Help:Tutorial (Talk pages)

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Wiki Frakr Tutorial

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Talk pages are a key feature of any self-respecting Wikipedia, Wiki Frakr being no exeption. Talk pages offer the ability to discuss articles and other issues with other Category:Wikifrakrs.

Talk pages

If you want to ask a question about an article, or you have a concern or comment, you can put a note in the article's talk page. You do that by clicking the "discussion" tab at the top of the page. Don't worry' if the link shows up in red (or maroon); it's ok to create the talk page if it doesn't already exist.

When you post a new comment, put it at the bottom of the talk page. The exception is that if you're responding to someone else's remarks, put your comment below theirs. You can indent your comment by typing a colon (:) at the beginning of a line.

You should sign your comments by typing ~~~ for just your username, or ~~~~ for your username and a time signature (see the example discussion below). When you save the page, your signature will be inserted automatically. Most of us use time signatures because it makes following discussions much easier.

You can get a username by creating an account (it's free). You have to be registered to post a reply.

Indenting

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

There are several ways of indenting in Wiki Frakr:

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 Enter or Return) marks the end of the indented paragraph.

For example:

This is aligned all the way to the left.

:This is indented slightly.

::This is indented more.

is shown as:

This is aligned all the way to the left.

This is indented slightly.

This is indented more.

Bullet points

You can also indent using bullets, usually used for lists. To insert a bullet, use 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

*Isn't this fun?

Which is shown as:

• First list item
• Second list item
  • Sub-list item under second
• Isn't this fun?

Numbered items

You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or hash symbol (#). This is usually used for 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

Here is an example of a well-formatted discussion:

Norman! Just in time for a fresh batch of meatballs. -- Arnie the Meatball Guru 16:48, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

Forget the meatballs, I'm worried. -- Norman the Sad Clown 16:49, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

Forget my meatballs? Forget these morsels of heavenly splendor that I spent an hour and a half preparing? -- Arnie the Meatball Guru 16:52, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

Arnie, I don't care if you spent a year and a half! -- Norman the Sad Clown 16:55, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

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

:::Okay, these culinary journals agree with me: :::* ''Meatballs Monthly'' :::* ''Meatballs World'' :::— [[Wikipedia:User page|Arnie the Meatball Guru]] 19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Also, signing your message off is done by:

• Writing ~~~ for the name (Arnie the Meatball Guru), or
• Writing ~~~~ for the name and date (Arnie the Meatball Guru 19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)), or
• Writing ~~~~~ for the date only (19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)).

You should usually sign with both name and date but votes are often signed with names only.

Experiment

Experiment! This time, instead of editing a sandbox, leave a message on the talk page by clicking "Discuss this page" or "discussion". Remember to sign your user name. You might want to try responding to someone else's post. Remember, you should use "Show preview" to see if your formatting works before you save.

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