7 Components: the Function Pages - Developers

4.2
Discussions
The content of a respective article can be discussed on the discussion
page. When working jointly on a text, the need for a content-based
discussion will inevitably arise, especially if participants do not yet
know each other: Any misunderstandings must be eliminated or ambiguities
debated. Since this communication is very important but –
as we know from dealing with forums – can often be very tedious
and have little constructive value, it is taken out of the actual text
and placed into a discussion page. Furthermore, the content on an article
page reflects the current consensus of that topic. Users only
wishing to read the article to gain information (such as in the encyclopedic
entries of Wikipedia) are usually not interested in a discussion
of the further development of the topic.
The discussion pages can be edited in (almost) the same way as
the article pages: If you go to Edit, you can modify comments already
written. However, since discussions should be easy to follow
for subsequent users and thus must be documented, this function is
of little purpose. By clicking on the plus sign in one of the tabs in
discussion mode, you can immediately add to the discussion without
needing to load all previous comments to the editing window. A
subject heading appears under the toolbox. If you enter text here,
this heading appears as a second-degree heading to your discussion
entry, which is added after the other comments. This creates a structure
very similar to that of a forum. However, remember that one of
the greatest advantages of a wiki is that you can edit the entire text.
Thus, if you have comments regarding a specific entry that has been
discussed further up on the page, you should place your comment directly
under this entry. Only new ideas or participation in a current
discussion should be included with the “+” function.
4.3
Comparisons
When you click on the history tab, you can view the development
process of a text from the most recent modification to the first time
the article was saved, i.e. its history. Deleted pages, which are no
longer visible and may only be accessed by administrators, are the
exception to this rule (see Chapter 8.2). Each line represents a former
version, and includes various additional information, such as the
point in time in which the text was saved. The versions can be compared
in a variety of combinations.
4.2 Discussions �
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Discussion page
Taking part in
discussions
History page