Valve Developer Community:Ongoing discussions
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For all discussion activity, see recent changes to talk pages.
The {{Ongoing discussions}} template is used to bring attention to active discussions in the Valve Developer Community, particularly discussions which may need consensus or general community attention. This is based on Wikipedia's Centralized discussion framework, but it's simplified and less strict to try to meet the needs of a looser community.
Background
The wiki itself has very little functionality for informing users of active discussions. Outside of watching a page or using user talk pages, the only way to be aware of new discussions or activity in the Valve Developer Community is through looking at the most recent changes. Over the years, this has led to several communication issues which have occasionally led to edit wars and arguments. This template is intended to bring more awareness to active discussions by listing them on prominent, easily visible community pages.
Listing discussions
Due to the Valve Developer Community's smaller size and more nebulous nature, this template is not as strict as the Wikipedia template it is based on. It is intended to be edited by any individual editor to bring attention to discussions, including discussions that those individuals began. This relies on good faith in the same way as any other article on this wiki. Discussions which "need attention" mainly refers to discussions which need consensus from other editors in order to take some sort of action.
This template is split into two columns. The first column contains manually listed discussion topics. The second column displays pages from the "Category:Requests for comment" category, which is explained further below.
Manually listed discussions
This column is for discussions which need elevated attention, and it's split into two separately stacked lists. The top section is used for "general" discussions related to specific articles on the wiki, such as talk pages on regular articles or categories. The bottom section is used for "meta" discussions related to the wiki itself, such as talk pages on templates or within the VDC namespace. Note that, unlike Wikipedia, this includes discussions in pages which are already on its navbar, such as Valve Developer Community:Discussion.
Examples
In the top section, you may have "general" discussions like these:
- A proposal to split an article into two different articles.
- A question about whether an article is necessary.
- A discussion on turning an article into a redirect.
In the bottom section, you may have "meta" discussions like these:
- A proposal to reformat a widely used template.
- A question about whether a template is necessary.
- A discussion on changing how the wiki documents a subject.
How to list new discussions
- Go to Template:Ongoing discussions and edit the page.
- Add a new item at the top of the appropriate list.
- Link directly to the discussion's page and section.
- Represent the link with a copy or summary of the discussion's topic text.
- Add the date of listing as an HTML comment (e.g.
<!-- Added 1 January 1970 -->).
See Template:Ongoing discussions/doc for more information.
Requests for comment
A "request for comment" is used to ask other editors for input on a subject. Requests for comment are listed under the second column of the "Ongoing discussions" panel. While the first column is best used for important or developed discussions (or discussions with clear potential to develop), a request for comment is less specific, and can theoretically be used by anyone who wants to begin their own discussion or call attention to an existing one.
You can automatically add a page to this category by adding {{rfc}} to the talk page/section. However, unlike the first column, this will only list the name of the talk page, not the specific topic. If you navigate to a page in this list, you may need to scroll down to find the specific discussion with a request for comment. Once the discussion is over (or a request for comment is no longer needed), the {{rfc}} notice should be removed.
Requests for comment on Wikipedia
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