User:Mailer diablo/The Mailer Diablo Deletion Project/Userbox Wars

The Userbox Wars is arguably one of the most controversial series of deletions in the recent history of Wikipedia, and continues to be hotly debated amongst editors today. Consequences resulting from the wars have been far-reaching, including the involvement of arbitration on a few occasions. The resulting fallout and loss of good faith between editors is palpable, with an increased claims of perceived cabalism or trolling. Many editors in good standing also found themselves being casualties of the wars.

First-time observers are likely to be bewildered on how a set of apparently harmless-looking boxes actually turn into a huge source of conflict. This essay attempts to provide some chronological context in the Userbox Wars events, and it should be noted this is no attempt in passing judgement to any of the parties involved.

Origin and Growth
Userbox's ancestors first arrived from Commons as Babel, and several of them still exist today in their original form. They were originally placed on userpages to show the proficency of editor's languages in varying degrees, in order to improve multilingual communication. These templates would also categorize users in the language proficency that they have chosen.

As popularity grew, Babel boxes evolved and were modified by editors to include parody languages and subsequently, popular culture. They became a more colourful and convenient method for editors to transclude them on their userpages, rather than writing an essay about themselves. Some new fascinated editors prefer to fill their userpages entirely with userboxes, and as a quick way to start out in the Wikipedian community without redlinks in their signature.