Forum:Forum vs. talk pages

In which situations should the forums (specifically, the Reference Desk forum) be used rather than article talk pages? I'd always thought that only stuff related to the article itself went on talk pages, and other things (including general questions about the subject of an article) would go in the forum--an example of this is the section on Talk: Dermal regenerator titled "Were dermal regenerators ever seen prior to the 24th century?", which I started in the Reference Desk forum, but was later moved to the talk page by an admin. Needless to say, I was a little confused, because Help: Talk pages would seem to indicate that this is incorrect per policy. Has this policy been changed, and the requisite change to the help page neglected? -Mdettweiler 20:12, October 3, 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, your asking if they were seen earlier is something that directly relates to the article. As in... if they were seen, they should be added to the article. -- sulfur 20:19, October 3, 2009 (UTC)


 * If you are merely asking a question and do not wish it to be included in an article, you might wish to state that in your question. I would also most likely move a Forum question to an article if it seemed pertinent, such as a subject within a particular episode, unless such a statement was made.--31dot 20:36, October 3, 2009 (UTC)

Ah, it didn't occur to me that it would relate to the article in that if something was seen earlier, it should be added to the article. Okay, that makes sense. I'll keep in mind about stating whether something's only a question in case I have any such questions in the future that should be kept separate from articles (though in this case it wouldn't apply anyway). Thanks, -Mdettweiler 04:30, October 5, 2009 (UTC)


 * Also, the way it was originally devised, the Reference Desk was rather meant to be a convenience for outside visitors than a tool for regular members: Don't know your way around the wiki? Put a question on RD - else, use the talk page. :) -- Cid Highwind 04:42, October 5, 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, that would explain why I usually only see posts from newbies in the forum. :-) Okay, I'll try to keep all my future inquiries on the respective talk pages. -Mdettweiler 14:53, October 5, 2009 (UTC)


 * There has long been disagreement and dissatisfaction with the forum situation. Don't give someone a hard time for not getting it "right". There is no "right". If what you really want in the Ref. Desk is one thing and not another, spell it out by changing the text here. Especially the part about how items get moved from the Forum to the Talk: page. The "system" worked exactly as advertised. Don't bite. SennySix 05:13, October 30, 2009 (UTC)