GerardM wrote:
Hoi, There is another reason why such templates might be reconsidered. The complexity has become such that it become increasingly difficult to find people who still understand it. The technical sophistication needed has become such that it is beyond many advanced users of MediaWiki. This in itself is a problem because it also raises the threshold for starting Wikimedians.
Well, I certainly agree that template programming is entirely beyond the pale, but that's an entirely separate issue that actually has several possible solutions (an extremely simplified programming language that could be enabled for only certain namespaces, artificially limiting template recursion to improve simplicity, keeping the current style of functions but developing an easier-to-read syntax, etc.)
--en.wp Darkwind