Talk pages project

This page talks about the Editing Team's work to improve how contributors communicate on Wikipedia using talk pages.

It contains information about the goals of this work, the past efforts that have influenced it and why evolving talk pages is a priority right now.

To follow how this project is developing, the team recommends visiting and/or adding the Talk pages project/Updates page to your watchlist. If you would like to be invited to conversations about specific topics, please add your name to the Get involved section below.

Active initiatives
In this section, we list the projects actively being worked on and where and how they have currently been deployed.

Each project an effort to improve contributors' experiences communicating productively on Wikipedia using talk pages.

Projects


 * Replying to specific comments
 * Requirements for user signatures
 * Starting a new discussion

Deployment status ''Note: the Arabic, Dutch, French and Hungarian Wikipedias are participating in this project as "partner wikis." This means new communication tools for talk pages will be deployed to these wikis first so we can work together to refine them. If you would like to see these new tools deployed to your wiki, please leave a message on the talk page: Talk:Talk pages project.''

Open questions
This section contains questions the team could use your help trying to answer.

Starting a new discussion: ''Are there aspects about starting new conversation threads you find take a lot of effort? Are there you like? Please post a link or describe your experience here:''

How you can help
If questions like the examples given in this section are interesting to you, please add your name to this page: Talk pages project/Participate.

The ~40 people who already have, are contributing their expertise and experiences to ensure the new tools we develop as part of this project are valuable and useful to the editors who depend on talk pages to communicate, now and in the future.


 * Talk page experience: "When you think about your experiences using talk pages, are there particular memories that stand out to you?"
 * Design feedback: "Here are mockups of Version 2.0 of the new Reply tool, what aspects of the design do you think could be made more clear?
 * Wiki expertise: "What do you think needs to be considered before the new Reply tool is enabled on pages outside talk namespaces?"

Updates
The best place to stay up to date about the project is by adding this page to your watch list: Talk pages project/Updates.

The team will use the /Updates page to share information about new feature development, deployment plans and questions the team would value your input on.

Updates are typically posted every month. You can read the latest update here: 12 March 2020

The other two places you might considering checking for updates are:


 * Phabricator: to see into the team's daily work.
 * Editing Team Newsletter: to receive highlights every 1-2 months about significant developments in the team's work.

Objectives
Wikipedia depends on contributors collaborating and communication is an important part of the collaborative process.[1]

Trouble is, communicating on Wikipedia happens on talk pages which can be challenging for contributors across experience levels to use.

Contributors with more experience report being slowed down by having to do something manual in order for other contributors, "...to know who posted what, and when, so they can follow the thread of a conversation, post on a user talk page if appropriate, and even just know whether a posting is recent enough to be worth responding to." [2]

Newer contributors on the other hand, find basic tasks, like replying to a comment, confusing. In some instances, these contributors even confuse talk pages for article pages. [3]

The Editing Team has two key objectives with this project. To create tools that:


 * 1) Make it more intuitive for newcomers to communicate with others so they can grow into productive contributors .[4]
 * 2) Give experienced contributors more leverage to communicate and coordinate their wiki work with others.

This project is an outcome of the 2019 Talk Pages Consultation, a 5-month long effort that brought volunteers on 20 wikis, across 15 languages and four projects (Wikipedia, Commons, Wikidata and Wiktionary) together with members of the Wikimedia Foundation to share their experiences with existing wiki communication tools and to help develop improvements to them.

The Talk pages project supports the Wikimedia Movement's Medium Term Plan. Specifically, the plan's Thriving Movement priority area which strives to "...welcome and support newcomers." We think newer contributors learning and progressing depends on their ability to communicate with more experienced contributors, and by extension, to use talk pages intuitively.[4]

Glossary
The glossary linked below is intended to help us all communicate about talk pages more effectively by making sure we have a shared understanding about the words we use in our discussions and documentation throughout the project:

Talk pages project glossary

FAQ
When will the new version of talk pages be released?

There will not be a "new version" of talk pages that will get released all at once. Instead, this project will be made up of a series of incremental improvements that will be released over time.

How are talk pages going to change?


 * Some features may involve introducing new wikitext. Although, any changes to wikitext will be limited to those that enable new features that benefit contributors. Features like replying to specific comments or watchlisting particular discussions.


 * Potentially changing where the "Discussion" tab exists on the page
 * Potentially changing where metadata – that currently exists atop some talk pages – is presented

Note: the list above is not exhaustive and will likely change as the project progresses.

How long is this project likely to last?

1–2 years.

Related pages

 * Beta Features
 * Existing tools
 * Glossary
 * New discussions
 * Participate
 * Partner wiki discussions:
 * Arabic Wikipedia
 * Dutch Wikipedia
 * French Wikipedia
 * Hungarian Wikipedia
 * Project updates
 * Replying
 * Replying prototype testing
 * Talk pages project (en.wiki)