User:Rident/Archive 15

The following template messages may be added to articles that need a cleanup. The purpose of such templates is to inform other editors and readers at a quick glance what potential problems there are with article content and to spur improvement in the spirit of Wikipedia. In obscure articles with few editors, the templates can serve to attract attention to problems that have not been addressed. In articles that are heavily edited or discussed, templates can be used to indicate ongoing problems or disputes in order to attract outside help and caution readers that the content may be shortly subject to change. Unless otherwise noted, they should be placed at the top of the article—before other templates, images, or infoboxes (for the short notes placed at the top of an article before the primary topic, see WP:Hatnote). Please do not insert tags that are too similar or redundant with each other. For example, all articles that read like essays have an inappropriate tone, and in fact they end up in the same category, so it is unnecessary to tag with Inappropriate tone in addition to Essay-like. Similarly, if an article has many problems, please consider tagging only the most important problems. A very lengthy list is often less helpful than a shorter one. Remember that tags are not intended as a badge of shame (see also: tag bombing).

Note that the date parameter will be added by a bot if it is left off. Some tags have alternative versions that apply to situations of greater specificity. Some editors may refer to these as flags or banners, as in "I flagged this article because . . ." or "I added a banner to the top of the article because . . ."

Does the article meet inclusion requirements?
Before placing templates on a page it is worthwhile to cast a critical eye over the page to determine whether it should, in fact, be included in Wikipedia. Some articles can be tagged for speedy deletion or marked as an article for deletion.

Best practices in obscure or unpopular articles
On pages that have received little attention from editors or readers, cleanup templates can be used as a way to call attention to problems that need to be addressed by editors. Editors who want to help address these problems should look through the various cleanup categories such as maintenance and articles with content issues and try to address the problems so that the templates can be removed. Editors who do a lot of tagging of articles should also address the backlogs.

Best practices in heavily monitored articles
On pages that are being edited by a number of users, cleanup templates are used to inform readers and editors of ongoing discussions and attempts to fix the problems on the page. Such templates can be used to attract uninvolved users to discussions and cleanup efforts, and they can also serve as a warning to casual readers that the article may have problems and be subject to dramatic changes. In general, an editor who places a template message to indicate a problem like this should explain their rationale fully on the talkpage of the article. If the consensus of the other editors is that there is a problem or an editorial dispute that deserves such a clean-up template, then the editors should work to fix the problem as quickly and cleanly as possible so the template message can be removed. If the consensus is that there is no problem, then the message can be removed immediately. For heavily monitored articles, please do not add or remove template messages of this sort without using the talk page.

Use in sections
Many of these cleanup tags require you to place  as the first parameter when you use the tag at the top of an article. When you want the template to refer to just one section, however, you replace   with   (where the   is a pipe key found on most keyboards as a shift-backslash . See the specific template below to determine if such "section use" is supported and appropriate.

Tag consolidation
If too many tags are put at the top of an article, the article can become eclipsed by the tags, especially with short or stub articles. Consider consolidating the tags into the article issues template.