[WikiEN-l] dueling templates

[Charlotte Webb]

On 9/6/07, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:
> Since the spoiler warning templates were removed but the material they
> were labeling was left in, the analogy breaks down a bit. Deleting the
> trivia section template doesn't mean deleting trivia sections themselves.

Exactly. I have no problem with sections which may contain spoiler or
trivia content, but the corresponding "warning" templates are
ridiculous, and I'd be happier if both templates were permanently
retired.

On 9/7/07, Matthew Brown <morven at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think you over-estimate how much of the removal of the spoiler
> templates was done in an automated manner.  I know that a fairly good
> proportion were done with a simple tabbed browser.

Obviously not all indiscriminate edits are automated and not all
automated edits are indiscriminate. If somebody removes entire
sections from several articles without evaluating their content, they
might as well be running a bot.

The same goes for something as simple as removing the spoiler warning
templates. At the end of the day, nobody cares whether somebody is
running a bot or just wearing out their mouse, if the guiding
principle is "this template should not be used" rather than "this
template identifies sections which should be scrapped in their
entirety".

—C.W.