Talk pages
Starting a conversation
User talk pages
Messages for you
Drawing attention
Fetching others to help
Summary
Review what you've learned
Not all talk pages are monitored by other editors. This is particularly true for more obscure topics, which often have less well-developed articles and can go years without human activity on their talk page.
If you want to edit a more obscure article and feel confident, just be bold and do so. However, if you'd like to discuss a potential change first to get a second opinion or seek help, you can start a discussion on the talk page and then share a notice about it on a more popular page.
To do this, first check out any associated WikiProjects listed at the top of the article's talk page. If they seem active, post an invitation to their talk page to join the discussion. You can use {{subst:Please see|Talk:Page name#Section name}} to do this or just write it out, but do not start the same discussion in multiple places. If none of the projects seem active or no one replies, you can also ask for help at the Teahouse.
Talk pages are used for many different types of discussions, including proposed mergers, splits, and moves (title changes). Some discussions are held at noticeboards, such as the village pumps or Articles for deletion (AfD).