How to use your Wikipedia talk page: transcript

Key points

• Every Wikipedia page has a talk page where people discuss the main article, and talk pages can also be used to message other users.
• You reach your own talk page from a homepage link, a notification, or the person icon in the top right corner followed by Talk.
• New accounts may receive a welcome message with links to tutorials, tips and help.
• Add Topic lets you post a signed and dated message, and others can reply with the reply link.
• The Universal Code of Conduct applies to all messages, including showing respect and never harassing or abusing anyone.
• Automated messages can include rejected drafts or thanks, and newsletters such as The Signpost can be delivered to your talk page.

Chapters

1. 0:01What a talk page is and how to find yours
2. 1:37Leaving messages and the Universal Code of Conduct
3. 2:34Practising by messaging the presenter
4. 3:37Automated messages and newsletters

Full transcript

0:01In this video, we'll look at your talk page on Wikipedia. You'll see how to find it, how people can leave messages for you, and you'll practice leaving a message as well. Every page on Wikipedia has a talk page. It's where discussions happen about the main article. So if you're reading an article about Australian jazz music and want to leave a comment, perhaps suggesting some better references be added, you can go to the talk page and start a discussion to hopefully engage with other users. I say hopefully because you might not get a reply straight away unless the article is particularly popular. But you can also use a talk page to leave a message for other users. Let's take a look at yours. If you're on your homepage, there's a link to your talk page here. You can also go to your talk page by clicking the person icon in the top right corner and then clicking talk. If someone has already left you a message on your talk page, you may have a notification like the ones here.

1:01There's a message saying I have a message on my talk page to read, and if I clicked that, it'd take me to my talk page too. But the most common way to get there is by clicking the person icon and clicking talk, as this icon and menu will be available on every page. If you just created your account, you might not have anything here yet, or you may have gotten a message left by someone welcoming you to Wikipedia if they notice you just signed up. It looks like someone has left me a welcome message with links to tutorials, some tips, and links to get help. Hopefully someone leaves you something similar.

1:37Anyone can leave a message on your talk page, and if you'd like, you can leave a message on your own talk page to test it out by clicking Add Topic. Now, add a subject, for example, Welcome to my talk page, then add a message, for example, I'm testing my talk page, or something like that, and click Add Topic. The page will refresh and now you have a message on your talk page that is signed and dated, so we know who left the message and when. Anyone can reply to it by clicking the reply link and after typing a message, clicking reply. Just keep in mind Wikipedia and all Wikimedia projects are covered by a universal code of conduct. Following this will help to ensure a positive experience for all and includes showing respect to others and never harassing or abusing anyone. So anytime you leave a comment or message on Wikipedia, the Universal Code of Conduct applies, and you can read it at the link below this video.

2:34If you'd like to practice leaving someone else a message, why not leave one for me? In your address bar, it will say en.wikipedia.org slash wiki slash user underscore talk colon and then your username. Delete your username and type in mine, Dinothaw, D-I-N-O-T-H-A-W, and hit enter or return on your keyboard. Now you're on my talk page and you can leave me a message.

3:06To make sure I see it, you can tag me too. Type at, and then my username, Dinothaw, and I'll get a notification that someone tagged me. You might even see messages from other people taking this course. Once you're done on my talk page, let's go back to yours. Remember that you can click the person icon in the top right corner, and click talk to get back to your own talk page. Occasionally you might get automated messages left on your talk page, and here's some examples.

3:37I got a notification that an article I drafted and submitted for review was rejected. Occasionally I've gotten messages of thanks for articles I created or edits I made. You can even sign up to newsletters to get updates delivered straight to your talk page. There's newsletters for projects such as the Wikipedia Library, Women in Red, and another called The Signpost, a community-ridden and edited online newspaper covering Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement at large. You'll find links on how to subscribe to these below this video.

Source and licence

Recording: File:4.5 Talk Page.webm by Jimmyjrg (2024-06-19), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. The transcript, summary and chapters on this page are shared under the same licence (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.