Forum:Nav-templates
Nav-templates are those boxes at the ends of articles that help the reader navigate to related articles, sometimes taking the place of the See also section, which gets listy if extended beyond three-or-so.
Over the years, many Uncyclopedians have devised these, with widely differing widths, layouts, and user controls. Dark Web, White Hat has brought in code from Wikipedia to standardize nav-templates. This is a good thing, as it is peculiar and not helpful that various ones should look and act differently based on who created them when.
Several nav-templates occur at the start of articles. Three I can think of are {{Unchristianity}}, {{PoliticsUS}}, and {{Worst100}}. All three have become some of our largest (longest) templates. Regarding {{Unchristianity}}, HolUp has just asked Dark Web, White Hat to convert this to a conventional nav-template at the end of the article (citing Baptism, where the nav-template is longer than the article itself).
Converting it seems logical, but these templates have a long history, and I'd like more discussion first. (The huge and tedious task of editing the articles that use the nav-templates may be a non-issue, as DWWH attacks such tasks with relish.) Spıke 🎙️10:35 3-Nov-21
- I would suggest navigate templates should note that a lot of people use cellphones/tablets to access a site like Uncyclopedia so these templates should reflect teir usefulness in that direction. What ever is the most practical. I think the navigate templates should be quite individual at the same time. We can be far more expermental than Wikipedia in that context.
RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 11:09, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
- We can be more experimental, but we ought not always be. Authors can structure their articles differently, but ought not re-invent the nav-template. You may pick a pub because it's different from the rest, but at the end of the evening, you'd like the street signs to be consistent. Spıke 🎙️11:19 4-Nov-21
- Is the problem just the space being taken up? If so, what about collapsing the sidebar lists instead? I made a demo at Template:Unchristianity/sandbox. This saves a lot of space for the desktop view.
- Caveat: wikipedia:Template:Navbox claims navboxes and sidebars are desktop-only.
The mobile view of Template:Unchristianity/sandbox displays for me slightly more compact than the mobile view of Template:Unchristianity does now, so it may still be an improvement.05:21, 4 November 2021 (UTC) Update: if it shows on a mobile device, it's a fluke. Omission of sidebars/navboxes from mobile view is part of a MediaWiki software decision to economize the display of small screens. Mobile devices probably won't see them, so nav-templates should be treated as supplemental. (talk) 08:06, 7 November 2021 (UTC)- That seems fine, though I think I might prefer the one you've made in your userspace, as it will be more consistent with other templates on this site (Spike has touched on this).--HolUp (talk) 11:29, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
- To clarify, you are reasserting your preference that this nav-template move to the bottom of the article.
(And referencing a page whose name DWWH will certainly re-use.)(DWWH's example threw my browser into Mobile View for good! To escape, change "mobile" to "desktop" in the URL.)I'd like to hear from people with enough history on Uncyclopedia to tell us what we were thinking when these sidebars proliferated. Spıke 🎙️11:48 4-Nov-21
- To clarify, you are reasserting your preference that this nav-template move to the bottom of the article.
- That seems fine, though I think I might prefer the one you've made in your userspace, as it will be more consistent with other templates on this site (Spike has touched on this).--HolUp (talk) 11:29, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
An educated guess
An educated guess, in lieu of people with enough history, because some of the sidebars date back to Uncyclopedia's inception.
Template:Unchristianity is probably a sidebar because wikipedia:Template:Christianity is a sidebar (likewise, Template:PoliticsUS is probably a sidebar because wikipedia:Template:PoliticsUS is a sidebar). It makes for analogous layouts between Christianity and wikipedia:Christianity.
At Wikipedia, sidebars traditionally outline article series (e.g. rock music), whereas [footer] navboxes group related information (e.g. discography of Elvis). Navboxes have greater latitude for tangential material beyond what's appropriate for an outline. A maximum of one sidebar can occur in an article, with up to several navboxes covering broader topics.
We may not have been thinking that hard, only imitating. (talk) 07:44, 7 November 2021 (UTC)