User:User24/bad article template

transported from WP:VPT archive

"Bad Article" template
I know this sounds silly, but I get very annoyed when I see an article that has more than 2 templates at the top, eg here (and I'm sure there are worse offenders), especially when some of the templates are redundant (of course the factual accuracy is disputed if there are no citations; why do we need both templates on one page?).

So I'd like to suggest a "bad article" template. The main article can then have this one template, and all other relevant templates can go on the talk page. The template would read something like: This article has significant problems in multiple areas. Please see discussion on the talk page for further details.

(I'm not really suggesting it be called badarticle, maybe workneeded or problems )

To reiterate, I'm not suggesting that we get rid of X, Y or Z template, rather that I think there's a point where multiple templates should be moved to the talk page, and this template placed on the article instead.

Comments please. --User24 14:53, 6 November 2006 (UTC)


 * If you create a template like that, it would simply be added on top of the relevant templates, making the list even longer. See also (deleted on TfD) and Huge message boxes. --cesarb 15:22, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
 * well, hopefully people adding this template will move the existing templates to the talk page, but I can see that becoming a potential issue..
 * If so, perhaps there could be a bot that scanned pages that have this template, and moved other templates to the talk page. --User24 16:45, 6 November 2006 (UTC)


 * This is actually a policy question, not technical. Anyway, I am opposed to the idea. The number of templates at the top of an article is a good indicator of the number of problems an article has, and moving these to talk somehow hides this. Tizio, Caio, Sempronio 17:57, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

...See Template:Articleissues (which superceded Template:Noncompliant). heqs ·:. 23:10, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
 * cool! and my idea preceded that template *smug look* User24 (talk) 13:27, 16 May 2008 (UTC)