User:Djr xi/Userbox Policy

This was an attempt at reaching consensus on the userbox problem. Although it was the most successful attempt at the time, it did not succeed for lots of reasons. See Wikipedia:Proposed policy on userboxes/Proposals.

Proposed Policy #4 (Liberal!)

by Deano (Talk)

As a prelude to the policy, I'll state my POV.

Personally, I think there is a fundemental flaw in all of the above. Userboxes are intended solely for User Pages, and therefore are free to be POV. What people put on their userpages (within reason) is free, so if they declare their support for a religion/country/sports team/brand/POV, then they can do that without a userbox. The purpose of userboxes is to standardise the format with which this can be achieved.

There is no obligation for anyone to use userboxes, but the userbox system a) simplifies how users display information, b) eases the ability of users to see other users' POV without having to read text. Any information found in a userbox could be put on a userpage anyway.

As for Categories. I have stated my view here several times before. At present, many userboxes are linked to ludicrous categories that are no help to anyone... the one that immediately springs to mind is Wikipedians who (don't) believe in Santa. These are an absolute farce, and trivialise the nature of Wikipedia. The Santa userbox template is fine - it's a joke and helps build a community spirit through a degree of light-heartedness. However, the Category is wholly unnecessary. Userboxes should only be linked to categories based on:-

1. Location
2. Schools
3. Language
4. WikiProjects
5. Interests in a subject (N.B. this is NPOV)

and possibly Sports, though this is again dubious.

Incorporated from Proposed Policy #6 below The main argument against political and biased userboxes is that they allow users with similar POVs to find each other and gang up to win edit wars. Therefore, userboxes that express POV should not have categories associated with them, BUT should be allowed on user pages. Also, there will have to be some way to address the 'what links here' issue, otherwise people can find similar POVs anyway. --end--

Userbox Policy should be for templatised userboxes, whereby the vast majority are allowed, and very few are disallowed.

Examples of each would include (excuse copying large chunks from above):

Allowed

1. Those that illustrate language, location and basic interests (like sport or computers).
2. Those that illustrate important skills (java, html, etc.)
3. Those that illustrate a user's level of participation within Wikipedia (in all aspects)
4. Those that show participation in, or support of, WikiProjects
5. Those that show participation in a Wikimedia sister project (Wiktionary, etc.)

   
   

6. Those that illustrate personal ideologies - religion, political views, ethics
7. Those that are considered humourous but not overtly trivial.
8. Those that illustrate support of sports teams, nations etc.
9. Those that suggest preference in terms of television, computer games and software.

Userboxes under this category should be positive - that is to say "in support of something" as opposed to "dislikes something".

Disallowed

1. Any userbox that may cause serious offense,
2. Any userbox containing a direct personal attack
3. Any userbox using inappropriate language
4. Any illegal userboxes (i.e copyright)
5. Any templatised userboxes that are virtually identical or very similar to an existing templatised userbox
6. Any useless/orphaned userbox.