Template talk:User school

Alumni
How about a grad switch to denote alumni (graduated). There is a difference with Bill Gates attended Harvard but he didn't graduate as an extreme example. Mikebar (talk) 19:46, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ - LA @ 21:00, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

I would point out that an individual will not be an "alumni" of an institution, since "alumni" is the plural form of "alumnus" (masc.), with the fem. sing. version of the noun being "alumna". BencherliteTalk 22:57, 3 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Quite right, sorry for not proofreading my syntax Mikebar (talk) 06:51, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Two Sides
Current templates for Oxbridge colleges have the university on the LHS with the college on the RHS. Given this is being nominated to replace such templates, could this be implemented first? Thanks, Stannered (talk) 23:12, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Could you explain what LHS and RHS are? I know nothing of Oxbridge so those abbreviations are confusing. - LA @ 08:06, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Left-hand side and right-hand side. See, for example. Stannered (talk) 08:46, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ Added the variable "right" so that you can have a right hand side box for any secondary abbreviations. You could also use a  in the left hand box. - LA @ 12:00, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Where was this ever discussed?
Replacing every single school userbox on Wikipedia without any discussion as to the reasoning or allowing any input in the process strikes me as extremely heavy handed and clumsy. If there is a discussion on this, please let me know where it is.Americasroof (talk) 23:19, 3 March 2008 (UTC)


 * There is actually an ongoing discussion that if you would like to join here is the link to it: Miscellany_for_deletion  —Preceding unsigned comment added by MBob (talk • contribs) 23:47, 3 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I was basing the deletions of the school templates on all of the other merges of templates that I have done before. After successfully merging all of the time zone templates into one without any outcry, I thought this would be no different as there would be no appreciable loss. I looked at hundreds of these things and incorporated most of the basic ideas from them. I have seen one school with a different template for several campuses or a school with a template for attendance and another for the team. I was considering having a subpage set up for usages of this template for the various schools. That way if a group of people from a school wanted standardization, they could standardize on the sub-page. I wasn't given a chance to say any of this in the MfD since it was closed so fast. - LA @ 08:17, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

School name
Anyway to show alternate text for the school name besides the full name of the article? I ask because the high school I went to has a common name, so the article includes the city name in parenthesis and I'd rather not have that in the userbox. Would also like to see a way to change the font size and font color for the school abbreviation (in the ID box), especially for those who may want to use a single letter rather than two or three. Thanks --JonRidinger (talk) 23:26, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ Added the variable "short" so that a short name can be used. - LA @ 09:58, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Short does not work when grad is not set. Also, a description of short needs to be added to the main entry. Rasamassen (talk) 00:41, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ Added description of short; made short work when grad is not set. Rasamassen (talk) 22:26, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

This doesn't go to Wikipedians at school
The previous more flexible templates allowed the user to click on "This user" and go to the Wikipedians who use the template. I sure would like to see a working implementation of this before you go out and delete every single template on every single user page. There are simply too many red flags on this project to be posting "Delete" on all those boxes. Americasroof (talk) 23:29, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ - When "cat" is used, it will not only add you to the category, it will also create a category link on the words "This user." - LA @ 11:04, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Not every Wikipedian wants to be added to the category just because they display the userbox. Please enforce the nocat standard used by Template:Educat (sample of this template in action at Category:Wikipedians_by_alma_mater:_Iowa_State_University). Rasamassen (talk) 03:23, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * If "cat" is not selected, then no categorization will happen. - LA @ 13:08, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * True, but let me see if this will help you hear the point I am trying to convey. If this template is used on Userbox template pages with the category and then users include that userbox by adding, which is the way Template:Educat recommends users opt out of categories for userbox templates that include categories (as I understand categories are for the purpose of collaboration, so allow users who want to identify with a school but not collaborate on pages related to that school, this option makes sense), they will still be added to the category (at least, from what I can tell that's how that's working. However, here if the template page includes a category, there is no way for users to opt out without creating duplication of templates or by not ever making templates with categories. In addition, the template page itself is being put in the category, which usually isn't the desired effect (users belong in the categories "Wikipedians who...", but not templates). Usually this is solved by doing an includeonly tag on the template page. Rasamassen (talk) 22:39, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * This template is not to be used to make other templates, this template is to be used only on user pages. The whole purpose of this template is to wean users away from school specific templates, in the hopes of reducing the amount of school specific templates in favor of this general one. - LA @ 22:27, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Deletion discussion closed as keep
For reference, Miscellany for deletion/School related user templates has been closed as a snowball keep. BencherliteTalk 07:13, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Harmonization
The text in Template:Educat will need to be changed to harmonize with any changes here I believe. Mikebar (talk) 11:33, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I build Template:User ISU Cyclone to allow the user to specify their own grad information. Can this template be changed to do that by default? And then can Template:Educat be harmonized to show users their three options for specifying grad information? I feel this will give the template the freedom it truly needs and deserves. Rasamassen (talk) 03:05, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

School team
Some larger universities have Wiki pages for their team. If a field could be added for the name of the Team page (or, team goes to the team page and steam is the short name for the team) to allow a user to click on the team name when displayed and grad is specified and go to the team page. A sample of this is Iowa State University is the team Cyclones, which has a wiki page called Iowa State Cyclones. Rasamassen (talk) 03:28, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ - Use the variable "teama" to input the team article name. - LA @ 13:06, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * This has created an interesting and, I think, undesired effect. If the template specifies "team", "teama", and "school" but not "grad", then the "This user proud to be a Mascot." links to the team article and not the school article (bottom left sample on Template:User school). I think the mascot should only link to the team article if a link appears for the school as well (when "rahrah" is yes). Rasamassen (talk) 22:45, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

School name link
Based on the top right example in Template:User school, it appears the link to the school is ignoring part of the data placed in school. In the example, school is Frederick High School, Frederick, MD, and thus the link should go to Frederick High School, Frederick, MD, but the link is going to Frederick High School. This is unexpected in my opinion, as I know there are pages with commas. I don't know if other characters also produced this undesired effect. Rasamassen (talk) 22:48, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ I didn't put the whole school name in the actual code. Fixed now. - LA @ 17:08, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

School fans
Many users use their school userbox to display that they are fans of the athletic institutions at the school (Samples at Wikipedia:Userboxes/Sports/US and Canadian). Can this school userbox be extended for this application as well to reduce duplication? Most userboxes of this nature display something like "This user is a 'school/short' 'team' fan" or "This user is a fan of the 'school/short' "team'". This seems applicable as part of the grad field, maybe changing the entire field to 'status' and having options of fan/attending/attended/grad/faculty/staff (as at large institutions faculty and staff may add the userbox, thou a distinction between current and former faculty/staff would useful). Maybe this, or at least parts of this, is beyond the scope of this project, but I put it out there as a proposal. Rasamassen (talk) 01:05, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Colors
I think the color scheme is a little odd, especially based on the descriptions. If you have, I'm really not sure what to expect based on the descriptions, and what I get is not what I expect at all. If fcolor is "font color, color in the main box," I expect the school name in the main box to be the font color (but bold). However, scolor controls that, according to the definition. But nothing is defined as controlling the abbr color (the template uses bgcolor, though usage does not specify, and the abbr background is scolor, though that is not specified either). In the sample color scheme I want the abbr back to be black and the abbr to be red; then I want the main back to be red and the font to be white (because the black is difficult to read on the red, and white is an alternative 3rd color for the school, but only on a red field and not a black). I propose being able to control these 4 colors plus the border, and not having an independent color from the main font for the school name. Alternatively, keep the independent school color, but free abbr bg and color to be independent. Rasamassen (talk) 22:47, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Expanding the template
I have been working on this template at User:Rasamassen/Sandbox. The template I have developed there has all the capabilities of this template with the following changes:
 * grad was changed to type
 * available types:
 * went - Attended this school but did not graduate, displays 'attended'
 * stud - Currently attending this school, displays 'attends'
 * malum - Male graduate, displays 'is an alumnus of'
 * falum - Female graduate, displays 'is an alumna'
 * staff - On staff at this school, displays 'is on staff at'
 * faculty - Faculty member at this school, displays 'teaches at'
 * fstaff - Former staff member, displays 'was on staff at'
 * ffaculty - Former teacher, displays 'taught at'
 * fan - Fan of this school's sports team (useful especially for universities), displays 'is a'
 * default - In case a type is specified which doesn't exist, displays 'likes'
 * The id background and foreground colors were made independent of other colors, using variables id-bgcolor, id-fcolor (based on Template:Userbox)

A number of precautions were taken in case irregular variables are specified, like specifying fan without team. A demo of the new capabilities is available at User:Rasamassen/Sandbox2. If this extended template is liked, I propose it is used to replace the current template. I think only 7 pages directly use this template (around 50 pages use this template because they use those 7 templates), so making a change like this would not be hard to fix on other pages. At the very least, I feel the expansions made to the grad variable (changed to type) would go a long way in bringing this template to its full potential. Rasamassen (talk) 18:40, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Maybe it's time?
I think it may be time to start a transition to using this template, since there are currently 1,189 user school templates. Most, if not all, of those templates are just the basic color/text combination, which may also be done by this template. Transitioning provides a few benefits, such as avoiding a list of 1000+ templates, customization of the template, and more. The task of transitioning should not be a problem, since a bot or AWB task can do that. I guess some may say that this is unnecessary, since it produces the same results, but this is much better organized and avoids a huge list of templates. Thoughts? Netalarm talk 23:15, 13 December 2010 (UTC)