Forum:Discussion Pages Guidelines

As we grow as a wiki, users tend to become more and more social. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I personally believe we should adopt discussion page guidelines to help remind users the goal of the wiki here. It does get out of hand at times, and I believe adopting discussion page guidelines can only improve the wiki. Here is a draft that I came up with:

Talk pages on the Sonic News Network are used to discuss changes/improvements to the article in question. These pages should not be used to discuss one's personal opinion on the subject of the article. The same rules apply for all other talk page namespaces, with the exception of User talk pages, which has it's own unique set of rules.

Talk pages
Talk pages are used to discuss the article at hand, not the subject itself. Opinions on subjects can be given on blogs, forums, or the chat, but not talk pages. The following is a list of what should be done on a talk page. This list includes, but is not limited to the following:


 * Discuss major changes and/or improvements to the article.
 * Discuss edits that were made to an article.
 * Discuss whether two articles of similar subject should be merged.
 * Discuss changing the title of the article.
 * Discuss possible deletion of the page.
 * Create new headers for each new topic being discussed.
 * Other changes regarding the article at hand.

All Sonic News Network policies apply to talk pages. Talk pages also have an additional set of rules that are to be followed. The following is a list of what should not be done on a talk page. This list includes, but is not limited to the following:


 * Do not discuss the subject of the article itself, or your personal views on the subject.
 * Do not alter anyone's comment in any way, shape, or form, unless the comment does not comply with Sonic News Network policy.
 * Do not argue with other users about edits that you dislike, tell them nicely.
 * Do not misrepresent other people. This means do not assume what others had said or done, link to the diff of their edit, and provide quotes.
 * Do not lie. This will get you nowhere, and you may end up being punished for doing so.

User talk pages
User talk pages are used to discuss directly with another user. The Sonic News Network is not a social networking site, and user talk pages should mainly be about a user's edits, or anything involving the wiki itself. While general discussion is allowed on user talk pages, we kindly ask that if the discussion between two or more users gets excessively long, that it be brought elsewhere. This is because too much discussion on a user talk page can result in the disruption of the wiki. A good place to discuss personally with other users is the chat feature, which we encourage to use for all discussion.

Any revisions or additions can be made as necessary. -- 01:50, September 19, 2012 (UTC)