From Wikitravel

[edit] Purpose

I'm suggesting using this template to allow people to go back and annotate unsigned comments. I find it make it hard to follow the discussion if you don't know who said what. It seems to work well on Wikipedia. Please let me know what you think before I deploy this widely. -- Jonboy 13:34, 26 June 2006 (EDT)

Are unsigned posts really a big problem? They're the standard on old-school wikis like WardsWiki.

My concern with this template is that it leaves out the original poster. Why not just put a message on their talk page that says, "Please sign your posts"? A gentle reminder keeps the poster in the loop, and educates them about an essential piece of wiki etiquette. It also engages the poster rather than talking over their head to other people.

"Outing" the poster instead seems to be kind of a tattle-tale system. The fact that it includes a link to the contributions of the posting user reinforces that -- that there are nefarious doings that need to be monitored.

I wonder if there were a way to re-write this template so it addresses and educates the poster rather than subtly accusing them of misdeeds. Maybe something like Note to [[User:{{{1}}}]]: please [[Wikitravel:sign your posts|]]! --Evan 13:52, 26 June 2006 (EDT)

I find it hard to follow discussions if I don't know who's talking (e.g., those horrible e-mail discussions people have that end up with >>>>>> preceding some previous reply). In no way do I want to make anybody feel bad -- I just want to clean things up a little to keep track. How about something like - written by [[User:{{{1}}}]] at {{{2}}} (please remember to [[Wikitravel:sign your posts|]].) I could even do without the reminder -- many of these comments are left by anonymous users. They won't stick around long enough to learn the etiquette, but it helps to note that several comments were made by the same user. -- Jonboy 14:01, 26 June 2006 (EDT)

We obviously don't want to embarrass the anon contributors, so could a change to the text suffice to make it feel less embarrassing? How about changing "preceeding unsigned comment" to "preceeding comment"? Or something. Also, here is an example of an anon contribution that could benefit from this since the anon user's text placement makes it appear to be the first paragraph of an entirely different comment. -- Colin 21:16, 26 June 2006 (EDT)

I like it. Changed. -- Jonboy 22:02, 26 June 2006 (EDT)

So, I'm growing to love this template. It cleared up a misunderstanding on Talk:Jau National Park, for instance. My scepticism is overcome and I greatly endorse it. --Evan 17:53, 6 July 2006 (EDT)

[edit] Bug

Right now if I do {{subst:unsigned|Jonboy|date}}, it works correctly, but {{unsigned|Jonboy|date}} doesn't have the correct talk page link. If anybody knows what's going wrong, I'd love to hear it. —The preceding comment was added by Jonboy (talk • contribs) 13:42, 26 June 2006 (EDT).

Hmm, it appears that the software is smart enough not to put a link to the page I'm editing from. Since I was testing on my own talk page (doh!), I didn't get the link. Never mind. -- Jonboy 13:48, 26 June 2006 (EDT)

[edit] Examples

If anyone wants to see the template in action, please check out my talk page. -- Jonboy 13:53, 26 June 2006 (EDT)

[edit] Template:Unsigned

Swept in from the Pub:

Any objections about importing Wikipedia:Template:Unsigned and starting to use it? -- Jonboy 17:19, 23 June 2006 (EDT)

I think that it should be more explicit on Wikitravel:Using Mediawiki templates, but here would be my suggestion: copy it over, explain what it's used for on Template talk:Unsigned, maybe add a note to Wikitravel:Requests for comment, try it in a few places for an example, then wait to see what the support for it is like. It doesn't seem like such a bad template to me; if it's used gently and helpfully, rather than as an accusation, I think that it's pretty OK. --Evan 18:04, 23 June 2006 (EDT)

OK. Done, the way you suggested. I've started to deploy it on my talk page as a first test. -- Jonboy 13:52, 26 June 2006 (EDT)

[edit] contribs link

I've used this template in Talk:Budapest#info on WinterInvasion--but found that the link from "contribs" appear like Special:Contributions/Nammarci%E2%80%8E. I don't see any bug in the template itself--so it's possibly related to MediaWiki redirects. --DenisYurkin 07:17, 10 February 2007 (EST)