Help talk:Introduction to talk pages/1

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Request for a more immediate way to jump to more detailed info

I think these nice quick user-friendly guides are great. And I noticed there's a jump off to "More detailed information →" at Help:Using talk pages - but currently people only see that if they work through to the summary tab at the end. I suggest some kind of link also be added to the front page, so users directed here who immediately decide they want something more detailed can go off to it. Thanks Eversense (talk) 22:07, 27 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

 Done with this edit. Sorry for a (very) late answer to your post :-) benzband (talk) 10:07, 8 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Protection

How to implement Semi-protection to a specific article or a page? Akhil7Cena (talk) 16:12, 8 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Akhil7Cena: Go to Wikipedia:Requests for page protection and follow the instructions there. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:25, 8 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Summary seems to conflict with talk page template

The article specifically states, in summary:

"Try it!

Leave a message on the talk page for this Introduction by clicking the Talk tab above. You might want to try responding to someone else's comment too."

However, the talk page template itself (above) says: "This talk page is for comments or discussion on how to improve the Help:Introduction to talk pages/1 page."

I also noticed an edit in September that removed the ==Feel free to leave comments here== section. I don't want to just randomly put it back, but without it there is a clear conflict on what people should do.

Is this meant mainly for improving the page, or is it meant as a "try me!" style thing where users can test what they learned? Nerketur (talk) 14:20, 1 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Nerketur: I also thought this place is for testing. etzl talk☻ 20:16, 27 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Agree. Should a link rather be added in the #Try It! section and direct the user to Wikioedia:Draft_talk or something similar? 5CR1PT3D1AN (talk) 21:11, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Fixing formatting error

@Evolution and evolvability: Would you know how to get rid of the "right" that is display in the bottom right corner for the talk intro pages? Sdkb (talk) 22:09, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Sdkb: I've fixed it with an edit to {{Intro to base}}. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:13, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Reply Tool: a new opt-out feature arriving soon

I have inserted this section about the new Reply Tool at Help:Talk pages.

This will be an opt-out feature which all desktop users will soon be seeing, following its successful trial in beta. Its rollout on English Wikipedia was initially intended for 7th February 2022. However, after discussions at WP:VPP, that rollout has been held back a short while so that as many users as possible are made aware of this feature, and for brief explanatory notes to be provided on Help pages and for users of other help fora to be made aware.

I am reluctant to make any changes to this introductory page until it has rolled out, but I wanted to make interested editors aware of this major change in how we will soon be able to respond to one another on talk pages. Nick Moyes (talk) 23:57, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm excited for the tool to roll out, and I'll be happy to help update this page once it does. Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} talk 00:45, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Nick Moyes, I've made some changes to update this section now that both the reply tool and new topic tool have been deployed. The "Layout" and "Examples" pages both strike me as no longer necessary at the basic intro level of this tutorial; would you agree that they should be removed? I'd suggest moving them to Help:Introduction to talk pages/Old layout page and Help:Introduction to talk pages/Old examples page to preserve the incoming links (same as here), but I'll need your help with that as it requires admin rights... Then we'll add {{Historical}} to both and clean up here, here, and here. {{u|Sdkb}} talk 23:16, 4 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request

Per above, I need some admin assistance cleaning up the tutorial now that the new topic tool has been activated. Only the moves require an admin, but as all the steps need to be done in succession to avoid temporarily breaking the tutorial, I'd appreciate it if whoever handles this could do them all or at least ping me so I can do the rest. The steps:

Lmk if you have any questions; thanks for the help! {{u|Sdkb}} talk 19:54, 22 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Sdkb: All done, thanks! the wub "?!" 23:48, 26 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@The wub, looks great; thank you! {{u|Sdkb}} talk 00:39, 27 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request: suggestions to improve the wording

I have noticed several confusing sentences on this page while trying to learn how to use Wikipedia talks:

  • 'The best way to do this is by clicking the "Add topic" tab at the top of the page.'
    • I suppose this has changed and the tab is now called "Start a new section (+)"
  • "Link to pages you mention with the X icon and mention other editors with the X icon."
    • The inline icons are not visible when using the dark mode via Wikipedia:Dark mode (gadget). Is it possible to add white background to them? Not sure how this is usually solved.
  • "Your comments will be signed"
    • Are comments automatically signed if the commenter does not explicitly add "~ ~ ~ ~"? If not then it's better to mention the tildas on the page.

CatSkald (talk) 21:37, 14 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @CatSkald; thanks for the helpful suggestions! These all relate to various in-process UI improvements that are happening on Wikipedia.
The "add topic" text is generated by the code {{int:Skin-action-addsection}}, which should draw directly on MediaWiki:Skin-action-addsection, which is the place where the text used in that button is stored. Personally, I see "add topic" as the text, but maybe you're part of some beta test group that sees something different? When you go to MediaWiki:Skin-action-addsection, does it say "Add topic" (as it does for me) or something else?
For the icons, dark mode is currently very much a beta feature, so it will have some bugs like this. Eventually, we might have a template that can detect whether dark mode is being used or not and display the white versions of the icons if it is, but we're not at that point yet.
For signatures, comments are now signed automatically even if you don't type the tildes, which is a relatively new feature that was introduced as part of the Wikimedia Foundation's mw:Talk pages project. The only exception is if someone clicks "edit source", which is not the normal expected flow. Given that, manual signatures have become more of an advanced feature, so we removed mention of them here, as this intro series is just for the basics. You may have still seen advice to always sign your comments in other places that have not yet updated their advice; it'd be helpful to know where so that we can fix those. If you do sign when using the reply or new section tool, the software just ignores it.
Hope all that helps! Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} talk 22:13, 14 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Hi @Sdkb, thank you for the clarifications.
It says "Add topic" indeed. That explains, it looks like I enabled some checkboxes in "Preferences -> Editing -> Discussion pages" and it renamed several elements. I guess it's the New topic tool of that same "Talk pages project", since it mentions "start a new section" in the list of features. I was experimenting with those settings in the past but have never started a talk until now.
For the signatures: good to know. It was mentioned in the Welcome message on my talk page, in talk invites of several users, and on some pages:
Thank you for your help! CatSkald❄(talk) 22:46, 14 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for pointing me to those! I've gone ahead and updated them. (For the welcome message, {{Welcome}} has been updated, but that doesn't affect old uses.) If you spot other places where the guidance needs to be updated, please feel free to be bold and correct it yourself! Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} talk 23:51, 14 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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