Talk pages
Starting a conversation
User talk pages
Messages for you
Layout
Making discussions easy to follow
Examples
More examples of layout
Drawing attention
Fetching others to help
Summary
Review what you've learned
Here is what a well laid out discussion looks like in practice. Two editors are talking on an article's talk page, inside one section:
Should the lead mention the award?
The lead does not mention the national award, although the body of the article covers it. I think one line in the lead would balance the summary. Sana Kapoor, 09:12, 14 March 2026
- I agree. The award is the most reported fact about her, so the lead looks incomplete without it. Imran Sheikh, 10:03, 14 March 2026
- I have added one line to the lead with the existing source. Please check the wording. Sana Kapoor, 10:40, 14 March 2026
- Before we finish, the year in the body says 2019 but the source says 2020. I will correct that too. Kavita Rao, 11:25, 14 March 2026
Notice the pattern. The topic has its own heading. Every reply sits directly under the comment it answers, one colon deeper. Each comment ends with the writer's name and the time, so the whole conversation can be followed from top to bottom without opening the page history.
On your own user talk page the same layout appears in reverse: someone leaves a message in a new section, and you answer underneath it in the same section, indented once.