Template talk:Talk header/Archive 10

Template-protected edit request on 16 March 2019
Please replace with the current version of the sandbox. See the difference here. Specifically, I want to replace

with

to simplify the expression by chaining the ifs rather than multiplying the results and by testing the disclaimer parameter first, since it is less likely to be called. Note that, while here it appears as one line, there are multiple lines of parser function syntax that I am requesting be changed (see in edit mode); I couldn't figure out how to get it to separate the lines. Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 00:17, 16 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 16:49, 17 March 2019 (UTC)
 * , I'm not exactly sure how/why, but I think your most recent edit may have added a blank line to the template, which can now be seen at the top of talk pages. --- Another Believer ( Talk ) 17:30, 17 March 2019 (UTC)
 * should fix it. This is why we prefer proposed changes to templates to be made in the /sandbox subpage first and demonstrated in the /testcases subpage. Code blobs in a talk page cannot provide such testing. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 21:51, 17 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Sorry --DannyS712 (talk) 21:52, 17 March 2019 (UTC)

Speaking of not testing, and I'm really sorry, but it should have been namespace 3, not 1 I'm really sorry for not trying it in the sandbox first --DannyS712 (talk) 07:31, 19 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 19:37, 19 March 2019 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 4 August 2019
Add Category:Templates that are not mobile friendly. This template isn't working on mobile. -- CptViraj (📧) 17:39, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done DannyS712 (talk) 18:57, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

Semantic error in HTML
The template definition contains a

For some reason, MediaWiki interprets these empty lines as misplaced wiki markup and puts it outside the table. When the live template is expanded, the last four lines are and these empty lines are, again for some reason, not interpreted as markup. So simply inserting a line break before  got rid of the gap. Nardog (talk) 23:15, 21 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Using multiple tables is counterproductive. Rather, the number of colspan should be responsive to shortcuts and arpol. Nardog (talk) 21:51, 21 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I believe this does the job, though it kinda feels like bringing a cannon to a knife fight. Nardog (talk) 22:14, 21 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Take a look at Template:Talk header/testcases. The shortcut box is not aligning the to right. Also, the right margin in the white cell is too small (the relative widths of the white and tan cells are also different than in the original, but I'm less concerned about that). --Bsherr (talk) 00:51, 22 January 2020 (UTC)
 * The latest revision of the sandbox at the moment is my correction to CiaPan's version, not mine. Nardog (talk) 02:57, 22 January 2020 (UTC)

Appearance on User Talk: subpages
On User talk:Evad37/rater.js, the talk page header says that "you can send messages and comments to Evad37/rater.js." Is there a way that can make the user name display on the banner (i.e. Evad37) instead of the full name (i.e. Evad37/rater.js)? Thanks, from TLOM (The Lord of Math) (Message) 04:23, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
 * We would need to amend this:  to strip out the subpages. I need to go to work soon. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 08:12, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Fix
I've fixed the issue in the sandbox here. Please adopt the sandbox version if it looks good. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 01:26, 17 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done Mdaniels5757 (talk) 22:08, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

"archives=yes" suppresses list of archive files?
There seems to be an option,  that, when included, causes the list of archive files to be suppressed. Compare this talk page, with (no "Archives: 1" above the search box) with this one, without ("Archives: 1" properly displayed).

Is this a bug or an undocumented feature? If a bug, can it be fixed, please? If an undocumented feature, let me know and I'll take a stab at updating Template:Talk header/doc. TJRC (talk) 20:01, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
 * , I would assume undocumented feature. A mention in the documentation would be good! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:35, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm suspecting "bug" though; the parameter name doesn't really suggest that behavior. TJRC (talk) 20:43, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
 * , hmm, so looking at the code, it's . So there's a variable to suppress the list that does so when it's set to anything, and that variable can go by one of three names: "noarchive", "noarchives", and "archives". &#123;{u&#124;  Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:51, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Well, that's interesting. So it seems that "archives" is an alias for "noarchives", which seems counterintuitive. TJRC (talk) 20:54, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
 * MediaWiki markup (whether used in templates or elsewhere) does not have the concept of variables.
 * In a construct like no,  is the parameter name, and   is the parameter value. It is not a variable because the page that sets its value cannot read that value back.
 * In a construct like,   is the parameter name, and   is entirely replaced by the parameter value. It is not a variable because the page that reads its value cannot alter that value.
 * They're parameters, not variables. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 23:01, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks, but the question is: should specifying the parameter as  suppress the list of archives? Is that a bug or a feature? TJRC (talk) 17:17, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Given the search below, this is likely intentional. However, we don't document aliases in general. I don't see a large case to do so here. --Izno (talk) 18:06, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I would support removal of the alias for the parameter name given the confusion. There are only 40-some-odd uses. --Izno (talk) 18:00, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I think that would be a good idea. I had a heck of a time figuring out that that  was the reason archives were not displayed. It's certainly counterintuitive that   means the same as the documented , and I can't think of any justification for it. TJRC (talk) 19:14, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

What does parameter |display_title= do? – Possible bug
I don't understand what the parameter  does. I've tried it with different content/values but nothing happens. Are there any specific criteria to it? Nothing is specified in the documentation. I found the author, so a ping goes to --Mango från yttre rymden (talk) 19:18, 26 September 2020 (UTC)
 * It changes the article name specified in the"This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the _____ article" text. Compare:


 * which renders as:
 * which renders as:


 * and
 * which renders as:
 * which renders as:


 * TJRC (talk) 20:56, 26 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I think I found the issue. The parameter doesn't seem to work in conjunction with . Is it a bug or an undocumented limitation? --Mango från yttre rymden (talk) 19:49, 27 September 2020 (UTC)
 * If you are asking whether it is an intentional limitation, I don't think it is. --Bsherr (talk) 22:23, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 21 November 2020
It looks like a recent edit added a line break at the top of the template. Could that please be removed? Thanks, 207.161.86.162 (talk) 03:52, 21 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done Nardog (talk) 04:07, 21 November 2020 (UTC)

Reverted wording changes
There was a recent set of moderate copyedits to this template by that were reverted by  in this diff. Setting aside any procedural disagreements about bold edits to heavily transcluded templates, I generally think EEng's wording changes were a wholesale improvement over the previous version - there are several mildly awkward bits of wording there that I'd never previously noticed. I'm interested to hear what the actual content objections are, and if there are tweaks that could be made to satisfy anyone involved. ~ mazca  talk 13:15, 16 November 2020 (UTC)
 * , thanks for opening a separate discussion here in which we can focus on content. There are a bunch of distinct changes here that we should look at individually, so I'm going to open some mini-sections here. On taking a second look, I've warmed to some of them but remain opposed to others. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:53, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

'''Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes. → Sign your posts with four tildes'''
 * Removing "please" seems a little harsh, but otherwise I think this is okay. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:53, 16 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Yeah, this was one of the more unnecessarily verbose ones I was thinking of: this is broadly trimming word count without losing much. I get the point about the 'please', but as you imply below, this is a tight template. Signature use on Wikipedia basically is compulsory, and I would say we can do without it - though if it fits on the same line after we've lost the other two words, it's fair to include it. ~ mazca  talk 21:17, 16 November 2020 (UTC)
 * As the deathless Strunk put it: A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. There's no please about it: sign your posts, period. EEng 23:07, 16 November 2020 (UTC)
 * As someone who grew up in an atmosphere of too many "please, thank you, and sorry"s (a bad habit, tbh) I think we can gut the "please" and the date part (since the sign does that). But perhaps we can go a step further: "a tilde"? Just me who thinks that's obscure? Just say "Sign your posts with ~ "? ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 21:29, 16 November 2020 (UTC)
 * What P.R. suggests (i.e. to shorten "four tildes " to just ""); had occurred to me, but I'm on the fence about it. On the one hand, the non-savvy don't know what a tilde is. On the other, calling them by name before you exhibit them at least alerts the non-savvy reader that he's about to see something new; without that, they may not understand that is a thing to be typed -- they may think it's an error or be completely puzzled as to what they're being shown. EEng 23:07, 16 November 2020 (UTC) P.S. No surprise, but there's a nifty tildes macro that gives you, well, four tildes. Very handy for these discussions.
 * Another question: would it be preferable to use " " rather than " "? It is a piece of code, after all, and I think the code formatting is designed to make it easier to copy and paste. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:46, 16 November 2020 (UTC)
 * The old text used instead of . — Goszei (talk)  05:51, 30 May 2021 (UTC)
 * I made that change, which seems to fix up issues at Talk:Donald Trump for example. It could be better to move the notice to the top right rather than bottom right, but it's not a major change. Are we good to implement this merge? (ping ) ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 12:03, 22 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the ping. The sandbox was only intended to be a prototype, but I think changes made since have gotten it pretty close. Once we've done enough testing to be satisfied everything works, feel free to start implementation. One thing we might want to implement first is the minimum threads functionality; I proposed a way to handle that here. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 03:32, 23 June 2021 (UTC)
 * I think it would be best to finalise this merge then add new features like min threads, since disagreement on those could just hold up the merge. I'm not sure what further testing there is to do, since I think only a couple of us have interest on this (ping too). ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 17:07, 4 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Sounds fine to me. I think the inability to display min threads was really just an oversight at, but we can fix it either before the merge or after. &#123;{u&#124;  Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:33, 4 July 2021 (UTC)
 * So here's a possible basic plan for the merge:
 * Implement sandbox version
 * For pages in Talk: namespace only, skipping any pages that have no or any of the following parameters set: target, index, page
 * If Talk header is present
 * Copy over relevant parameters to that template (renaming if necessary, eg days -> archive_units)
 * If Talk header is not present, move to Archives
 * Remove Auto archiving notice
 * Thoughts ? After we could implement and test functionality for remaining parts (eg index can be implemented trivially, and others may not be well in use and can be manually converted) ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 15:25, 5 July 2021 (UTC)
 * At a quick glance, that looks fine to me. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 18:19, 5 July 2021 (UTC)
 * If the code is ready I'm willing to take care of the conversions. --Trialpears (talk) 20:50, 6 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I believe it is ready to go, for those that meet the criteria in my second bullet above, but do a once over to be sure. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 10:51, 7 July 2021 (UTC)
 * (as the users with bots that can complete this): can one of you take a look at the above and see if it's GTG? ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 10:57, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I'll have a look tonight. --Trialpears (talk) 11:01, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Alright, the notice is now positioned and displayed properly, I do have some concerns about when the message is shown and how it handles defaults however. First of all it is displayed by default if an archive exists which is undesirable as not all pages are auto archived. "Auto-archiving" should probably be linked to Help:Archiving a talk page; the bot user pages are not particularly informative and can easily be accessed from there. If the bot isn't specified I don't feel like we should assume it's lowercase sigmabot as that would probably be inaccurate in a lot of cases. Archive age should probably be mandatory for the notice to be displayed as guessing 7 days would be inaccurate in most cases. That would also solve the always displayed issue. archive_days sounds like an unintuitive and honestly unnecessary alias for archive_units. I've made these changes and would be comfortable with implementing. --Trialpears (talk) 16:53, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Do we need to display the name of the bot at all? It seems largely like bloat to me. Most (perhaps all?) people don't care or know of the difference. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 20:30, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * My feeling is no, but I haven't made an effort to remove it after there was some light opposition at Archives. Hopefully it will be mute in a few months following execution of User:Trialpears/Archiving manifesto. --Trialpears (talk) 20:50, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I've gone ahead and implemented now, will start conversions shortly. --Trialpears (talk) 13:47, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Regarding archives after page moves
My apologies if this is the wrong place to ask. Talk header is placed on Talk:Thiomersal and vaccines (the title was moved on 2 February 2019‎) but the archives are at Talk:Thiomersal controversy/Archive 1 and Talk:Thiomersal controversy/Archive 2, and no archive search box displays at the main talk page. What is the best way to fix this, and allow the archived pages to be viewable from the Talk header? --Animalparty! (talk) 23:23, 13 July 2021 (UTC)
 * , and thank you very much for the good catch!  P.I. Ellsworth   ed.  put'r there 01:18, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you. --Animalparty! (talk) 02:02, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * It's my pleasure!  Paine  02:14, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Adding ClueBot's archive indices
There are many archive indices generated by. I hope to add these indices.

Please substitute

Line 46: Archives:

with

Archives:

Sawol (talk) 08:12, 13 July 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅, and thank you very much for your input!  P.I. Ellsworth   ed.  put'r there 19:52, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for quick handling. But there are two flaws. 1) Please check a space &#32_semicolon mark. Template:Talk header/testcases shows . Space code is invisible. Refer to . 2) Please recover line 47. With best regards. Sawol (talk) 02:10, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * okay and done.  P.I. Ellsworth   ed.  put'r there 02:28, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Param search-domain
New sandbox param search-domain (alias: domain) displays different links when set to. In this case, it selects template find medical sources instead of the default. The new param is designed to take on multiple values, and setting video should invoke the video sources template. If the template is not used, then by default the search links displayed are from find sources. Test cases for medical all pass, and everything else looks good. However, find medical sources is brand new, so will wait a week or so while we shake it out before moving the sandbox live. Mathglot (talk) 03:56, 10 August 2021 (UTC)


 * @Mathglot, interesting idea! I imagine that most medical pages would forget to set the parameter, though. Instead of a parameter, could we use a page's WikiProject tags or something to determine which pages are for medical topics and decide whether to show Find medical sources or the normal one based on that? &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 04:25, 10 August 2021 (UTC)


 * , the opt-in I think is good enough for the time being; the WP:MED folks are very motivated, and I think they'll add it when it matters. (I picture myself adding it, when a Wiki Edu class descends upon a bunch of articles; I'd add it to several dozen at the start of a class.)  The other method I had thought about, is migrating it to a new WikiData attribute, like 'subject-domain' or something, which could have values like general, medical, video, and so on which we can interrogate by template here.  A similar situation then obtains, namely, how do we get the attributes added to wikidata?  But I think the WikiData folks might have some tricks up their sleeves, so we'll see.
 * In the meantime, I went ahead and added the video attribute value, and you can see the testcases for all of them in section #Param search-domain at Template:Talk header/testcases. If the testcases all look good and nothing else is broken, I don't think we have to wait out the week for find medical sources to stabilize, because nobody uses it yet, other than the /doc page, and the announcement at WT:MED. Mathglot (talk) 04:45, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * The WP:MED folks are definitely motivated, but it's another thing that adds to the work of setting up a talk page. My feeling is, if we're already doing the work of determining which pages are medicine-related by tagging them with WikiProject Medicine, why should we repeat the work by having to then set this parameter as well? It goes against the don't repeat yourself principle and increases complexity. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 04:54, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I didn't know about that tag. I'll see how we can integrate that into it. Maybe it should just be migrated to WikiData instead of tagged here; then it could be reused for whatever purpose, whether adding the WikiMedicine template, or the find sources, or warnings for student editors coming on board, or any number of things. But this is getting far afield for this page; we shoul probably move at least part of this discussion to WT:MED. Mathglot (talk) 04:59, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * There wouldn't be increased effort accruing to page set-up, because it would be entirely optional, and it would default (as it does now) to "general" find sources. Those motivated enough to change it later, would get the added benefit. We do a lot of stuff like that already; somebody adds page-archiving, then somebody else adds page-archiving notice. Maybe not ideal, but we're not an engineering shop (at least, not on this side of the paid-WMF/volunteer-editor fence), and there's endless things I'd do differently if we were.  Still, I get your point, so something definitely to think about. Mathglot (talk) 05:04, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * There's actually more to my dastardly plan: if this is well-accepted, then next step is to move find sources to find general sources (or similar), then recreate find sources as a wrapper that picks up the value of domain and then calls the right 'find sources' routine (with the default, of course, being the 'general' one). Which means that all the existing calls to it in more citations needed and everywhere else, all of a sudden become domain-param enabled, with no change at all to the code. (They would, however, have to have an update to their respective /doc pages.) Mathglot (talk) 04:53, 10 August 2021 (UTC)   updated by Mathglot (talk) 04:57, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I do think it'd be very cool to have more specific find sources collections. One thing that's always irked me a tiny bit is that the NYT is the only newspaper included, which is U.S.-centric. It'd be amazing if we could pick up the geographical location of an article (where applicable) and include the newspaper(s) of record for that specific country.
 * Also, two quick things to note, Find video game sources exists for the domain video games (we could apply it to any page tagged with the WPVG project tag), and Reliable sources for medical articles exists as a quasi-predecessor to the medical sources template you recently created. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 05:01, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * As to
 * in some cases we can, and I bet WikiData to the rescue in many cases here, also. And I see your point about NYT, and it's of course a very valid point. As for Reliable sources for medical articles, I'm aware of it, and it was one of the first things I mentioned at the TP of the new template.  Unless I forgot to? Praying-hands emoji, for no more ec's... Mathglot (talk) 05:07, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Btw, you noticed that the sandbox *already* handles Find video game sources, and the testcases already verify it, right? Mathglot (talk) 05:08, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Courtesy ping @Nikkimaria and @Stifle, who recently discussed the NYT thing. And about the video games thing, I didn't catch that by "video" above you were referring to video games.
 * I think as we consider expanding the customization of find sources to bigger realms, that makes it all the more important to have automatic rather than manual detection of which topic an article falls under. It's one thing to try to tag the talk pages of every medical article (hard enough already), but quite another to tag every talk page on Wikipedia with a relevant domain. Luckily, we basically already do that with the project banners, which is why I think our best option is probably to rely on those and/or Wikidata as you suggest. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 05:22, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Little to usefull add besides that having the NYT is worse than having no newspaper at all, it's considerable systemic bias. Stifle (talk) 08:10, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I think the automatic detection would be better solution than a param, if you can get it to work. While working on your changes, can you please add some test cases (even if they have to be modified/deleted later, as things evolve) so that I can see where you're going with this? The previously working test cases for domain are now broken, which is fine if you have something better but I'd just like to be able to follow along. Mathglot (talk) 10:56, 11 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Yeah, sorry about breaking the testcases; I'm not quite sure how to do those when it requires the project banner. But it should already be working! Just go to any medical or video game article and preview the talk page with the sandbox version of talk header. It's not perfect (it won't recognize redirects to the project banners and the find text function it uses may be expensive), but hopefully it's workable enough it could be implemented. Lmk if you'd like more explanation of how it's working or anything. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 16:14, 11 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I like the concept. The implementation could do with some more thought; Sdkb's idea of automatic detection (which we can do by detecting the WikiProject template, for example) seems a good idea. Detecting for the presence of certain WikiData identifies could also work. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 14:00, 11 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I like the concept. The implementation could do with some more thought; Sdkb's idea of automatic detection (which we can do by detecting the WikiProject template, for example) seems a good idea. Detecting for the presence of certain WikiData identifies could also work. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 14:00, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

I see what you're trying to do. I did a quick test at Talk:Giardia (first example that occurred to me, because it came up somewhere else recently) and it failed. No big surprise there, it's not in WProj Medicine. But it *is* in WProj Microbiology. Given that there may be even other projects like that related to medicine, that would mean squeezing more and more parser conditionals into the "which-domain" code in the middle of the "find domain sources" invocation, so that it works for "Giardia" and everything else like that.

May I make a suggestion? Up above in the message of, I suggested we move "find sources" to Find sources general (or, 'basic', or whatever) and create a wrapper in its place. If you hold off on the sandbox code and we do that move+wrapper thing first, then all the squirrely "which-domain" code would be isolated in the wrapper, and you'd have all the space you wanted to work it out, and the code in Talk header would need no change at all, it would just start working. Not only that, but the "find sources" transclusions in the maint. templates like more citations and all the other ones, would all start working with domains without having to duplicate the same squirrely code in each one, and then maintain them all in sync afterwards. A great programmer I know once told me about the Don't repeat yourself principle, and I think he might be onto something. Mathglot (talk) 21:34, 11 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Putting the code somewhere else besides talk header itself definitely sounds good to me. For moving the find sources template, I don't fully follow what precisely that will entail, and the module is pretty complex, but if you're able to find consensus to move forward, go ahead and just let me know where we'll want to have the code determining the find sources template to use. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 21:52, 11 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Regarding the example you gave, Giardiasis would be the really medical-y article, but Giardia has enough medical connections that it should probably be tagged with WikiProject Medicine. I've gone ahead and done that. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 21:58, 11 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Also, woah, I didn't know you could link individual comments like that! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 21:55, 11 August 2021 (UTC)
 * link individual comments...... ... Re giardia/giardiasis: check. Re where to put, and all that, easy-peasy; bbiab > RL 🐾 . Mathglot (talk) 00:54, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
 * , okay the WikiProject detection code is now in the sandbox, and all test cases are working, and generating the correct "find sources" links depending what Project they belong to. See Template:Talk header/testcases. The only downside of this, is this will only work in the context of pages that have WikiProjects (ie., Talk pages), which is certainly a cool thing to have, but doesn't solve the problem of having the right "find sources" displayed in maintenance templates that use them on article pages. The WikiData angle might be the easiest way to solve that problem (which would also make the WikiProject detection code in the wrapper unnecessary, or perhaps an OR'd series of tests where any of them could trigger it). The other angle would be to add param search-domain to the wrapper and leave the WikiProject detection in there also; the maint. templates could invoke the parameter to cause the desired behavior. I think I like the WikiData solution best, what do you think? This may be an important enough decision that it should be presented to a larger group, and mentioned at projects Video games and Medicine.  What's nice, though, is whichever way we go with this now, there's nothing at all that needs changing in Template:Talk header; everything is in the wrapper.  Oh, by the way, I left the wrapper with  comments to make it more intelligible to template editors; not sure if there's a convention that we get rid of comments before going live or not; I kind of like having it, because it makes it a lot easier to understand. Just my 2¢. Mathglot (talk) 05:01, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
 * It looks functional to me! I would definitely get some affirmative consensus before implementing, though, as Talk header is an extremely visible template (500k transclusions). The two parties I'd like to hear from are WP:MED and WP:WPVG, just to confirm they want this, and some technical editors (perhaps a Please see at VPT), to confirm that the way we've coded it is the best way to do it. (I have a feeling that Find page text may be an expensive call, so I worry about that more than your hidden comments, which look excellent.) &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 05:16, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Not to worry, it's not one of the WP:EXPENSIVE function calls. Agree about gaining wider consensus; let's think of some wording tomorrow. Mathglot (talk) 06:39, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I opened this discussion, containing a draft of the proposal. Please have a look and comment or alter it as needed. Note that it's organized as a discussion and not as a formal Rfc, partly because I don't think we need an Rfc, and partly because it hasn't been discussed before by the wider community, and partly because there appears to be basic agreement between the two of us, so no real dispute that needs to be adjudicated. So I see it more as getting an opinion and imprimatur from the community, rather than the type of dispute resolution that Rfc is for. That said, if you prefer it as an Rfc, I don't really object, other than it would delay installation for 30 days, but that's not a big deal. Mathglot (talk) 21:01, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Discussion rather than RfC sounds good to me. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 21:54, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

Added find biographical sources to the pot. Also, added little "box wrappers" to make it easier for editors who might want to stuff an extra "find sources" flavor on the Talk page, so for example,  ⟶

Same thing for "biographical":   ⟶

That could also be part of the solution for Spicy's question about dual WikiProjects at the discussion. Mathglot (talk) 01:39, 14 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Adding Find biographical sources seems alright, but we should just be wary that the more components that are bundled into this, the harder it'll be to get consensus. The template itself also seems to need some work: NYT needs italicizing, and we could probably do the same location customization thing with Loc/British library. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 07:05, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Reply tool
Would there be any point in replacing the Special:NewSection link with a reply tool link: to &#8213; Qwerfjkl  talk  16:36, 5 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Once reply tool is rolled out, we will be able to remove the "please sign your posts" line, which will be awesome (the less space we have to spend on unnecessary technical instruction, the greater emphasis there is on policy stuff). I think we should wait until it goes out of beta, though, so that we only have to update stuff once. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 16:49, 5 September 2021 (UTC)

Namespace
This seems to behave differently in non-talk namespaces, though it isn't mentioned in the documentation. Can this be added? (I would add this myself but I'm not sure exactly how it behaves differently. See Template:Setup auto archiving/testcases for an example; the archiving notice is gone. &#8213; Qwerfjkl  talk  22:49, 15 August 2021 (UTC)
 * The archiving notice only appears if the "/Archive 1" page exists. I've just created it (Template:Setup auto archiving/testcases/Archive 1), and now I see the archiving notice. From looking at the template code, I think the template only behaves differently when in the "User talk" namespace, but I'm not sure how. --rchard2scout (talk) 12:07, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
 * The auto archiving notice should probably not be dependent on archives existing. Can probably fix tonight. --Trialpears (talk) 12:37, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
 * That's probably a good idea. I noticed that, hadn't taken the time to ask if that could be fixed. Thanks! --rchard2scout (talk) 14:05, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Hey, just pinging you to make sure you haven't forgotten this :). --rchard2scout (talk) 10:11, 8 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks @Rchard2scout! I had a look at this, but quickly realized that I didn't know where to place it if there were no archives. I could do an "Archives: none yet" or something, but I'm unsure if that's a great solution. --Trialpears (talk) 16:53, 8 September 2021 (UTC)
 * If the archive notice parameters are set, doesn't that imply there're archive pages? My suggestion would be put this information in the doc and leave the coding as is. Just my opinion :P -  FlightTime  ( open channel ) 17:01, 8 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Usually yes, but on newly created pages or pages with non-standard naming conventions that may not be the case. The main concern would be people setting up auto-archiving on new pages being unsure if it was working with no feedback. --Trialpears (talk) 17:06, 8 September 2021 (UTC)
 * OK, good point. This happened to me not too long ago, but was able to figure out the issue. It seems the hardest issue to spot is archive page names not being standard. -  FlightTime  ( open channel ) 17:14, 8 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Indeed, I hope to be able to partly resolve that by adding support for automatic yearly archive list detection shortly, and if my ultimate archive plans are completed the template should be able to use the information supplied to the bot to guarantee it can find the auto generated archives. --Trialpears (talk) 17:37, 8 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Hm, what about not showing any of the "Archive: Index, 1, 2, 3..." stuff? Just have the  with only the inside it. Would that work? --rchard2scout (talk) 07:20, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Would work, but sounds like it wouldn't look great. I'm honestly quite inclined to just let it be and let it sort itself out when we get the my new archive bot, hopefully by like christmas. --Trialpears (talk) 22:46, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Sure, then let's leave it for now. I've added a note in the documentation for this. --rchard2scout (talk) 07:33, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

Edit request (16 October 2021)
Change to. Kleinpecan (talk) 07:10, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅.  P.I. Ellsworth &numsp;- ed.  put'r there 07:34, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

nowiki template demo
This template is used in the documentation for the newish archival parameters. But there is no output, likely because the nowiki template demo hasn't been given any archived content for the template to detect and therefore show.

As you can see I have added a message explaining each of the two examples' output. If you can make the demo template output something sufficiently self-explanatory, feel free to remove. CapnZapp (talk) 08:40, 28 October 2021 (UTC)
 * I've created both Template:Talk header/Archive 1 and Template:Talk header/doc/Archive 1, so that both on the main template page and on the /doc subpage, you can see the archive links and notice. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rchard2scout (talk • contribs) 14:06, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

Can I get just the archive search and nav box?
Suppose I just want the archives search and nav part of this header. How do I get that? I know I can suppress "find sources" but how do I suppress "Put new text under old text" and article policies (arpol=no doesn't work)? GA-RT-22 (talk) 21:51, 30 October 2021 (UTC)
 * , somewhat misleadingly perhaps, no is not a valid param value and has no effect on the appearance of the template in any namespace. Only yes has an effect, and that can be used outside of article talk space to *add* the article policies. Probably the documentation page should be clearer about this, and I'll probably make an update to it. As to your question about suppressing article policies, do you mean for all articles everywhere it appears? Or just for a particular Talk page?  In the latter case, it would be possible to do that, but not recommended. If you want it for all pages that the header appears on, without affecting how it appears for other users, you can modify your common.jss by adding this line:

 .talkheader-policies{display:none;visibility:hidden} /* Remove TP header policy links per Template talk:Talk header */
 * and it will do what you want. Note: in theory, the 'display:none' should be enough to remove it and allow the box to the left of it to expand to the full width of the template, but that isn't happening on my setup for some reason, so the second part about 'visibility' is there to make sure it gets blanked; in that case, the box on the left will just occupy half of the width of the template, and the box on the right will be empty. Hope this helps, Mathglot (talk) 21:44, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * I don't care how it appears to me. I'm just trying to follow the the template instructions, which say to add this template "only where it's needed". See the section "Consider updating..." on this talk page. Is there some other template that will give me just the archive box and nothing else? GA-RT-22 (talk) 21:52, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Is this what you want:


 * If so, and if there is no existing Talk page header already on the page, you can add it like this:.
 * (For the record: to suppress just the article policies, the common.css line to add is )
 * Hope this answers your question. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 22:57, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes, thank you! I could have sworn I already tried that. GA-RT-22 (talk) 23:14, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

Reorganize doc section #Appearance variations
I think we should consider reorganizing /doc page section #Appearance variations, maybe starting with just renaming it. My issue is, any template with a rich parameter set pretty much is all about appearance variations (other than invisible, behind-the-scenes changes, such as categorization) because that's what params are for, so "Appearance variations" doesn't really help much as a section header. I don't have a specific proposal, just wanted to brainstorm this. If we're going to stick with "appearance variations", then section "#Hiding the template" just above it should be part of it as well, because hiding is also about an appearance variation (but I'm not voting for doing that).

My first-blush idea would be to rename it "Parameter details", and go into more details about each Parameter and how to use it; or maybe just the complex ones where a brief one-liner in the Parameters section isn't enough. I'd remove the transcluded sample TP headers that are there now, which currently make the section vertically very long without imparting very much extra information or making it easier to understand, and move them down to a new "Examples" section. Mathglot (talk) 23:11, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Changed the section title for now, to: #Testing by functionality group, but that's maybe a stopgap, and the whole organization of the doc may need review. Mathglot (talk) 21:11, 6 November 2021 (UTC)


 * This section is now moot; I went ahead with a fairly major re-org of the doc to try to rationalize it and make the whole thing more comprehensible. I kept one aspect of the original with some misgivings that is unusual, namely, there is no complete list of parameters with descriptions all in one place in the #Parameters section. There is a complete param list, in fact two of them: one vertical, and one horizontal, but no complete plain-text enumeration of all the parameters along with a brief description of each, including whether they are optional, and what their defaults and valid values are. Previously, there was scattered information about (some of) the parameters scattered all over, and I've tried to group them by functionality, which is a bit better than the way it was before, imho; but there's still no complete, alphabetical enumeration (outside of the TemplateData, where I suspect few will go). Mathglot (talk) 11:28, 8 November 2021 (UTC)

Launch of new 'find-sources' functionality
The new 'find-sources' functionality with dynamic WikiProject autodetection and optional search-domain override is now live. For articles belonging to certain WikiProjects, you will notice a change to the find sources links in the Talk header to provide more targeted links. In the initial launch, this includes articles belonging to WP:WikiProject Medicine and WP:WikiProject Video games (others may be added in the future); articles not belonging to either one of these projects, continue to show the same 'find-sources' links as before.

There are some known issues, already discussed in the planning stages, which will be addressed in future releases, after the dust is allowed to settle on this one. Probably chief among these, concerns articles that belong to two (or more) projects, and how we want to deal with that. For example, Talk:Marie Curie belongs to a number of projects, including Medicine, but also Biography, Military history, and several others. In this first launch, because the new functionality detects "WikiProject Medicine" at that article, the Talk:Marie_Curie header now displays "find sources" links associated with the "medical" search domain, whereas perhaps the default links might be better (or maybe both sets should be displayed). Find-sources link sets for search domains "Biography" and "Military" already exist (see find biographical sources and find military sources), but are not incorporated into the Talk header in this release, but may be in a future one.

Documentation updates are in progress. If you find bugs, please refer to a test case or add one to Template:Talk header/testcases. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 21:00, 6 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Looks good overall. I would suggest displaying both/all sets of links for articles belonging to multiple projects, as well as the default ones. It may at times result in some duplication, but that's harmless. – SD0001  (talk) 07:25, 10 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Just noticed this on a COVID-19 page. It's pretty neat; good work! ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 13:33, 11 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I am quite disappointed to see that the source of information that could mislead editors (particularly new editors we most need to reach), by failing to make any mention of WP:MEDRS in a widely used template that implies any of those sources can be used on medical articles, when most can’t, originated in a discussion that few editors are aware of. . I hope this is rectified by correcting the template to add a link or mention of WP:MEDRS, as the generic “find medical sources”, absent of any context for understanding WP:MEDRS, will mislead the very editors we hope to reach via adding this info to talk page headers. Meanwhile, these additions have rendered this template unuseful and even misleading on medical article talk pages. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  02:59, 13 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I believe the discussion should continue now here, not at WT:MED, since the issue originated here. Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  03:30, 13 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Well, that was disregarded by multiple who continued to respond not here but there, so it appears that the main discussion is now over at WT:MED. Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  17:34, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

Announcement: improved Wikipedia Library links launched
In a separate development undertaken by WMF involving some software changes, the "Wikipedia Library" link in the "find sources" section of this template has been upgraded. Previously, it was a static link to the WP Library portal, from which one would have to log in, navigate to the search page, type in a query, and submit it to get results.

This has been improved so that now when you click it, the Wikipedia Library link provides a search results page populated with the results of your query. Here's an example of how it might appear on the page Talk:War guilt question:

This will really improve the ability of editors to find reliable sources for articles they are working on; so a big shout-out to Samwalton9, Jsn.sherman and all the members of the WMF team who helped make this a reality. Mathglot (talk) 10:10, 11 November 2021 (UTC)

Archive basics indacation
Would it be possible to install some indacation that the talk page has archive basics instead of auto-archiving. I'm thinking, on the same line as the archive notice display, but on the left side. - FlightTime  ( open channel ) 00:23, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Actually, it could be displayed at the same location as the archive header, because if the page is using Archive basics then there's no auto-archive display. -  FlightTime  ( open channel ) 00:29, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
 * @FlightTime that would be possible from a technical perspective, but I think it would be potentially confusing. How would the notice look for starters? A better solution would be for the script to communicate when it has no source for the archive name. --Trialpears (talk) 00:43, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I'd like to see us consolidating archiving systems rather than building out infrastructure to accommodate all of them. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 01:24, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

Archive information doesn't show up
A bot has gone and merged the two templates, but talk page doesn't actually show any of the information given, effectively just removing the archiving information. Why isn't this displayed?  Nixinova   T </b> <b style="border:1px solid #00a1ff"> C </b>  22:10, 20 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Hey @Nixinova. I'm the guilty one here with that being my bot. The template intentionally doesn't display a notice if it doesn't find any archives. The template doesn't quite yet find your archives as you use yearly archives instead of sequential, but it will soon since I've made a version of this template that does (You can replace the first line of your talk page with if you want to see how it will look). I also plan on going through all pages with an auto archiving notice that isn't displayed shortly to make sure all cases are handled properly. --Trialpears (talk) 22:34, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
 * @Nixinova The talk header now properly supports yearly archives. Your talk page has an archive list and auto archiving notice incorporated in the talk header now. --Trialpears (talk) 21:09, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

does this change require any changes to Help:Archiving a talk page, or does that page remain accurate and complete with respect to these changes? Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 20:22, 26 December 2021 (UTC)


 * @Mathglot I made a few additions, but generally it was accurate. --Trialpears (talk) 21:30, 26 December 2021 (UTC)

custom_text Parameter
I see that there is a test case in Template:Talk header/testcases for a custom_text parameter: "custom_text=Custom body text" but it looks like this isn't supported by the template. - Wikmoz (talk) 21:24, 27 October 2021 (UTC)
 * removed this test case, present since 2015. Not clear if it ever corresponded to an earlier version of the code at one time. Mathglot (talk) 01:19, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

Proposal: drop search_term3 and search_term4
Params search_term3 and search_term4 serve no purpose, and should be dropped. Currently, search_term1 provides "exact search" (double-quoted search) capability, and search_term2 provides unquoted (i.e. "normal") search. The other two search terms provide no additional functionality not already provided by search_term2. They appear to be a legacy left over from Find sources multi, which has positional search terms 1 – 5, and where only terms 1 and 2 ever made any sense, and 3 – 5 never served any purpose and should be dropped. Mathglot (talk) 01:28, 7 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Support: Yes. In favor of removing unused template parameters... and unused code in general. Is there any way to quantify the usage of specific parameters? - Wikmoz (talk) 05:34, 8 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Not sure; maybe an advanced search with ":insource" and a search query looking for "search_term3". I'll have to come back to this later and try it. If we can't figure it out, someone at WP:VPT will know. As a first step, if there's consensus to drop it, we should stop documenting the existence of those terms in the doc page, to discourage future use, although I can't imagine too many pages are using it, outside the doc page examples. Mathglot (talk) 11:33, 8 November 2021 (UTC)
 * First step might be to gray out and flag as deprecated... and remove from any active examples. Is there a parameter removal process that would prevent old implementations from throwing an error? Like maintaing a known-but-ignored list of deprecated parameters in the template code after deprecation? - Wikmoz (talk) 20:11, 8 November 2021 (UTC)
 * @Wikmoz @Mathglot This search should do it, and if I haven't made a mistake, only Talk:Trick-or-treating uses these. &#8213; Qwerfjkl  talk  20:59, 10 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Qwerfjkl Nice work, thanks! Great news that it's not more widely used, and a good confirmation that removing search_term3 and -4 is the right way to go.  I think we can start by dropping any mention of 3 & 4 from the documentation immediately. We can take our time about changing the code, there's clearly no hurry with that aspect of it. There will eventually be analogous changes to make with the "find sources" suite of templates, but they can start with the documentation, as well. Mathglot (talk) 09:27, 11 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I've removed references to search_term3 and search_term4 from the documentation, and adjusted Talk:Trick-or-treating so there's not a single page that uses those terms anymore. Mathglot (talk) 09:41, 11 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Also dropped them from TemplateData. There was also a search_term5, which I overlooked, but removed that one now as well. Mathglot (talk) 01:41, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

Test case for 'archive notice'
, do you recall what this edit of 11 Feb. 2019 to the testcases page with the summary +archive notice was about? It's currently still visible on the page (in a somewhat altered format for collapsed, side-by-side viewing) in section #Custom texts. I'm inclined to delete the two test cases involving nonexistent param archive notice. Or, should they be replaced with something else? Mathglot (talk) 21:40, 6 January 2022 (UTC)


 * @Mathglot I don't recall, sorry - no objections from me at the moment DannyS712 (talk) 23:34, 6 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, DannyS712; dropped those two test cases. Mathglot (talk) 23:49, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Dynamic hiding of "not a forum" message
If the not a forum message is on the talk, perhaps the "This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject." part of the talk page header should be removed. Guess this can be automatically checked using Lua. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 16:12, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
 * If you think it's important enough, it can be done with regular template code. Whether it's worth it, is another question. Mathglot (talk) 22:29, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

Consider updating the "only where it's needed" instruction

 * Because this is linked to from CENT, here's a link to the template at issue in this discussion: Talk header.

This is one of the most useful talkpage templates, giving advice to new users on how to use the talkpage. It is one of the earliest talkpage templates (dating back to 2005), and as such met with some resistance in the early years - including being taken to AfD six times, so there was some restriction on its use. However, over the years it has developed, and has absorbed the task of linking to talkpage archives and to sources useful to building the article, so its function and usefulness has increased, and it is now used on over half a million talkpages. Yet the instruction to use only when needed, which has been on the documentation since 2006, has not been updated - despite the increase in acceptance, popularity, usefulness, and functionality. Given that it provides sourcing information and guidance to users on how to use a talkpage, and also provides a link to archives, my feeling is that it is useful on all article talkpages, especially on the talkpages of new articles where links to sources would be most useful. I feel at this stage all articles and their talkpages would benefit from having this talkpage header on the talkpage - I'm seeing positives in terms of helpful advice and functionality, and seeing little in the way of negatives, and so I feel that the wording "" and "" should be removed from the documentation, allowing users to add the template to any talkpage, including new ones. The notion that a WikiProject template, which has a very limited use for the bulk of users, is allowed to be added to a blank talkpage, and so turn the discussion/talk tab to blue, but a template which gives guidance on how to use the talkpage (and so encourage new users to talk) and provides links to sources (and so enable all users to build the article) is not allowed to be added strikes me as an aberration which we need to fix. When visiting talkpages - and this is purely anecdotal, I haven't done any research - it has appeared to me that talkpages which don't have this template are those where new users either don't put forward their queries and suggestions, or do so with inappropriate formatting. SilkTork (talk) 14:00, 31 October 2021 (UTC)


 * "Only where it's needed" is what prompted me to ask how to get just the archive search banner and not the rest of it. Is it acceptable to add the talk header if that's all I want? GA-RT-22 (talk) 14:30, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Good question. I would say yes, as the functionality you want/need is built into this template. Hard to see a reason why not. SilkTork (talk) 18:18, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Support removal of text highlighted by for the reasons given. I would add another reason to remove it: in addition to the helpful advice given, the header by default now includes the "find sources" functionality (added less than twelve months ago) which addresses the core issue of WP:Verifiability, certainly one of the main issues of new articles as they are being developed, and an ongoing issue for any article as it is expanded or modified. The Talk header is the best vehicle for presenting this useful sourcing information imho, and provides a standard location and presentation for it which makes it easier for a user to find and take advantage. The source links alone are a good enough reason to include the template on article Talk pages. Mathglot (talk) 17:30, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep as is for now due to the principle that the more tags you have on a talk page, the more that people ignore them. That said, with some measures to reduce the tag overload, I think placing this on more talk pages could be a good thing. For example, if you could embed the Wikiproject and OldXfd templates within the talk header, collapsed by default, it would draw attention to the talk page guidelines, with the other information still there, but not distracting. I think there needs to be a broader discussion about talk page tags in general and making sure that we're drawing attention to important information while less important information is not prominent. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 17:37, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Re "broader discussion", see the preliminary discussion at this VPI discussion. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:42, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Comment The main hesitation I'd have is with regard to obscure talk pages that never really get much discussion. I don't expect Talk:Amastra subsoror to ever become a buzzing hive of discussion, and experienced editors know that dropping a comment on such a talk page is basically casting it off into the void. Giving newcomers "This is the talk page for discussing improvements to [article]" is kinda misleading in that circumstance. If talk header could be modified to automatically identify and provide better advice in those instances (perhaps a link to Help:Introduction to talk pages/5), I'd be more comfortable with approving its use everywhere. But at that point, it should just be integrated into the software rather than a template that has to be manually added. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:50, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * I would support having some kind of talkpage advice and links built into the software so the equivalent of this template, adapted as appropriate, appears automatically on every new article talkpage. SilkTork (talk) 18:16, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * User:Sdkb, considering that adapting Talk header would be easier than getting the software changed how would you identify an obscure talk page for TalkHeader to modify its presentation? Count links in, page views, and/or watchers? Or could we just create a separate Talk header template just for low use talkpages, with guidance to editors as to when to use the Low use Talkheader and when to use the regular Talkheader? SilkTork (talk) 09:33, 8 November 2021 (UTC)
 * That's a tricky question. It could be any of those things, or rate of posts. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:49, 8 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support - I agree with 's comments, plus this is a very useful template, in use for over 15 years and now on more than 613,000 pages. The reasons givens not to add it don't particularly make much sense ("this template should not be added to otherwise empty talk pages. That changes the "discussion" tab at the top of the page from a "redlink" into a "bluelink", which may mislead people into thinking there is discussion. - does that mean we can't place project banners on new talk pages either? How problematic is this "deception" anyway?) At the very least, it should be made clear that once it's been added, it shouldn't be removed just for the sake of removing it. -  wolf  19:06, 6 November 2021 (UTC)
 * There appears to be to be a movement toward support for removing the restrictions, though not quite support for encouraging universal usage. Would there be an objection to me simply removing "" and ""? No encouragement for people to increase usage, just a removal on the restrictions on placing it on new pages or empty pages. Meanwhile discussion can continue on adapting the template for less visited pages. SilkTork (talk) 11:09, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Perhaps such a move should be discussed more widely, since it will have an impact across the project, and those who frequent this talk page are probably not a representative sample. Kanguole 11:25, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I've put it on Cent: Template:Centralized discussion. SilkTork (talk) 18:02, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * thanks – here via CENT ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:57, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support per SilkTork. Awhile ago I suggested on the WP:RATER talk page to have rater automatically add this template, and I was surprised when people started quoting this documentation as an argument against it. It really doesn't seem like this template has a downside. The archive page numbers and archive search by themselves are immensely useful and are a good reason to allow inclusion on all pages, in my opinion. The "talk page rules" and "find sources" are a little more questionable, but are probably helpful for new users. – Novem Linguae (talk) 19:18, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I think I agree with sdkb: how universal is the advice this template gives? I'd support the proposal as an improvement over the current situation, but there are differences in how small and large talk pages operate. On low-volume pages I use talk pages for general notes on editorial decisions, sources that could be useful in the future, and keeping track of what needs to be done; basically I use it as a public notebook. For high-volume pages though it's truly more of a discussion venue and the "notebook" style of talk page use is less productive. I think including the template in general would be a good idea as we increase the visibility of talk pages, but I also think we should work to improve our guidance to include how to use talk pages effectively. — Wug·a·po·des​ 19:37, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Removing the quoted instruction parts looks good to me, per the proposal. I have wondered about this in the past, but didn't bother enough to complain. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:57, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * As long as people don't launch WP:AWB and start adding these to every talk page there is, then that's cool. &#8211;<span style="font-family:CG Times, times"> MJL &thinsp;‐Talk‐☖ 07:13, 12 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep as is. This is another unfortunate example of discussions that have a broad effect on huge swaths of editors and articles being held on a page that few are aware of or watchlist (and it has taken me two days to find where the current problem in medical headers originated).  This template has been since November 2020 linking to misleading information about sourcing of medical articles, with respect to WP:MEDRS.  The new implementations made just this week are equally misleading, as they still don’t point editors to WP:MEDRS, and leave the distinct impression that anything found in the linked sources is acceptable sourcing for medical content, when the majority of what will be found in those links is not likely to represent good medical sourcing.  We are misleading the very people we intend to orient on every medical article talk page.  And, this was done based on discussions here, and at WT:MED, involving only three or four editors there.  So, we have had since Nov 2020 misleading info on talkpages of all medical articles, and we have the same problem magnified with the latest addition.  This template is now misleading on every medical article.  This should be rectified, or a community-wide RFC about this misleading info wrt WP:MEDRS should be held.  This template is unuseful now on medical articles, unless it includes information clarifying how and which of those sources can be used for medical content with a link to WP:MEDRS.  Until that is done, the template should not be foisted upon every talk page.  And neither should ordinary content editors be forced to learn complicated syntax to control the misleading output of this template.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  02:50, 13 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Hi Sandy! If I understand you correctly, your objection is with placing this on medical articles, yes? If this template is a problem on medical articles, then it is a problem on ALL medical articles, not just new ones. Would you remove your objection to this proposal, which is not related to your objection, and start a RFC on placing this template on medical articles. If you like, I'll help you with that. SilkTork (talk) 19:37, 13 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Hi, ! My apologies for butting heads here with some of the editors I most respect on Wikipedia, but this issue is far more important than the socking earlier this year that led me to stop editing.  Coming back to active editing to find this is very offputting.   I should not have to read through walls of technical text to a) find the related discussion myself, and b) ask that (what I believe should be) a very simple wording fix be implemented.  It sounds like from the discussion over at WT:MED that there may now be some acknowledgement that the fix can be done, and I hope it will be done shortly, in which case I can strike all objection.  For now, my objection is that the talk header template shouldn't be used anywhere, as it is hugely problematic.  I hope an RFC won't be needed, and I hope I can strike any objection in short order.  Information that can lead new and inexperienced editors to non-MEDRS-compliant editing should never have been contemplated anywhere, and I am quite astounded that it was.   Perhaps I am missing the distinction between using this on new or existing; for now, I want to retain the ability to remove the Talk header anywhere it is used, as it is a trainwreck, and how do I know the same problems aren't being introduced outside of medicine content?  Please feel free to pop over to my talk, or to email me, if I am completely missing the point, but I entered this page somewhat perturbed at having to spend several days finding the source of the problem, and encountering what felt like stonewalling earlier on.  I hope/believe we are beyond that now.  Best, Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  19:47, 13 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I have struck my position above, and have no opinion now. After a slow start, we have now made great progress working together with template editors at WT:MED on correcting the info in the header affecting medical articles, so I am happier. We still have more work to do, but there is now a link to WP:MEDRS in the header, so this template is no longer something I don't want to see used anywhere, any time.  I do have a separate question on how Wikipedia came to preference The New York Times over all other news sources, and will start a new section for that question.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  21:08, 14 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep as is per Oiyarbepsy and SandyGeorgia. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 15:32, 14 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I see that Sandy struck their opposition, but I affirm that I don't want to see it struck. What would the point be of having pages upon pages that have nothing but this template? An open invitation to banner blindness. we need a template over every talk page, MediaWiki:Talkpageheader is the place to put one rather than gunking up edit histories. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 18:47, 19 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support conditional upon the fixes being discussed over at WT:MED reaching a satisfactory conclusion, which it looks like they will. Fretting about turning a red link into a blue one is just silly (and as noted, WikiProject banners already do that). Moreover, the wording in question is self-contradictory. On the one hand, we're told don't place it on the talk pages of new articles. On the other, talk pages for articles often subject to controversy are good places for it. What if the creator of a page is pretty damn sure that the topic will be subject to controversy? Should we forbid them from starting off the talk page in the best way? This advice is an artifact of arguments in a bygone era. XOR&#39;easter (talk) 19:27, 14 November 2021 (UTC)
 * WikiProject banners convey information specific to the article (e.g. that the article is being tracked by a WikiProject). The talk header on an empty talk page conveys no such information. The editor starting the first discussion on such a page would be served just as well by an editnotice. <span style="font-family:Garamond,Palatino,serif;font-size:115%;background:-webkit-linear-gradient(red,red,red,blue,blue,blue,blue);-webkit-background-clip:text;-webkit-text-fill-color:transparent">Daß Wölf 19:59, 14 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Unbundle Any general instructions for using talk pages should be a standard part of the mediawiki interface. I attended a training session recently at which new users required instruction in using such pages and even the instructor forgot that you can't use the visual editor on them.  So, there's a long way to go before these pages are usable by our general readership.
 * I don't like the talk page header because it's too long and bloated. The find statistics were recently forced into the template and the alternative templates were deleted.  As a regular user of FSS, I've been trying the talk page template for my new articles but still don't like it because of all the other baggage.  The project templates are largely useless as the relevant project is usually inactive or otherwise of no help.  So, the general approach to these templates has yet to settle down and so we should not be trying to micromanage this.  As and when the WMF get around to making the visual editor work on talk pages, we'll need to think again and so shouldn't get too invested in the current bodges and stopgaps.  Andrew🐉(talk) 21:02, 14 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose, if a talk page doesn't need this template, it is probably dead and we shouldn't encourage people to post there. (I would support using a general template for all the meta-information; why is article quality in Wikiproject templates and not in this one?) —Kusma (talk) 16:54, 20 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose, lets do this separately in meta-information and link our main normal format help page. Moxy -Maple Leaf (Pantone).svg 17:25, 20 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep as is until suitable replacement prose is approved. While I support the idea of "updating" the documentation instructions (by less stringent prose and clarification) I oppose any changes that simply remove existing instructions without regard to retaining the cautionary sentiments intended by their remit.--John Cline (talk) 18:01, 20 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I would support the well-reasoned removal of "only where it's needed", and I'm baffled by the opposes. "We shouldn't encourage people to post" on low-traffic talk pages?  That's incomprehensible to me.  But I wouldn't want this template to be widely added by means of automated tools such as AWB or bots because that's a needless strain on the server -- let's just say that it can be boldly added to any individual talk page by any editor who sees fit.—<b style="font-family: Verdana; color: Maroon;">S Marshall</b> T/C 01:24, 21 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Talk page empty state.gif This seems to overlap in important areas with the new discussion tools functionality for empty talk pages. I have included an animation of that functionality here. Ppl should probably check that out. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 14:26, 25 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks User:TheDJ, that looks interesting. Your link is broken, though. Is this the page you were aiming to link to: ? SilkTork (talk) 10:04, 26 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Link fixed —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 14:15, 26 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support allowing discretionary use of the template in any situation per SilkTork's argument, provided this isn't used for en-masse additions of the template – as S Marshall points out, the current situation ain't broke. Encouraging appropriate use of talk pages, even quiet ones, by casual readers, would-be editors and new editors is a positive change in my view. I think the template's functionality & guidance will help lower the barrier to entry for these groups. Jr8825  •  Talk  18:27, 11 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Support - I feel that if a talk page warrants archiving, then it should also have this template. -  FlightTime  ( open channel ) 18:40, 11 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Remove Both the first keep the second Of the two sentences highlighted in your post. Signed, I Am Chaos (talk) 18:23, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Support Removing Both the first, keeping the second  - I think there is essentially zero downside to adding this to a talk page. that has discussion. But there is probably a small downside to adding this to talk pages that are empty. — Shibboleth ink  (♔ ♕) 18:51, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I Am Chaos and Shibboleth ink . I'm curious as to the thinking behind the objection to put the template on a non-created or red talkpage. My thinking is that a new user who may have a question or suggestion in relation to an article would likely be put off by having to face a red page with no advice, and with perhaps the concern as to if they are allowed to create a talkpage in the first place, but they would be encouraged and helped by having a template which explains how to use the talk page. An empty talkpage seems to me to be one of the most useful places to put this template. SilkTork (talk) 11:45, 22 December 2021 (UTC)
 * My thinking is that a new user who may have a question or suggestion in relation to an article would likely be put off by having to face a red page with no adviceThat makes a lot of sense, and I hadn't considered it from that angle. — Shibboleth ink  (♔ ♕) 12:41, 22 December 2021 (UTC)
 * That makes a lot of sense, didnt consider it that way, I had mostly considered the merits listed in the sentence itself Signed, I Am Chaos (talk) 17:46, 22 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Support Apart from the other arguments mentioned this will probably become a possible source of archiving settings. That makes it very useful to be able to put it on new pages you expect to have significant talk page discussion in the future. --Trialpears (talk) 20:14, 26 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Removed in this edit, per rough 12–5 tally plus several no opinion/unbundle/other. (Not an Rfc, and I'm involved, so this is not an Rfc-like evaluation that takes argument strength into account. If anyone objects, feel free to undo.) Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 05:04, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Template:Talk header has 621,768 transclusions but there are articles. That means people are going to pointlessly add the template to 5.8 million pages. Johnuniq (talk) 01:34, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
 * That is highly unlikely. Maybe to new pages, but no one's gonna go around adding this to 5.8 million existing talk pages. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 21:03, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Yeah. They'd need a bot, and it would never pass Bot Review. And if anyone used an existing bot to do it, it would likely be noticed... I agree with @Johnuniq, that would be concerning if it did happen en masse. But right now we have just removed a prohibition not created a mandate. — Shibboleth ink  (♔ ♕) 21:54, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
 * @Shibbolethink: I think it can simply be added to MediaWiki:Talkpageheader. &#8213; Qwerfjkl  talk  22:07, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that would be the solution if we wanted to add it en masse, right? I personally support that, but I think probably many others would not. I think a drastic change like that would probably need much wider input, like an RFC at village pump or w/e. The proposal would need to be extremely brief and well reasoned as to why it would be beneficial to do this, and not disruptive. For example, this would double up the header on those 600k pages previously mentioned :( — Shibboleth ink  (♔ ♕) 22:12, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
 * That would require a bot to remove. &#8213; Qwerfjkl  talk  22:14, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose-ish Since this is still open, I'll voice my objection to removing the part about 'when needed'. I'm fine with "reducing" the "you shouldn't add it to a blank page ever" warning to "you can, but that doesn't mean you should" or something similar (where it's allowed but not encouraged), but this is not a template than needs to be mass-added to all pages. Which could simply be "Add the template when needed", which should reinforce that it's usually a good idea to add it to high-traffic, high-discussion, newbie-prone talk pages, and omit on other pages (like category talk pages, or project discussion pages like WT:CITEWATCH). &#32; Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 19:49, 11 February 2022 (UTC)