User:Beligaronia/Proposed amendment to talk page policy
The following is a proposed amendment to the Bulbapedia Talk page policy. Please read the text of the amendment and the justification and provide feedback on the talkpage. Given that the subject of this amendment is reasonably subjective, it is to be used more as a guideline than as binding policy on Bulbapedia.
Proposed Amendment
“In order to facilitate navigation and for ease of future reference it is highly recommended that each discussion topic is contained under its own heading which makes the topic of discussion clear.
Ideally, a user, wishing to find a discussion topic on a Talk page or User talk page should be able to find the desired topic purely by reading the section headings on the table of contents without having to skim through several unrelated, ambiguously titled discussions.”
Justification:
While Talk pages are used for current discussions in the short term, they also serve as historical records of policy and consensus regarding the article in question.
Users are forbidden from removing talk page comments so that other users can see what has been discussed previously, however by giving unclear section headings it is very easy to miss a discussion and have it repeated, even on the same page.
Currently many users begin sections with very ambiguous heading such as “Also...” “Could you take a look” “Question” “OMG” “n00bness” thus making it difficult to discern the topic under discussion. (These examples are from TTE’s talk page, and so are generally more inexperienced users). By searching “um” on main talkspace I found ambiguous section headings on Talk:Pokémon Emerald Version, Talk:Ash's Bulbasaur and Talk:Volt Tackle (move)
This is imperative when warning a user not to repeat bad behavior, admins or future users must be able to see what the person has been warned against (the main reason, I believe, for forbidding the removal of talk page messages) and headings like “Uhh” do not lead one to assume the user was being yelled at for editing another's userpage. (Example from User talk:Magikarp123193)
