content).

While the purpose of article talk pages is to discuss the content of articles, the purpose of user talk pages is to draw the attention or discuss the edits of a user. Justapedia is not a social networking site, and all discussion should ultimately be directed solely toward the improvement of the encyclopedia. User talk pages must serve their primary purpose, which is to make communication and collaboration among editors easier. Editors who refuse to use their talk page for these purposes are violating the spirit of the talk page guidelines, and are not acting collaboratively.

Personal talk page cleanup

See also: Justapedia:User pages § Removal of comments, notices, and warnings

The length of user talk pages, and the need for archiving, is left up to each editor's own discretion.

Although archiving is preferred, users may freely remove comments from their own talk pages. Users may also remove some content in archiving. The removal of a warning is taken as evidence that the warning has been read by the user. This includes both registered and unregistered users. Some new users believe they can hide critical comments by deleting them. This is not true: Such comments can always be retrieved from the page history.

There are certain types of notices that users may not remove from their own talk pages, such as declined unblock requests and speedy deletion tags (see User pages § Removal of comments, notices, and warnings for full details).

User talk pages are almost never deleted, although a courtesy blanking may be requested.

Talk page search

You can use the Special:Search box below to locate Talk pages. See Help:Searching for more information.

Where to find talk pages

If the "Talk" link is red, it means no talk page has been started yet. Click the red link to begin a talk page for that article or user talk page and follow the instructions in Starting a new thread below. A user talk page may exist while the user has not created a user page.

To go back to the article page from its talk page, use the leftmost tab at the top of the page, labeled "article". For pages other than articles, this tab may say something different, like "user page" or "project page".

Identifying yourself

Further information: Justapedia:Signatures

When you post a message on a talk page you should always sign and date your comment so other editors can follow the thread of the conversation. To do this easily, type four tildes (~~~~) at the end of your comment, or just click the signature button on the row of buttons above the edit box. Once you publish the edit, this will be automatically converted into a user signature with a link to your user page, your user talk page, and the date and time that you save your edit. (You can change the form of your signature using your user preferences.)

Code	Result
~~~~	Username (talk) 05:40, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

Starting a new thread

The "new section" tab on article talk pages (here, The weather in London) lets you start a new section.

To discuss a topic that's not already covered on the article or user talk page, start a new topic.

• Click on the "New section" link at the top of the talk page screen.
• Be sure to enter a section header in the "Subject/headline" box with a suitable title, preferably not something generic like "Question" or "Problem".
• Sign. At the end of your post, type four tildes (~~~~), which will automatically add your user name and the date.
• Click "Publish changes"

A new section can also be started by editing the whole page or an existing section, going to a new line and typing == Heading ==, replacing "Heading" with a suitable title, but make sure to add new discussions at the bottom of the page. A new section automatically adds the heading to the "Contents" box on pages with at least four sections.

Replying to an existing thread

To respond to a discussion already in progress:

• Click the "Edit" link on the right end of the bar of the section you want to reply to.
• Add your comment below the last entry in the discussion. If you want to respond to a specific comment, you can place your response directly below it. Use a colon (:) to indent your message to create a threaded message. See Indentation below for more information on indenting talk pages with colons.
• Sign. Type four tildes (~~~~), which will automatically add your username and the date.
• Click "Publish changes"

Indentation

See also: Justapedia:Indentation and Help:List

Indentation is used to keep talk pages readable. Comments are indented using one or more initial colons (:), each colon representing one level of indentation. Each comment should be indented one more level than the comment it replies to, which may or may not be the preceding comment. For example:

Code

Result

== Header == The first comment in a section has no colons before it. ~~~~ :The reply to the first comment is indented one level. ~~~~ ::The reply to the second comment should be indented one more level. ~~~~ ::Another reply to the second comment is also indented one more level than the comment being replied to. ~~~~ :A subsequent reply to the first comment is indented one level. ~~~~

Header The first comment in a section has no colons before it. Editor 1 (talk) 10:44, 21 September 2016 (UTC) The reply to the first comment is indented one level. Editor 2 (talk) 16:40, 21 September 2016 (UTC) The reply to the second comment should be indented one more level. Editor 1 (talk) 16:57, 23 September 2016 (UTC) Another reply to the second comment is also indented one more level than the comment being replied to. Editor 4 (talk) 08:27, 25 September 2016 (UTC) A subsequent reply to the first comment is indented one level. Editor 3 (talk) 03:15, 24 September 2016 (UTC)

Some pages (deletion discussions, for example) use asterisks (*) rather than colons for indentation. Generally, colons and asterisks should not be mixed; if you see asterisks are being used in a page, use them as well. Complex discussions may mix them (and numbered lists, too); in such a case, avoid mangled list formatting with this simple rule of thumb:

Use the same indentation and list formatting as what you are replying to, plus one level at the end of the indent/list code. E.g., if you are replying to something in a complicated discussion that starts with #:::*, just copy-paste that and add a :, resulting in #:::*: in front of your reply (or use #:::** if you feel it is necessary for your reply to begin with a bullet point).

Avoid placing double line breaks between indented lines of text, since this can create problems for users of screen reader software (see Justapedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Indentation).

If you practice these techniques, be sure to practice on a talk page, such as User talk:your user name/sandbox. The Cascading Style Sheets for talk pages are different from articles, and the visual appearance of list-formatted text can be different. Also, : should not be used for visual indentation in articles, as it is actually markup specifically for description lists. (See Justapedia:Manual of Style § Indentation for how to indent single lines and blocks of text in articles; for block-quoting, see Justapedia:Manual of Style § Block quotations.)

Additionally, to ensure clarity in a rapidly-moving or otherwise complex discussion, it is possible to use {{reply to}} to make clear to whom the comment is addressed. This also has the added feature of leaving the other editor a notification that you have replied to them.

Notifications

Notifying other users

You can notify other editors in a discussion by linking to their user page in your post. To do this easily you can use the template {{Reply to|Username}}, which renders @Username: For example, to reply and notify Editor 1 you should use the following code:

Code	Result
{{reply to|Editor 1}} Message text. ~~~~	@Editor 1: Message text. Username (talk) 10:44, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Make sure to sign your post in the same edit in which you use this template, otherwise it won't work. Note that you cannot directly type the "@" symbol to notify a user, you must use this template or manually create a wikilink to their user page.

You have new messages

You will be notified when someone else edits your user talk page or notifies you with the {{Reply to}} template.

You have new messages (last change).

Advanced

See also: Help:Talk pages/Example

Subpages and archiving

Main page: Help:Archiving a talk page

Sometimes particular topics generate a disproportionate amount of traffic on a talk page. It may be decided to remove discussion of those topics to a subpage of the talk page. To do this, create a page titled "Talk:Xxx/Yyy", where "Talk:Xxx" is the name of the main talk page, and "Yyy" indicates the topic of the subpage. Leave a note at the top of the main talk page linking to any subpages.

On talk pages that generate significant amounts of discussion, old discussions are often archived to keep the size of the talk page at a manageable level. This may be done either manually or with the help of a bot. An archive box with links to the discussion archives is normally placed at the top of the current talk page.

Assorted talk page boxes and graphics

Quotations

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. An easy way to do this is to use the {{Quote frame}} or {{Quote}} templates:

Use {{Quote frame|Quoted passage from the article.}} to produce:

Quoted passage from the article.

Alternatively, use {{Quote frame |Quoted text |Author |Source}} to produce:

Quoted text
— Author , Source

The {{Quote}} template produces an indented quotation with no box; use {{Quote |Quoted text |''Source''}} to produce:

Quoted text

— Source

Alternatively, use {{Quote|Quoted text |Author |''Source'', page XX}} to add an author and page number:

Quoted text

— Author, Source, page XX

For directly quoting another user, the {{Talkquote}} template places quoted text inside a green box, as in: {{Talkquote |Quoted text |Example |ts=12:00, 01 January 2000 (UTC)}}, which produces:

Quoted text
— User:Example 12:00, 01 January 2000 (UTC)

Boxes – general

Plain box (can also be used in article):

Colored box (green – talk page only):

<div class="boilerplate" style="background-color:#efe; margin:2em 0 0 0; padding:0 10px 0 10px; border:1px dotted #aaa;">'''Put copied and pasted quoted text from article here.'''</div>

To keep a list of accompanying references within the container, add the {{reflist-talk}} template immediately before the closing div tag; e.g., {{reflist-talk}}</div>.

Talk page search

You can use the Special:Search box below to locate Talk pages. See Help:Searching for more information.