There are two types of discussion pages:
- Standard discussion pages are used to discuss the content of a page/article
- User talk pages are used to communicate with other users
All of the GCcollab Wiki articles have an associated discussion page.
- A red link indicates there has been no discussion associated with that page
- A blue link indicates there is a discussion associated with the article
Whatever the colour of the link, you can click on the discussion tab to add to it.
To contact a user via their Talk page
- Go to Special Pages in the Navigation Bar on the left-hand side of any GCcollab Wiki page.
- Click on users and scroll to the name of the person with whom you want to communicate
- Click on the person’s name
- Click on the Discussion tab and leave your message
Notifications
When someone else edits your user talk page, an alert is automatically displayed on all pages until you view your user talk page. If you click new messages it will direct you to the bottom of your talk page. If you click last change it will show you the last edit done to your talk page.
Using the Discussion page
Sign your contributions
You should sign and date your contributions on all talk pages. To do this easily, type four tildes (~~~~) at the end of your comment, or just click the signature button on the row of buttons above the edit box. This will be automatically converted into a user signature and the date and time.
Sections
To discuss a new topic, start a new section by going to a new line and typing a title like this: == Heading ==, replacing "Heading" with a suitable title for the topic you wish to raise. Place new discussions at the bottom of the page. You can also use the tab labeled "+", at the top of a talk page, next to the edit tab, which performs these steps automatically.
To respond to a discussion already in progress, add your comment below the last entry in the discussion. If you want to respond to a specific comment, you can place your response directly below it. When doing this, keep in mind the advice given below about indentation.
Indentation
Indentation is used to keep talk pages readable. Comments are indented to show whether they are replies to other comments, and if so, which ones.
Comments are indented using one or more initial colons (:). Each colon represents one level of indentation. You will see these colons in the wikitext when editing a talk page, but when viewing the page itself you will see the indents.
The first comment in a section will have no colons before it. When you reply to a statement, you should use one more colon than the number that appear in the statement you're replying to. For example, if you're replying to a statement that has 2 colons before it, your response should have 3 colons before it.
The following is an example of a talk page discussion using indentation. The text typed in the edit box is shown on the left, and the resulting display on the right.
