Wikipedia talk:Help desk/How to answer

Help desk tools
It would be nice to have a set of templates containing boilerplate answer text for some frequently asked questions on the Help desk. I'm editing some notes about this: To start, I want to compile a comprehensive list of all templates like this that we have now. I know only of these: Does anybody know of any more? Is there a suitable category for such templates? --Teratornis 20:31, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
 * User:Teratornis/Help desk notes
 * Resolved
 * RD1, RD2, RD3
 * I found Category:Wikipedia standard response templates. --Teratornis 01:34, 5 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I created Category:Help desk templates. --Teratornis (talk) 18:43, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Provide a link
I removed the obsolete content from this section, which nobody seems to follow any more now, namely to format links off to the right side of answers. Virtually all Help desk volunteers format their links inline, and I think that's the more efficient method all around. I also renamed the section to "Provide links" since most answers contain more than one link. --Teratornis (talk) 19:51, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

New section for curious users
I think a section should be added to this page about the question that always comes up that is do people get paid for editing the encyclopedia. What would be the best way to answer this common and much frustrating question?  Monster Under Your Bed  (talk) 10:25, 27 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I rarely see that as a question although mention of no payment sometimes comes up between editors who already know it. If it's a common question then I think it would belong somewhere at FAQ and not associated with the help desk. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:49, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

COI templating
ColinFine, should people with a COI have added to their talk pages? I think some semi-automated tools pick up on it. If it is practice for some reason not to do this, can the fact be added to this advice page? Thanks! HLHJ (talk) 21:54, 3 September 2022 (UTC)


 * You're welcome to do that. I rarely use the warning templates. There are always different ways to do things in Wikipedia.
 * (I wasn't even aware of WP:Help desk/How to answer. I note that it makes no mention of warning templates.) ColinFine (talk) 22:53, 3 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Thank you, ColinFine. I rarely use them, too; I usually write a custom message. I make an exception for the paid-1 template just because it produces some COI metadata, in case the editor doesn't declare their COI. I did it for one of the query-posters, but I was worried that I might have done something deprecated; thank you for the reassurance! HLHJ (talk) 20:56, 4 September 2022 (UTC)