A Blurb for Discussion Pages

In this wishlist post, I suggested some sort of blurb to briefly explain what discussion pages are to be used for, as well as to point people in other directions if they had other things to talk about. This is meant to be a means of reducing discussion page misuse such as people complaining about TRS or discussing the work instead of the page. I was asked to make a thread to discuss drafting a blurb, so here we are.

This is the discussion page for [page name], for discussing the contents of this page. To talk about the show or report a problem, please go to the forum or use the Report button.

Sorry, but the first thing that came to mind when reading this suggestion is "banner blindness". Is there any evidence that these things actually work.

No, but it can't hurt to at least try and if people still misuse them we can point at the blurb in our explanation. Like, there's nothing to gain by not making an attempt here and nothing to lose if we try it. (Besides, Kory immediately jumped in so IDK if there's a going back at this point)

Tabs' suggestion seems fine so far, if maybe a little skimpy.

I think it would be better worded as:

"If you want to discuss the work, see the forums and go to the corresponding thread; make a thread there if a current doesn't exist.

If you wish to discuss a work going against our Content Policy, click the "Report" button.

Edited by AudioSpeaks2 on Nov 23rd 2023 at 3:11:29 AM

It can hurt, by making people overlook other important things on the page or even to overlook banners on other pages. Banner blindness is seldom limited to one webpage.

How would that work? I can't see how a short blurb would somehow make people miss the much larger and more obvious content on the discussion page, and the people who ignore it are the sort of people who already ignore such banners anyway; but the people who do look at it would ultimately be helped if they need it, or they'd just shrug and move on if they already know the rule.

Like, I get the concern on paper: that even a small banner could distract from other content or make people annoyed. But we have such blurbs everywhere else, and at worst they've just sort of been ignored; I don't see any reason to think it would detract from the actual posts or anything though. That doesn't seem to be the case anywhere else (though you can't really prove a negative).

Anyway, this was just kind of a random idea I had and then I was told to make a thread to discuss it in; if it doesn't pan out it doesn't pan out, I'm not that attached to the idea but I thought it would be better than just having no obvious way to make people use the pages properly.

Edited by WarJay77 on Nov 22nd 2023 at 2:18:20 PM

I see zero reason not to, so to the concept and both wording posts.

Edited by Amonimus on Nov 23rd 2023 at 3:15:32 PM