Wikipedia:WikiProject Alternative medicine/Infoboxes

This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference.
Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the village pump. It was last substantively updated 2009.

The infoboxes to be placed only in CAM articles and the custom messages to be placed only in the respective talk pages are discussed in this project page. Both of these use a specific background color (i.e., #ffcc99) that uniquely identifies our Wikiproject.

The most visible impact upon Wikipedia by our Wikiproject will be the display of our infoboxes and custom messages. The Infoboxes should be displayed in the CAM articles. While the Custom messages should be placed in the CAM talk pages. Any editor may place them in appropriate articles.

Our public participants will place yet a second custom message on the talk pages of the CAM articles that have been audited by our project. This box will state whether or the not the article passed or failed our rating process the last time the article was formally reviewed. It will, also, contain a link to a database with the last review date, the rating score, which editor rated the article, and possibly notes.

Our Infoboxes

This Wikiproject cannot be referred to in our infoboxes on the article side. This is because the public is not supposed to be made aware of our project. The project infobox should be placed in CAM articles after the first introduction paragraph and before the third paragraph in articles primarily about CAM and at the bottom of the page in articles only tangentially about CAM. You do not want the infobox on top of the article, so that it won't mess up the definitional paragraphs. Placement on top could be construed as a form of advocacy or as an aggressive attempt to take over an article.

If there is a picture or graphic on the right side of the page, the infobox should be displayed to the right of this image. This is done by putting the HTML/wiki infobox coding immediately before the coding for the floating right image. You might also have to increase the margin in the image.

Our Wikiproject Infobox

Homeopathy Medicine:CAM Founded
by:Samuel
Hahnemann NCCAM:Alternative
Medical System Modality:Professionalized Culture:Western

The far right is an example of the floating right infobox to be placed in the Homeopathy article. It is our only infobox.

Our infobox is just for the Branches of Alternative Medicine (which covers the area of fully developed systems of alternative medicine or specific alternative methods of treatment or therapy) in areas that are clearly own by CAM.

Project boxes

"An infobox on Wikipedia is a consistently-formatted table which is present in articles with a common subject (An infobox is a generalization of a taxobox (from taxonomy) which summarizes information for an organism or group of organisms)."[1]

Our project infoboxes are not in any way navigation aids, nor is there a connection to article series boxes or category: alternative medicine.

Our infoboxes do one and only one thing. They objectively classify branches of CAM articles several different ways in order to help visitors to Wikipedia quickly compare similar branches of CAM to each other.

Talk Custom Messages

This Wikiproject is allowed to refer editors in our custom messages on the talk side to the existence of our Wikiproject on Alternative Medicine. So, we will promote our Wikiproject, and thus our goals, just on the talk pages.

Talk namespace

Below is our {{msg:CamNotice}} custom message which is to be maintained in Template:CamNotice. This project notice should be displayed on top of all the talk pages of the articles strongly about CAM.

This Talk {{msg:CamNotice}} Notice may be placed on the top of talk pages of articles strongly strongly about CAM by any editor.

Secondary talk namespace

Below is our latest {{msg:CamTanNotice}} custom message which is to be maintained in Template:CamTanNotice. This project notice should be displayed on top of all the talk pages of the articles weakly about CAM {{CamTanNotice}}

This Talk {{msg:CamTanNotice}} Notice may be placed on the top of talk pages of articles weakly about CAM by any editor.

In other words, where ever our project namespace is used in an article our corresponding secondary talk namespace belongs on the respective talk page.

Special Custom Message

Below is our {{msg:CamRequiredNotice}} Infobox which is to be maintained in Template:CamRequiredNotice. {{CamRequiredNotice}}

This Talk custom message should only be used on the respective talk pages of the following specific articles.

Sample talk page

A sample talk page for a CAM article that passed its latest review by this Wikiproject is coded and would look as follows.

Instructions on how to customize our infobox

Editors are supposed to edit this template and replace all the 'XXX's with your classifications of the article under review. The first 'XXX' should always be the name of the article. Next, all of your choices must be hyperlinked. That way the public can figure out what you are talking about by clicking on the hyperlink. Most of the possible classification options are shown below. For different cultures, you would have to figure that out yourself.

You of course need to use the messy HTML/wiki coding. But, with simple copy and paste operations it should not be that hard to do. If you edit this entire infobox project page, you can copy and then paste this entire section of possible classification options to a text file in one operation.

You should also develop and test your infobox in a sandbox, before placing it in an article. Try saving a few basic selections in your sandbox. That way, you only would have to change one or two items rather than editing the entire infobox each time you create a new infobox.

If a branch of alternative medicine does not clearly have only one generally recognized founder, then delete the Founded by line out of the infobox.

Alternatively, you can simply find an infobox in an article already done that is closest to your proposed infobox. That way you would only have to change the article name, and maybe one or two other items

Infobox template

XXX Medicine:CAM Founded
by:XXX NCCAM:XXX Modality:XXX Culture:XXX

CAM Classifications

These classifications are used to deflect any controversy from taking place. People educated in the basic sciences take these issues very seriously, so an accurate classification will help to prevent controversy and edit wars.

Western, or Western European, or Western American
Eastern, or Eastern Chinese, etc.