Help:Welcome/4

---

Talk pages

---

Talk pages are a key feature of the Last Outlaws Wiki, offering the ability to discuss articles and other issues with other editors. Article talk pages are not to be used for general discussion of a topic, blog-like discussions, a chatroom, or as a battleground.

If you have a question, concern, or comment related to improving an article, put a note in the article's talk page and not in the article itself. Find the talk page by clicking the pencil tab at the top of the page, then "Discussion." It is okay to create the talk page if it does not already exist.

If you are responding to someone else's remarks, put your comment below theirs. You should indent it properly (see section below). If you're not responding to someone else, but are posting about something new, click the pencil icon at the top of the page and click "New topic" to create a new section. The section will automatically be created at the bottom of the page.

You should always sign your comments by typing ~~~~ after your comment. Then, when you click "Save page", your signature will be inserted automatically. This includes your username and a timestamp. Otherwise, your posting will still appear but without your username. (For your convenience, there is a button at the top of the edit box with a signature icon which inserts "~~~~" when clicked. There is also a button at the bottom under the heading 'wiki markup' which has the 4 tildes).

File:Signature Button.png

The button to insert "~~~~"

User Talk Pages

Every editor (every person with a username) has a user talk page on which other contributors can leave messages. If someone has left you a message, you will receive a notification in Special:Notifications saying "‪(User) left a message on your talk page in (the part of the section the user has edited)‬.

You can reply in either of two ways. One is to put a message on the user talk page of the person you are replying to. The other is to put your reply on your own talk page beneath the original message. Both are common on the Last Outlaws Wiki; however, be aware that replying on your own talk page runs the risk that your reply won't be seen if the user does not look at your talk page again. If you intend to use this approach, it is a good idea to ping the person you are replying to.

Indenting

Shortcut:
S:INDENT

Indenting can improve the layout of a discussion considerably, making it much easier to read. A standard practice is to indent your reply one level deeper than the person you are replying to.

There are several ways of indenting on the Last Outlaws Wiki:

Plain Indentations

The simplest way of indenting is to place a colon (:) at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be. A newline (pressing Template:Kp or Template:Kp) marks the end of the indented paragraph. If a conversation has too many indents, you can use {{outdent}} to continue without using too many indents. This is recommended when the discussion has reached 6 or 7 indents. Plain indenting is the most common and preferred form of indentation in discussions on the Last Outlaws Wiki.

For example:

This is aligned all the way to the left. (Not indented)
:This is indented once.
::This is indented twice.
:::This is indented 3 times.
::::This is indented 4 times.
:::::This is indented 5 times.
::::::This is indented 6 times.
{{outdent|6}}
This is an outdent.

is shown as:

This is aligned all the way to the left. (Not indented)

This is indented once.

This is indented twice.

This is indented 3 times.

This is indented 4 times.

This is indented 5 times.

This is indented 6 times.

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ This is an outdent.

Bullet Points

You can also indent using bullets, which are also used for lists. To insert a bullet (when your edit is saved), type an asterisk (*). Similar to indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.

A brief example:

* First list item
* Second list item
** Sub-list item under second
* Third list item

Which is shown as:

• First list item
• Second list item
  • Sub-list item under second
• Third list item

Numbered Items

You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or "octothorpe" (#). This is usually used for a sequence of steps, or occasionally polls and voting. Again, you can affect the indent of the number by the number of #s you use.

Example:

# First item
# Second item
## Sub-item under second item
# Third item

Shows up as:

1. First item
2. Second item
   1. Sub-item under second item
3. Third item

Example Discussion

Note:

All usernames in this example discussion are not used on this wiki and are only used here for the purposes of this example.

Here is an example of a well-formatted discussion:

Hi. I have a question about this article. I'm pretty sure purple elephants only live in New York!<sig>JayRandumWikiUser</sig> 02:49, 10 December 2003 (UTC)

Well, last time I was in New York, the elephants I saw were green. <sig>try2BEEhelpful</sig> 17:28, 11 December 2003 (UTC)

I think you should find a source for your claims. <sig>Living x Skepticism</sig> 20:53, 11 December 2003 (UTC)

Okay, these elephant journals agree with me:

• Elephants Monthly
• Elephants World

— <sig>try2BEEhelpful</sig> 19:09, 12 December 2003 (UTC)

Well, those two sources are unreliable. According to New York City Animal Control, there are no elephants, purple or otherwise, in New York outside of zoos. <sig>IloveNYC&elephants</sig> 17:28, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I live in Australia, where the elephants look like kangaroos! The people below agree with my statement: <sig>-DontGdayMateMe</sig> 17:28, 14 December 2003 (UTC)

1. <sig>ElefantLuvr</sig> 01:22, 15 December 2003 (UTC)
2. <sig>AisleVoteOnAnything</sig> 05:41, 15 December 2003 (UTC)
3. <sig>alittlebehindthetimes</sig> 18:39, 27 January 2004 (UTC)

I think you should have a source. Remember verifiability. <sig>IloveNYC&elephants</sig> 20:56, 28 January 2004

---

Note that if you want to include a list in your comments, add colons before each item, for example:

::: Okay, these elephant journals agree with me:
::: * ''Elephants Monthly''
::: * ''Elephants World''
::: ~~~~

Again, signing your message (posting) is done by:

• Writing ~~~~ for your name and date
  • <sig>User</sig> 05:12, 3 July 2024 (UTC)

You can add a signature only, or a date only, but this is unusual. Here's how:

• Writing ~~~ for the username only
  • <sig>User</sig>
• Writing ~~~~~ for the date only
  • 05:12, 3 July 2024 (UTC)

Votes are often signed with names only.

While responding to someone else's post, use one more colon than they used. Remember, you should use "Show preview" to see if your formatting works before you save.

Try a sample discussion at this page's discussion page.

Other Project Pages

In addition to Talk pages, there are some other categories of behind-the-scenes pages that help editors communicate with each other, and serve a variety of other roles in building the Last Outlaws Wiki. These different areas are often referred to as namespaces — as in, "the Talk namespace".

Pages in the Last Outlaws Wiki namespace (also known as the "project namespace") provide information about the Last Outlaws Wiki and how to use it.

Content written in a Template page will be displayed in articles that contain the corresponding template reference. For example, the content written in Template:Stub will appear in any article that contains the {{stub}} tag.

All of these project pages also have Talk pages of their own.

For more information, see Help:Namespaces.

---

← Previous: Referencing tutorialNext: Let's wrap up this tutorial→