[WikiEN-l] talk page banner-cruft

[James Farrar]

2008/8/2 Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net>:
> Nathan wrote:
>> Your concerns are that you might click on a blue link to a talkpage with no
>> discussion, right? I don't see a whole lot of merit to that, frankly, and I
>> think sometimes MZMcbride likes to bump up his deletion stats and find a use
>> for his scripts. I can't see any other good reason for deleting these pages
>> - it doesn't save any space, they're stored anyway. I'd rather have a
>> talkpage with some instructions and some format than nothing at all, through
>> my unscientific belief that a new editor is more likely to add to a page
>> that already exists than create one that doesn't.
>>
> It is indeed annoying to click on a blue link only to find that the only
> thing on that page is a totally pointless and condescending template.  I
> would be much happier if there were a red link, or at least if the talk
> page contained only templates instead of meaningful discussion the link
> could remain red.  Space is not a relevant factor for either side in
> this discussion.  You have been around long enough that you should not
> need instructions about how to use a talk page. Talk pages have been
> around since the beginning of Wikipedia.  There is no reason to believe
> that newbies have become stupider than ever, or that we need to talk
> down at them in the manner of this template.

It was suggested a while back that a third colour could be used for
talk pages with only templates. I don't think the discussion came to
any meaningful conclusions, though.