The "meta-template problem" is getting out of hand. Would it be possible for
the various technical brains to hammer out a definitive statement as to the
actual cost/benefit balance?
I hate to bring particular names into this but [[User:Netoholic]] has been
prominent in connection with this, and has been indulging in activities
which AFAICT are more damaging than the problem he (?) is seeking to solve.
I will set out the situation as I understand it, and the no-doubt-huge holes
in my logic can be filled in by those who know better. I'm posting this here
because I think the technical aspects of the problem are paramount.
----
There is a certain overhead involved with transcluding a template. If that
template transcludes another in turn (a "meta-template"), this overhead
increases somewhat.
However if both the template and the "meta-template" remain static, this
overhead is relatively small and can be absorbed without any huge fuss.
If *any* template is changed, then all the pages which transclude it must be
flushed from the caching system, and for a popular template this can incur
significant costs. The costs might well be magnified for a "meta-template"
because its "popularity" is the sum of that of all the templates which
transclude it.
Thus editing a meta-template most likely will incur increased costs.
----
The problem I am seeing is that the user I name above seems to be (and I
phrase it like this because I might simply be failing to see any other)
engaging in a one-user war upon meta-templates and reverting madly to remove
them whenever possible.
This is the damaging activity to which I alluded before, because several
popular templates are being reverted and re-reverted seemingly incessantly,
which must be causing havoc to the caching system.
I was under the impression that [[User:Netoholic]] was actually under some
sort of ban from editing in the Template and Wikipedia namespaces, but
obviously I'm behind the times because he's at it again today
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AContributions&target=Netoholic&hideminor=0&namespace=10>).
The article [[Wikipedia:Avoid using meta-templates]] contains some very
useful background provided by [[user:Jamesday]] but I wonder if the
situation requires more strenuous action.
--
Phil
[[en:User:Phil Boswell]]