On 10/7/07, Zoney zoney.ie@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