MSPA Wiki:Talk page policy

Almost all namespaces on the wiki have an associated talk namespace for discussion of the page they are attached to. We have a few simple rules concerning conduct on talk pages. Please also read the policy pages on formatting discussions and signatures.


 * 1) Keep discussion relevant to the page. If what you're discussing has nothing to do with the page the talk page is attached to, it doesn't belong there. This should be obvious. The more subtle but even more important implication of this is that most talk pages are not for speculation or chatting. They are to discuss the content of the article/file/whatever. Anything else should be taken to the forum.
 * 2) *The sole exception to this is user talk pages, though it should still be noted that if you just want to chat someone, there are a wide range of messaging programs out there that you can use to chat about stuff not related to the wiki.
 * 3) Discussion should be civil. This one should go without saying.
 * 4) No user should ever edit another user's post. Period.
 * 5) No content should ever be removed from any talk page, unless it is very clearly just vandalism or trolling. This applies to user talk pages, too. Users are not entitled to remove a message that another user leaves them just because they don't like it.

Archiving
While non-vandalism content should never be removed from talk pages, obviously a page may eventually become so long as to be inconvenient. At this point, some of the content (generally the oldest discussions, which have long since died or been resolved) can be moved to an archive page. User talk pages may be archived in whatever manner the owner chooses, provided the archive is organized sensibly (in particular, chronological order should be maintained) and is easily accessible from their main talk page.

Other talk pages (mostly project or article talk pages) should generally only be archived by staff members.

To create a user talk archive, simply create a subpage such as "User talk:(YourUsername)/Archive 1" and cut and paste the discussions from your talk page that you wish to archive. Typically, you will want to archive discussions that have been concluded for over a month or so. Somewhere at the top of your talk page, you should then place a link to the archive. You may also want to list the date span of the messages the archive contains, especially if you have multiple archives, to make it easier for people to find specific discussions.

Some users prefer to archive their talk page in large chunks at certain intervals (e.g. all the messages from a span of a few months) into one archive page, and create a new archive page each time they do so. Others may prefer to archive individual discussions a short while after they are concluded and move them to one archive page, only creating a new archive once the existing one gets too large. Either method is acceptable, though the latter is liable to generate more effort for the user in ensuring that the archive remains in chronological order.

For examples of users who have archived their talk pages, see here or here. You can make the archive links plain like these examples, or you can add some decorative flair, just as long as it remains sensible and easy to use. For an example of this, see here.