[WikiEN-l] Potential Wikipedian growing pains

Wed Sep 21 12:34:14 UTC 2005

On 9/21/05, Andrew Lih <andrew.lih at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> More and more WP articles have taxoboxes, infoboxes, templates,
> categories, and the like, so that when someone clicks on "Edit this
> page" it is more likely now than ever before, that they'll be
> presented with some pretty intimidating code. Just check out [[Cat]]
> for an example. There seems to be a higher threshold for older
> articles once these constructs have been placed in the code.
>
> I used to tell folks writing for wiki was easy, and the inclusiveness
> of it has to do with not being like a database or data entry system.
> That has changed with templating now being extensively used around the
> Wikimedia projects.
>
> -Andrew (User:Fuzheado)
>

Well, templating is preferable than having the code contained within the
template (usually a complex table) within the main article. Also, templates
do make things much easier to maintain for a series of similar or linked
articles.

Is there a sensible explanation anywhere of how templates work, orientated
towards newbies/less experienced editors?

Some template proliferation is possibly overboard, but in any case, those
are usually the templates without variables (articles series, etc.) which
shouldn't confuse new editors too much, and are often at the bottom of
articles.

Adding the links to the template pages on the edit page was a good idea, but
perhaps they shouldn't just be plonked there, should have a more useful
subheading/explanation above them, or some more help to the editor.

Zoney
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