Forum:Do we really want to subst Biography?

Forums: Index > Watercooler > Do we really want to subst Biography?

I understand why some may feel that subst'ing a template like {{biography}} is a good idea, but we may want to think this through a little more carefully. Here are three major problems with this idea.

1. The code below makes an article much more difficult to upgrade. I personally don't want to waste time writing code to support articles with this level of complexity.
2. Do we really want contributors to see this kind of gobbledeegook when they open an article for editing? Seems to me that it a sure recipe to scare off new contributors.
3. Wikipedia was founded on the principle that contibuting to articles is simple enough that everyone can be an editor. Substing code like this moves Familypedia in entirely the opposite direction. Most of us may be comfortable reading nested conditionals, but there are very few instances of the following wikitext in a Wikipedia encyclopedic article. For very good reason.

{{get|key=Short name}} was born {{get birth}} {{#if:{{get|key=Father}}| to {{get|key=Father}} {{#if:{{get|key=Mother}}|
and {{get|key=Mother}}}}}} {{#if:{{get|key=Death year}}|and died {{get death}} at the age of {{age (smw)}} years| 
and is now {{age (smw)}} years of age}}. {{#if:{{get|key=Spouse}}|{{#ifeq: {{get|key=Sex}} | Male | He 
| {{#ifeq: {{get|key=Sex}} | M | He | She}}}} married {{get|key=Spouse}} 
{{#if:{{get|key=Spouse2}}| and later {{get|key=Spouse2}}}}.}} 

~ Phlox 08:58, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

I think, Familypedia cannot be easy enough for new contributors. I heared in my surrounding people who I promoted Familypedia that they preferred Rodovid because of the easy formulars and not the irritant save, resave and purge system. Bergsmit 09:33, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by "upgrade". And you're exaggerating again: in the first random article I have just picked from Wikipedia there is more gobbledegook that in subst:biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spring_Creek,_Nevada&action=edit. Our substing is the only easy way to make the affected part of the biography editable. (Parameters would provide an alternative but that's gobbledegook.) Someone who wants to add a sentence or phrase (about a significant achievement or a third spouse, for example) can't if it's just {{biography}}. Here's another solution:

Convert it to a bundle of several templates, each producing a short sentence. Add a comment at the end that anyone can insert another sentence anywhere, but if wishing to vary any sentence must either:

replace the particular template; or

"subst" the template, save, and brave the conditionals so as to produce a new version that uses some of the clever stuff.

— Robin Patterson (Talk) 10:00, 29 June 2009 (UTC)