[WikiEN-l] Templates for the masses

[Neil Harris]

K P wrote:
> On 10/7/07, Moe Epsilon <moe_epsilon at yahoo.com> wrote:
>   
>> Honestly, I think the only real way to avoid these templates and still get the message across that there is something wrong, is to repurpose the templates so that the message is displayed on the talk page, that way editors still know to fix what needs fixing and the article, to the reader-population, won't be bothered by the overly annoying use of the boxes. Repurposing the templates is something I would support for the majority of the templates.
>>
>>  Honestly, why do we need a big template on the front of an article anyways? Doesn't discussion about how the article should improve in quality and maintain a more neutral point of view take place on the talk page to begin with? Plastering these articles with obsessive templates like {{current}}, {{npov}}, {{wikify}}, etc. are just useless all around for any reader of the website to see.
>>
>>     
> We need a big template on the front of the article because it's a
> piece of crap.  I didn't even know Wikipedia had talk pages for a long
> time.  And many readers don't know this.  If Wikipedia editors are
> going to persist in posting inaccurate, poorly researched, incomplete
> and misleading crap, the templates are going to serve a purpose.
>
> KP
>   

What KP said. I couldn't put it any more clearly.

The presence of tags on articles is a _major_ clue for readers about the 
state of the article, and helps readers become editors. If we are going 
to fence off readers from editors, we might as well give up on the whole 
wiki idea.

-- Neil