WikiIndex:Talk pages for wiki people
Template:TOCright WikiIndex:Talk Pages for Wiki People
Alerting to messages
Users unfamiliar with all of the clever things the MediaWiki software can do may have been unaware of this.
Every User page has a corresponding Talk page (correctly know as 'User talk'). Not just another old page to add to the jumble: it's special for its user. As soon as a User talk page is edited, the software creates a message in the form of a highly visible banner to that user, visible at the top of any page being viewed, as soon as the user logs in, or during any page transition whilst logged in; advising that he or she has new messages on their User talk page. This message banner disappears after the user opens their User talk page – which is very easy to do because the message includes a direct wikilink to the page.
Recent versions of the MediaWiki software add the option of a link that goes to a page that shows the latest difference, which is extra-useful if your visitor added something not at the end but under an appropriate heading partway down the page. You see the text that was added and can then work your way through previous edits to see if there are any you missed.
Wikietiquette about User talk pages
The convention on Wikipedia, and several derived works, is that nobody should alter anything that someone else has written on anybody else's User talk page – unless it's offensive, etc., (and maybe not even if it is - it may be useful evidence!)
Users occasionally archive the older parts of their User talk pages, with a wikilink to the archive (which can easily be a subpage); for example, [[User talk:Robin Patterson/archive1|Archive Aug-Nov 2005]]. Please see Template:TalkPageArchive, as this will auto-include any archived Talk page and or User talk page into Category:TalkPage Archives.
Talk pages in general
Question has come up here on WikiIndex about the usefulness of having information on two pages, when it would easily fit onto one page, thus using the talk page in a different way than Wikipedia.