Minecraft Wiki:Talk page guidelines

Talk pages are useful for discussion, but lose their use if they are not used in an organized fashion. Below are some guidelines for using the talk pages.

General

1. Talk pages are only for discussing the related content page. Topics should discuss the content of the page as an article. Talk pages should not be used for any of the following:
   • Suggesting a new feature for Minecraft
   • Reporting issues with the topic's behavior in Minecraft
   • Discussing your opinion on the topic's existence or usage in Minecraft
   • Acting as a tutorial; tutorial content should instead exist on the Tutorial namespace.
   • Acting as a content page or a proposed page or page rewrite. Content pages should be in a content namespace, and page proposals should be made in either in the Minecraft Wiki sandbox or a personal subpage, and then may be linked to discuss.
2. When replying, keep to the same topic as the initial topic. If the topic does not cover what you want to say, consider starting a new topic on the page. If replying to multiple topics at the same time, answer each topic within its own topic, rather than placing all replies in one place.
3. Do not edit other users' comments, except to sign unsigned comments or fix formatting.
4. Do not edit archives. They are called archives for a reason. Instead of replying to an archived topic, start a new topic with an optional link to the old one. You should also generally avoid replying to topics with the last post over a year ago, as your answer is likely not the case back then.
5. Follow rule #3 maintaining civil discussions with no harassment, insults, or ad hominem.
6. Do not delete topics or comments unless they are your own topic/comment and they have not been replied to. An exception is when archiving or if the topic violates one of the other rules.

A user's main talk page may be used for direct communication with the user. User talk pages are exempt from rules 1 and 2 (unless the user is blocked), though not following them is discouraged. Users are also exempt from rule 6 with respect to their own talk pages unless the user is blocked, in which case any administrative notices should be retained on the user talk page for the duration of the block.

Signing

Always sign your posts using ~~~~, which adds your username and a timestamp. Your signature can be changed in your preferences, provided it fits the following criteria:

Links

• Your signature must contain a link to one of your user pages, user talk pages, or related logs (contributions, etc.). This required link must not be interwiki.
• You may not link to another user's page, and other internal links not directly related to your general information should be avoided.
• Interwiki links are allowed provided they follow the same guidelines as internal links, though they are discouraged.
• Signatures may not contain a category link.
• Signatures may contain up to two files, provided they are no taller than 20 pixels.
• You may not add external links in your signature.
• Your signature may not contain a template unless it is always substituted. The resulting code must be no more than 250 characters.

Display

• Your signature must display your username, or some variation of it.
• Do not use large text or formatting in your signature; the signature should have no noticeable effect on the line height.
• Avoid using font colors that are similar to the background color for either light or dark mode, and font sizes that are excessively small.
• Keep signatures concise. Signatures are to identify the user, user pages can be used for lengthy descriptions.

If someone else did not sign their comment, sign it for them using {{subst:unsigned|user|time}}. If the unsigned post was added in the last edit, you can also automatically sign it with a button under the advanced toolbar by having the "automatic signing" gadget enabled in your preferences.

Pinging

You can ping users by linking to their user page, or using a template that does so such as {{ping}} or {{reply}}, and adding a signature (~~~~) in the same edit. This can be used to pull someone into a subject that warrants their attention, or notify them of a reply on a page that they may not be watching. It is not necessary to ping a user on their own talk page, as they should be getting notifications there already.

You can also mention users in any edit (not limited to talk pages) by linking to their user page in the edit summary. This only works if no more than two users are mentioned in the same edit; templates do not work here.

Formatting

Along with following rules for usage of talk pages, good talk page formatting is helpful too. On talk pages, topics are denoted using an h2 header, and sub-topics can be denoted using an h3 header.

Always indent your replies to one level after the comment to which you are replying by adding colons in front of them. If a large number of indents are reached, usually around eight, you may add {{outdent}} before your comment instead of indenting. When making a proposal, usually all responses are only one indent, and using {{comment}} is advised to indicate your position.

For clarity on the editing screen, it is advised to copy the list markup between comments by separate users; leaving a blank line causes accessibility problems.

:Lorem ipsum -User 1
:
:Lorem ipsum -User 2

Generally avoid using templates that are not designed for talk pages, as they may change or break at any time without ease of updating them. A list of talk page templates can be found here.

When linking to a category or a file, you should escape it using a colon before the namespace in the link (e.g. [[:File:Creeper.png]]).

Example

Note that only a single line break is used between comments here for compactness

== A single topic ==

Initial topic -User 1
:Reply -User 2
::Reply to user 2 -User 3
:Reply to user 1 -User 4
::Reply with a [[link]] -User 2
:::Reply with a [[:Category:Main]] -User 3

=== A subtopic ===

Initial sub-topic post -User 5
:Reply -User 1

== A proposal topic ==

A proposal -User 1
:{{c|agree}} -User 2
:{{c|agree}} Reason -User 3
:: Comment on user 3's post -User 4
:{{c|disagree}} -User 5
:{{c|comment}} -User 6

Archiving topics

Topics should be archived when they are both inactive for a large period of time and are, together, taking up significant space on the page. User talk pages may also get their topics archived if needed. Archiving should be based on a specific day of the year, or every few months or so, on a kind of schedule.

For general help on how to archive topics, see Help:Talk archiving.