Template talk:Reply to

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"Template:Pin" listed at Redirects for discussion

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The redirect Template:Pin 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/2023 March 6 § Template:Pin until a consensus is reached. {{ping|ClydeFranklin}} (t/c) 01:36, 6 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Remove the colon

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Should the ":" be removed at default? It's never useful, as most of the ttime the ping goes at the end of a message, and not the beginning. EF5 18:43, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yep I fully agree - I just came to this talk page to suggest the exact same thing (weird timing!). The colon just looks like a mistake, and its the only reason I normally avoid using this otherwise useful template. BugGhost 🦗👻 18:22, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
EF5: who puts it at the end? Template:Reply to#Single recipient shows to put it at the start. In any case, its use is optional; you can notify users perfectly well using no templates at all, as I did in this post. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 23:10, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Plenty of people ping at the end of messages, for instance me today a couple of hours ago, which is why I came here. The template being optional also doesn't mean we can't improve it.
Currently:
  • Default only makes sense if placed at start of message
  • To make it not have a colon, you have to add "|p=" at the end, which is not intuitive or easy to remember
If blank was the default:
  • The default template would work in any context, start, end or middle.
  • If you want the existing behaviour of having a colon after the template, you would add a colon after the template, which is very intuitive.
BugGhost 🦗👻 00:07, 21 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Who are Plenty of people? Examples please: I've never seen it done this way. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:57, 21 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You've never seen a ping at the end of a message before? Ever? Because here's a comment that does just that, that you replied to 11 minutes before posting this comment. With that out the way can we just get on with improving the template now BugGhost 🦗👻 01:10, 22 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
They should have written "Also pinging {{u|Example}}." Also pinging Bugghost. Johnuniq (talk) 02:55, 22 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I am aware that they could have used {{u}}, but I won't concede that they should have used it. If {{ping}} is not the correct template to use when pinging, then it is misnamed and should be fixed - either by retargetting to a more suitable template, or (as EF5 suggested) by removing the colon. This wasn't a request for explanation about the different ways to mention someone (I am sure EF5 is just as aware as I am about that), just simply trying to improve this template and its aliases. BugGhost 🦗👻 09:49, 22 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
First, while I may have replied to that post, that reply in no way suggests that I agree with its formatting. Indeed, my posts then and subsequently suggest quite the opposite. I might not even have read that far. Second, the template is not named "ping" it is named "reply to". Template:PingTemplate:Ping is a redirect, and a misnamed redirect at that: it does not create a MediaWiki notification (the common understanding of the term) and nor does it test the reachability of a host on an IP network (the original meaning). The template {{Reply to}} does exactly what its name implies: it shows to whom you are replying. That's all. It does not, of itself, create a notification: it is the presence of a link to a user page in combination with other factors that creates the notification. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 11:33, 22 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I apologise for assuming you read comments you reply to. I also apologise for not realising there was a secret requirement from your blunt Examples please request that any examples posted should also go through a test of whether you personally agree with its formatting. I guess I have come up short and no examples of pings happening at the end of messages will ever be found.
Either way, here's my third consecutive attempt at getting the admins replying here to stop being dismissive and acknowledge the topic's actual question: do you think the colon at the end of this template is serving good purpose? Ignoring alternative methods of pinging, can we make this template more usable by removing the colon? BugGhost 🦗👻 13:30, 22 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The {{reply to}} template has had the colon ever since it was created way back in May 2013. As already noted, it is not necessary to use this template for the purposes of WP:MENTIONing a user and so triggering a notification. As Johnuniq has pointed out, the {{u}} template has no colon (it also has no "@" sign) but will serve equally well to notify a user, as I shall demonstrate for you right now, Bugghost. I see no need to alter the {{reply to}} template. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 17:57, 22 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for the demonstration, but as I have said a couple of times in this conversation that I am fully aware of how {{u}} / [[User:example]] tagging works, and I have also previously said how that behaviour is irrelevant to the discussion - I am not trying to improve {{u}}, I am trying to improve {{ping}} and {{reply to}}. Please assume I do not need explaining to, because this conversation with multiple admins repeatedly assuming that I don't know how to basic things like mention other editors is making me pull my hair out.
WP:MENTION explicitly says many use use {{ping}} and {{reply to}} to mention people, so I don't understand your reason for saying it is not necessary to use this template for the purposes of WP:MENTIONing a user. Yes, technically, it is not necessary to use {{ping}} to ping people, but that is still the template's sole purpose.
I haven't seen any reason for the colon to be there by default. By setting the default p parameter value to blank, it will make the template more versatile and less clunky to use. Is it being the same since 2013 a big problem? Changing the default value to blank wouldn't contextually change the meaning of existing transclusions, and in many cases the removal of the colon would improve the readability of usages. BugGhost 🦗👻 22:50, 22 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
One factor is that us old-timers have done it like that forever, in newsgroups and other relics from the before-Wikipedia-existed days. If a post is addressed to a particular person, it should start with @Username: followed by the message. That's how it is done, and it makes grammatical sense. There is no reason to insert @ in text like "Also pinging @Example" so {{u}} is perfect for that. If you think @ is needed, it's not hard to type. Johnuniq (talk) 01:38, 23 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Use {{u}} if pinging somewhere other than what {{ping}} was designed for. That is, instead of {{ping|Example}} use {{u|Example}}. Johnuniq (talk) 03:21, 21 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I fully support removing the colon; I'm really not sure what the problem is that its inclusion is supposed to solve. I understand that it has historically been part of the pinging etiquette but imo that's almost entirely irrelevant now. If someone wants to include it they can simply type the colon after the template; if they don't want to, however, they instead have to type |p= which is just a hassle. Removing it simply makes this template a whole lot more versatile. Loytra✨ 05:04, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Loytra Or use {{u}}, as I did here. There's nothing special about {{reply to}}, it isn't necessary to use it in order to fire off a notification. See WP:MENTION. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:22, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
As you can see from my previous discussion above, you are unlikely to get any meaningful responses about the colon here, just repeated recommendations for other methods of pinging (as demonstrated already). I'd suggest raising this at WP:VP to get a wider audience if you want a fate better than mine. BugGhost 🦗👻 23:01, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
What is not meaningful about the responses given? The proposal is to change the way ping has worked for a long time with the sweetener that anyone wanting a colon can manually type something extra, if they remember. People unfamiliar with grammar can use {{u}} if wanted. Johnuniq (talk) 02:33, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The reason why I'm a bit frustrated is this kind of reasoning. Imagine we were on an protected article's talk page and multiple people suggested a change, and the responses weren't on the merits of the change request, they were exclusively saying "the article has been this way for a long time, feel free to read other articles instead". BugGhost 🦗👻 06:43, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
This is a template, not an article. Procedures are different here. Editing the very first revision (2 May 2013) shows that the colon has always been present. It's pretty simple: user this template if you want a colon and use {{u}} if you don't. Johnuniq (talk) 07:45, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
And the question of the colon's utility was also first raised the same day. Either way, I'm going to leave this topic now. BugGhost 🦗👻 08:01, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Is this statement still correct?

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You cannot directly type the "@" symbol to notify a user of your reply, you must use the template documented here or manually create a wikilink to their user page.?

Or does an @ mention notify editors? My experience would seem to suggest that it is outdated, however I wanted to verify. i know you're a dog 19:33, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Linking to usertalks for temp accounts

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Temporary accounts are now live, and unlike IP users they can be pinged. However, like IPs they still cannot create userpages, and while in rare cases someone might create a userpage for a temp account, this will be vanishingly rare, meaning that these will almost always be redlinks and not take anyone anywhere useful. In the sandbox, I've added some logic to link to user talk instead if the username starts with ~20 (a syntax reserved for temp accounts, which AFAICT isn't found in any legacy accounts either: Special:ListUsers/~20 shows nothing before the series of temp accounts, and Special:ListUsers/~2025. shows nothing after it). Does this sound like a good change? If so, have I coded it in a sound way? My Lua is very rusty. -- Tamzin[cetacean needed] (they|xe|🤷) 20:51, 6 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The code is good. However, as I understand it, the point of a link to "User:X" is so X gets a WP:NOTIFICATION. Linking to "User talk:X" would not give a notification. Johnuniq (talk) 02:57, 7 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Y'know. That's a damn good point, John. Hmm. Would this be too hacky? -- Tamzin[cetacean needed] (they|xe|🤷) 07:24, 7 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Give me an hour or two to have a look. I suspect there is a better way. Johnuniq (talk) 08:06, 7 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Tamzin and Ahecht: I put something in Module:Reply to/sandbox but I confused myself wondering about some details. I used the technique from {{hidden ping}} and in fact this module uses that already if a label is specified as an empty string. I wouldn't make this live without some serious checks which I'm too dazed to do at the moment. Feel free to undo my tweaks which confuse the diffs, sorry. Johnuniq (talk) 09:48, 7 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Seems okay to me, but I'll admit it's been long enough since I looked at this module that the details are a bit fuzzy. Looks like some decent code optimizations got thrown in at the same time. The question is whether we want to link to User talk or if we want to handle these the way that Revision history does and link to Special:Contributions. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 17:45, 7 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]