Help:Talk Pages

For New Contributors and Moderators
'''What is a Talk page? The talk page tab is found along with the Help, Edit, and History tabs under the FamilySearch logo. '''Every page has a Talk page which can be used for discussion and communicating with other users.

You can communicate on a user's personal talk page or on any talk page of the Wiki. For example, an article on London birth records will have a talk page where Wiki users might make suggestions for improving the article or call into question the article's accuracy. See an example of users communicating with each other at User Talk: Saving Stories

How to add your comments to a Talk page.


 * 1) Make sure you have registered and signed-in to the Wiki so you can have rights to edit the Talk page. You can register by clicking here.
 * 2) Click the Talk tab at the top of the page to which you want to add your comments.
 * 3) Click the Wikitext  tab at the top of the page.
 * 4) In the editing box give a title to your talking point enclosed by three = signs. For example: ===  The accuracy of this article may need to be checked ===

Add your comments to the talk page by typing them in the editing box.


 * 1) When you are finished adding your talking point, sign the comments by typing four tildes ' ~ '.
 * 2) Scroll to the bottom of the page and type a brief description of the comment and click the Save Page button.

If you know the username of the person you would like to talk to:

You can go to that contributor’s personal talk page by going to User_talk:”YourUserName” (Insert the individual’s username, first letter capitalized, in place of “YourUserName”. (Do not include the quotes.)

If you want to discuss a particular issue on a content page and desire to talk to someone that previously contributed to that page, click the HISTORY tab at the top of the page. You will see the usernames for everyone that has contributed to that page. To “talk” to them via the Wiki, you will find their username(s) followed by: (Talk | contribs). If you click on Talk, it will take you to that person’s personal talk page.

Technical note: A Talk page is actually very similar to any other wiki page, but it is in the 'talk' namespace, to keep it separate from the articles in the 'main' namespace (See Help:namespaces) As with any wiki page, you can edit it, link to it, and view the editing history.

Every page on the Wiki has its own talk page. You may also post a useful comment to the talk page of a locality or topic. Be aware that just because a talk page is available it does not mean that they are all set up with current content. If that’s the case, you will see a beige colored box titled “You are on a page that has not yet been developed.” You can still write your comments on these pages.

Making a talk page easy to read
Everyone will be able to follow discussions more easily if you do the following:


 * Start a new discussion at the bottom of the page. Start with a "Subject," format as a Heading 3 (=== Title ===).
 * Sign your name after your comments. Use four tildes ' ~ ' (or the toolbar button)
 * Indent replies with colons (':') at the beginning of the line. (Click Show Preview before saving to make sure the : turns into an indent.)

Example
Here is an example of a discussion from a Talk page:

More spiders information needed
This page has a lot of detail about the web, but I really don't understand a single word of it, and it doesn't mention the spider once -- Bob Smith 18:07, 26 August 1991 (UTC)


 * No no. This page is talking about the "world wide web". I have added a clarification at the top - Simon Brown 11:21, 28 August 1991(UTC)
 * Oh I see... So what's the big deal about hyperlinked documents? Seems like a stupid idea to me. -- Bob Smith 14:11, 3 September 1991 (UTC)
 * Well I think we should have some information about it here on our wiki, but you're probably right. It'll never catch on. -- Simon Brown 21:55, 3 September 1991 (UTC)

Editing discussions
Having discussions on a free-form wiki page will seem strange at first. It has some advantages over the conventional rigid forum format, but it can get a bit cluttered. As with other wiki pages, anyone can help with tidying up discussions and making them conform to the editing conventions, e.g. add signatures and headings where they are missing.

Clearly we also have the opportunity to edit other people's comments. It is generally bad etiquette to modify somebody else's wording (Better to just add your own comment with your corrections) But it can be acceptable to:


 * Modify Talk headings
 * Change wording or append words to the Talk headings, to better describe the topic of discussion. Note that good descriptive headings become important when many discussions start to fill the page.
 * Move discussions to a different page
 * If discussions are put in the wrong place on the wiki, and are better associated with a different Talk page, then you could just move the discussion using the cut and paste shortcut. This is potentially confusing for the people posting but can be important for keeping things tidy. You can leave the discussion in the wrong place for a few days/weeks grace period before tidying it. You can leave a link behind explaining that a discussion was moved. Another option would be to link within the edit summary.
 * Delete discussions when they are out-of-date
 * Discussions often get left on a Talk page long after the issue is no longer relevant. It's usually a good idea to reply by saying "I think this is now resolved". Sooner or later it's time to just delete the old discussions (they are of course preserved in the editing history)
 * Split a post into several discussions
 * It may be appropriate to do this if someone has raised several points which need to be answered separately. However you should always be respectful to other people's words. Does their post still make sense if you split it up? If not, leave it in place.

Building articles - Discussing articles
It is usually best to keep focused on the task of building a wiki article, and use Talk pages only to support this process. The topic of conversation should generally revolve around what needs to be done to make the associated article better. Remember that editing the article is often a more effective means of communicating. It can be more difficult, requiring you to balance your views alongside those of others, but it can also be more rewarding. This is how the community of wiki editors will make progress. Often it will feel more natural to engage in heated debate on a talk page (or indeed any other contact channel) but in fact the wiki article itself can offer a powerful means of reaching middle-ground. Think about how to portray both sides of the argument (e.g. listing advantages and disadvantages) and you may find the debate is no longer relevant.

User Talk pages
A "user Talk page" is a place where you can leave a message for a specific wiki contributor. The user Talk page is associated with their Help:User page.

The contributor will see a note at the top of every wiki page when they have received a message. They may be notified by email as well, although this cannot always be relied upon (since the email notification feature must be activated by supplying a valid email address, and clicking a confirmation link).

If you don't get a response to your user Talk page message, try looking for other contact details which they may have supplied on their user page.

Note that the messages are not private, others can join in the conversation.