Template talk:SEPTA Rapid Transit Stations

Colour indications

@Oknazevad: {{Box-shadow border}} is – I guess – pretty standard now, and it's used on about 56,000 articles and in about 2,000 templates. (It used to be a regular border, and it was like that before I started editing, but a change in {{Navbox}} necessitated the use of the template.) Jc86035 (talk) 17:22, 28 July 2018 (UTC)

An overly narrow offset on the right side is hardly visible, and does a poor job of indicating the association of the color with the line. At the very least, the color should be on the left, and needs to be more visible. {{color box}} is widely used on transportation articles for that purpose, to the point where it is the standard for them where a more specific color icon is not in use by the particular system. Option three would be to use the color as a background for the name of the line at the left grouping, as was done here, which would strengthen the color association (albeit with vertical centering). The thin right-aligned strip was just too much of an afterthought, a mere shading instead of the outright statement it should be. oknazevad (talk) 18:48, 28 July 2018 (UTC)

@Oknazevad: I know you think it's too small, but what are we supposed to do about its use on the other 2,000 navboxes? Would it have to be made wider on all of the navboxes which use it at 5px? (I've never seen it used on the left, for what it's worth.) Jc86035 (talk) 05:49, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

Would something like the 0.5em strips at {{Tehran Metro navbox}} look better? Jc86035 (talk) 12:50, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

That's better, but still not great. I understand there's WP:ACCESS concerns with just using black or white text (as appropriate) on the color like the real-world signs, but considering those real world uses, I think those concerns may be overstated. oknazevad (talk) 13:56, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

@Oknazevad: WP:COLOR also prefers links to be identified clearly as links, which is probably why the border was used in the first place (although for some reason {{rail-interchange}} hasn't been killed off for this). I think it's used widely enough that if you don't like it it's probably better to just go along with it if you don't want it removed from all the other navboxes that use it. Jc86035 (talk) 14:42, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

I think they should all use Color box instead. It is actually much clearer than the trim, while also being well within WP:COLOR's link guidelines. Or at he least they need to be thicker so they are sufficiently visible, which is what this navbox had major issues with. That just as likely stemmed from the pointless insistence on using non-standard color stylings as was the case here. Navboxes are for navigating articles. They are not exercises in displaying the transit agencies' branding, as far too many of them have been made to do. Yes WP:NAVBOXCOLOR allows for representative colors, but specifically gives guidance that the colors appear in the main article's infobox, as one would find with a sports team. Transit agencies are not sports teams, and when using the colors makes links unidentifiable, as in {{Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority}} (which is in conflict with at least four guidelines), then it's arbitrarily decorative, which is exactly what navboxes be are not meant to be, per WP:NAV. oknazevad (talk) 16:08, 29 July 2018 (UTC)