User:Pigsonthewing/Harmful interface templates

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Templates which are intended to change Wikipedia's editing or search interfaces, such as New message (reproduced above), no matter how well intentioned—no matter, even, how good the changes they introduce—are harmful.

Consider this scenario, for example:


 * A new user arrives at a user talk page. Seeing the above template prominently displayed, they click the link, write their message and leave happy. The next day they arrive at a different talk page, look for the link in the same place, and find it missing. They are now confused.

If there is a problem which a template like the above is intended to address, it should be resolved at the software level, via a Phabricator ticket, or by a site-wide CSS change.