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multiple points or become more complex, by contrast, may benefit from the creation of subsections to address different points, or in extreme cases by splitting off sections of text into entirely new sections. It may be necessary in these cases to reorganize large swatches of text, and if so care should be taken to ensure that no comments are taken out of context or lose connection with the original point they were addressing. It may be advisable to copy sections of text rather than move them (adding a comment that refers back to the original text), to duplicate the original author's signature across different points that have been moved to different sections, or to begin the new section with a parenthetical statement explaining the original context of the comment.
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509:, create a new page entitled ]. Link this to the top of the appropriate archives, and to the current talk page. This gives newcomers the chance to get a quick understanding without the risk of losing what has gone before. Having a linked archive can help satisfy both those who feel their words must remain intact and those who want a neat summary.
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In some cases, discussion should be broken down into new sections or subsections. This is useful when a section becomes overly long, or when conversation begins to diverge into a number of separate points. Resectioning may help both readers and participants understand the flow of the discussion and
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of talk page discussions, since archiving preserves a fuller record of discussion, does not lead to misrepresentation (accidental or disruptive) of other editors' opinions, and conserves material that may be useful in the future. The same principle has come to be applied to refactoring more broadly.
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Good refactoring practices are an important part of maintaining a productive talk page. Discussion pages that are confused, hostile, overly complex, poorly structured, or congested with cross-talk can discourage potential contributors, and create misunderstandings that undermine fruitful discussions.
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Simple refactoring can easily be done with standard
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by editors who have contributed to the talk page. If there are recent heated discussions on the talk page, good faith may be lacking. If another editor objects to any refactoring that was performed, those changes should be reverted. Nevertheless, if the page is larger than the recommended size, then
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As a rule, editors should not edit each other's comments in ways that affect meaning – doing so creates misrepresentations, disrupts the flow of conversations, and makes debates and discussions impossible to follow – but cases exist in which an editor's comments need to be removed from the flow of
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capabilities, or programmatic text processing will become your best friend. Alphabetizing material, sorting sections into chronological order, changing multiple links, restructuring large tables – these tasks can be painful and time consuming to do by hand, but can be accomplished in a matter of
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For long discussions, participants often insert arbitrary breaks by adding a new subsection heading. In fact, such breaks are often given headings like 'Arbitrary break' or 'convenience break', with an index number to distinguish it from other arbitrary break headings. Discussions that cover
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is recommended for any points that are likely to be repeatedly raised and refactored. Existing material should be generalized appropriately and reformatted into a simple question/answer format so that later editors can have their concerns satisfied without raising the question again. Likewise,
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Be aware that not every editor will agree with your refactoring or even of the refactoring concept in general. Provide links to the original, uncut version, so others can check your changes, and if necessary go back to the original to clarify what an author actually said. This combination of
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or moved to a different page where it is more appropriate. If the refactoring is later reverted, the moved material should be deleted on the pages it was moved to, to prevent proliferation of the text. It is helpful to use the template
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is a redrafting process in which talk page content is moved, removed, revised, restructured, hidden, or otherwise changed. It applies only in contexts where editors make signed statements (such as in the Talk and User talk
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Editing and deleting the text completely. Except for non-contentious fixes, this should only be done by the editor who wrote the material or by a sysop or bureaucrat with legitimate cause. Unless a sysop uses
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Earlier in
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refactoring and archiving will often prevent complaints that information was lost. Make it explicit that you have refactored something so no one is misled into thinking this was the original talk page.
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minutes programmatically. Most high-end 'Office'-type text editors have advanced text editing capabilities, and many light-weight but powerful text editing applications are available – see
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Refactoring may cause confusion if improperly applied to an ongoing discussion; an editor should take great care to preserve all such discussion and all relevant details to its context.
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template can be used to provide a floating summary box next to a refactored discussion, or a comment may be added at the bottom (or sometimes the top) of a section.
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conversation because the comments themselves disrupt the flow of conversation. Loosely, the following types of refactoring are legitimate, with the listed caveats:
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If you think people may object to their discussion being refactored, make your summary on a different page. Rather than reducing archives 7 to 10 of
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Editors should be conscious of the newcomer's perspective; one should not remove content that would benefit an editor who had not yet read the page.
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The tool or technique used should be chosen according to the particular needs of the material.
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of the talk page, or sections within it, without refactoring can still be done.
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Improving headings with typos or which are not descriptive of the content (use
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says not to correct other users' spelling or grammar without their permission.
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Adding new sections that split an editor's comment into separate points
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Other minor fixes without changing someone's words. Keep in mind that
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Removing off-topic, uncivil, unclear, or otherwise distracting material
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below the new heading so as to not break any links to the old one)
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Is there a convention about the order of multivector components?
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Refactoring should only be done when there is an assumption of
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Moving a comment to a more appropriate place in the discussion
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for guidance on creating a link to the page history and
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