Template talk:Infobox herald

Some suggestions for improvement

Thanks for creating this nifty infobox! I'd like to suggest a few changes to clarify parameters and improve the way this infobox works for some of our articles.

• Consider changing the vague text "Tradition" to something more readily understood by the casual reader, like "Heraldic region" (open to suggestion here). And what should we do about national styles outside of the four traditional regions, such as Philippines or South African heraldry? Perhaps we could add two new variables, "Transitional" (for those countries which straddle two regions and incorporate elements of both traditions) and "Modern" (for those countries whose establishment or heraldic tradition do not extend to the period during which the traditional heraldic regions developed). Or we could simply omit this parameter as needed.
• Change the text "Governance" to "Governing body" - maybe a minor change, but it might clarify for the reader what is meant by this entry.
• Piping apparently does not actually work for the "authority" parameter (or did I do it wrong at Swedish heraldry?).
• Can we suppress autolinking of parameters? Iceland, for example, has no heraldic authority whatsoever; the national arms were adopted by presidential decree (and earlier royal arms by royal decree), and municipal "arms" are actually registered logos which are not constrained to even basic heraldic forms. But Iceland's lack of heraldic authority is notable enough to warrant mention in the infobox, though autolinking "none" is awkward and unnecessary.
• I would also like to consider adding the ability to indicate former officer titles, as well as date ranges for these and the current officer's name, but this might be possible simply by suppressing autolinking anyway. (e.g. in Swedish heraldry: officername=Henrik Klackenberg (1999-present), officertitle=Statsheraldiker (1953-present), formerofficertitle1=Riksheraldiker (1734-1953).) In some cases, further parameters such as formerofficertitle2=, formerauthority1= and formerauthority2= may even be useful for indicating historical titles and governing bodies.

Those are my suggestions, but I'm certainly open to discussion on each of these. Thanks! Wilhelm Meis (☎ Diskuss | ✍ Beiträge) 02:04, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

1. "Heraldic tradition" may be better phrasing - "region" is certainly inaccurate and misleading.
2. "Governing body" or "Governing authority" should be fine.
3. You have to use {{!}} when pushing a pipe through a template call.
4. It would be good to have an automatic recognition of "N/A", "none", and not link those.  Done
5. Those can certainly be programmed in. Done VanIsaac_{WS Vex}^contribs 03:17, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! That helps. Wilhelm Meis (☎ Diskuss | ✍ Beiträge) 06:33, 14 July 2013 (UTC)