Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Refactoring talk pages (section)

==Refactoring overview==
Earlier in Wikipedia's history, and particularly before 2006, talk page content was summarized to conserve space&nbsp;– a non-preservative refactoring method. However, the community has come to prefer wholesale [[WP:ARCHIVE|archival]] 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.

As a rule, editors should not edit each other's comments in ways that affect meaning&nbsp;– doing so creates misrepresentations, disrupts the flow of conversations, and makes debates and discussions impossible to follow&nbsp;– but cases exist in which an editor's comments need to be removed from the flow of conversation because the comments themselves disrupt the flow of conversation.  Loosely, the following types of refactoring are legitimate, with the listed caveats:

{{anchor|NCC}}{{short|WP:NCCREFACTOR}}'''Non-contentious cleanup''' – anything where you are sure that the other editor will thank you for the effort, rather than getting angry.
* Adding missing topic headings and attribution
* Correcting [[Wikipedia:Indentation|indentation]] levels
* Fixing [[Wikipedia:Link rot|dead links]]
* Fixing technical matters of wikitext formatting, tables, templates, broken links, and the like
* Improving headings with typos or which are not descriptive of the content (use {{tl|anchor}} below the new heading so as to not break any links to the old one, or use a template that leaves indication of the change which includes the anchor, such as {{tl|Thread retitled}} or {{tl|Section renamed}})
* Reattaching signatures that have been split from the text, or adding "missing signature" templates such as {{tl|Unsigned2}} to comments that users have forgotten to sign
* Other minor fixes without changing someone's words.  Keep in mind that [[WP:TPO]] says not to correct other users' spelling or grammar without their permission.
* Adding {{t|sticky decoration wrapper}} to [[Wikipedia:User pages#Sticky decorative elements|sticky decorative elements]]

'''Restructuring''' – should be done with care to avoid changing meanings.
* Adding new sections that split an editor's comment into separate points
* Moving a comment to a more appropriate place in the discussion
* Moving or copying a comment to begin a new discussion in a different section

'''Pruning text''' – should only be done with the original author's consent, or with good cause under policy.
* Removing, striking or hiding personal attacks
* [[Template:Collapse top|Hiding]] redundant, outdated, or otherwise superfluous material from view
* Relocation of text to different pages where it is more appropriate