I was thinking something along the lines of an admin configurable option to add specific templates for specific namespaces and categories. One way to avoid pages that only contain default text would be to only add the template if the page is not saved blank, or to not include the template as part of the text, instead rendering it separate underneath or above the text.
The problem I'm having is that many people do not read guidelines before they start using the wiki, which leads to inconsistent formatting, and discussion pages that are out of control. For certain categories and namespaces it would be nice to have formatting information there so people know what to follow.
I'm not sure if a "template on request" button would work because the user would still have to add it manually, and 99% of the time, they probably don't know the template even exists. Even if there were a list of all templates to choose from, users likely wouldn't know which template to use. Either way, most pages wouldn't have the template it needed.
One specific template that would be very nice for every page is a help bar at the top or bottom. Other than hacking at the code, I don't see a way to add this to every page by default.
Ryan Lane NAVOCEANO
-----Original Message----- From: wikitech-l-bounces@wikimedia.org [SMTP:wikitech-l-bounces@wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of b schewek Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 2:56 PM To: Wikimedia developers Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Auto-template on Page Creation
Ryan Lane:
Is there any way to make a template automatically appear on newly
created
pages? If so, is there any way to do it by specific namespaces? I have a template that tells users how they should use talk pages, but it would
be
much more useful if it was added by default. It would also be nice to be able to do something like this when categories are used (like formatting rules for topics under certain categories).
If this is not currently possible, is this something that the wikimedia community would be interested in? If so, what are some ideas on a good
way
to implement this, and which objects would need to be modified to add
this
functionality?
A long time ago, empty pages had a standard text inside. It lead to the creation of many pages with exactly that text. Thus, the practice was discontinued.
Maybe a "template on request" button, as part of the edit menu?
Schewek
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