Wikipedia:Proposed template and category usage policy

This is a failed proposal.

Consensus for its implementation was not established within a reasonable period of time. If you want to revive discussion, please use the talk page or initiate a thread at the village pump.

Here is the proposed policy. It's really very simple.

The Template: and Category: namespaces are for encyclopedia-related content only. This includes encyclopedic content (i.e. templates used in Wikipedia articles), encyclopedia maintenance (e.g. {{blocked}}, Category:Pages needing attention), and encyclopedic collaboration (e.g. WikiProject and Babel templates and categories). All other uses of Template: and Category: are prohibited.

This is a corollary of Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and What Wikipedia is not.

Alternative and previous proposals edit

Wikipedia:Unacceptable userspace material (inactive / historic)
Wikipedia:Userbox policy (proposal by several users)
Wikipedia:Mackensen's Proposal (failed to archive consensus)
User:Misza13/Userbox Gallery Poll (inactive / historic)
Wikipedia:TheTrueSora's UBX Proposal (inactive / historic)
Wikipedia:Userbox policy poll (failed to achieve consensus)
Wikipedia:Userfying userboxes (failed to achieve consensus)
Wikipedia:Proposed policy on userboxes (failed to achieve consensus)