Wikipedia:Talk page formatting
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This is an essay. It is not a policy or guideline. Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on the talk page. |
[edit] Cleaner Formatting for Talk Pages
Instead of having a Talk page like this:
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How's the soup? --[[Bob]] |
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How's the soup? --Bob I think the soup-discussion should be moved to Talk:Soup.. --Lisa
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won't it be cleaner to have it like this?:
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== Soup == |
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Soup [edit] I made it myself! --Bob
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Note: Headings are imitated for the above example. Though not exactly the same, they are similar to the example above in actual practice. The 'edit' links in the example above have no effect.
Details:
Current method:
First comment is not indented (no colon ':')
Second comment is indented once
Third comment is indented twice
And so on.
Disadvantage: The comments build up like a thread, getting indented more and more unnecessarily. The fifth or the sixth comment itself would be hanging at the right side of a page like a vertical newspaper column. There is no dialogue structure. (Remember Talk pages are for conversations between Wikipedia contributers, and conversation means dialogue!)
Suggested method:
First person to comment never indents any of his comments under the subheading.
Second person to comment always indents all his comments one step (under that particular subheading only).
Third person to comment always indents all his comments two steps.
Advantage: The comments are arranged neatly like a dialogue. The reader gets a sense of dialogue or conversation. It's easier to read a dialogue than to read a thread since the reader can figure out who is talking what, by just looking at the indents. Starting a new dialog should be under a subheading as I suggested above. Also this method is cleaner since unless there are about six or more people actually participitating in the conversation, the comments will span accross the page and not get concentrated towards the right. --ADTC 21:12, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
