 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: When adding a level of indentation (for purposes of a threaded reply, or to create a sub-list) copy the style of the preceding indent and then append an asterisk or colon depending upon whether you want a bullet-point or not. This improves accessibility. |
The question 'why does it matter?' often arises when editors are discussing issues about switching from asterisks to colons in a discussion (and vice-versa). Colons and asterisks are part of our wiki-markup and are used extensively on talk pages of all types to indent comments and replies in a debate. The issue is that Wikipedia misuses lists to indent our comments. This can cause a variety of issues for those using screenreaders and other assistive technologies, as well as sometimes breaking the ways that lists render.