Template talk:Infobox body of water

If you have anything else to add, please be welcome to do so, but please leave a comment here. This article could be applied to any other body of water. However, before applying it to very large bodies such as oceans, consider generating a template specifically for those types of waters that would cater to the highly specific nature of those bodies. Em3rald 06:06, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Please place your questions and comments below
I have 2 questions.
 * 1) For U.S. lakes, shouldn't we be using  followed by metric units in parenthesis? Many (most?) Americans aren't able to use the metric system without using a calculator to translate --myself included. My suggestion is that we do this for U.S. lakes, and the opposite for other lakes (e.g. xx km (xx mi) for a canadian lake, xx mi (xx km) for a U.S. lake).
 * 2) Is there something wrong with the infobox that causes edit links in  to appear on the wrong lines?
 * Nevermind, it was the photo I had added to the page that broke it. Can someone who knows how to add the photo the right way do it? --Lethargy 23:46, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Need to merge
There's a lake template that has been used for some time at Infobox Lake. TheGrappler 04:23, 24 June 2006 (UTC) It's at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Lakes and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject_Lakes -- User:Docu
 * See the


 * Merge was completed. User:Docu

Manual of Style: Units of measurement
I was reading the Dead Sea's peer review when I stumbled upon the Wikipedia articles are intended for people anywhere in the world. Try to make articles simple to read and translate.
 * Conversions should generally be included and not be removed.
 * If editors cannot agree about the sequence of units, put the source value first and the converted value second.
 * Spell out source units in text.
 * If for some reason the choice of units is arbitrary, choose as the main unit, with other units in parentheses. Mostly U.S.-centric subjects will have a reason to use non-SI units with SI units in parentheses.
 * Use digits and unit symbols for values in parentheses and for measurements in tables. For example, "a pipe 100 millimetres (4 in) in diameter and 16 kilometres (10 mi) long" or "a pipe 4 inches (100 mm) in diameter and 10 miles (16 km) long".
 * Converted values should use a similar level of precision as the source value. For example, "the Moon is 380,000 kilometres (240,000 mi) from Earth", not "(236,121 mi)".
 * Use standard abbreviations when using symbols. For example, metre is m, kilogram is kg, inch is in (not " or &Prime;), foot is ft (not ' or &prime;).
 * Do not append an s for plurals of unit abbreviations. For example, kg, in, yd, lb not kgs, ins, yds, lbs.
 * Some non-metric units have more than one version. Be specific. For example, ' or ' rather than just gallon. Similarly, use ' or ' rather than just mile in aviation, space, sea and in some other contexts.
 * Put a space between the value and the unit symbol, for example "25 kg" not "25kg". Preferably, use &amp;nbsp; for the space (25&amp;nbsp;kg) so that it does not break lines.

This means we need to update the infoboxes (and the instructions here) to include both SI and non-SI units. --Lethargy 00:18, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
 * See the Template:Convert for a nice way to do the conversions. --Berland 20:23, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Self-reference
The note about shore length is a self-reference and should not say "this article". --Schzmo 13:19, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

lake_name
The description currently notes "name_of_lake, country", personally I think the name is sufficient and I'd like to amend the description to drop the country. Possibly the country could be a different fields (Note: there is already a field for the basin countries). -- User:Docu
 * I kind of like having the country (or U.S. state) after the lake's name, considering how many lakes there are that share the same name. --Lethargy 22:45, 1 November 2006 (UTC)


 * The other infobox has a field "Location" which could take care of that. I suggested to include that Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Lakes. -- User:Docu

hCard microformat (and coord)
I've added some HTML classes, to cause an  to be included in the generated mark-up. See also
 * The latter was removed, with the edit summary "later maybe", which does not explain the removal; so I've restored it. Andy Mabbett 23:13, 14 May 2007 (UTC)


 * And removed again, with no explanation. Why? Andy Mabbett 11:28, 15 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Please see the edit summary. In any case, if you are interested in WikiProject Lakes in one way or the other, obviously you are still free to add an infobox with coord. There are still quite a lot of lakes in the UK that are missing infoboxes. -- User:Docu


 * Which one - "later maybe" or "Restore standard coor at dm version"? Neither is meaningful explanation. If you are unable or unwilling to provide one, please undo your edit. Andy Mabbett 10:04, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


 * coor at dm is the standard template for coordinates.
 * Just wondering, for which lake are you trying to contribute an infobox? Maybe someone can give you a hand. -- User:Docu


 * There is no single standard. Your question appears to be a red herring. Andy Mabbett 11:22, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


 * If questions about the use of the infobox are red herrings to you, just forget about it. -- User:Docu


 * Questions about the use of the infobox are not red herrings; questions about my hypothetical use of them on an unnamed article are. Perhaps you could instead try to articulate your concerns about the use of coord, or reinstate it? Andy Mabbett 11:47, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


 * This is not the place to discuss problems of the coord proposal of yours. -- User:Docu


 * It's not merely "a proposal". This is the place to discuss its use in this template, and any concerns you may have about that; and I note that you've similarly failed to articulate your concerns elsewhere. Why is that? Andy Mabbett 12:12, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


 * coord is still a proposal for a template that may be used in Wikipedia, so there isn't much a point in including it here when we use the version that has already been adopted.
 * If your use of the infobox is hypothetical, why discuss it further? -- User:Docu


 * "If your use of the infobox is hypothetical" - Another red herring, Why not address the issue at hand? coord is not merely "a proposal"; it is widely used. Andy Mabbett 12:17, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Just wondering, where are you using it? -- User:Docu


 * That's irrelevant to the issue at hand, which you still seem reluctant to address. Why is that? Andy Mabbett 12:54, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


 * coord is used on in excess of 5000 articles, evidence that it is very much more than a proposal. (I got bored clicking through after ten pages of 500 links.)  Coord improves on coor d[ms] in a number of ways. I'm at a loss to understand why coord would be replaced by coor. The "coord is a proposal" argument is either misinformed or bogus. --Tagishsimon (talk)


 * Over 21,000, I'm told. Andy Mabbett 11:45, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

This discussion prompted me to ask some questions at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (dates and numbers). -- Patleahy 07:18, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

New fields/variables for infobox
A field for a short description when the lake freezes may be worth adding, e.g. "frozen= December-March" or "frozen=1901, 1910, 1950". -- User:Docu

I think another good field to have would be water clarity. I know the Minnesota DNR gives clarity depths for all the lakes it has listed, I'm sure that information is available for other states and countries as well. --Greyduk 21:24, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Acre-feet conversion
I have created a template AcreFeetToM3 that can be used to convert acre-feet to cubic meters for lake and reservoir articles. If this template needs improvement, let me know. &#9679;DanMS • Talk 17:43, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Have you had a look at Template:convert? Maybe you could add the functionality to that template instead. --Berland 19:53, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Width of map
We really need a function allowing for enlarging or reducing the width of a map, as with any other infobox. Badagnani 04:59, 8 September 2007 (UTC)