Cèṭa'an:Ambox

Dokumentasi cèṭaan[tèngghu] [beccè] [sejarah] [purge]

Message box meta-templates
template	context
{{Ambox}}	article
{{Cmbox}}	category
{{Imbox}}	image
{{Tmbox}}	talk
{{Fmbox}}	footer / header
{{Ombox}}	other pages
{{Mbox}}	auto-detect
{{Asbox}}	article stub
{{Dmbox}}	disambiguation

{{Ambox}} stands for Article message box, which is a metatemplate. It is used to build message boxes for templates used in articles, such as {{underlinked}}. It offers several different colours, images and some other features.

Basic usage

The box below shows the most common parameters that are accepted by {{Ambox}}. The purpose of each is described below.

{{Ambox
| name  = 
| subst = <includeonly>{{subst:substcheck}}</includeonly>
| small = {{{small|}}}
| type  = 
| image = 
| sect  = {{{1|}}}
| issue = 
| talk  = {{{talk|}}}
| fix   = 
| date  = {{{date|}}}
| cat   = 
| all   = 
}}

Full usage

Full parameters

The "All parameters" box shows all possible parameters for this template. However, it is not recommended to copy this, because it will never be required to use all parameters simultaneously.

All parameters
{{Ambox | name = | subst = <includeonly>{{subst:substcheck}}</includeonly> | small = {{{small|}}} | type = | image = | imageright = | smallimage = | smallimageright = | class = | style = | textstyle = | sect = {{{1|}}} | issue = | talk = {{{talk|}}} | fix = | date = {{{date|}}} | text = | smalltext = | plainlinks = no | removalnotice = | cat = | all = | cat2 = | all2 = | cat3 = | all3 = }}

Common parameters

name

The name parameter specifies the name of the template, without the Template namespace prefix. For example {{Underlinked}} specifies |name=Underlinked.

This parameter should be updated if the template is ever moved. The purpose of this parameter is twofold:

• If incorrectly substituted, it allows the meta-template to notify the name of the template which has been substituted, which may help editors to fix the problem.
• It allows the template to have a more useful display on its template page, for example to show the date even when not specified, and to apply categorisation of the template itself.

subst

The subst parameter allows the meta-template to detect whether the template has been incorrectly substituted, and give an appropriate warning. It will also add such pages to Category:Pages with incorrectly substituted templates. Just copy the code exactly as it appears in the box.

small

The small parameter should be passed through the template, as this will allow editors to use the small format by specifying |small=left on an article:

Otherwise the standard format will be produced:

Other variations:

• For templates which should never be small, specify |small=no or do not pass the small parameter at all.
• For templates which should always be small, just specify |small=left.
• For templates which should default to small, try |small={{{small|left}}}. This will allow an editor to override by using |small=no on an article.

To use a small box that adjusts its width to match the text, use |style=width: auto; margin-right: 0px; and |textstyle=width: auto; together:

See § sect below for more information on how to limit |small= display to cases when the template is being used for a section instead of the whole article (recommended, to prevent inconsistent top-of-article display).

type

The type parameter defines the colour of the left bar, and the image that is used by default. The type is chosen not on aesthetics but is based on the type of issue that the template describes. The seven available types and their default images are shown below.

If no type parameter is given the template defaults to |type=notice.

image

You can choose a specific image to use for the template by using the image parameter. Images are specified using the standard syntax for inserting files in Wikipedia (see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images#How to place an image.) Widths of 40-50px are typical. For example:

• {{POV}} specifies |image=[[File:Unbalanced scales.svg|40px|link=|alt=]] and looks like this:

• {{underlinked}} specifies |image=[[File:Ambox wikify.svg|50x40px|link=|alt=]] and looks like this:

Please note:

• If no image is specified then the default image corresponding to the type is used. (See #type above.)
• If |image=none is specified, then no image is used and the text uses the whole message box area.
• If an icon is purely decorative and also in the public domain, accessibility can be improved by suppressing the link to the file page by adding "|link=|alt=" as seen above.

sect

Many article message templates begin with the text This article ... and it is often desirable that this wording change to This section ... if the template is used on a section instead. The value of this parameter will replace the word "article". Various possibilities for use include: |sect=list, |sect=table, |sect="In popular culture" material, etc.

Cèṭa'an:Essay list Essays, as used by Wikipedia editors, typically contain advice or opinions of one or more editors. The purpose of an essay is to aid or comment on the encyclopedia but not on any unrelated causes. Essays have no official status and do not speak for the Wikipedia community because they may be created and edited without overall community oversight. Following the instructions or advice given in an essay is optional. Generally soft advice belongs in an essay, thus avoiding instruction creep in Wikipedia's official protocols. There are over 2,000 essays on a wide range of Wikipedia-related topics. Wikipedia policy says, “Essays…that overtly contradict consensus, belong in the user namespace”.

About essays

Although essays are not policies or guidelines, many are worthy of consideration. Policies and guidelines cannot cover all circumstances. Consequently, many essays serve as interpretations of or commentary on perceived community norms for specific topics and situations. The value of an essay should be understood in context, using common sense and discretion. Essays can be written by anyone and can be long monologues or short theses, serious or humorous. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. An essay, as well as being useful, can potentially be a divisive means of espousing a point of view. Although an essay should not be used to create an alternative rule set, the Wikipedia community has historically tolerated a wide range of Wikipedia-related subjects and viewpoints on user pages.

The difference between policies, guidelines, and some essays on Wikipedia may be obscure. Essays vary in popularity and how much they are followed and referred to. Editors should defer to official policies or guidelines when essays, information pages or template documentation pages are inconsistent with established community standards and principles.

Avoid "quoting" essays as though they are policy—including this explanatory supplement page. Essays, information pages and template documentation pages can be written without much—if any—debate, as opposed to Wikipedia policies that have been thoroughly vetted by the community (see WP:Local consensus for details). In Wikipedia discussions, editors may refer to essays, provided that they do not hold them out as consensus or policy. Proposals for new guidelines and policies require discussion and a high level of consensus from the entire community for promotion. See Wikipedia:How to contribute to Wikipedia guidance and Wikipedia:Policy writing is hard for more information.

Essays are located in the Wikipedia namespace (e.g., Wikipedia:Reasonability rule) and in User namespaces (e.g., User:Jimbo Wales/Statement of principles). The Help namespace contains pages which provide factual (usually technical) information on using Wikipedia and its software (see below). The {{Essay}}-family templates (with several variants like {{Notability essay}} and {{WikiProject advice}}), versus the {{Guideline}} (and variants, like {{MoS guideline}}) and {{Policy}} templates give an indication of a page's status within the community. Some essays at one time were proposed policies or guidelines, but they could not gain consensus overall; as indicated by the template {{Failed proposal}}. Other essays that at one time had consensus, but are no longer relevant, are tagged with the template {{Historical}}. Essays currently nominated for policy status are indicated by the banner {{Proposed}}. See Wikipedia:Template messages/Wikipedia namespace for a listing of namespace banners.

Types of essays

Wikipedia namespace essays

Further information: Wikipedia:Project namespace § Essay pages

Essays in the Wikipedia namespace – which are to be put in the main (encyclopedia article) namespace – typically address some aspect of working in Wikipedia. They have not been formally adopted as guidelines or policies by the community at large, but typically edited by the community. Some are widely accepted as part of the Wikipedia gestalt, and have a significant degree of influence during discussions (like "guideline supplements" WP:Tendentious editing, WP:Bold, revert, discuss cycle, and WP:Competence is required).

Many essays, however, are obscure, single-author pieces. Essays may be moved into userspace as user essays Cèṭa'an:See below, or even deleted, if they are found to be problematic. Occasionally, even longstanding, community-edited essays may be removed or radically revised if community norms shift.

See also: Category:Wikipedia essays

See also: Category:High-impact WikiProject Wikipedia essays pages

How to and information pages

Further information: Wikipedia:Information pages

Wikipedia's how-to and information pages are typically edited by the community and can also be found in the help namespace. They generally provide technical and factual information about Wikipedia or supplement guidelines and policies in greater detail. Where "essay pages" often offer advice or opinions through viewpoints, information pages are intended to clarity and explain current community practices in an impartial way (e.g., Wikipedia:Administration).

See also: Category:Wikipedia information pages tor Category:Wikipedia how-to

WikiProject advice pages

Further information: Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide § Advice pages

WikiProjects are groups of editors who work together. Advice pages written by these groups are formally considered the same as pages written by anyone else, that is, they are essays unless and until they have been formally adopted as community-wide guidelines or policies. WikiProjects are encouraged to write essays explaining how the community's policies and guidelines should be applied to their areas of interest and expertise (e.g., Wikipedia:WikiProject Bibliographies#Recommended structure).

See also: Category:WikiProjects

User essays

Further information: Wikipedia:User pages

According to Wikipedia policy, "Essays that the author does not want others to edit, or that are found to contradict widespread consensus, belong in the user namespace." These are similar to essays placed in the Wikipedia namespace; however, they are often authored/edited by only one person, and may represent a strictly personal viewpoint about Wikipedia or its processes (e.g., User:Jehochman/Responding to rudeness). Some of them are widely respected by other editors, and even occasionally have an effect on policy (e.g., the WP:General notability guideline originated in a user essay).

Writings that contradict policy are somewhat tolerated within the User namespace. The author of a personal essay located in their user space has the prerogative to revert any changes made to it by any other user, within reason. Polemics in the form of personal attacks against particular people, groups, real-life ideas (e.g. artists or politicians), or against Wikipedia itself, are generally deleted at MFD, as unconstructive or disruptive. Likewise, advocacy of fringe POV and pushing of fringe content and conspiracy theories is not tolerated. Wikipedia is a mainstream encyclopedia that sides with RS and does not promote content based on unreliable sources. Such content is considered WP:UNDUE.

See also: Category:User essays

Historical essays

The Wikimedia Foundation's Meta-wiki was envisioned as the original place for editors to comment on and discuss Wikipedia, although the "Wikipedia" project space has since taken over most of that role. Many historical essays can still be found at Meta.Wikimedia.org.

It is generally preferable that inactive WikiProjects not be tagged as "Historical ", but instead be marked as {{WikiProject status|inactive}} or {{WikiProject status|Defunct}}. See WP:INACTIVEWP for more details.

See also: Meta:Category:Essays

Creation and modification of essays

Main page: Wikipedia:Wikipedia essays

See also: Wikipedia:Project namespace § Creating new project pages, Wikipedia:Project namespace § Deletion of project pages, tor Wikipedia:Content forking/Internal § Essay forks

Before creating an essay, it is a good idea to check if similar essays already exist. Although there is no guideline or policy that explicitly prohibits it, writing redundant essays is discouraged. Avoid creating essays just to prove a point or game the system. Essays that violate one or more Wikipedia policies, such as spam, personal attacks, copyright violations, or what Wikipedia is not tend to get deleted or transferred to user space.

You do not have to have created an essay to improve it. If an essay already exists, you can add to, remove from, or modify it as you wish, provided that you use good judgment. However, essays placed in the User: namespace are often—though not always—meant to represent the viewpoint of one user only. You should usually not substantively edit someone else's user essay without permission. To be on the safe side, discuss any edits not covered by REFACTOR and MINOR before making them. If the original author is no longer active or available, seek consensus on the essay's talk page (other editors who have worked on the essay are likely to care about it), or just write a new one.

Finding essays

Main page: Wikipedia:Essay directory

Wikipedia:Essay directory lists about 2100 essays to allow searching for key words or terms with your browser. Essays can also be navigated via categories, the navigation template, or by a custom search box (as seen below).

Data

• Wikipedia:list of essays sorted by score

Notes

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and an encyclopedia needs people to write it. Unlike most other reference works, we don't pay people to write for us, and there are very few incentives, perks or privileges associated with contributing. As such, our most valuable resource is neither money nor webspace, but Wikipedia's contributors, those dedicated people who take time out of their lives to edit, improve or maintain articles. In short, editors matter; and one of the important priorities of the Wikipedia community must be to recruit and retain good contributors. The encyclopedia simply cannot survive without human beings to build and maintain it. This should be taken into account in making decisions, particularly in miscellany for deletion discussions.

Think about the impact of deletions

From time to time, a good-faith editor who is contributing to the encyclopedia will create pages in their own userspace or in the project namespace which seem only tangentially related to Wikipedia, if at all. This may include large amounts of information about their likes, dislikes, hobbies, or political and religious views, or may include various wiki-games or "fun" pages. In general, this is because they are new to Wikipedia and are not familiar with the purpose of userspace. Many are younger users, and should be treated with consideration accordingly; all are human beings who may be affected by how the Wikipedia community treats them.

Frequently, a well-meaning long-term Wikipedian, who views their use of userspace as inappropriate, will throw the book at them, citing Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not and the userspace guidelines. They may nominate the user's pages for deletion, and say something along the lines of "This user has more userboxes than edits" or "If they're not interested in contributing to the encyclopedia, there's no point keeping their userpage". This is completely the wrong approach, as it is likely to drive the user away.

Instead, the approach to take is to tactfully try to encourage them to contribute to the encyclopedia. Keeping surplus pages around for a while does not do any significant harm to the encyclopedia; Wikipedia needs editors more than it needs webspace (and deletions don't actually free up webspace, as deleted material stays in the archives). What does harm Wikipedia is to drive an active good-faith contributor away by threatening their userpages with deletion. So, if you encounter a new user of this type, don't go for a deletion nomination as the first step. Instead, be nice to them, don't bite, and try to encourage them to concentrate more on editing the encyclopedia rather than their own userspace.

Note that this does not apply to blatant abuses of userspace. For instance, a user who is attempting to use their userspace for obvious advertising purposes (for an individual, business, charity or other organisation), and has already been warned that this is inappropriate, may justifiably have their pages deleted through the miscellany for deletion process. Such accounts are unlikely to be used for constructive contribution.

Policy is not a trump card

All too often, in deletion debates, people churn out references to policies and guidelines without actually relating them to what's best for the encyclopedia, or thinking about them. All too often, this happens at MfD in debates relating to userspace. For instance, someone's userpage will be put up for deletion on the grounds that "WP:NOT a free webhost"; other contributors will automatically agree, because Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not is a policy, and they assume that anyone who cites a policy must ipso facto be right. They fail to consider the fact that deleting someone's userpage will drive that contributor away, which is bad for the encyclopedia.

In a deletion debate, don't just use trite policy-based catchphrases like "Wikipedia is not X". While the core content policies serve as reference points, it's always more helpful to relate an argument to what's actually best for the encyclopedia, and justify it in detail.

Questions to consider in debating a deletion

When content in someone's userspace, or in the Wikipedia namespace, is put up for deletion using the miscellany for deletion process, don't just quote inflexible policies and guidelines, and don't blindly follow those who do. For instance, try not to do this:

• Delete. WP:NOT a free webhost. DeleteItAll 13:56, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
• Delete per above. OneWithTheCrowd 13:56, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Instead, try to consider the following important questions.

• Does the content make an editor happy, or strengthen Wikipedia's sense of community and shared enjoyment? If so, this is an argument for keeping, as it makes them more likely to contribute to Wikipedia. Unless it can be shown that the content is harmful, the presumption should be in favour of keeping it.
• Will deleting the page actually do Wikipedia any good? Remember that deletions don't actually free up space, and, as per Wikipedia:Don't worry about performance, we're not meant to worry about the capacity of the servers. In general, unless a page is actively harmful to the project, there's no reason to delete it.
• Is it harmless? A lot of editors counter valid arguments to Keep by citing the redirect WP:HARMLESS, which is taken from the essay Wikipedia:Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions. While "it's harmless" is certainly not a valid reason for keeping encyclopedic content (such as articles, templates and images) which does not meet Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, it is a perfectly valid argument when applied to the Wikipedia namespace and to userspace. In general, content in these namespaces should only be removed if it's harmful to the encyclopedia.

See also

• Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers
• Wikipedia:Readers First
• Wikipedia:Some observant words regarding editing and people
• Wikipedia:Wikipedia is a community
• Wikipedia:Zeroth law of Wikipedia
• User:Pppery/The iceberg

A common way to facilitate this functionality is to pass |sect={{{1|}}}. This will allow editors to type section, for example, as the first unnamed parameter of the template to change the wording. For example, {{Advert|section}} produces: Cèṭa'an:Advert Another approach is to pass |sect={{{section|{{{sect|}}}}}} to provide a named value. Another is to use {{Yesno}} to parse the value for a positive, and pass |sect=section if true.

Cèṭa'an:Essay list Essays, as used by Wikipedia editors, typically contain advice or opinions of one or more editors. The purpose of an essay is to aid or comment on the encyclopedia but not on any unrelated causes. Essays have no official status and do not speak for the Wikipedia community because they may be created and edited without overall community oversight. Following the instructions or advice given in an essay is optional. Generally soft advice belongs in an essay, thus avoiding instruction creep in Wikipedia's official protocols. There are over 2,000 essays on a wide range of Wikipedia-related topics. Wikipedia policy says, “Essays…that overtly contradict consensus, belong in the user namespace”.

About essays

Although essays are not policies or guidelines, many are worthy of consideration. Policies and guidelines cannot cover all circumstances. Consequently, many essays serve as interpretations of or commentary on perceived community norms for specific topics and situations. The value of an essay should be understood in context, using common sense and discretion. Essays can be written by anyone and can be long monologues or short theses, serious or humorous. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. An essay, as well as being useful, can potentially be a divisive means of espousing a point of view. Although an essay should not be used to create an alternative rule set, the Wikipedia community has historically tolerated a wide range of Wikipedia-related subjects and viewpoints on user pages.

The difference between policies, guidelines, and some essays on Wikipedia may be obscure. Essays vary in popularity and how much they are followed and referred to. Editors should defer to official policies or guidelines when essays, information pages or template documentation pages are inconsistent with established community standards and principles.

Avoid "quoting" essays as though they are policy—including this explanatory supplement page. Essays, information pages and template documentation pages can be written without much—if any—debate, as opposed to Wikipedia policies that have been thoroughly vetted by the community (see WP:Local consensus for details). In Wikipedia discussions, editors may refer to essays, provided that they do not hold them out as consensus or policy. Proposals for new guidelines and policies require discussion and a high level of consensus from the entire community for promotion. See Wikipedia:How to contribute to Wikipedia guidance and Wikipedia:Policy writing is hard for more information.

Essays are located in the Wikipedia namespace (e.g., Wikipedia:Reasonability rule) and in User namespaces (e.g., User:Jimbo Wales/Statement of principles). The Help namespace contains pages which provide factual (usually technical) information on using Wikipedia and its software (see below). The {{Essay}}-family templates (with several variants like {{Notability essay}} and {{WikiProject advice}}), versus the {{Guideline}} (and variants, like {{MoS guideline}}) and {{Policy}} templates give an indication of a page's status within the community. Some essays at one time were proposed policies or guidelines, but they could not gain consensus overall; as indicated by the template {{Failed proposal}}. Other essays that at one time had consensus, but are no longer relevant, are tagged with the template {{Historical}}. Essays currently nominated for policy status are indicated by the banner {{Proposed}}. See Wikipedia:Template messages/Wikipedia namespace for a listing of namespace banners.

Types of essays

Wikipedia namespace essays

Further information: Wikipedia:Project namespace § Essay pages

Essays in the Wikipedia namespace – which are to be put in the main (encyclopedia article) namespace – typically address some aspect of working in Wikipedia. They have not been formally adopted as guidelines or policies by the community at large, but typically edited by the community. Some are widely accepted as part of the Wikipedia gestalt, and have a significant degree of influence during discussions (like "guideline supplements" WP:Tendentious editing, WP:Bold, revert, discuss cycle, and WP:Competence is required).

Many essays, however, are obscure, single-author pieces. Essays may be moved into userspace as user essays Cèṭa'an:See below, or even deleted, if they are found to be problematic. Occasionally, even longstanding, community-edited essays may be removed or radically revised if community norms shift.

See also: Category:Wikipedia essays

See also: Category:High-impact WikiProject Wikipedia essays pages

How to and information pages

Further information: Wikipedia:Information pages

Wikipedia's how-to and information pages are typically edited by the community and can also be found in the help namespace. They generally provide technical and factual information about Wikipedia or supplement guidelines and policies in greater detail. Where "essay pages" often offer advice or opinions through viewpoints, information pages are intended to clarity and explain current community practices in an impartial way (e.g., Wikipedia:Administration).

See also: Category:Wikipedia information pages tor Category:Wikipedia how-to

WikiProject advice pages

Further information: Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide § Advice pages

WikiProjects are groups of editors who work together. Advice pages written by these groups are formally considered the same as pages written by anyone else, that is, they are essays unless and until they have been formally adopted as community-wide guidelines or policies. WikiProjects are encouraged to write essays explaining how the community's policies and guidelines should be applied to their areas of interest and expertise (e.g., Wikipedia:WikiProject Bibliographies#Recommended structure).

See also: Category:WikiProjects

User essays

Further information: Wikipedia:User pages

According to Wikipedia policy, "Essays that the author does not want others to edit, or that are found to contradict widespread consensus, belong in the user namespace." These are similar to essays placed in the Wikipedia namespace; however, they are often authored/edited by only one person, and may represent a strictly personal viewpoint about Wikipedia or its processes (e.g., User:Jehochman/Responding to rudeness). Some of them are widely respected by other editors, and even occasionally have an effect on policy (e.g., the WP:General notability guideline originated in a user essay).

Writings that contradict policy are somewhat tolerated within the User namespace. The author of a personal essay located in their user space has the prerogative to revert any changes made to it by any other user, within reason. Polemics in the form of personal attacks against particular people, groups, real-life ideas (e.g. artists or politicians), or against Wikipedia itself, are generally deleted at MFD, as unconstructive or disruptive. Likewise, advocacy of fringe POV and pushing of fringe content and conspiracy theories is not tolerated. Wikipedia is a mainstream encyclopedia that sides with RS and does not promote content based on unreliable sources. Such content is considered WP:UNDUE.

See also: Category:User essays

Historical essays

The Wikimedia Foundation's Meta-wiki was envisioned as the original place for editors to comment on and discuss Wikipedia, although the "Wikipedia" project space has since taken over most of that role. Many historical essays can still be found at Meta.Wikimedia.org.

It is generally preferable that inactive WikiProjects not be tagged as "Historical ", but instead be marked as {{WikiProject status|inactive}} or {{WikiProject status|Defunct}}. See WP:INACTIVEWP for more details.

See also: Meta:Category:Essays

Creation and modification of essays

Main page: Wikipedia:Wikipedia essays

See also: Wikipedia:Project namespace § Creating new project pages, Wikipedia:Project namespace § Deletion of project pages, tor Wikipedia:Content forking/Internal § Essay forks

Before creating an essay, it is a good idea to check if similar essays already exist. Although there is no guideline or policy that explicitly prohibits it, writing redundant essays is discouraged. Avoid creating essays just to prove a point or game the system. Essays that violate one or more Wikipedia policies, such as spam, personal attacks, copyright violations, or what Wikipedia is not tend to get deleted or transferred to user space.

You do not have to have created an essay to improve it. If an essay already exists, you can add to, remove from, or modify it as you wish, provided that you use good judgment. However, essays placed in the User: namespace are often—though not always—meant to represent the viewpoint of one user only. You should usually not substantively edit someone else's user essay without permission. To be on the safe side, discuss any edits not covered by REFACTOR and MINOR before making them. If the original author is no longer active or available, seek consensus on the essay's talk page (other editors who have worked on the essay are likely to care about it), or just write a new one.

Finding essays

Main page: Wikipedia:Essay directory

Wikipedia:Essay directory lists about 2100 essays to allow searching for key words or terms with your browser. Essays can also be navigated via categories, the navigation template, or by a custom search box (as seen below).

Data

• Wikipedia:list of essays sorted by score

Notes

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and an encyclopedia needs people to write it. Unlike most other reference works, we don't pay people to write for us, and there are very few incentives, perks or privileges associated with contributing. As such, our most valuable resource is neither money nor webspace, but Wikipedia's contributors, those dedicated people who take time out of their lives to edit, improve or maintain articles. In short, editors matter; and one of the important priorities of the Wikipedia community must be to recruit and retain good contributors. The encyclopedia simply cannot survive without human beings to build and maintain it. This should be taken into account in making decisions, particularly in miscellany for deletion discussions.

Think about the impact of deletions

From time to time, a good-faith editor who is contributing to the encyclopedia will create pages in their own userspace or in the project namespace which seem only tangentially related to Wikipedia, if at all. This may include large amounts of information about their likes, dislikes, hobbies, or political and religious views, or may include various wiki-games or "fun" pages. In general, this is because they are new to Wikipedia and are not familiar with the purpose of userspace. Many are younger users, and should be treated with consideration accordingly; all are human beings who may be affected by how the Wikipedia community treats them.

Frequently, a well-meaning long-term Wikipedian, who views their use of userspace as inappropriate, will throw the book at them, citing Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not and the userspace guidelines. They may nominate the user's pages for deletion, and say something along the lines of "This user has more userboxes than edits" or "If they're not interested in contributing to the encyclopedia, there's no point keeping their userpage". This is completely the wrong approach, as it is likely to drive the user away.

Instead, the approach to take is to tactfully try to encourage them to contribute to the encyclopedia. Keeping surplus pages around for a while does not do any significant harm to the encyclopedia; Wikipedia needs editors more than it needs webspace (and deletions don't actually free up webspace, as deleted material stays in the archives). What does harm Wikipedia is to drive an active good-faith contributor away by threatening their userpages with deletion. So, if you encounter a new user of this type, don't go for a deletion nomination as the first step. Instead, be nice to them, don't bite, and try to encourage them to concentrate more on editing the encyclopedia rather than their own userspace.

Note that this does not apply to blatant abuses of userspace. For instance, a user who is attempting to use their userspace for obvious advertising purposes (for an individual, business, charity or other organisation), and has already been warned that this is inappropriate, may justifiably have their pages deleted through the miscellany for deletion process. Such accounts are unlikely to be used for constructive contribution.

Policy is not a trump card

All too often, in deletion debates, people churn out references to policies and guidelines without actually relating them to what's best for the encyclopedia, or thinking about them. All too often, this happens at MfD in debates relating to userspace. For instance, someone's userpage will be put up for deletion on the grounds that "WP:NOT a free webhost"; other contributors will automatically agree, because Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not is a policy, and they assume that anyone who cites a policy must ipso facto be right. They fail to consider the fact that deleting someone's userpage will drive that contributor away, which is bad for the encyclopedia.

In a deletion debate, don't just use trite policy-based catchphrases like "Wikipedia is not X". While the core content policies serve as reference points, it's always more helpful to relate an argument to what's actually best for the encyclopedia, and justify it in detail.

Questions to consider in debating a deletion

When content in someone's userspace, or in the Wikipedia namespace, is put up for deletion using the miscellany for deletion process, don't just quote inflexible policies and guidelines, and don't blindly follow those who do. For instance, try not to do this:

• Delete. WP:NOT a free webhost. DeleteItAll 13:56, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
• Delete per above. OneWithTheCrowd 13:56, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Instead, try to consider the following important questions.

• Does the content make an editor happy, or strengthen Wikipedia's sense of community and shared enjoyment? If so, this is an argument for keeping, as it makes them more likely to contribute to Wikipedia. Unless it can be shown that the content is harmful, the presumption should be in favour of keeping it.
• Will deleting the page actually do Wikipedia any good? Remember that deletions don't actually free up space, and, as per Wikipedia:Don't worry about performance, we're not meant to worry about the capacity of the servers. In general, unless a page is actively harmful to the project, there's no reason to delete it.
• Is it harmless? A lot of editors counter valid arguments to Keep by citing the redirect WP:HARMLESS, which is taken from the essay Wikipedia:Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions. While "it's harmless" is certainly not a valid reason for keeping encyclopedic content (such as articles, templates and images) which does not meet Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, it is a perfectly valid argument when applied to the Wikipedia namespace and to userspace. In general, content in these namespaces should only be removed if it's harmful to the encyclopedia.

See also

• Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers
• Wikipedia:Readers First
• Wikipedia:Some observant words regarding editing and people
• Wikipedia:Wikipedia is a community
• Wikipedia:Zeroth law of Wikipedia
• User:Pppery/The iceberg, and this is recommended. The following ready-to-use code:

Cèṭa'an:Block indent enables the following:

• Any positive value that {{Yesno}} can detect will be used with the named parameter in the ambox-based template to get "section" instead of "article": |section=y, |sect=True, etc. It is recommended to allow both |sect= and |section= so that editors do not have to guess which one will work. The sample code above does this for you.
• Any other value passed, in any manner, will replace "article": |section and its subsections, |1=list, |sect=section, |section=table, etc.

It is also advisable to restrict use of the |small= parameter so that it is made contingent upon the template being applied to a section (or whatever) rather than the whole article, to prevent the small version of the template being used at the top of the article where it would be inconsistent with other article-wide cleanup/dispute banners: Cèṭa'an:Block indent (In this case, any value of |small= or |left= will trigger the small, left display, as long as some value of |sect= or one of its aliases in that template has also been provided.) This code can be copy-pasted and used with the above code block. See, e.g., Template:Trivia and its Template:Trivia/testcases to observe the combined functionality.

issue and fix

The issue parameter is used to describe the issue with the article. Try to keep it short and to-the-point (approximately 10-20 words) and be sure to include a link to a relevant policy or guideline.

The fix parameter contains some text which describes what should be done to improve the article. It may be longer than the text in issue, but should not usually be more than two sentences.

When the template is in its compact form (when placed inside {{multiple issues}}) or small form (when using |small=left), the issue is the only text that will be displayed. For example, {{Citation style}} defines

• |issue=This article '''has an unclear citation style'''.
• |fix=The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of [[Wikipedia:Citing sources|citation]], [[Wikipedia:Footnotes|footnoting]], or [[Wikipedia:External links|external linking]].

When used stand-alone it produces the whole text: Cèṭa'an:Citation style

But when used inside {{Multiple issues}} or with |small=left it displays only the issue:

talk

Some article message templates include a link to the talk page, and allow an editor to specify a section heading to link directly to the relevant section. To achieve this functionality, simply pass the talk parameter through, i.e. |talk={{{talk|}}}

This parameter may then be used by an editor as follows:

• |talk=SECTION HEADING – the link will point to the specified section on the article's talk page, e.g. |talk=Foo
• |talk=FULL PAGE NAME – the template will link to the page specified (which may include a section anchor), e.g. |talk=Talk:Banana#Foo

Notes:

• When this parameter is used by a template, the talk page link will appear on the template itself (in order to demonstrate the functionality) but this will only display on articles if the parameter is actually defined.
• In order to make sure there is always a link to the talk page, you can use |talk={{{talk|#}}}.
• If the talk page does not exist, there will be no link, whatever the value of the parameter.

date

Passing the date parameter through to the meta-template means that the date that the article is tagged may be specified by an editor (or more commonly a bot). This will be displayed after the message in a smaller font.

Passing this parameter also enables monthly cleanup categorisation when the cat parameter is also defined.

info

This parameter is for specifying additional information. Whatever you add here will appear after the date, and will not be displayed if the template is being wrapped in {{multiple issues}}.

removalnotice

If you specify |removalnotice=yes, then the following notice will be displayed after the date and after the info text:

• Learn how and when to remove this template message.

This will not be displayed if the template is being wrapped in {{multiple issues}}.

cat

This parameter defines a monthly cleanup category. If |cat=CATEGORY then:

• articles will be placed in Category:CATEGORY from DATE if |date=DATE is specified.
• articles will be placed in Category:CATEGORY if the date is not specified.

For example, {{No footnotes}} specifies |cat=Articles lacking in-text citations and so an article with the template {{No footnotes|date=June 2010}} will be placed in Category:Articles lacking in-text citations from June 2010.

The cat parameter should not be linked, nor should the prefix Category: be used.

all

The all parameter defines a category into which all articles should be placed.

The all parameter should not be linked, nor should the prefix Category: be used.

Additional parameters

imageright

An image on the right side of the message box may be specified using this parameter. The syntax is the same as for the image parameter, except that the default is no image.

smallimage and smallimageright

Images for the small format box may be specified using these parameters. They will have no effect unless |small=left is specified.

class

Custom CSS classes to apply to the box. If adding multiple classes, they should be space-separated.

style and textstyle

Optional CSS values may be defined, without quotation marks " " but with the ending semicolons ;.

• style specifies the style used by the entire message box table. This can be used to do things such as modifying the width of the box.
• textstyle relates to the text cell.

text and smalltext

Instead of specifying the issue and the fix it is possible to use the text parameter instead.

Customised text for the small format can be defined using smalltext.

plainlinks

Normally on Wikipedia, external links have an arrow icon next to them, like this: Example.com. However, in message boxes, the arrow icon is suppressed by default, like this: Example.com. To get the normal style of external link with the arrow icon, use |plainlinks=no.

cat2, cat3, all2, and all3

• cat2 and cat3 provide for additional monthly categories; see #cat.
• all2 and all3 provide for additional categories into which all articles are placed, just like #all.

Technical notes

• If you need to use special characters in the text parameter then you need to escape them like this:

{{Ambox
|nocat=true
| text  = <div>
Equal sign = and a start and end brace { } work fine as they are.
But here is a pipe &#124; and two end braces <nowiki>}}</nowiki>.
And now a pipe and end braces <nowiki>|}}</nowiki>.
</div>
}}

• The <div> tags that surround the text in the example above are usually not needed. But if the text contains line breaks then sometimes we get weird line spacing. This especially happens when using vertical dotted lists. Then use the div tags to fix that.
• The default images for this meta-template are in png format instead of svg format. The main reason is that some older web browsers have trouble with the transparent background that MediaWiki renders for svg images. The png images here have hand optimised transparent background colour so they look good in all browsers. Note that svg icons only look somewhat bad in the old browsers, thus such hand optimisation is only worth the trouble for very widely used icons.
• For more technical details see the talk page and the "See also" links below. Since this template works almost exactly like {{Tmbox}}, {{Imbox}}, {{Cmbox}} and {{Ombox}} their talk pages and related pages might also contain more details.

Display on mobile devices

The MediaWiki developers have been conducted ongoing readability studies on ambox on the mobile version of Wikipedia. Until further notice, code installed by the developers on the mobile version will generally override what we do here regarding the display and layout of this template. For more information, see MW:Reading/Web/Projects/Mobile Page Issues.

TemplateData

See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Ambox in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Ambox

Used to build message boxes for templates used in articles

Parameter templat

Parameter		Keterangan	Jenis	Status
Template Name	name	The name parameter specifies the name of the template, without the Template namespace prefix.	Kata	opsional
subst	subst	Allows the meta-template to detect whether the template has been incorrectly substituted	Tak dikenal	opsional
Small Mode	small	The small parameter should be passed through the template, as this will allow editors to use the small format by specifying |small=left on an article. Nilai yang disarankan no left	Kata	opsional
type	type	Type of issue the template describes. Defines the colour of the left bar, and the image that is used by default Nilai yang disarankan speedy delete content style notice move protection	Baris	opsional
image	image	Image used with the template	Berkas	opsional
sect	sect	Parameter that can be used to change the text "this article" to "this section" or something else Nilai yang disarankan {{{1|}}}	Baris	opsional
issue	issue	Describes the issue with the article	Isi	opsional
fix	fix	Describes what should be done to improve the article	Isi	opsional
talk	talk	tidak ada keterangan Nilai otomatis {{{talk|}}}	Tak dikenal	opsional
date	date	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
info	info	Specifies additional information	Tak dikenal	opsional
removalnotice	removalnotice	Displays a notice about when and how to remove the template message	Boolean	opsional
cat	cat	Defines a monthly cleanup category	Tak dikenal	opsional
all	all	Defines a category into which all articles should be placed	Tak dikenal	opsional
imageright	imageright	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
class	class	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
text	text	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
plainlinks	plainlinks	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
smallimage	smallimage	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
smallimageright	smallimageright	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
textstyle	textstyle	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
style	style	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
smalltext	smalltext	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
cat2	cat2	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
cat3	cat3	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
all2	all2	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional
all3	all3	tidak ada keterangan	Tak dikenal	opsional

Mbox family

Cèṭa'an:View There are seven metatemplates in the Module:Message box family:

• {{Ambox}}, for messageboxes on article pages.
• {{Cmbox}}, for messageboxes on category pages.
• {{Imbox}}, for messageboxes on file (image) pages.
• {{Tmbox}}, for messageboxes on talk pages.
• {{Fmbox}}, for header and footer messageboxes.
• {{Ombox}}, for messageboxes on other types of page.
• {{Mbox}}, for messageboxes that are used in different namespaces and change their presentation accordingly.

Closely related metatemplates:

• {{Asbox}}, for messageboxes in article stubs.
• {{Dmbox}}, for messageboxes on disambiguation or set-index pages.
• {{Ivmbox}}, a simple full-width box with default ivory background intended to frame important messages or notices.

See also

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Article message boxes – The historical style guideline for creating article message boxes.

The above documentation is transcluded from Cèṭa'an:Ambox/doc. (beccè | sejarah)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Please add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.