Template talk:WikiProject Ships/Archive 2

Shipbox problem
There's something wrong with the template! When the text "needs-infobox=y" is included, it places the following text beneath the template instead of putting it in the appropriate cat:

 

Looks like a "]" is missing if you ask me! Shem (talk) 11:35, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Can you point out where this is happening? I tried it myself and it seems fine. Brad (talk) 11:43, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
 * See the conversation here. I requested a change to the infobox template and something got mangled in the process. Now awaiting a correction. Brad (talk) 12:21, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Haiti Victory fame from helicopter recovering 1st man made space object - - I was on the Haiti Victory in early 1960, January or February, when the first recovery was made by the Haiti Victory. Two helicopters were required by Navy regs to go out for the recovery. One lost oil pressure and made a hard landing back on the ship. The ship's motor dingy was quickly launched manned by the assigned emergency crew to the boat plus the two navy frogmen to secure the payload. The international ethnic makeup of the recovery crew is of the greatest historical significance. Not a complete list but it included Japanese, Filipino, Afro-American, American, plus others and the two frogmen. I wonder where you could find a list of their names? Jack Murphy, 11/16/11, jncmurph@juno.com 68.122.83.242 (talk) 07:57, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

New template quirks
The new template version is leaving a blank line in the bannershell WPBS. I think the noinclude should be shifted up to just after the }} on the same line. That usually fixes it. -- 76.65.128.252 (talk) 04:29, 15 August 2012 (UTC)


 * -- WOSlinker (talk) 08:33, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Refurbishing infobox requests.
I laid out a plan to change the way the banner handles infobox requests. The current way and the improvement are gathered at User:Brad101/shipinfobox. Essentially this comes down to incorporating the infobox request in a similar manner that WPBio handles theirs. The only variance from the WPBio banner would be to have the ships banner show the request in the "additional information" drop down; ie: the request will not be visible unless the list is dropped down. An attempt to gain consensus or conversation on this change was attempted at ships talk but there were no responses therefore I'm continuing with the plan. Brad (talk) 07:13, 10 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Would be very simple if you converted to . &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 18:25, 10 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Instead of trying to convert me to the church of the meta banner are you able to help with the current coding changes that I've requested? Brad (talk) 06:58, 11 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Also, a nice addition would be an auto assessment for articles that contain # redirect on the main page. These pages would then assess . Brad (talk) 15:40, 8 July 2012 (UTC)
 * And same with shipindex. Shipindex pages would assess to . Brad (talk) 18:53, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

Over a month later and I still can't get changes made. I asked Kirill Lokshin for help and he made some initial changes but hasn't responded to the issues left to be solved. Enough is enough on that. Meanwhile I've been looking over the meta banner again and it seems to have progressed -as opposed to a couple of years ago- to the point where it could work ok for the ships project. I set up another sandbox Template:WikiProject Ships/sandbox 1 for experimenting. After a couple of days stepped in and fixed things up further than I had been able to progress. There's a version of the meta banner operating at Talk:USCGC Dorado (WPB-87306) for experimenting. There are still things I'd like to see solved but I don't have time right now to explain further. Brad (talk) 14:43, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

Metabanner functions

 * Can the gigantic glowing lime green B square be reduced in size? It's nice and small in appearance at the example page.
 * The current sandbox version of the template is not allowing B-class to appear when set at the test page: Talk:USCGC Dorado (WPB-87306).
 * The infobox request should be collapsed at all times. Brad (talk) 01:19, 24 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Item 2 is fixed. The Template:WikiProject Ships/class page needed updating to work when b1 .. b5 where y rather than yes. -- WOSlinker (talk) 06:50, 24 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Which raises the question of why aren't all available combinations of ratings enabled by default? Brad (talk) 16:05, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * I took care of item 3 plus more edits to the instructions. Brad (talk) 18:02, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

The green B with the magnifying glass is exactly the same width as the image used on the left side (and also the same width as the other things on the left side. I don't think it would be desirable to change this ... or perhaps you are talking about its height? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 14:32, 31 July 2012 (UTC)


 * I'm placing a screenshot here. This is how it appears. Brad101july312012screenshot.jpg
 * The checklist icon overwhelms the template. This was an issue I spoke about several years ago. I don't understand why the checklist must be visible at all times, especially after the article has been rated to B. This also causes scenarios where the article could be rated start but right underneath the start is a B icon. That B icon always being there is confusing; either the article is rated a B or it isn't and if it is why is there a dual B? Compare this with a the current template showing B-class. There's no clutter of a checklist and no B icon underneath it. Here's a current ship template rated start-class that meets 2 of 5 B requirements. I have a strong aversion to bloated project templates such as US Government and some others. At times the project template is larger than the article it rates. Brad (talk) 15:53, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * On your screenshot the text is taking up two rows; therefore the green cell takes up two rows as well. (The actual icon does not change size - only the cell in the table.) I think this is unavoidable, and is because you have a very narrow screen. Try zooming out (CTRL minus) to display it smaller and you will see what most people see, which is the text on one row.
 * About the choice of icon, this was discussed thoroughly in the past (you referred to this discussion before so I think you have read it). The B is to show that it's the B-class checklist, and the magnifying glass signifies looking at the criteria in detail. However we could add an option so that a custom image can be used instead, and then your present image can be used.
 * What we could also do, is to put the B-class checklist inside the collapsed box. But then you would need to press "show" twice in order to see the checklist so I don't think that will work well.
 * &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 16:55, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Believe it or not Martin, hiding the checklist completely is enough to shut me up here. I tried doing that in the sandbox but apparently did not get it right. As long as the B-class operation is permanently hidden I don't care what it looks like or that two lists have to be expanded. Let me play around with the banner for a day or two to make sure everything works and afterward it looks like a go. Thanks Brad (talk) 17:56, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * I've added an option so that the background colour can be the same as the current template uses rather than the green. -- WOSlinker (talk) 18:43, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Even better. Thanks. Brad (talk) 22:23, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Pre-implementation checks

 * Banner will need to recognize the redirect WPSHIPS
 * All auto-assess such as category etc are working.
 * All other article ratings are working; stub-FA redirect, dab etc.
 * All combinations of the B-class checklist are working. Checklist guides the article rating regardless of what is entered (start, c, b) at  as it should be. C-class requirements are also working.
 * A few more things yet to check Brad (talk) 22:23, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Ok enough testing is done. I say go and if there's any problems after implementation they can be fixed then.
 * Move banner data from /sandbox 1 to WikiProject Ships
 * Move banner data from /sandbox 1 to the main sandbox.
 * Delete /sandbox 1 after it's no longer needed.
 * Brad (talk) 08:15, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the delay. I have now deployed the new version. Hopefully everything will work okay. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:55, 13 August 2012 (UTC)
 * There's no hurry Martin so no need for apologies. Thanks for your help. Brad (talk) 02:57, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Quirks with new banner
I'm not sure these are emergencies but are worth noting here.
 * When an article has been rated as a stub and for whatever reason has part of the B-class checklist filled out ie; the article is appearing in Category:Ships articles with incomplete B-Class checklists. If the article is a stub the banner should ignore anything related to B-class.
 * Based on the amount of articles (over 3000) that were previously in Category:Ships articles with incomplete B-Class checklists I'm guessing that articles rated Start-class that are either missing the B-class checklist |B1=|B2=|B3=|B4=|B5= or contain blank ones are not being counted. I've always considered any Ships articles with incomplete B-Class checklists to mean that the checklists are either missing, not filled out or partially filled out. Brad (talk) 02:57, 14 August 2012 (UTC)


 * The B-Class checklist is currently set not to display on Start class articles if it is not filled in at all. If we change this so that it displays on all Start class articles then this would fix the second issue. -- WOSlinker (talk) 06:42, 14 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I guess it doesn't matter. If show on start is turned on all it will do is fill up the maint. cat. with articles that few editors are going to work on anyway. This exchange will be here for reference later on if needed. Brad (talk) 15:28, 16 August 2012 (UTC)