On 10/7/07, Zoney <zoney.ie(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Does it not drive anyone else up the wall the
incessant templates jammed
onto the top of our articles?
Well, the new color scheme sucks.
Sure some of the articles have issues that readers as
well as editors should
be aware of, but it's really ridiculous having these Vogonic bureaucratic
Wiki-speak instructions/jargon stamped before the article text for all and
sundry to enjoy.
...and hopefully act upon.
Half the time the templates aren't even warranted,
or at the least the issue
is not important enough to demand anything other than a note on the talk
page.
Diminishing returns. Maybe the server folks could give us some numbers
on how many (few) people actually read talk pages anymore.
It's far too easy for people just to slap on
templates onto articles in a sort
of wiki-process-allowed defacement of content.
{{fact}}!
I mean the trivia section warning for one thing. I
consider myself firmly in
the anti-trivia camp, and indeed I'd nearly support removing offending
sections to talk pages as well when asking people to integrate the brainless
factoids;
I don't have a problem with extra information, as long it's
verifiable. How to arrange it is of secondary concern to me.
but really, there's no need to give instructions
on the situation
to all our readers. It's just not that important!
Naturally I agree. If I disliked trivia, I would skip to the next
section when reading an article.
Templates in fact compound the problem by highlighting
the trivia
sections! It makes no sense!
This of course assumes that the trivia creates a problem. I'll use the
less controversial example of spelling errors. The fact that they are
automatically highlighted in my web browser delights me to no end. If
there is a real problem to fix, it should be made more conspicuous,
not less.
As regards the templates that are somewhat necessary
(don't use our
second-hand info about hurricanes in your area, etc) can a specific area
separate from the article content be used for the message? Something like
how the fundraising message is displayed?
Well, once again I disagree with you as per [1]. {{HurricaneWarning}}
should have been deleted a long time ago, but it somehow survived TFD.
Short of deletion I would welcome any attempt to make its appearance
more subtle but it's protected for no apparent reason.
—C.W.
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_disclaimers_in_articles