Bulbapedia:Talk page policy

	This is an official Bulbapedia policy. In a nutshell:
	Talk pages are not forums for free discussion. They are to be used to discuss improvements to articles, templates and policies, or for direct communication with another user.

The Bulbapedia talk page policy explains how to use talk pages appropriately on Bulbapedia. You should try and follow these guidelines when you're editing a talk page or user talk page.

What is a talk page?

Click the discussion tab to go to the talk page.

A talk page is a built-in part of the MediaWiki software that Bulbapedia is run on. Every namespace has its own talkspace; every article has a talk page attached to it. Every user has their own personal user talk page where you can leave them a message.

To get to an article's talk page, click the "discussion" tab at the top of the page. The talk page for this policy page can be found at Bulbapedia talk:Talk page policy.

How should a talk page be used?

Generally, talk pages are for discussing how to improve an article. This means that you can and should:

• Bring up errors
• Suggest new trivia
• Question reliability of information
• Ask another user on their user talk page for help, or help them

Editing in sections

Talk pages have their discussion topics ordered chronologically into sections. When you start a new topic, create it manually at the bottom of the page or use the (+) button to do this automatically. This helps keep everything in order. Please title your section appropriately so everyone can see at a glance what you are talking about.

When you reply to a section started by someone else, indent your comments to distinguish them from the previous comments. New comments in a section must always go at the bottom of the section, regardless of where the comment being replied to is in the discussion; this helps keep comments in order and prevents confusion as to what had been discussed prior to specific comments.

Signing comments

All comments left on talk pages must have a signature left afterwards. Unlike on most forums and message boards, this is not done automatically by the software. To leave a signature, either type ~~~~ or click (above the editing pane) when you have finished your contribution to the discussion.

Signing comments is required so that readers can identify who is saying what, and when they are saying it. If a recent comment has been left unsigned, then any editor may amend it with the {{unsigned}} template. If you forget to sign when you save the page, then you must add the unsigned template because otherwise the time stamps in the discussion will be wrong.

Talk page etiquette

• Please do not edit another user's discussion—even if it's full of spelling errors.
• Removing comments is also prohibited, unless it is spam, content that would be better suited to the Bulbagarden forums, or a reply to a finished conversation older than six months.
• Please check the dates of a discussion before you reply to it. Unless an old conversation is still relevant and there is a good reason to revitalize discussion, comments on sections older than six months old should not be made. If the problems cited in the previous comments have already been cleared up, any new comments may be removed.
• Don't leave overly long and confusing messages. No one likes to read stuff like that. Write concisely to make sure your points can be understood.
• Keep the conversation in one place. It's difficult to read a conversation when every other comment is on a different page and it means the page history can be used to check the history of the discussion. This also allows third (or fourth) parties to join in if relevant.
• Always abide by the code of conduct.

When a talk page gets very long, it will be archived by a staff member or, in the case of a user talk page, the user.

How should a talk page not be used?

Talk pages aren't water coolers or places for general discussion. The Bulbagarden Forums should be used for all general discussion of Pokémon or community-related topics. For instance, on Bulbapedia talk pages, it is not acceptable to:

• Post predictions on a future game or upcoming anime episode
• Comment on the subject of the article (e.g. "I like Ash because he has a hat")
• Leave abusive messages to a user on their user talk page
• Use your own user talk page as a substitute for a user page (see Bulbapedia:Userspace policy#Circumventing the userspace policy)
• Leave meaningless posts such as "oh, that guy just pwnd you."
• Spam the same or similar messages across multiple pages
• Have lengthy discussions not related to Bulbapedia. For this, use the Bulbagarden Forums' Private Message or Visitor Message functions.

If you post a comment on a talk page that is unacceptable for any of the above reasons, it may be removed by any other user. If you remove an unacceptable comment from a talk page, please state what is wrong with it in your edit summary.

If a user repeatedly leaves inappropriate messages on a talk page then they should be warned by a staff member and may face a short block.

My user talk page

Use the "page move" function to archive your talk page to a suitable location.

This page is your user talk page. Even so, you still need to abide by the rules of the talk page policy on this page.

Don't remove comments, including your initial welcome message. This is for historical purposes and so Bulbapedia staff don't give repeated warnings about the same thing. When your page gets long enough, you may archive it by moving it to a new location.

Archiving user talk pages

Instead of deleting any and all information on talk pages, you should archive your talk page by moving it to a new location. By simply copying and pasting the text, or by moving small sections at a time, it breaks the time line of the edit history.

An ideal location to move your talk page to is User:Username/Archive Number. So, if User:Example wanted to make his first archive, he would move his talk page to "User talk:Example/Archive 1". His second archive would be at "User talk:Example/Archive 2", and so on. Other variations on this somewhat bland naming style are allowed, for example: "User talk:Example/First archive".

When you have finished creating your archive, remember to remove the redirect that will now be found on your talk page so that new discussions can take place. For ease of access, be sure to link to all of your archived talk pages on your new talk page.

Other user's talk pages

Like you, every user that registers has his or her own talk page, and like any other talk page, users still must abide by the rules of the talk page policy. However, there are a few specific rules users will need to follow when on another users talk page.

• Users are allowed to have minor specific rules that fit their benefits, as long as they comply with the talk page policy.
• Give the owner of the talk page thirty minutes, to an hour to respond depending on their time zone. It is their talk page, there's no reason to have someone else jump in and respond for them. It's on their talk page because someone wanted their input.
• Staff are allowed to respond on other staff members' talk pages if that staff member is not available.
  • Likewise, if the staff members share power over a specific area, they are always allowed to respond to talk page messages on each other's talk page.
• If a discussion on a user's talk page starts to break the talk page policy, or the code of conduct, a staff member is allowed to come onto the page and break up the arguing.

See also

• Bulbapedia:Code of conduct
• Bulbapedia:Userspace policy