User:Johan G/Unification and improvement of maintenance templates

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This page will discuss some ideas about unification and improvement of maintenance templates, something there seems to be a need for. Many of the templates that are used for similar purposes seems to have different formatting and different functionality, like timestamping and a link to the discussion page. All this adds up to a bit of confusion and to an incoherent impression. The confusion sometimes is furthered, for example by mentioning "the wiki's quality standards" in {{cleanup}}. There is no formal quality standards, yet.

Some Ideas about what to do

Some of the ideas about things to do to improve the consistency, lessen the confusion and hopefully improve the looks of the maintenance templats:

  • A few main templates for the layouts, as base for the rest, will help getting a consistent look
    • Perhaps have the main templates could help creating a few classes based on importance. For example speedy deletion, {{Delete-sp}}, obviously needs to be more visible than work in progress, {{WIP}}.
  • Timestamping. Knowing that something has been amiss for a long time is probably a good incitement to improve things.
  • They should have a parameter with a link to a discussion page if needed to help clearing out misunderstandings.
  • To help speed up using the templates
    • Named parameters, like date=, should only be used when needed (though using them would probably be very helpful to a bot for time stamping).
    • A copy-pastble example with as much as possible already filled in should be in the template's documentation.
  • I think it could be nice to have a slight bit of humour and self distance. Icons and texts could be a bit into flying terms, though not more than that someone not into that would understand what they are about.

In some cases there seem to be some need for a style guide. What is for example "the wiki's quality standards", as mentioned in {{cleanup}}? However, to keep thing on topic, a style guide for the use of maintenance templates and templates in general could be useful.

Comparison of the maintenance templates

Currently this is based upon the templates residing in Category:Maintenance templates. There is a rather high probability that there are other templates as well.

Template Applies to Functionality Box format Text format Comments
Text Sections Pages Files Discussion link Time stamp Alignment Bold left border Left border colour Icon Border Background Alignment First line Text
{{aero-stub}} No No Yes No No No 100 % width No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centered Bold N/A Related to {{airport-stub}} and {{stub}}
{{airport-stub}} No No Yes No No No 100 % width No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centered Bold N/A Related to {{aero-stub}} and {{stub}}
{{BeingTranslated}} No No Yes No No No Centred Yes FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Bold N/A Related to {{draft}} and {{WIP}}
{{changelog translation}} No No Yes No No N/A 100% width Yes FIXME No FIXME White Centred Bold Normal Not a maintenance template per see
{{clarify}} Yes No No No Yes Yes N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Superscript N/A Normal
{{cleanup}} No No Yes No No No 100% width No FIXME Yes FIXME FIXME Centred Bold Normal
{{dead link}} Yes No No No No Yes N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Superscript N/A Normal
{{delete}} No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Centred Yes FIXME No FIXME FIXME Left Bold Normal
{{delete-sp}} No No Yes Yes No No Left, "but not quite" No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Left Bold Normal
{{disputed}} No No Yes No No No Centred Yes FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Bold Normal
{{draft}} No No Yes No Yes No 100% width Yes FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Bold Normal Related to {{BeingTranslated}} and {{WIP}}
{{file author missing}} No No No Yes N/A N/A Centred No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Mixed Normal Automatically added when a file is uploaded without the information
{{file description missing}} No No No Yes N/A N/A Centred No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Mixed Normal Automatically added when a file is uploaded without the information
{{file source missing}} No No No Yes N/A N/A Centred No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Mixed Normal Automatically added when a file is uploaded without the information
{{image requested}} No No Yes No No No 100% width No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Mixed N/A
{{incomplete}} No No Yes No No No 100% width No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Bold Normal Related to {{aero-stub}}, {{airport-stub}}, {{draft}}, {{stub}} and {{WIP}}
{{merge}} No Yes Yes No Yes Yes 100% width No FIXME Yes FIXME FIXME Left Normal N/A
{{mergedisputed}} No Yes Yes No Yes Yes 100% width No FIXME Yes FIXME FIXME Left Mixed N/A
{{mergefrom}} No Yes Yes No Yes Yes 100% width No FIXME Yes FIXME FIXME Left Normal N/A
{{mergeto}} No Yes Yes No Yes Yes 100% width No FIXME Yes FIXME FIXME Left Normal N/A
{{non-stable}} No Uncertain Yes No N/A N/A Centred Yes FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Italic Italic Not a maintenance template per see
{{obsolete}} No Uncertain Yes No No No Centred Yes FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Bold Normal
{{out of date}} No Uncertain Yes No No No Centred Yes FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Bold Normal
{{remove this line and insert a license instead}} No No No Yes N/A N/A Centred No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Mixed Normal Automatically added when a file is uploaded without the information
{{splitapart}} No Yes No No Yes Yes 100% width No FIXME Yes FIXME FIXME Left Normal N/A
{{stub}} No No Yes No No No 100 % width No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centered Bold N/A Related to {{aero-stub}} and {{airport-stub}}
{{unsigned}} Yes No No No No Yes N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Small, italic N/A Normal Should maybe not be considered a maintenance template
{{UpdateToGit}} No No Yes No No No Centred Yes FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Bold Normal
{{UpdateTranslation}} No No Yes No No No Centred Yes FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centred Bold Normal
{{WIP}} No No Yes No No No Centred No FIXME No FIXME FIXME Centered Bold Normal Related to {{BeingTranslated}} and {{draft}}

Related content

External links

Sources for inspiration

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