Help:Communication

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Communication is a vital part in the Super Mario Wiki, as it is in any community. After all, we are here to achieve one goal: To create the most comprehensive and competent encyclopedia about the Super Mario franchise. This is a big project, so all need to work together to actualize this. And to be able to work together efficiently, we need to communicate.

Here's how to effectively communicate with other users:

How do I communicate with others?

To communicate all you have to do is click the edit tab located at the top of a talk page. To get to a talk page from an article, template, or other pages, click the "discussion" tab on top of the page, 2nd from the left. Add your comment to the bottom of the section you want to comment on, and save your changes. Remember, you are talking to other persons, so please be polite. Of course, you will need to sign your comments to effectively distinguish yourself from other users. You can do this by adding ~~~~ at the end of your comment. If you did this correctly, the ~~~~ would change into -- [[User:Username|User]]. You can also sign comments with your own custom signature. For more information about signatures, visit Help:Signature.

Why do I need to do this?

Communication is an essential part of any community project and you won't get anywhere without it here. Communication is used to clear up unanswered questions, help others out, or just to be social.

Where can I talk to others?

You can communicate pretty much on any type of talk page, including User talk, File talk, MarioWiki talk, MediaWiki talk, or even Help talk. You can also comment in an edit summary, which is located above the save button. There is also a forum, in which anything but vulgar language or inappropriate images are welcome. Look at this more specific list to see what each talk page is for and what you should use it for.

  • Talk – used to debate or ask questions about the article that corresponds to it. This is not the right place to discuss which character is better or which species is the strongest.
  • User talk – used to communicate specifically to a user about something wiki related or random nonsense. This kind of page can used to comment on almost everything. If you are given a reminder/warning, you may not remove it. These are supposed to be kept so administrators can keep track of offenses without having to dig through the page history.
  • File talk – used to comment about an image's validity or improvements.
  • MarioWiki talk – used to ask a question about a policy or a suggestion.
  • Template talk – used to ask a question about what a template includes, its style, etc.
  • Category talk – used to ask if the category is broad enough, or too narrow, or what it should be sub-categorized as.
  • MediaWiki talk – used to ask a question about the function of a MediaWiki page or suggestions on how to improve it. This is the rarest namespace, meaning you most likely won't need to comment on MediaWiki talk pages.
  • Help talk – used to ask more specific questions about a help page or suggest something to add to it. You can use this page's talk page to ask something about it or leave a suggestion.

On all of these pages, three rules apply. You cannot leave vulgar, spammish, or inappropriate content in your comments, and as mentioned in file talk, off-topic comments should be rarities. In addition, you may not edit others' comments, not even for grammar. Editing your own posts is fine, but editing others' is considered rude and inappropriate.

How do I get the attention of other users?

The wiki is a vast place, and sometimes comments get overlooked. If you have asked a question about a specific article or content and require an answer, you can place "{{talk}}" above your question (without the quotation marks). The talk page itself will then appear in Category:Talk pages with unresolved issues, and other users will be able to reach it from there. If you are looking for talk pages with unanswered questions, you can check out that category for yourself as well.

Other places to communicate