Talk pages are a special type of namespace pages, used to discuss changes on the corresponding "main" article or page.
All Wikipedia articles, personal user pages, policy pages, templates, etc. have an associated talk page (linked on the English Wikipedia as "discussion" in the top menu).
Article talk pages are used to discuss changes to the particular article.
User talk pages are used to leave messages for particular users. A message box stating "You have new messages" is automatically displayed to a user at the top of any Wikipedia page, until they view their user talk page.
WikiHowTo talk pages are used to discuss existing and developing policy, and proposals. The namespace in current usage it is most limited to active and updated information regarding the process of editing articles. (See meta Wikimedia for more open Wikimedia related discussion).
The "discussion" link references a page in the same namespace as the article, userpage, or template with an additional "talk" before the colon separator, for example: Talk:Foo, User talk:Foo, or Template talk:Foo (where foo is a placeholder).
Note: Use of the WikiHowTo talk pages is recommended as the first step in Help:Dispute resolution.
On WikiHowTo, the purpose of a talk page is to help to improve the contents of the main page, arguments relevant to changing the text, and commentary on the main page are all
It is not advised to use talk pages just for the purpose of partisan talk about the main subject. WikiHowTo is not a soapbox; it's a colection of howtos. In other words, talk about the article, not about the subject. It's only the habits we encourage that keep WikiHowTo from turning into another h2g2 or Everything2. See also: Wikiquette
It's entirely natural that partisan disputes take place on talk pages. It is the purpose of talk pages that such disputes be resolved on the talk page rather than in the article itself.
Because the wiki software platform provides for a wide range of formatting styles, proper or at least consistent formatting is essential to maintaining readable talk pages.
The depth of a message is determined by the number of colons (':') in front of the message. Each colon represents a tab, and are commonly
used in discussions on user and article talk pages. If a reply is made to a statement, one adds a colon to the number of colons used in the statement being replied to. This style of conversation makes it more comprehensive to read.
Example:
How's the milk? --[[Bob]]
:It's great!! --[[Lisa]]
:Not too bad.. --[[George]]
::I made it myself! --[[Bob]]
I think the milk-discussion should be moved to [[Talk:Milk]].. --[[Lisa]]
:I tend to disagree. --[[George]]
Each user page also has a corresponding talk page. New additions to your own talk page will alert you with a "You have new messages" banner at the top of any Wikipedia page.
To leave a message for another user on their talk page, click the discussion link on the top of the page when you view the user page. On the list of recent changes and on your watchlist, you can directly access a user's talk page by following the (Talk) link behind the user's name / IP address. Many users have a link to their talk page built directly into their signature, as well.
Can I do whatever I want to my own user talk page?Edit
Most users treat their user talk pages like regular talk pages, and Howto archive a talk page the contents periodically to a personal subpage -- either when the page gets too large, on a regular schedule, or when they take a wikivacation. Others delete comments after they have responded to them.
Actively erasing personal messages without replying (if a reply would be appropriate or polite) will probably be interpreted as hostile. In the past, this kind of behavior has been viewed as uncivil, and this can become an issue in arbitration or other formal proceedings. Redirecting your user talk page to another page (whether meant as a joke or intended to be offensive or to send a "go away" message), except in the case of redirecting from one account to another when both are yours, can also be considered a hostile act. However, reverting such removals or redirects is not proper and may result in a block for edit warring. If someone removes your comments without answering consider moving on or dispute resolution. This is especially true for vandalism warnings - removing them from one's talk page is also considered vandalism.
If you feel that your user talk page is getting too large and is taking a long time to load, you may archive it. You may then remove comments from your talk page, but please make sure that those comments are readily accessible on another page.
Feel free to decorate your personal pages as you see fit, but keep in mind that your user talk page has the important function of allowing other editors to communicate with you. People will get upset if they cannot use it for that purpose.
If you are writing messages back and forth between user talk pages, the resulting text can be hard to follow. Here are two systems for making what would otherwise be disjointed comments easier to follow:
Copy the text you are replying to from your user talk page to the other person's user talk page. Put your reply right underneath it, but indent the reply section so it stands out. (Just like a regular talk page.)
Or: Put a notice on your user talk page that you will reply there unless they ask otherwise. Do this for conversations that other people start.
Watchlist the other person's user talk page and tell them they can reply there. Do this for conversations you start.
Except for special pages, each namespace has an associated talk namespace. The talk namespaces are designated by adding talk: to the normal prefix. For example, the talk namespace associated with the main article namespace has the prefix Talk:, while the talk namespace associated with the user namespace has the prefix User talk:.
When discussing the name of the page or discussing merging it with another page, always mention the current page name: after renaming (moving) a page with its talk page, references to "this page name" would not make sense.
The "Post a comment" feature allows convenient appending of a section with the section header the same as the edit summary, and typed only once. This also works on other than talk pages, only there is no link for that; one has to use the url, e.g. http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Sandbox&action=edit§ion=new
The practice of "spamming" - posting similar messages to more than a few users' talk pages, often for the purpose of soliciting a certain action - is discouraged.
A talk page is a discussion page that you can find attached to some article and user pages. They exist for communicating with other users and discussing how to improve the wiki.
To get to a talk page from an article, just click the "discussion" or "talk page" link or button near the title of the page. To get to a talk page from a profile, just click the "Talk page" tab.
To start a new message, 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 convert to a signature when you hit save.
Enter the title of your message in the "Subject/header" text field near the Publish button.
Click the Preview button to check your work.
Click Publish.
To respond to a talk page message, simply edit that area of the talk page, and indent your reply. You can indent by putting a colon (":") at the front of each line. Be sure to sign your response with ~~~~.
Keep your comments polite and friendly. It's always best to be civil, even if things get heated.
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, and then saving it to show the reduced size. Then, create a new page in your user talk space 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 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 Archive 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 archive their own talk page, including choosing not to archive at all, but to instead remove old messages. Though 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.
What if Talk Pages are unavailable?
For Articles: If a talk page is unavailable on an article page, you can usually find comments at the bottom of the page for use instead.
For User Profiles: If a talk page is unavailable on a user profile, you can usually find a Message Wall tab in the same location for use instead.
Edit
Added by Dr. Ball, M.D.
