Template talk:Editnotices/Namespace/Category

Editprotected request
Please update the contents of this message with the following:

Thanks. --MZMcBride (talk) 02:28, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done -Rjd0060 (talk) 02:56, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm thinking of reverting this. I regularly create categories that might not be populated within a day or two. For example, a lot of categories of A-Class articles are empty, but they must exist otherwise if someone assesses an article as A-Class you'll have a redlink on the talk page which is not desirable. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:24, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Reverted. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 20:16, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Why not simply include a note about assessment categories? Creating empty categories is like creating broken redirects; it just makes a mess and ends up with work being thrown away. --MZMcBride (talk) 05:33, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * There are at least two situations when I believe that having potentially empty categories is advantageous.
 * Any category which can be populated by a template depending on an inputted parameter. (This includes the assessment categories as mentioned above.) It is bad template coding, in my view, to not create categories which a template might need.
 * Categories in a series. Ones like Category:1967 architecture, Category:1968 architecture, Category:1969 architecture, etc. Just because one happens to be empty is not a good reason to leave it uncreated. They should all be created because it is quite likely that an article will populate it sooner or later. There are advantages in creating them all at the same time: it is more likely that they will be consistent with the same parent categories, headers, etc. than if they are just created when they are actually needed.
 * There are obviously some types of empty categories which need to be cleaned up, but I don't support an angry box telling editors not to create categories of the above type. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 21:57, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Category edit notice

 * This discussion was copied here from Village pump (proposals). --David Göthberg (talk) 10:18, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I've notice anons and new editors frequently (couple of times a day?) trying to add pages to categories by typing them on category pages. There may also be lots more who try this but don't save it when they can't understand why the wikitext doesn't list the other pages in the category, and instead lists loads of indecipherable interlanguage links. Would it be helpful to add an editnotice (Template:Editnotices/Namespace/Category) to inform users of how categories work? Or would that be too annoying to the vast majority of editors who know what they're doing? Something like this?

It should be kept simple. • Anakin (talk) 04:50, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Great idea. But given how often Category pages are edited in practice, I'd make it substantially more eye-catching (needs to be for the newbies-in-a-hurry we're aiming at), including use of the warning icon, because that's what's going on here - we're warning people not to make an error (and an info icon is much more likely to be ignored):

Rd232 talk 08:52, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Using to give instruction is a great idea, and I agree the blue i is too bland, especially as it's the same one anons see for the "You are not currently logged in" message, but the warning triangle and language are too bitey. Something more neutral? [[Image:Ambox important.svg|45px]] [[Image:Ambox warning purple.svg|45px]] [[Image:Information icon alt.svg|45px]] ? • Anakin (talk) 10:11, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Orange warning icon seems good. I decapitalised the NOT. Do you mean something else about the language being bitey?

Tweaked the first line too, to remove a somewhat confusing-to-newbies reference to "header", and clarify category page use. Rd232 talk 10:58, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I think this is a good idea. I've noticed this a number of times myself. I actually started working on a user notification template to put on user talk pages when I have to remove this type of material, but many of these edits are from IP addresses where user notifications are often of little effect. A reminder that appears before they complete the edit would be much better. --RL0919 (talk) 17:54, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I would remove "edit this page to show information about the category, and to list the category's interwiki links and parent categories" completely. It took my 3 read-throughs to parse that sentence and I've been here for 5 years already. This is aimed at newbies specifically, they wouldn't be editing category pages anyway (except by mistake). More experienced uses - who do intend to edit the category - will ignore the warning in any case. Also, please bold the entire sentence To list a page in this category, do not edit this category page. Regards. Zunaid 19:07, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm concerned that anything more than two lines is may annoy some users, and starts to turn into instruction creep. Was there anything wrong with very plain wording similar to how I proposed initially?


 * I also added around the category markup, so that maybe it's easier to copy and paste. I'm still concerned about biting newbies though. The vandalism level in this namespace is very low. Mostly they just aren't sure what to do. • Anakin (talk) 21:43, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Zunaid makes a good point, so I took out that first line. Still don't see what you (Anakin) mean about biting newbies though. WP:BITE usually refers to attacking, admonishing or sanctioning newbies for not knowing things oldtimers know. This is an info message, albeit in a didactic "pay attention!" mode.

Good to go? Rd232 talk 13:26, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * PS While we're on the subject, the link there, Help:Categorization, could be quite a lot friendlier and more easily understandable for newbies. Rd232 talk 13:27, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I think that edit notice is okay. I agree about Help:Categorization. We also have Categorization, which is even longer. Who would ever read that much instruction to categorize one page? I for one have certainly never read it. • Anakin (talk) 15:35, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Implemented, then. Help:Categorization, in fact, is supposed to be more technically oriented than Categorization, though there's a lot of overlap. I've changed the link in the editnotice to FAQ/Categorization. Rd232 talk 17:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Note: added a div so CSS customization can be used to hide the message (WP:CSSHIDE). Also semi-protected the template as a precaution. Rd232 talk 07:34, 23 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Cool. Note that all subpages of Template:Editnotices/ are fully protected automatically by the rule in MediaWiki:Titleblacklist. Only admins can create or edit any of them. It's quite clever. • Anakin (talk) 08:48, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh yes, I forgot about that. Rd232 talk 09:02, 23 October 2009 (UTC)


 * And I moved the surrounding DIV id into the fmbox id parameter instead. That is what that id parameter is for. I also added the same name as class parameter, so both using "#category-namespace-editnotice" and ".category-namespace-editnotice" works for the users in their personal /monobook.css.
 * --David Göthberg (talk) 10:18, 23 October 2009 (UTC)


 * End section copied from Village pump (proposals). --David Göthberg (talk) 10:18, 23 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks - wasn't aware of those parameters. Rd232 talk 10:30, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Exclude from maintenance cats
The instruction is just plain wrong for maint cats. I would knock something up in the sandbox, but I can't edit that either. Rich Farmbrough, 02:18, 13 January 2013 (UTC).

Protected edit request on 10 November 2014
Please replace: }} With: In order to make this editnotice HTML5 compliant. — &#123;&#123;U&#124;Technical 13&#125;&#125; (e • t • c) 18:06, 10 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done Jackmcbarn (talk) 03:45, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 11 December 2014
An additional holder of Virtuti Militarii was the deceased Makysymilain Sznepf, who was awarded the cross before 1988. Please add his name to the list. I saw the rosette in his lapel when I met with him and his son, the Polish Ambassador to the United States confirmed the fact when I met with the latter last Tuesday.

Thank you.

Mr. Posen (talk) 14:33, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the template . Please make your request at the talk page for the article concerned. — &#123;&#123;U&#124;Technical 13&#125;&#125; (e • t • c) 14:48, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

Edit request on 4 July 2015
In a suggestion above, dated 13 January 2013, Rich Farmbrough noted that this edit notice does not always apply correctly to maintenance categories. So I have updated the Categorization FAQ and placed this template in its sandbox with appropriate wording that applies to all categories. Please transfer the sandbox code to the live edit notice page. Thank you in advance! – Paine 17:44, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
 * PS. Don't know if this is a big deal, but also noted is the editnotice explanation at the top of this talk page, which states that this edit notice may be edited by template editors. I am a template editor and am unable to edit this fully protected page. PS added by – Paine
 * Thanks! All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 17:54, 4 July 2015 (UTC).


 * Pleasure! – Paine
 * Yes check.svg Done -- Red rose64 (talk) 18:53, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much, Red rose64!  I'll see what I can do to get the full protection lifted so that this edit notice will be template protected like other edit notices.  Joys! – Paine  19:51, 4 July 2015 (UTC)

Remove use of immediate children category template
The template begins with a conditional invocation of immediate children category, a template I've blanked because it was part of a system maintained by User:Taxobot and an associated toolserver tool, both no longer operating. So the opening:

and the final closing }} can now be removed. (All "Category:Immediate children/..." pages have already been removed.)

Alternatively, change the protection so that template editors can edit this template, and I'll do it myself.

(Btw, I don't think this very specific code should ever have been added to this template.) Peter coxhead (talk) 08:24, 29 October 2015 (UTC)
 * ✅ &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:03, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 24 April 2016
Add (Soprano) behind Margaret Harshaw, as she transitioned to dramatic soprano repertoire, specializing in Wagner; it has already been done for Janis MartinPhilipvanlidth (talk) 23:28, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Philipvanlidth (talk) 23:28, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
 * this is the page for discussing a specific edit notice for all categories, not any one in specific. — xaosflux  Talk 00:33, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

Is the DAB link to template intentional?
If not, I think the alternative would either be Help:A quick guide to templates or Help:Template. ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf) 18:00, 23 January 2018 (UTC)
 * It was added in, but I did so in fulfilling the request by above. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 21:42, 23 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, the link to the list of template project pages was and is intentional, because when clicked, it leads editors to just about anything they ever wanted to know about templates. Not a bad index page.  Paine Ellsworth   put'r there  00:58, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Edit request
Add the  class to the encapsulating div:  .This will stop EditNoticesOnMobile (and potentially the apps in the future) from actively popping this up on every single page within the namespace. The notice will still be available with a button. Before EditNoticesOnMobile (currently only for admins, extendedconfirmed will follow soon) mobile editors couldn't see this notice at all, so nothing will be taken away by fulfilling this request. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 06:42, 21 July 2022 (UTC)


 * (parallel discussion at Template_talk:Editnotices/Namespace/File). — xaosflux  Talk 14:26, 21 July 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅ — xaosflux  Talk 14:44, 25 July 2022 (UTC)