Bulbapedia:Talk page policy
| This policy in a nutshell: | |
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Use talk pages to discuss improvements to the article. Don't abuse them. They are not forums for free discussion. |
The Bulbapedia talk page policy explains how to use talk pages appropriately on Bulbapedia. You should try and follow these guidelines when you're editing a talk page or user talk page.
What is a talk page?
A talk page is a built-in part of the MediaWiki software that Bulbapedia is run on. Every namespace has its own talkspace; every article has a talk page attached to it. Every user has their own personal user talk page where you can leave them a message.
To get to an article's talk page, click the "discussion" tab at the top of the page. The talk page for this policy page can be found at Bulbapedia talk:Talk page policy.
How do I use a talk page?
Generally, talk pages are for discussing how to improve an article. This means that you can and should:
- Bring up errors
- Suggest new trivia
- Question reliability of information
- Ask another user on their user talk page for help, or help them
When you create a new section on a talk page, use the (+) button or manually place this at the bottom. This is so sections are ordered chronologically. Please title your section appropriately so everyone can see at a glance what you are talking about.
When you reply to a section started by someone else, indent your comments to distinguish them from the previous comments. Please do not edit another user's discussion—even if it's full of spelling errors. Removing comments is also frowned upon.
Please check the dates of a discussion before you reply to it. Unless there is good reason for revitalizing an old conversation, comments on sections older than six months old will be removed. This is because by this point the problems cited will have been cleared up.
When a talk page gets very long, it will be archived by a staff member.
What do I not use talk pages for?
Talk pages aren't water coolers or places for general discussion. It is not acceptable to:
- Post predictions on a future game or anime episode
- Comment on the subject of the article (i.e. I like Ash because he has a hat)
- Leave abusive messages to a user on their user talk page
- Use your own user talk page as a substitute as a user page (see Bulbapedia:Userspace_policy#Circumventing the userspace policy)
- Leave meaningless posts such as "oh, that guy just pwnd you."
- Have lengthy discussions not related to Bulbapedia. For this, use the Bulbagarden Forums' Private Message or Visitor Message functions.
If you post a comment on a talk page that is inappropriate, it may be removed by any other user. If you remove an inappropriate comment from a talk page, please state what is wrong with it in your edit summary.
If a user repeatedly leaves inappropriate messages on a talk page then they should be warned by an staff member and may face a short block.
My user talk page
This page is your user talk page. Even so, you still need to abide by the rules of the talk page policy on this page.
Don't remove comments, including your initial welcome message. This is for historical purposes and so Bulbapedia staff don't give repeated warnings about the same thing. When your page gets long enough, you may archive it by moving it to a new location. For example, User:Example would move his large talk page to "User talk:Example/Archive 1" (or a variant thereof).
See also
Did you make it to the bottom? I hope you read this. Now go back and read it again and tell me if it's missing anything. Especially you people that think you're staff. Go earn your wage.