Help:User warnings

User warnings are standardised messages which can be used by administrators — and in some cases, others — to gently advise other users how they can bring their editing practices into harmony with this wiki's policies. They are also designed to reduce the work-load of admin by making it possible to leave a detailed message with only a few keystrokes.

Origins
The idea for this system arose from a forum discussion designed to improve retention of new and IP users. There, it was decided that brief, specific template messages placed on user pages would be a better way of instructing users about the rules of the wiki. The current "system" of individualised messages pointing generally to, for example, the manual of style, was deemed too time-consuming for the person leaving the message, and too vague for the person reading it.

The final form of this thing arises mainly from an idea supplied by sulfur as an example of things going on at Memory Alpha, as well as the current state of Wikipedia's user warning project. The basic idea of the system is to create a lot of little messages that point to specific parts of the MOS and other policy pages. Language in the messages should remain friendly and objective, thereby eliminating unintentional harshness of tone. Furthermore, since the message is standardised, there will hopefully be fewer case of perceived personal bias.

Though the basic idea of the system is not terribly new, is execution retains a good deal of "TARDIS flair". The actual form of the messages has been wholly created at this wiki and doesn't exist anywhere else on the web — at least, not until it's shared under the beauty that is the CC-BY-SA copyleft license.

Placing a message on a user talk page
If you want to put a message on someone's page, it's pretty straightforward. Just type: ~ Imagine that there's a series of templates about the fact that we use British spellings here. The base name of the series is spell. So to put the level 2 template on someone's page, you'd type: ~ This will put the contents of spell2 on the user's page, sign it with your name, and make the section header "It's really important that you use British spelling". Note that you don't have to give a custom section head. If you type: ~ the system will provide a default section head for you.

Note that all the warning message templates must be substituted. The technical reason for this is that you can't place a section header on a page through transclusion (i.e., ); you must use substitution (i.e.,  ).

Making new messages
The format for new pages has been made as simple as possible, and includes just a few steps: naming, calling the framework, and entering the message.

Picking a good name
When naming a new message, try to pick a template title that makes sense but uses as few words as possible. If at all possible, try to use just one word. Remember that your message should be about a very specific point of policy.

Imagine that we wanted to alert a user to the fact that we use "Romana II" not "Romana 2". We'd want to create a message about the naming of the character of Romana (i.e. the rule at T:ROMANA), not a message which just says, "Please follow the manual of style."

Thus, we set the base name of our message to be Romana. If we were talking about pictures, we'd probably have to go to a second word, like "pic width" or "pic filesize" or something. But we only have, or are likely to have, one real rule about Romana's name, so that's a safe bet.

But we can't call the template just template:Romana. We have four levels of message, so each message requires four templates. In this case, the templates would be: template:Romana1 template:Romana2 template:Romana3 template:Romana4

Each template would be very similar, but would feature differences according to the level of warning.

Framework
Following are the basic frameworks for each level. To make new templates, just copy and paste these frameworks into your new page. Type your message in the blank space provided. Don't alter anything else about the format. If you accidentally delete even a carriage return from the framework, it could affect the way that the message displays. The closing  tag must be on a line by itself for the text to display properly.

Example
Let's imagine we were creating template:Romana1. We'd grab the code from above and then add our message. Thus:

Hey, we've decided as a community to refer to the different incarnations of Romana as "Romana I", "Romana II" and "Romana III". It'd really help out if you could use those forms, too. Thanks :)

Let's pick this apart, so that you can fully understand what's going on.
 * 1) The first line, =={{{2|{{generic1}}}}==, creates a section header on the user's talk page which either has the name the user specifies, or it falls back to a form given in the template, generic1.  Therefore, if you're in a hurry and don't have time to bother giving a sepcific section title, one is provided for you.
 * 2) The second line, Warn1, is where the guts of the structure actually is.  It calls the message box into existence, and styles the text on the page.  Without this line, the template fails.
 * 3) The third line is where the message actually appears.  If you're making a new warning template, this is where you get to express yourself.
 * 4) The fourth line   forces a line break between the message and the signature.
 * 5) The fifth line, , allows for the signature of the person leaving the message.  If they don't sign the template, it prints a blank line.
 * 6) The sixth line,  closes the template.  The opening  s are a part of Warn1.  Using  ensures that we have the proper number of closing  s on the page.  WarnEnd also includes WarnCat, which automatically places warning templates in category:user warnings. Thus, there is no need for you to manually put your newly created warning message into a category.

The result of all this would be: Hey, we've decided as a community to refer to the different incarnations of Romana as "Romana I", "Romana II" and "Romana III". It'd really help out if you could use those forms, too. Thanks :)

Note that the signature and custom section title don't appear here, because we've not actually called the template; we've just dumped the code here. The section header has, in fact, been completely disabled, because otherwise, it would interfere with the table of contents on this page in an undesirable way.

If we used the format ~ then your signature would appear inside the green box and the section would be titled, "Hey, a little note about Romana."

Examples of each level
There are four different levels of message, as can be seen here.

Level 1
The sky is falling. I like Doctor Who and she likes me. Lots of other things are happening. Like this. And this. And that over there. There are many balls in the air, many plates spinning. I wish I could make you understand how much is going on.

02:52: Sat 15 Oct 2011

Level 2
The sky is falling. I like Doctor Who and she likes me. Lots of other things are happening. Like this. And this. And that over there. There are many balls in the air, many plates spinning. I wish I could make you understand how much is going on.

00:24: Sat 15 Oct 2011

Level 3
The sky is falling. I like Doctor Who and she likes me. Lots of other things are happening. Like this. And this. And that over there. There are many balls in the air, many plates spinning. I wish I could make you understand how much is going on.

02:52: Sat 15 Oct 2011

Level 4
The sky is falling. I like Doctor Who and she likes me. Lots of other things are happening. Like this. And this. And that over there. There are many balls in the air, many plates spinning. I wish I could make you understand how much is going on.

00:24: Sat 15 Oct 2011

Rules for use
Any user may send out a level 1 or 2 message to another user. However, level 3 and 4 warnings can only be sent by an admin. If you're not an admin, and you post a level 3 or 4 warning on another user's page, you will become subject to blocking without warning.

Similarly, users shall not place these messages on an administrator's talk page out of spite. If you've had a message placed on your page by an administrator, don't turn around and place one on his or hers just to "get back at them". That said, so long as your intentions are positive rather than retributive, it's not forbidden for a user to put a level 1 message on an administrator's page. We all sometimes forget the rules and need a gentle reminder — which is precisely what the level 1 messages are for.

Be aware, though, that if you're wondering why an admin is appearing to break the rules, it's probably more effective to just post a simple question on his or her page.