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A certain very few talk pages are magnets for misplaced questions. In particular, Talk:Main Page, Wikipedia talk:Talk page, and Wikipedia talk:Talk page guidelines. Newcomers end up there because they've clicked a link about "Discussion" that looked promising to them. They get a page that has discussion on it already. Perfect place to ask about the weather in London, right? They don't understand that the talk pages in question are about very specific things. The newcomer's experience really will be better if they ask in the right place to begin with. This template is an attempt to point them in the right direction.
This template is very much not intended to be used on most talk pages. Indeed, it is unlikely that it will ever be appropriate to place this template on an article talk page. Rather, this template is intended for those very few talk pages which, by the nature of their subject matter, tend to attract novices looking for help, and asking in the wrong place.
It can be argued that this template is in danger of biting newcomers. However, be aware that when newcomers ask their questions on the wrong page, those questions are almost always ignored, or deleted without response. The theory is that it is better to grab their attention and direct them to the right place.
The name {{metatalk}} comes from "meta", in the "about" sense. "Meta-talk" is talk about talk, such as what goes on at Wikipedia talk:Talk page.