Bulbapedia:Talk page
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This article is an official policy on Bulbapedia.
Its contents are strongly binding and can be considered law on Bulbapedia. |
A talk page is a built-in part of mediawiki software that allows contributors of a wiki to discuss an article. Talk pages are commonly found at (namespace name) talk:(page name); for example, the talk page for the Kanto region navigation template is at Template talk:Kanto, while the talk page for Charizard (Pokémon) is at Talk:Charizard (Pokémon). Talk pages are commonly used in the Userspace to allow users to convey comments quickly between one-another. Every User has an accompanying talk page. All the rules that apply to mainspace talk pages also apply for User talk pages as well.
Talk pages on Bulbapedia are usually for discussion on an article or template. They may be used to ask about a certain aspect that a reader is uncertain about in an article, poll others for an opinion on what the article should contain, or, in rare cases, discuss the subject of the article in question. Keep in mind, however, that talk pages are not forums for discussion; any comments irrelevant to the article may be removed. While old comments are archived, replies for comments over 6 months old will be removed.
How to use a talk page
When posting on a talk page, all new comments go at the bottom of the page. This keeps the page in a chronologically organized order. It goes without saying, please make sure to maintain a sense of decency; for example, do not attack others. Also, sign your posts with ~~~~ so that other users will know (without having to resort to the history of edits to the page) who left what message. This is especially convenient on user talk pages. In addition, add colons (:) to the beginning of your comment to indent it and make the flow of replies clear at a glance. The number of colons used should be one more than that used in the previous comment, though it is permissible to reduce the indenting if it comes too close to the right margin.
When another user posts on your own user talk page, as well, it is commonly courteous to respond to them. Make sure to respond to them on your own talk page, and not theirs. Splitting a conversation between two pages can be very annoying to the person you are talking to, or, you yourself, trying to read their responses.
It is considered bad practice to edit another contributor's discussion. While it may be riddled with spelling errors, that is their own fault and you should just ignore that. Leave a polite message telling them to improve on this, but do not touch what they have written. If, perhaps, there is a link to a deleted article, feel free to replace the square brackets ([[text]]) with {{red link|text}} to prevent it from appearing on the list of wanted pages.
Deleting comments and archiving
Talk pages should never be blanked, nor have any comments removed (this includes the welcome), by the user whose page it is, nor by anyone else, unless all that is on the page is off topic spam (consult an administrator first), or a personal attack against the user. Removing comments is also acceptable when the comments regard the subject of the article rather than the article itself, in violation of the guidelines stated above.
Instead of deleting any and all information on talk pages, they should be archived by an administrator (or in the case of a user talk page, the user) where they can be accessed by anyone. When archiving, the entire page must be archived by moving the page as to keep the edit history intact. By simply copying and pasting the text, or by moving small sections at a time, it breaks the time line of the edit history.
An ideal location to move your talk page to is User:Username/Archive Number. So, if User:Example wanted to make his first archive, he would move his talk page to User talk:Example/Archive 1. His second archive would be at User talk:Example/Archive 2, and so on. Other variations on this somewhat bland naming style are allowed, for example: User talk:Example/First archive.