David Gerard wrote:
On 31/05/07, Gracenotes wikigracenotes@gmail.com wrote:
Article talk is important for interaction, but what about user talk? I'm not talking about warning templates here.
Templates on user talk are IMO amongst the Worst Ideas Ever. Bot warnings about fair use images are one thing ... templated experimentation/vandal warnings are just obnoxious.
One should use one's own words. A template says "you have been bureaucratised".
Well it is basically bureaucratized, which I don't see as that big a deal. The vast majority of such template messages are standard boilerplate aimed at newbies who might not realize what they're doing. If I had to custom-write text for each time I told somebody "it seems the edits you've made might not be helpful, but please don't get offended if you were editing in good faith", I would probalby never bother to do it at all.
I do generally avoid using such templates when dealing with non-new users.
-Mark