Wikipedia talk:Reference desk

Skip to the bottom

[edit]

To ask a question, use the relevant section of the Reference desk

This page is for discussion of the Reference desk in general.
Please don't post comments here that don't relate to the Reference desk. Other material may be moved.
The guidelines for the Reference desk are at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines.
For help using Wikipedia, please see Wikipedia:Help desk.

New look for talk pages

In the past couple of days they've rolled out a new look for talk pages (which include the reference desks, of course). As usual with these things, it was pushed out without much announcement or fanfare. I had to dig around a bit to find the most recent discussion, which is at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Discussion Tools usability improvements becoming default. Personally I don't like it much, although I can see why some people might prefer it. You can disable it at Preferences → Editing → untick "Show discussion activity" if you wish. --Viennese Waltz 07:51, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip! I also don't much care for it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:46, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

I haven't posted here before, so I might be in wrong format.

Im posting here becaus I want the people who answer questions to not attack the people who ask questions for their alleged mistakes.Rich (talk) 02:40, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Do you have any examples in mind? --Viennese Waltz 13:11, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Maybe like allegedly becaus he can't spell opurtunistically? He griped at the user Greglocock about something, though exactly what could require further reading. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:36, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Looks like it has to do with this exchange. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:39, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

The [edit] link at Wikipedia:Reference desk/talk header is useless and confusing

Wikipedia:Reference desk/talk header transcludes {{Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/edit}} since Special:Diff/200013182, but figuring out what exactly happened, and why can be tricky because of the history merge (mentioned in Special:Diff/350752614). The wikitext of Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/edit is

<p style="text-align: right;"><nowiki>[</nowiki>{{Plainlinks|URL={{fullurl:Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/header|action=edit}}|NAME=edit}}<nowiki>]</nowiki></p>

This wikitext is transcluded at the top of this page through the page Wikipedia:Reference desk/talk header. The wikitext generates an "[edit]" link just above the right corner of the banner which is produced by {{Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/header/general}}. This link leads to editing of the page Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/header, i.e. it is similar to Special:Edit/Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/header.

Page Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/header has little to do with what the banner at the top of this talk page is about. Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/header is an obscure talk page and a poorly functioning talk page. It had instances of vandalism that went unnoticed for years (see one, two, three). It contains four sections with unanswered questions about the header (from Edit request (minor); 01:38, 21 June 2016 (UTC) till "Choose" or "Select"?). I, myself, while implementing a refactoring of the header and its constituent parts in 2022, didn't even realize there was a talk page, and only posted on this talk page about the consequences of this refactoring (one, two).

I propose to do the following:

1. Archive every section of Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/header with a corresponding banner {{moved from|[[Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/header]]}} to the archives of this page.
   • We can dump everything to Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/Archive 134 (the latest archive subpage at the time of writing), or find a more chronologically appropriate subpage for each section.
2. Redirect Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/header to this talk page to centralize discussion, similar to what I have just done with Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/talk headerWikipedia talk:Reference desk/talk header (cf. Template:Centralized talk page).
3. Remove the transclusion {{Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/edit}} from Wikipedia:Reference desk/talk header.
4. Delete the page Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/edit as no longer necessary.

What do you think? —⁠andrybak (talk) 22:52, 31 August 2026 (UTC)

"Wikipedia:ANSWER" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Wikipedia:ANSWER has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2026 September 29 § Wikipedia:ANSWER until a consensus is reached. mwwv ^converse∫_edits 13:58, 29 September 2026 (UTC)