Talk Page Etiquette
So I am in my own talk page (user talk:your name), and somebody writes to me, and this person’s name is in blue text, meaning if I click to this blue text, I go to their talk page. Do I reply to this person in my own talk section, or click to their blue name, then reply in their talk section?
Note, if they have set up their watchlist and email preferences, they will get an email if you answer in either place.
Answer 1: You reply to them on your own talk page, that way the conversation stays all in one place.
Answer 2: You reply to them on their talk page, that way they will get an orange header on every page they visit when they're logged in.
Comments
About the note, I don't have emails on my watchlist because I look at a lot of pages and don't really want to see them all just to make sure that I seee al all the comments about me. I don't think a lot of people will set-up watchlist and email preferences once AboutUs gets bigger and your talking to more and more people and having a lot more changes on major pages that you have on your watchlist --Simon | talk 16:15, 14 March 2007 (PDT)
- So you're saying the only way you'll see a note is if I answer you on your talk page, yes? TedErnst
- Correct. --Simon | talk 18:45, 14 March 2007 (PDT)
- Agree with that, I will only see on my talk page or if I see it in Recent Changes. MarkDilley
- Correct. --Simon | talk 18:45, 14 March 2007 (PDT)
- I try to leave notes that say "click on my name to leave me a message" (since my name redirects to my talk page) when I'm dealing with people the first time, because it's easier for me to see notes there than anywhere else. Email alerts require 1) you remember to "watch" that page and 2) you check your email. Placing a message on my talk page shows up as soon as I go to AboutUs (and users can be notified via email with their talk page as well). -- TakKendrick
How will a new person visiting aboutus for the first time easily find this "talk page etiquette" page - should this be part of the basic tour or navigation instructions? MartinPfahler
- Good point Martin. We're working on some sort of an "anatomy of a wiki" and some other revamped help/tour/navigation pages, but this is a potential problem. Since we're trying to welcome all new users, there's a good chance that new users though wouldn't have gotten a chance to see those by the time they're welcomed. So, I don't know if there is an elegant solution, but we should have this is part of the discussion. -- TakKendrick
I believe it was Ray at recent changes camp that mentioned people have some basic differences in how their brains work, relative to how they like to learn new things (some want an overview first, some details first, some want to get to the meat right away, etc.)The the point is these basic learning differences are not many, but few. If these few differences can be weeded out when a new user first enters aboutus, then the remainder of their new learning experiences becomes less frustrating and more efficient – because one has in effect customized the process for how their brain works. “The trick” is figuring out how to do this weeding process without having the new user go through a lengthy and boring introductory “test”. Figuring this out is likely to take a few iterations. Hopefully Ray will share more about this, and it become a major focus for “user friendly” aboutus interface and design. I think too many web sites assume people all learn the same way, and they don’t. One can have different tour experiences but unless one first figures out the “brain type” – it is likely a new person could be sent down the wrong tour (not a match for their best learning mode). Also I don’t think you can ask a user what type of learning experience they prefer – many won't know, others will say one thing, yet act in anther way. In short, this is not an easy problem to figure out - but worth solving.MartinPfahler
- Yes, I think it is best to simply offer different ways to learn the material and people will naturally gravitate to the way that suits their learning style best. i.e. Some folks might love a short video on any given subject and others may find that slow and prefer just to glance at text. It'd be so awesome to have all of the learning styles for all of the help covered! - Ray