User blog:WarBlade/Full Article Templates

Now that we have new Borderlands upcoming release content to start thinking about, we will also have to consider updates to the templates on the. The first one on the list is the character infobox. This is the last of the infobox templates to be updated with automatically generated categories, and it was impractical to use categories like this because the template is occasionally used for fan fic characters in the User name space.

So with new characters coming, old character articles needing repairs, and a varied mish mash of manually added categories to sort out, it seems appropriate to tackle the character infoboxes first.

It'll be a little different this time though. I'm tinkering with a template that can cover an entire page rather than just an infobox. There are a few disadvantages to templating an article in this manner, and a number of advantages.
 * Disadvantages
 * Edit links are absent from section headers by default. They are possible, but awkward, to implement. This is a minor inconvenience for some editors who prefer to edit by section.
 * If someone creates a broken link [[like this] inside any infobox it will break the infobox, but on a fully templated article it will mess up the entire page. Again, this is a minor inconvenience, and something that editors should fix when they make the mess, or revert if they can't see what they've done.
 * Templated body text is a bit unusual, and some guinea pig testing has highlighted the potential for new editors to be confused by it. A bit of forethought and a bit of practice should mitigate this issue to the point of non-existence.
 * Advantages
 * The layout is prescriptive, so no more guesswork about the order of subsections.
 * Common problem edits can be targeted by notice pop-ups to dissuade bad edits and encourage good ones.
 * Subsections collapse when not needed, yet will be visible as reminders of data that might be useful.
 * Certain unwanted additions will not be displayed.

Here are the current parameters:
 * Box Title         =
 * Image             =
 * Caption           =


 * Character Type    =
 * Type Clarifier    =
 * Character Type2   =
 * Type2 Clarifier   =
 * Gender            =
 * Race              =
 * Group Affiliations =


 * Game              =
 * Game2             =
 * Game3             =
 * Game4             =
 * Voice Actor       =


 * Skins Link        =


 * Intro             =


 * Background        =


 * Involvement       =


 * Skills            =


 * Custom Header     =
 * Custom Data       =


 * Strategy          =
 * Mission           =


 * Appearances       =


 * Quotes            =


 * Notes             =
 * Trivia            =


 * See Also          =
 * External Links    =
 * Nav               =

I'd imagine that most of these are self-explanatory, but just to cover some of the changes...
 * "Box Title" replaces "Name" in the current infoboxes to hopefully reduce instances of people using the default override to override the default name with the same name.
 * "Character Type" partially replaces "Faction" with a simpler three choice option on the generic type of character.
 * "Type Clarifier" has been noted to be unintuitive. It could use a better name. It's exactly like a disambiguation clarifier in article titles, and only needed in rare cases where a character falls into two groups.
 * "Group Affiliations" is the other part of replacing "Faction." Faction was a straight forward concept in Borderlands that got clunky in Borderlands 2, especially once the Campaign of Carnage was released.
 * "Skills" appears automatically for playable characters, and remains hidden otherwise.
 * "Custom" header and data are for a few unusual cases where characters like Steve have unique considerations to document in the middle of the article.
 * "Strategy" is now an either/or proposition for either a mission link, or a strategy write up, which is intended to mitigate the situation of people writing duplicate strategies that are already covered in a mission article.
 * "Appearances" has been moved from the infobox out to the body due to the bloated lists appearing in some infoboxes.
 * "Nav" is just a place to keep the nav boxes, and hopefully stop people putting trivia notes below them, or removing them accidentally.


 * Removed
 * Location: It was getting a bit clunky in the infobox. It might go back in. It might be better grouped with "Appearances" in the article body.
 * Level: Variable values based on character level were causing problems.
 * Status: Horrible idea, and routinely misused on a multitude of wikis.

Now over to you guys.

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Things that should be in the template, but aren't?

Let me know.