Template talk:Article style

No, it isn't an edit notice

See Wikipedia:Edit notice which redirects to Wikipedia:Editnotice. One must be an administrator or template editor to create an edit notice. Since most editors don't fall into these categories, this template is nearly useless.

Jc3s5h (talk) 14:07, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Editnotice#Editnotice load -- Gadget850 ^talk 21:12, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

I think changing the style of an article is cumbersome enough without having to get an administrator involved. Style issues can get contentious enough without getting into arguments like

"The article is about an American so the dates should be mdy."

"All articles ought to be dmy, to hell with Americans, and the edit notice says dmy so that's what I'm using."

The concept that an administrator is required to change the style of an article is contrary to the MOS. Jc3s5h (talk) 21:36, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

In addition, when editing articles, screen space is at a premium. It is often necessary to have several windows open to cut & paste facts and information about citations. So the edit notice will take up too much screen space. Reminders about article style should be available if and when the editor wants to see them, not constantly shoved in the editor's face. Jc3s5h (talk) 21:50, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Templates for discussion. Don't forget to include the other style templates from Category:Editnotice templates. -- Gadget850 ^talk 21:55, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Done. Jc3s5h (talk) 22:06, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Comments and suggestions re 'cite' style

Why not use "cms" and "van" instead of "chicago" and "vancouver"?

If there is not to be a restriction to only a standard set of approved citation styles there will need to be something like a "custom" option so that well-meaning editors do not undo accepted variations.

~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 22:42, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Refactor this template

This template was created nearly 7 years ago by Gadget850 (who soon after retired from Wikipedia). It went to TfD closed as no consensus. It currently appear to be mostly abandoned, with no new development or usage, it has 54 transclusions.

I would like to propose repurposing this template to solve a long-standing problem which could justify wider usage. The template currently acts as a sort of style sheet, similar to CSS, where article style can be defined in a single template. There are many tools and bots that could reference a style template to determine what date and citation style to use when making automated changes. Presently nothing like it exists so tools and bots are left to try and tease it out by looking at other templates on the page - it is inexact, hard and error prone. It's also often wrong, for example if a bot wants to a convert a square URL to a {{cite web}} and it finds only a few square links on the page, this is not a conscious "style" but random chance. Yet it is supposed to be honored and so tools can't do the work of conversion. We need a way to tag articles who intentionally want to use a certain citation style. And date style. And whatever else style (no infobox etc..). If for no other reason then to direct tools and bots how to behave.

The template currently adds an edit notice. This is controversial per the TfD and probably overkill. I don't see the template ever being widely adopted that way. As such I propose removing the edit summary, or, possibly making it an optional switch. Secondly, I propose adding some new citation style options including one to indicate not to use CS1|2 templates - this is useful in certain pages such as Deaths in January 2021 where too many CS1|2 citations can slow page loads. Thirdly, as a replacement for {{Use dmy dates}}, or any other style-related template, this template can replace it where desired, and rather than copying the functionality it would invoke thus maintaining the functionality of the parent template. GreenC 18:24, 2 February 2022 (UTC)