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I quote MoS: "The use of infoboxes is neither required nor prohibited for any article. Whether to include an infobox, which infobox to include, and which parts of the infobox to use, is determined through discussion and consensus among the editors at each individual article." Seek consensus first please. -- Cassianto11:00, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
The section you cite does not not require prior consensus. WP:BOLD applies. The use of infoboxes provides a convenient summary of salient points for the benefit of our readers; and allows their software tools to extract such data, also to their benefit. The use of over a million infoboxes on Misplaced Pages shows widespread community support for their inclusion. You give no reason for the recent removal of the infobox I added, which should be restored. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits13:32, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
To reduce the life of an individual to a handful of bullet points is not distilling, it is dumbing down. Nothing more. There is no requirement to have an infobox on any page, but they do serve a very good purpose from time to time: summarising 65 years of a full and interesting life is not one of those times. - SchroCat (talk) 13:38, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
Your comments appear to be arguing a case against against biographical infoboxes per se, rather than of the subject of this particular article. I suggest that you raise an RfC prohibiting them at that level, of you believe that the current common practice of using them for biographies is unacceptable. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits15:02, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
Why? The situation is covered by the MOS, "The use of infoboxes is neither required nor prohibited for any article", as you well know. Either way, it is not about the use of infoboxes on biographies: in some cases they are extremely useful in biographies. Please do not try to misrepresent what others have said. - SchroCat (talk) 15:09, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
Its not me whose posting nonsensical comments. I didn't say that the MoS says prior; I said that it doesn't. I note that you, too, make no arguments against the infobox I added to this article. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits18:46, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
For the record, I am not completely opposed to them. I think they work well in sports, science and film articles. However, I am totally opposed to them in biographies. The info box in a biography is a redundent rehash of information that can easily be found in the lede and the first few lines of the body. IMO, it is ugly, forces the lede image to an awkward size and is repetition at its worst; "Frank Matcham" alone appeared four times at the beginning of the article. His name appeared once at the article title, next in the lede, above the infobox, and below the image. A biographical infobox is designed to give the lazy, uninterested reader quick, disposable information and does nothing to entice them in to reading the article. As editors, we want people to read the articles which we have invested so much time and research in. Otherwise, we may aswell just put an infobox in an article and do away with the text altogether. We would need consensus to remove an infobox, so you should require consensus to add one. --Cassianto19:30, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
