I agree with Jimbo that this thread has become about something more important to us than Libertarian politics; this is not to say that I am not critical of that lot, but I can save that for another day.
Akash Mehta wrote:
Articles generally don't need to be in more than two sidebars anyway; sidebars are good but they shouldn't be over used. And if there is a decent reason to remove all these templates I can write an app in VB to run through all the articles and remove the template (with human operation, of course) but there needs to be justification as changes can't be easily reverted en masse (yet), except by one of our busy sysops.
I speak as a long-time Wikipedian who is more interested in content than pretty presentation. I had a hand in helping develop the early versions of taxoboxes, and descriptive boxes for battles. To some extent the use of charts and tables is essential for organizing data. But when we reach a point that changing the content of these charts and boxes is a mysterious process for the average user, or when it is only with great difficulty that one even finds what page to edit, then we have to consider the possibility that we have gotten away from the essential principal that this is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
When we speak of Wikipedia as a site that anyone can edit that means more to me than permission. That permission is hollow if a person lacks the techniques to do it. In the earliest time we took pride in the fact that wiki-markup was so simple that anyone could understand it; the essentials could be put on a single page that did not even need to be scrolled. Someone could edit without having to learn html. Can we still honestly say that a retired professor in the arts and humanities is still able to contribute from his vast experience? His familiarity with his subject may be unquestionable, but his expertise preceeded the cyber-age and did not depend on familiarity with computer languages.
We have many very competent technogeeks, but what produces aesthetic orgasms for them is a disincentive for many of the rest of us, or for many who just never bother. The templates that enhance the tecnogeek mindset and make his life easier have quite the opposite effect on others.
Akash's proposal to replace templates merits support.
Ec