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From Dirtopia, The Off-Road Encyclopedia

The purpose of a Dirtopia talk page is to provide space for editors to discuss changes to its associated article or project page.

Accessing a talk page

To access a talk page look for a link labeled Talk, Discussion or Discuss this page. These links will be found either at the top of the page or on the left hand side (near Edit this page).

After someone else edits your user talk page, the alert "You have new messages" is automatically displayed on all pages you view, until you view your user page.

Using talk pages

You should sign your contributions by typing three or four tildes (~~~ = Username)
(~~~~ = Username 19:36, 10 January 2006 (UTC)). .

On a talk page, "this page" usually refers to the main page (i.e. the page the talk page is associated with). If the talk page itself is referred to, write "this talk page".

When debating the name of the page or discussing merging it with another page, always mention the current page name. Otherwise after renaming (moving) a page, references to "this page name" become ambiguous.

The "Post a comment" feature allows you to start a new section without needing to edit the whole page. The section header becomes the edit summary when you save the page, so it only needs to be typed once.

The practice of "spamming" - posting similar messages to more than a few users' talk pages, often for the purpose of soliciting a certain action - is discouraged.

Formatting

Because the wiki software platform provides for a wide range of formatting styles, proper or at least consistent formatting is essential to maintaining readable talk pages.

The reference of a comment is determined by the number of colons (':') in front of it. If a reply is made to a statement, one adds a colon to the number of colons used in the statement being replied to. This style of conversation is easy to read.

Example:

How's the soup? --[[Bob]] :It's great!! --[[Lisa]] ::Not too bad.. --[[George]] :::I made it myself! --[[Bob]] I think the soup-discussion should be moved to [[Talk:Soup]].. --[[Lisa]] :I tend to disagree. --[[George]]

The above will produce this:

How's the soup? --Bob It's great!! --Lisa Not too bad.. --George I made it myself! --Bob I think the soup-discussion should be moved to Talk:Soup.. --Lisa I tend to disagree. --George