Forum:Work on Templates
When I first started participating I found the useage of many templates confusing, to say the least.
Recently I started adding Usage examples to templates to give other users the benefit of the experimenting which I had done.
I want to make it clear that I have not changed any templates in this process, but have added, or modifies a no include section with the example of usage and sometimes, when I couldn't make sense of what was happening, or felt that the template might be defective, I put in a note to the effect that the template might be defective becasue it was not producing the expected result.
In a few instances I've placed notes or requests for help on the templates' talk pages, but nobody seems to pay any attention to these, since there's been no response or replies.
You can see a listing of most of the template work I've done in the Template Work section on my User page. A few of the changes I've made have been reverted or eliminated, so you'll have to look at the history pages to catch these.
One of the administrators, (only one) seems to have taken exception to what I was doing, but would not come right out and tell me to stop, so I don't really know what would be acceptable to the overall community: which is my reason for writing here. (Our discussion is on my talk page.)
So, please tell me:
- Should I continue or am I doing more harm than good?
... any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated, too.
-- at me 16:23, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
- I'm to lazy to go check what you did, however usages are a good idea. But, there is a place that will tell you what they all mean and are for...somewhere...I think. --The Zombiebaron 20:03, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
- Uncyclopedia:Templates and its subpages, perhaps? As for <noinclude>, its use is legitimate but wasn't available to us before MediaWiki 1.5; many template pages therefore either don't use it or only use it for category tags placed long after the template was created. --Carlb 20:27, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
- I would say, as the (only one) who took exception, you need to know what you are doing before explaining it to others. I am not saying STOP, just, slow down, and start with the ones you understand. --Splaka 01:24, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the response. Part of the reason I felt there was a need for a usage example was because Uncyclopedia:Templates doesn't give a person any idea of what parameters are needed for each template, nor how to use them. The usage examples I'm placing show an example of the parameters such as (for the template {{Caps}}
== Usage ==
{{Caps|some text}} produces: some text
as opposed to
{{{1}}}
which is what you see on the template page itself, or the template directory.
I will keep up my efforts (with a bit more caution) but I'm still concerned about what I might do when I run into templates that don't seem to work, or which I don't understand. As I noted earlier, placing a request on the discussion page for the template has been fruitless, so can anyone tell me where I might get some fruit (and possibly a few nuts, too)? -- at me 14:44, 15 June 2006 (UTC)