Changes: Help:Talk pages

Revision as of 01:20, 29 May 2015

A talk page is a discussion page that you can find attached to some articles and user pages. Talk pages are an older form of Comments (for articles) and Message Wall (for user pages), and they exist for communicating with other users and discussing how to improve a wikia.

How to leave a message

Article talk page

To get to an article talk page from the article, click the "Talk" icon () next to the "Edit" button at the top of the page. To leave an article talk page message, follow these steps:

Click "Add topic" ( File:AddTopicButton.jpg ) to create a new discussion area.
Enter your message in the editor window. At the end of your message, type four tildes ("~~~~"). This will generate a signature with your name when you hit Publish.
Enter the title of your message in the "Subject/headline" text field near the Publish button.
If needed, it can be helpful to click the Preview button to check your work.
Click Publish.
To respond to a talk page message, simply edit that section of the talk page, and indent your reply. You can indent by putting a colon (":") or bullet ("*") at the front of each line. Be sure to sign your response with ~~~~.
Article talk pages are often a place to resolve disagreements about an article, so remember to be friendly and civil in all of your interactions there.

User talk page

To get to a user talk page from a user profile, click the "Talk page" tab. To leave a message on the talk page, follow these steps:

Click the "Leave message" ( ) button at the top of the talk page.
Enter your message in the editor window. At the end of your message, type four tildes ("~~~~"). This will generate a signature with your name when you hit Publish.
Enter the title of your message in the "Subject/headline" text field near the Publish button.
If needed, it can be helpful to click the Preview button to check your work.
Click Publish.
To respond to a talk page message, simply edit that section of the talk page, and indent your reply. You can indent by putting a colon (":") or bullet ("*") at the front of each line. Be sure to sign your response with ~~~~.

Updating to Comments and Walls

Wikia has developed features that have improved the discussion experience for articles and user profiles. For articles, we have Comments, allowing users and readers to instantly comment on a page and share their thoughts. For user profiles, we have Message Walls, a far more intuitive discussion experience. Walls, for example, are threaded, so they keep discussion in one place. They also notify all participants when there are updates to a specific conversation, and can allow anyone to follow a conversation for updates.

We encourage communities to use these features for easier commenting. If they are not already enabled on your wikia, you (or an administrator) can enable them in WikiFeatures.

Archiving talk pages

Archives of talk pages are made when a talk page becomes too long for either the user to easily find a past conversation or for one's web browser to render the talk page in a timely manner. An archive is simply a subpage of the user talk page where old conversations are stored (e.g. [[User talk:Foo/Archive]]).

To create an archive, simply cut (Ctrl + X) all the old conversations from your talk page from the beginning to the end of it. Then, create a new page in your user talk space (User talk:Foo/Archive 1) and paste (Ctrl + V) the old conversations there. If you already have one archive, create a second archive page (e.g. [[User talk:Foo/Archive 2]]) to avoid having the same issues that cause you to create an archive in the first place affect the archive page itself. You may also consider using the {{#NewWindowLink:http://dev.wikia.com/index.php?title=ArchiveTool%7CArchive Tool}} for auto-archiving the pages.

When archiving old discussions, it is customary to leave current, ongoing discussions on the existing Talk page. In some cases, a header text is also preserved. Also, it is good to leave a link near the top of your talk page to the archive so users can easily find previous discussions.

It is recommended that you do not attempt to archive another user's talk page. These are not subject to the recommendations on this page, and each user may choose alternate means of archiving their own talk page, including choosing not to archive at all, but to instead remove old messages. Although, since those messages are other users' contributions, this is generally rude to do and in bad taste, with archival being more polite and considerate of what others say.

When archiving your talk page by moving it, be aware that this causes the newly-created archive to be added to the watchlist of any user who was previously watching your talk page. This could be annoying for people who have no desire to watch your talk archives.

Further Help & Feedback

Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article

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+A '''talk page''' is a discussion page that you can find attached to some articles and user pages. Talk pages are an older form of [[Help:Comments|Comments]] (for articles) and [[Help:Message Wall|Message Wall]] (for user pages), and they exist for communicating with other users and discussing how to improve a wikia.
-{{tocright}}
-There is a '''talk page''' or '''discussion page''' attached to every type of wiki page except [[Help:Special pages|the special pages]].
+==How to leave a message==
-The most commonly used talk pages are article and user talk pages. They exist for communicating with other users about articles and improving the wiki. Just click the "discussion" or "talk page" link at the top right of any page to find it. This link may be red if talk page hasn't been edited yet.
+===Article talk page===
+To get to an article talk page from the article, click the "Talk" icon ([[File:Talk-link.png]]) next to the "Edit" button at the top of the page. To leave an article talk page message, follow these steps:
+*Click "Add topic" ( [[File:AddTopicButton.jpg]] [[File:AddTopicButton.png]] ) to create a new discussion area.
-==Talk page types==
+*Enter your message in the editor window. At the end of your message, type four tildes ("<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>"). This will generate a signature with your name when you hit Publish.
+*Enter the title of your message in the "Subject/headline" text field near the Publish button.
+*If needed, it can be helpful to click the Preview button to check your work.
+*Click Publish.
+*To respond to a talk page message, simply edit that section of the talk page, and indent your reply. You can indent by putting a colon (":") or bullet ("<nowiki>*</nowiki>") at the front of each line. Be sure to sign your response with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>.
+*Article talk pages are often a place to resolve disagreements about an article, so remember to be friendly and civil in all of your interactions there.
-===User talk pages===
+===User talk page===
+[[File:Talk_page_tab.png|right]]
-Registered contributors have a personal talk page where other users can leave messages. Just click the "talk page" link at the top of a [[Help:User page|user page]]. If someone leaves a new message on your talk page, you will see a bright banner across the top of all other Wikia pages you visit. Click the link in the message (or the userbar link "My talk") to go to your talk page.
+To get to a user talk page from a user profile, click the "Talk page" tab. To leave a message on the talk page, follow these steps:
+*Click the "Leave message" ( [[File:Leave message.png]] ) button at the top of the talk page.
-There are talk pages for anonymous contributors (ie IPs) too, but these may not always be useful. As they are linked to IPs, and IPs can change between visits, the messages may not get to the right person. While they are used to try to explain [[Help:Blocking|blocking]] of an IP address and may identify where a user is, they may not be very useful for real communication. This is another good reason to [[Help:Why create an account?|create an account]].
+*Enter your message in the editor window. At the end of your message, type four tildes ("<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>"). This will generate a signature with your name when you hit Publish.
+*Enter the title of your message in the "Subject/headline" text field near the Publish button.
+*If needed, it can be helpful to click the Preview button to check your work.
+*Click Publish.
+*To respond to a talk page message, simply edit that section of the talk page, and indent your reply. You can indent by putting a colon (":") or bullet ("<nowiki>*</nowiki>") at the front of each line. Be sure to sign your response with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>.
+==Updating to Comments and Walls==
-===Article talk pages===
+Wikia has developed features that have improved the discussion experience for articles and user profiles. For articles, we have [[Help:Comments|Comments]], allowing users and readers to instantly comment on a page and share their thoughts. For user profiles, we have [[Help:Message Wall|Message Walls]], a far more intuitive discussion experience. Walls, for example, are threaded, so they keep discussion in one place. They also notify all participants when there are updates to a specific conversation, and can allow anyone to [[Help:Following|follow]] a conversation for updates.
-Each page in every [[Help:Namespace|namespace]] (except [[Help:Special pages|special pages]]) has its own talk page which can be used to discuss the contents of the page. Leaving a message here does not create a "new messages" banner in the same way user talk pages do, but anyone with an interest in the page - especially those who see the page on their [[Help:Watchlist|watchlist]] or on [[Help:Recent changes|recent changes]] - may reply.
+We encourage communities to use these features for easier commenting. If they are not already enabled on your wikia, you (or an administrator) can enable them in [[Help:WikiFeatures|WikiFeatures]].
-==Using talk pages==
-[[File:Leave message.png|thumb|Leave message link]]
-Comments on talk pages can be picked up by Google and other search engines, and are available under a [[Wikia:Licensing|Creative Commons]] license, so keep that in mind when you write.
+==Archiving talk pages==
-It's possible to add a new section to a talk page without opening the whole edit page. Just click the '''"Leave message"''' link at the top of the article, or the '''"Leave a new message"''' link at the end of the page.
+'''Archives''' of talk pages are made when a talk page becomes too long for either the user to easily find a past conversation or for one's web browser to render the talk page in a timely manner. An archive is simply a subpage of the user talk page where old conversations are stored (e.g. <code><nowiki>[[User talk:Foo/Archive]]</nowiki></code>).
-[[File:Talk footer.png|thumb|left|Footer link]]
-You will be given spaces to enter a title for your new section, and to enter your comment. You can then save, and the comment will be added as a new section at the bottom of the page. This makes it useful for really large discussion pages.
+To create an archive, simply cut (Ctrl + X) all the old conversations from your talk page from the beginning to the end of it. Then, create a new page in your user talk space (<code>User talk:Foo/Archive 1</code>) and paste (Ctrl + V) the old conversations there. If you already have one archive, create a second archive page (e.g. <code><nowiki>[[User talk:Foo/Archive 2]]</nowiki></code>) to avoid having the same issues that cause you to create an archive in the first place affect the archive page itself. You may also consider using the {{#NewWindowLink:http://dev.wikia.com/index.php?title=ArchiveTool|Archive Tool}} for auto-archiving the pages.
-Some other general guidelines for talk pages:
+When archiving old discussions, it is customary to leave current, ongoing discussions on the existing Talk page. In some cases, a header text is also preserved. Also, it is good to leave a link near the top of your talk page to the archive so users can easily find previous discussions.
-* [[Help:Signature|Sign your comments]] by typing '''"<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>"''' (four tildes). This will add your name and a timestamp.
-* Usually, you should add comments to the end of the page.
-* When replying to a comment, indent your reply by placing a colon (":") at the beginning of a line. More colons will indent the text further -- use ":::" before a third reply.
-* Keep your comments polite and friendly. It's always best to be civil, even if things get heated.
+It is recommended that you do not attempt to archive another user's talk page. These are not subject to the recommendations on this page, and each user may choose alternate means of archiving their own talk page, including choosing not to archive at all, but to instead remove old messages. Although, since those messages are other users' contributions, this is generally rude to do and in bad taste, with archival being more polite and considerate of what others say.
-==Archiving talk pages==
-If any talk page gets too long, you can create an archive by typing <nowiki>[[/Archive]]</nowiki> (or any other name you like to use) onto the talk page. You can click the new link (preferably in a new window), copy over the older comments, then remove them from the main talk page.
+When archiving your talk page by moving it, be aware that this causes the newly-created archive to be added to the watchlist of any user who was previously watching your talk page. This could be annoying for people who have no desire to watch your talk archives.
-See [[Help:Archiving talk pages]] for more information.
 == See also ==
+*[[Help:Comments]]
+*[[Help:Forum]]
+*[[Help:Message Wall]]
+*[[Help:Profiles]]
+*[[Help:Signature]]
+==Further Help & Feedback==
-* [[Help:Signature]]
+{{Help and feedback section}}
+[[ca:Ajuda:Discussió]]
 [[de:Hilfe:Diskussionsseiten]]
-[[fi:Ohje:Keskustelusivut]]
+[[es:Ayuda:Discusión]]
+[[fr:Aide:Pages de discussion]]
+[[it:Aiuto:Pagina di discussione]]
+[[ja:ヘルプ:トークページ]]
+[[pl:Pomoc:Strony dyskusji]]
+[[ru:Справка:Страница обсуждения]]
+[[zh:Help:討論頁]]
+[[ko:도움말:토론 문서]]
 [[Category:Help|Talk pages]]
-[[Category:Out of date help]]