User:Jax-arrgh/001

This is a description of the frustrations a new Uncyclopedia user finds when he wants to use a template.

1. He goes to Uncyclopedia:Templates/General searching for ideas on what templates might be useful to him.
2. He looks thorough the examples shown and sees one which he thinks he might be able to use (suppose it is Template:UnBooks) but on this page there is nothing which tells him how to use it to get the results shown in the sample.
3. He clicks on the link UnBooks) and when he gets there all he sees is:
   

when he realy wants to make a reference to The Great American Novel

All that would be needed (somewhere) is a simple example to show this person that he will get

simply by

1. placing it on a page which is called The Great American Novel OR
2. by adding an optional parameter by placing a vertical bar following the template's name inside the braces.

I discovered all this on my own, by snooping around and trying to decodify different template codes.

This is a very simple example, there are other undocumented templates which are much more complex and which use more than one parameter, some to be entered in one way, others in another ... the long and short of it is that one simple example does not cover all cases.

Since we don't know which template a new person is going to use first, and also, since we don't know the level of computerese that this person is comfortable with we cannot assume that a new user is going to figure this out or learn it by going to the page of Template:XXX where all is clearly illustrated and explained. The ideal solution is obvious:

Have clear instructions on all template pages in a "noinclude" section.

Problem: who's going to take up the long an tedious task of bringing up to date, all the existing templates?

My experience in participating in many different groups has taught me that:

1. Even if most group members agree with the ideal they are "too busy" to do it and
2. Since all existing members have already learned the basics, they don't place a very high priority on the project,

...so it is agreed-to in principle and never gets done.

Well, Jax-arrgh is not a person to make idle talk nor does he propose things that he is prepared to sit back and let others do.

Because Uncyclopedia does not have a clearly defined and publicized organization where certain individuals are placed in charge of certain activities I could see only two clear options:

1. Forget about the idea
2. Do it myself.

I chose option 2

Now when I start to do this I find that 1 out of the 44 administrators seems to not like what I was doing, but in a series of about 3 messages would not tell me in simple clear language to STOP or CONTINUE. This person (who, if this information is correct, is 19 years old ) is telling me to get a few years experience before I try to explain things to others. What this kid doesn't know it that I was programming my own TRS-80 computer in machine language even before he was a glint in his father's eye. True, I may be a newcomer to templates, but I know how to explain things in clear English. I can tell people "if you do this you get this result". THAT doesn't take 19 years of experience to accomplish.

Neither does it take a lot of knowlege to see something which you don't understand and, being a wee bit more computer savvy than the average person, to know that if I don't understand it then chances are good that other people too will have at least some difficulty with it. When I ask the aforementioned administrator to tell me when a particular template might be used, he simply tells me that because I'm not an administrator (and in his opinion I should never be one) that I wouldn't ever use it.

That is NOT an answer to my question. I don't care if it is only used by the king of Siam, all I wonder about is when he might use that particular template. The answer to that question might or might not be of any immediate value but who knows if it might not at sometime be the creative spark that sets off some genius to invent something enirely new and fantanstic that will revolutionize the entire Wiki world.

Comments, contradictions, suggestions and ideas are welcomed in this page's discussion area.