Difference between revisions of "How to use "Discussion" pages"

Revision as of 11:07, 26 April 2021

Users of this wiki are encouraged to contribute to discussions about the material presented here, and related issues, as well as to suggest updates and corrections for the content pages.

To do so you will need to create a log-in (see "Log in" link to do this on the top right). You may view pages in this wiki anonymously, but you will need to create a log-in to add comments.

Each page in this wiki site has a tab at the top of the page which says "Discussion". Clicking on the tab will take you to the discussion page that is specifically linked to a content page (will be clear from the page heading). Here you can start a new discussion topic or add comments to a thread. These can be specific suggestions to improve the associated content page, or discussions of broader issues arising from the material on the page. When starting broader discussions, please do your best to add your contribution to the discussion page linked to the content page that is the most relevant to your issue. This will help it be more easily found by others interested. Topics overlap and moderators may add links to connect discussions and/or move threads to consolidate them with the aim of fostering the discussion (leaving links behind so it can be found from the original location as well).

If no one has started a discussion thread on a page yet, you may see a message that says "You have followed a link to a page that does not exist yet". This is not a problem - go ahead and start posting using the instructions below and the Discussion page will be "created".

Wiki sites offer the benefit of allowing many users to edit the site, however this comes with a little bit of learning required from its users regarding how inputs need to be entered. You can always keep this page open in a separate window or tab to help as needed. Further information can be found in the MediaWiki help pages: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Talk_pages

Signing your contributions

Please sign off on your contributions to discussions. To do so type four tilde characters at the end of your entry: ~~~~ Once your entry is saved, this will automatically convert to your log-in name and the date and time you have posted.

Through the page "history", the changes to the "Discussion" pages and who made them can be tracked, even without signing, but it is much easier to follow conversations if posts are signed directly. This will also link posts to your log-in so that you can easily find all the discussions you are participating in ("Contributions" link at the top right, after you have logged in).

Starting a new topic

When you are on the desired Discussion page, click on "Add Topic" tab, top right. You will be given a subject box where you can enter a heading name for the thread and a content box below where you can write the full comment or question.

Please sign off at the end of the entry by simply typing: ~~~~ .

You can preview what your addition will look like by clicking on "Show Preview". If you change things, you will need to click "Show Preview" again to refresh. Once you are happy, click "Save" and it will be posted on the site.

Adding comments on an existing topic thread

To add input to an existing conversation thread on a discussion page, click on the "Edit source" tab on the top right of the page.

Here you will see the 'wiki' language source code of the page. Don't be alarmed, once you look at it a bit, you'll see its quite simple and mostly just basic text.

Navigate to the place where you want to insert your input.

Add a new line and add a colon, " : ", which will indent your addition below the previous entry. If the previous entry is already indented (has a " : " in front), add two colons, " :: ", and so on. Then simply type your comment or question.