On 1/4/06, Carbonite carbonite.wp@gmail.com wrote:
You're certainly correct on those points, but this proposal would go a long way towards addressing the current problems with userboxes. I think this issue needs to be solved by a combination of technical solutions (making the userboxes simply a statement than a membership in a faction) and social solutions (any suggestions?).
There is, incidentally, a halfway decent technical solution; unfortunately, it runs afoul of [[Wikipedia:Avoid using meta-templates]]:
1. Eliminate the categories linked from userboxes (this is a basic starting step for any scheme of this sort). 2. Re-implement the templates in question using {{switch}} (see, for example, {{User religion}}). Since the meaning of the template depends on the parameter given, Whatlinkshere is no longer useful; someone looking through it will see anyone who has a religion userbox, rather than those of a particular religion, for instance.
Kirill Lokshin