Wikipedia:WikiProject Talk pages

WikiProject Talk pages
	Cleaning up a dirty talk page.
Project banner template	{{Archiveme}}
Userboxes	{{User WPTP}}; {{User TPCC}}

Welcome to WikiProject Talk pages, also known as the Talk Page Cleanup Crew.

Join us by adding your name to our roster.
Tackle one of the talk pages needing archiving.
Work on specific requests from people who want our help in some way (or ).
Watch this page to keep up with what's happening around here.
See some examples of what we do.
Read through the original project proposal, if you're interested.

News

Purpose

Our aim is to encourage adherence to WP:TP, WP:TPG, and WP:TPL by:

Sorting topics into chronological order with the oldest at the top
Correcting any obvious indentation mistakes
Cleaning up formatting mistakes, such as tags that didn't get closed
Sorting misplaced comments into the correct topic or adding a topic header when needed
Encouraging civility by warning those who recently (i.e. in the past week) engaged in personal attacks and such
Adding appropriate WikiProject banners while keeping such boilerplates and related templates down to a reasonable maximum (possibly using {{ArticleHistory}} and/or {{WikiProjectBanners}})
Organizing talk page templates in accordance with Wikipedia:Talk page layout
Helping SineBot by signing unsigned comments or adding dates to undated comments
Helping MiszaBot et al. by archiving discussions, and manually archiving discussions
Setting up auto-archiving on pages that would benefit from it
Helping out here and there with vandalism repair

Since talk pages are our area of expertise, we may also participate in:

Discussing proposed talk page guidelines
Developing talk page templates

As a group, we do not:

Create rules for talk pages
Fundamentally restructure user talk pages

Other specific tasks

In addition to the aforementioned general tasks, there are also some more specific tasks we may engage in:

Removing {{Talk header}} from all but the most controversial or most empty pages (and making sure {{Archives}} replaces it for talkheaders also using the archive functions)
Fixing mangled headings
Merging duplicate threads
Marking resolved topics with {{Resolved}} where the resolution is clear, obvious, and apparent
Confirm bot assessments of article class and remove "auto=yes" from project banners (e.g. here)
Expand month abbreviations in dates to help archiving of talk pages by bots (e.g. replace "25 Jan 2010" with "25 January 2010")
Replace IP signatures pointing to a red link IP user page with a link to the IP's contributions history (e.g. here)
Pipe-link unlinked user names in signatures (e.g. replace "Example 12:00, 25 January 2010" with "Example 12:00, 25 January 2010")

Scope for user talk pages

User talk pages are the property of that user, and users may not take kindly to someone else coming in and making lots of changes to what may already be there. As such, it is probably wise to limit edits to user talk pages to no more than the following (use your best judgment):

Cleaning up formatting mistakes, such as tags that didn't get closed
Sorting misplaced comments into the correct topic or adding a topic header when needed
Encouraging civility by warning those who engage in personal attacks and such
Helping SineBot by signing unsigned comments or adding dates to undated comments
Helping out here and there with vandalism repair
Replace IP signatures pointing to a red link IP user page with a link to the IP's contributions history (e.g. here)

Guidelines

While you are cleaning up a talk page, add the {{in use}} template, so that (hopefully) no one interferes with your efforts.
You may also advertise our project in your cleanup edit summaries. Just add the following to the end of your summary: – [[WP:WPTP|You can help!]]