Template:Talkheader/doc

Template documentation
This template is a signpost. It is designed to be used on talk pages, to provide:


 * A short introduction and appropriate links for newcomers.
 * A reminder of policy to experienced Wikipedians.

To add this template to a talk page, just edit the talk page, and put at the top of the page (above existing conversations). Using the template is suggested for talk pages that are very active or have had policy violation problems. 'This template should be used only when needed''. Do not add this template to every talk page. In particular, it should not be added to otherwise empty talk pages.''' (For more information on this topic, see the talk page for this template, including the talk archives and the TfD logs.)

This template is a self-reference.

Before editing this template
Please discuss before making changes to this template.

You can use Talkheader/Draft as a "working draft" to propose changes. (Please do not include the draft in "actual use".)

This template is very widely used. Unannounced action tends to lead to a flurry of editing. Differences in personal taste can lead to perpetual tweaking. See high-risk template, transclusion costs, exceptions to WP:BOLD, and edit war for more on this (but see also be bold, don't worry about performance, and ignore all rules).

As noted, this template is somewhat esoteric. Edits have to be carefully considered, or they may cause unanticipated problems. It makes extensive use of template syntax, including ParserFunctions. It suffers from the "qif problem" and uses the ! template to work around it.

By design, this template appears differently depending on which namespace it is used in. That means you have to test changes in multiple locations to be sure it works everywhere. To see how a proposed change will appear on an article talk page: First edit the draft draft, then go to an article talk page, add/change, and use the "Show preview" button (don't actually save).

For these reasons, this template is fully protected.

Namespace appearances
Be aware that this template will appear differently in different namespaces. In particular, in the article namespace, there is an additional box of "Article policies". That box does not appear when this template is used in any other namespace (including the template namespace). Here is what the template looks like with the "Article policies" box:

Other differences include:


 * In article space, the phrase "This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject." appears (under the header).
 * The term "article" is used in article space; in other namespaces, the term "page" is used.
 * In the user namespace, the header line changes to read "This is USERNAME's talk page, where you can send messages and comments to USERNAME.".