Template talk:U

Testing: nuclear nacho.

Yay! It works! -- 21:20, 13 January 2008 (EST)


 * Sure does! human 18:40, 29 January 2008 (EST)

Deletion
So much unnecessary server strain just to avoid typing "User:". Delete and force everyone to learn the pipe trick. 06:49, 2 January 2012 (UTC)
 * ;__; My baby...   06:56, 2 January 2012 (UTC)
 * You know we have it everywhere, right?-- 07:00, 2 January 2012 (UTC)
 * That's what bots are for.  07:01, 2 January 2012 (UTC)
 * There should really be a way to make a template automatically subst itself. -- Nx  / talk 08:41, 2 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Blue, I just looked at your vaunted and elitist pipe trick, and I must say that your inefficient bourgeois wikifu actually requires more typing than this heroic template. This combined with the evidence below demonstrates that your counter-revolutionary terror tactics are ineffective at best, and detrimental at worst--  01:47, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it requires 4 extra keystrokes. -- Nx  / talk 01:50, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * SEE how the upper classes oppress us?-- 01:55, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Delete

 * 01:28, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) Would be useful if it would automatically subst itself. Hm, I wonder if that's possible. -- Nx  / talk 01:58, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Although I also like Peter's idea below. -- Nx  / talk 15:28, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Keep

 * 1) It's sooo much easier than typing out somebody -- 00:48, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * That's why you type User:somebody instead. Personally, I say you should go round with a bot substing it and then change it to something like  Peter Urist for Mod! (MW) 00:53, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) On second thoughts, subst away (so long as you clean up the mess) but leave the template 'lone. Deletion will cause more harm than good. Peter Quasniki 2012! Flag of the United States (Pantone).svg (MW) 08:24, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 2) TyBother me 01:41, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 3) steriletalk 01:46, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 4) I discovered it only recently, so I'll need more time to bond with it before you take it away.  01:50, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Questions
How much server strain? steriletalk 01:16, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * It's more a question of uselessness to me, actually. The pipe trick (see link above) is a much more elegant way of being lazy, and the lessened server strain is a bonus. 01:25, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I did some quick benchmarking and there wasn't a consistent difference (numbers were all over the place though, it's not possible to get an accurate measurement since a live wiki isn't a controlled environment) in the case of RationalWiki:Moderator elections/Nominations, which uses this a lot. I thought it'd have a larger impact, but I guess you have to have much more on a single page to slow it down measurably, probably not something that'll happen realistically. On the other hand, editing the template will probably fill the job queue for a couple hours. -- Nx  / talk 01:31, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Is it practical to just do what Blue2 is doing now once a month or so? Peter Urist for Mod! (MW) 02:06, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Blegh. AFAIK myself, Nx, Trent and Pi are the only (semi-)active members with a functional pywikipediabot thing. 02:08, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Is it that hard to make functional? Peter Urist for Mod! (MW) 02:11, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * @Blue I have one as well, but have no interest in aiding you. @Peter, No it is very very easy, everyone is just very lazy. TyBother me 02:16, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Easy for you, or..? Peter Urist for Mod! (MW) 02:28, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * You're a bright lad, it's not to hard. ArchieGoodwin (talk) 02:30, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * No, it really isn't that easy with the stuff built in. TyBother me 02:31, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I thought as much, what with the multiple 'very's. Peter Urist for Mod! (MW) 02:42, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

I don't get it then. If it doesn't strain the server, what's the big deal? We have tons of worthless templates. steriletalk 02:36, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Beats me. TyBother me 02:37, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Including --  02:40, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * So that they can hide other things in recent changes as bot edits. What else? Peter Urist for Mod! (MW) 02:42, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * This one is the most useless template that's one of the most widely used, with nearly 1000 transclusions. 02:57, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * And? TyBother me 02:58, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * We should try to avoid useless templates, even though we have so many of them. The day approaches when templatespace will see its great Cleanup Project. 03:00, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, have fun with that. TyBother me 03:03, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * If it's used, and used a lot, why not keep it? (That would also seem to imply that it's useful....) I'd far rather get rid of a template that is used once or twice. Hell, Wikipedia has this. steriletalk 03:15, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Ad hoc decision # 85
Honestly, really? A few more days discussion couldn't have happened? Just because of your personal preference of a template that is widely used, ergo probably useful. Based on the rationale of server strain that doesn't exist. steriletalk 12:34, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Dammit, I agree with you on this one. This must be what libertarians are talking about when they say "over-regulation" and "too much government interference."  Blue, you are a biopower.--  12:47, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The server strain does exist. Every template adds a little bit, and that can add up. -- Nx  / talk 12:54, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Great! Let them use eat cake use piping! Heaven forbid if we had something useful around here. steriletalk 13:49, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Well every edit and pageview and refresh strains the server a little bit, that's why RW upgraded to a commercial server instead of that thing in Trent's room. BTW sorry for straining the server by writing this. Poor thing must be on its last legs. Rennie McGreet (talk) 09:01, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * There's the 90% of power that is necessary to use and the 10% on top of this that is just waste caused by transcluded signatures and the like. Scarlet A.pnggnostic 09:14, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually, I think the slowness caused by sigs is more due to the choose function. -- Nx  / talk 09:21, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * @Armondikov - should we have a 90/10 rule for templates then? :) Rennie McGreet (talk) 09:25, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * We should get rid of all templates; they are all useless and could be done by typing in the correct code. The main page, in particular, has 11 transclusions!  Why?  That could be accomplished by just having the actual pages there.  steriletalk 12:43, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * And besides, templates are for aspie virgins. -- Nx  / talk 12:54, 5 January 2012 (UTC)
 * How much server strain is there by having a bot that constantly has to crawl and check if there is a template:U around to substitute? steriletalk 23:18, 6 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The script only activates when I tell it to. 00:05, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Blue's like a god that way.  00:50, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I couldn't think of a non-awkward way to phrase that. 03:43, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Damage
As you're probably already aware, substing does not work everwhere - within some html tags, for example. What that means is that on a number of occasions we were left with "Bohdan" and similar visible. It took me nearly two weeks after the fact to notice that the Fair use template had been broken by the substing. Here's a page - in 's userspace no less - that shows what could easily be lurking in the darkest archives of the wiki. What should be done, hmm? PeterQuasniki 2012! 02:07, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Have a bot take care of it, next time something like this happens, remind everyone. TyBother me 02:12, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * How do you search for a text string wiki-wide? PeterQuasniki 2012! 02:13, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Find/replace? TyBother me 02:14, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but which bot script is that? PeterQuasniki 2012! 02:15, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * replace.py TyBother me 02:17, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * That works, yes, but I don't think that's what blue used, so I'll hold back on it. PeterQuasniki 2012! 02:25, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I used template.py 02:26, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 02:26, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * And how do you go the other way? PeterQuasniki 2012! 02:27, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * As in, find the string "{{subst:U|" and replacing it with "{{u|"? Can't do that with template.py. You'd have to write a script that checked every page of the 70k+ for the search string. Replace.py almost does that, but you'd have to make the dump file in some way. 02:33, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Dump file? You don't have to use the xml parameter. PeterQuasniki 2012! 02:36, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * (ECX2) -catr TyBother me 02:37, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * As an argument to what? PeterQuasniki 2012! 02:51, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Man replace.py TyBother me 02:53, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * But they're not in a cat. PeterQuasniki 2012! 02:56, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * For files and media, still thinking about everything else. TyBother me 02:57, 19 January 2012 (UTC)