Help:Talk Pages

What are the "Talk" pages for?
Talk pages are used to discuss articles, give feedback, request help from an user, inform another user of something, comment on a strategy, etc.

Personal talk pages
Logged-in contributors have a personal talk page where other users can leave messages. This page can be found by clicking the discussion or talk page link. Whenever you have a new message on your talk page, you will be informed of this at the top of every page until you read the message. To go to your own talk page, click on My talk.

There are talk pages for non-logged-in contributors too, but these may not always be useful. Because they are linked to IPs, and IPs can change between visits, the messages may not get to the right person. They are used to explain blocks of IPs and may identify where a user is, but may not be very useful for real communication. This is another good reason to create an account.

Using talk pages
Comments on talk pages can be picked up by Google and other search engines, and are available under the GFD License, so keep that in mind what you write. Personal information such as email addresses should probably not be posted on 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" or "+" link at the top of the article. 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.

If any talk page gets too long, you can create an archive by typing  /Archive  (or any other name you like to use) onto the talk page. You can click the new link (preferably in a new window), and copy over the older comments then delete them from the current page when they are saved.

Some other hints for talk pages:


 * Always sign your comments by typing " ~ " (four tildes). This will add your name and the date.
 * Add comments at the end of the page.
 * Keep your comments polite and friendly. It's always best to be civil, even if things get heated.