Forum:Proposal: Template Standardization Policy

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Hello all, many remember a blog I made about templates and use of personal ones, I was speaking with Bovell and Callofduty4 (among a few others) earlier on IRC about the use of unprofessional and sometimes plain useless personal or otherwise custom templates. Thus I have come to the conclusion I should propose the standardization of certain templates, namely:

• Vandalism warning template
• Bad edit warning template (this does not seem to be as widely customized, though standardization would protect it from such)
• Welcome template

Although I cannot at the moment think of other templates that might need be included, there may be some. As it is, these templates are official warning or welcome templates, that are impressions of us (the community) as a whole. It is my proposal that somewhat strict regulation be instituted of said templates, such that they once more become templates (rather than nearly every user having his or her own personal message). My idea is that the two warning templates be restricted to the basic ones ({{Vandalism}} and {{Bad Edit}}) as well as the official Recent Changes Patroller warning ({{Vandalism/RCP}}) or those of any other official group, with provisions for the usage of personal messages so long as they do not vary greatly in the message given, and maintain a professional styling and tone. Regarding welcome templates, most of the welcome templates are plain silly, and many do not contain enough information. Here are some guidelines I believe could be implemented:

• Links to

• Help Desk
• War Room
• Policies
• IRC page
• User Manual
• Manual of Style
• Admin list page (or a full list of admins, with a summary of the new user hilite system)

as well as include basic summaries

• Summarize a basic welcome.
• Look and sound professional

I do not wish to restrict a user's freedom to express himself, but our standard welcome templates are enough for now, and could do with very few improvements. If you are a part of the NUW group, feel free to use one of the standard welcomes, or the Black Ops welcome. We can be expressive, but when it comes to welcoming users, Why do we feel the need to have our very own, unique message?. There are now so many personalized "templates" (though now they derive that only from the namespace) that users no longer may receive a different message depending on user, but will receive a different message depending on who welcomes them.

I hope we can all agree that there should at least be some regulation to the warning templates, as to the welcome templates, that's debatable. (PS: There will be a standardization policy implemented for the NUW usergroup effective soon.) Darthkenobi0(talk) 06:11, August 22, 2010 (UTC)

I agree with standardizing the layout, but I would like to keep the rest of the custimization to be more leaniant to individualism. (I.E. pictures and colors) ^{Talk? Edits} 13:40, August 22, 2010 (UTC)

Why do we need individualism in templates? Warnings and welcomes should be just that; with no relevance as to who gives it. It's a bad sign when nearly half the editing toolbar consists of welcome templates. One would wonder if we do anything other than welcome users! We only need one template for each function. One bad edit warning; one vandalism warning; one block warning. No difference in theme, layout or image (if any), and no variation based on who uses the template (be it admin, RCP, NUW, IP, etc.). Follow the fundamental rule of KISS. --Scottie theNerd 14:14, August 22, 2010 (UTC)

I designed the block, vandalism and bad edit template to be as formal as possible - that's why I made them gray with the wiki logo. They explain everything and as Scottie said, there is no need for variations. The welcomes based on user groups might be passable, but the vandalism warnings based off user groups most certainly are not.      14:19, August 22, 2010 (UTC)

Well Scottie had a good point, BUT I find it annoying when someone makes their own vandalism and/or welcome templates. They can get off-topic and annoying. 14:44, August 22, 2010 (UTC)