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{{style-guideline|WP:AT}} {{style-guideline|WP:AT|WP:TS}}
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Revision as of 18:23, 16 September 2007

This page's designation as a policy or guideline is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.
This guideline is a part of the English Misplaced Pages's Manual of Style.
It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.		Shortcuts
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A standard and consistent design for article message boxes has been selected. That is, message boxes or article templates that go on the top of articles and article sections.

Scope

The scope of this page and standardisation effort is the design of article message boxes. That is, message boxes that go on the top of articles and article sections. Other kinds of article templates such as navboxes and infoboxes are not included.

Talk page templates were already standardised last year, see Misplaced Pages:Talk page templates.

Project namespace templates such as the box on the top of this page are not within the scope of this standardisation effort.

New design is ready

The CSS code and meta template are finished and we have now (September 2007) started to convert the old article message boxes to the new design. The design of these article message boxes is controlled by the .ambox CSS classes in MediaWiki:Common.css.

The meta template {{ambox}} makes it easy to create article message boxes in the new design. It has usage documentation and examples. Note that {{ambox}} is just a thin wrapper for the CSS classes. The classes can just as well be used directly in a wikitable, especially when special functionality is needed.

Browser cache

If these two boxes don't look alike, you need to refresh your web browser cache:

Box generated by {{ambox}}.
Hardcoded box.

This is a temporary caching problem that should be gone in some days.

Reasoning

The tags that we use to notify people of problems within an article are on thousands of our pages. Our readers see them and judgements are made not only about the article at hand but about the project itself. Currently we have a myriad of templates that often share some level of consistency but still look very mismatched.

The proposal below aims to address these issues. The thinking behind the design is:

  • It is colour-coded but without using an overpowering amount
  • Standard widths
  • Generally a better design than we have now
  • It is easily implemented

Colour code

Colour coding article message box templates will help to inform of the severity of the issues at a glance. Having a small amount of colour is best, as too much can be overwhelming.

Serious issues, such as {{afd}} and {{prod}} (#b22222)
Content issues, such as {{POV}} and {{globalize}} (#f28500)
Style issues, such as {{cleanup}} and {{wikify}} (#f4c430)
Contribution requests and notices, such as {{expand}} and {{inuse}} (#228b22)
Merger, split and transwiki proposals, such as {{split}} and {{copy to wiktionary}} (#9932cc)
All other article notices, such as {{current}} (#1e90ff)

Design

Please note:

  • The wording of these message boxes is not under discussion at this time. Initial implementation will use the text from the existing "production" templates. The wording in the examples below is for illustration purposes only.
  • An alternative thin-double-barred variation on this theme can be viewed here.
  • The following box has a white background to mimic article pages.


"Serious issue" templates

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Please consider placing {{subst:empty-warn|Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style/Article message boxes}} ~~~~ on the User Talk page of the author.

"Content issue" templates

The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.


This article or section reads like an advertisement.
To meet Misplaced Pages's quality standards and comply with Misplaced Pages's neutral point of view policy, it may require cleanup.

"Style issue" templates

To meet Misplaced Pages's quality standards, this article may require cleanup.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page, and/or replace this tag with a more specific message. Editing help is available.


This article or section lacks formatting.
Please wikify it as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style.

"Article notice" templates

This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

"Merger and transwiki proposal" templates

It has been suggested that this page or section be merged with Page title.  (discuss)

"Contribution" templates

Please help improve this article by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
This article has been tagged since December 2024.

Stacking demo

The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.
This article or section lacks formatting.
Please wikify it as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style.
This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

See also

  • Template:Ambox – The meta template that makes it easy to create article message box templates in this new style. It has usage documentation and examples.
  • /issuebox demo – Shows the CSS code that we use. Or take a look at the .ambox classes in MediaWiki:Common.css.