<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Talk pages are a key feature of SCIFIPEDIA, offering the ability to discuss articles and other issues with other SCIFIPEDIAns.

Contents 1 Talk pages 1.1 User talk pages 1.2 Indenting 1.2.1 Plain indentations 1.2.2 Bullet points 1.2.3 Numbered items 2 Experiment

Talk pages

If you want to ask a question about an article, or you have a concern or comment, you can put a note in the article's talk page. You do that by clicking the "Discussion" tab at the top of the page. Don't worry if the link shows up in red; it's ok to create the talk page if it doesn't already exist.

When you post a new comment, put it at the bottom of the talk page. The exception is that if you're responding to someone else's remarks, put your comment below theirs. You can indent your comment by typing a colon (:) at the beginning of a line.

You should sign your comments by typing ~~~ for just your username, or ~~~~ for your username and a time signature (see the example discussion below). When you save the page, your signature will be inserted automatically. Most people use time signatures because it makes following discussions much easier.

User talk pages

Every SCIFIPEDIA member has a user talk page, on which other SCIFIPEDIA members can leave messages. If someone has left you a message, you will see a note saying "You have new messages," with a link to your user talk page.

You can reply in either of two ways. One is to put a message on the user talk page of the person you're replying to. The other is to put your reply on your own talk page beneath the original message. Be aware, however, that replying on your own talk page runs the risk that your reply won't be seen, if the user doesn't look at your talk page again.

Indenting

Indenting can improve the layout of a discussion considerably, making it much easier to read. A standard practice is to indent your reply one more level deep than the person you are replying to.

There are several ways of indenting in SCIFIPEDIA:

Plain indentations

The simplest way of indenting is to place a colon (:) at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be. A newline (pressing Enter or Return) marks the end of the indented paragraph.

For example:

This is aligned all the way to the left.

:This is indented slightly.

::This is indented more.

is shown as:

This is aligned all the way to the left.

This is indented slightly.

This is indented more.

Bullet points

You can also indent using bullets, usually used for lists. To insert a bullet, use an asterisk (*). Similar to indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.

A brief example:

*First list item

*Second list item

**Sub-list item under second

*Third list item

Which is shown as:

• First list item
• Second list item
  • Sub-list item under second
• Third list item

Numbered items

You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or hash symbol (#). Again, you can affect the indent of the number by the number of #'s you use.

Example:

#First item

#Second item

##Sub-item under second item

#Third item

Shows up as:

1. First item
2. Second item
   1. Sub-item under second item
3. Third item

Experiment

Experiment! This time leave a message on the talk page by clicking "Discuss this page" or "Discussion". Remember to sign your user name. You might want to try responding to someone else's post. Remember, you should use "Show preview" to see if your formatting works before you save.

Continue with the tutorial.