User:Cabayi/Making effective template edit requests

This essay outlines my decison making process for responding to {{edit template-protected}} requests. I offer it in the hope that it will help you understand my decision making process, and make your requests more successful. I don't claim these are the only criteria used by template editors but I expect most of us are looking for the same reassurances.

If any TE or edit-requester wishes to add to, expand, or dispute the essay, please feel free. All contributions are welcome.

The edit template requests are automatically listed at User:AnomieBOT/TPERTable which is watchlisted by many of the Template Editors. If your request isn't clear, straightforward, and non-problematic it's likely to be ignored for several days before someone notices that nobody's replied and rejects it.

Basic assumptions

The basic assumptions governing the process are:

• The template has been deemed high risk and protected because it's :
  • used on 2000+ pages, {{High-use}},
  • used on 100,000+ pages, {{High-risk}},
  • built using complex syntax, {{intricate template}} (Category:Intricate templates),
  • used by system messages, {{Used in system}}, or
  • needs protection for some other reason.
• The purpose of protection is to prevent ill-considered, un-tested changes and changes which lack community approval.
• Template editors have an extremely limited scope for getting it wrong. As TEs are told when being granted the privilege, we need to proceed cautiously.
• Any problems need to be fixed before the change is made, not after. The change needs to be made in ONE edit to the template, not over several fumbling edits.

You're asking for a Template Editor to make a change on your behalf. The requested change is YOURS, not the TE's, so you need to do the preparatory work.

Checklist

• Explain the change Explain clearly what's required and why. What's it going to achieve? What problem will it fix?

• Is the change controversial? There's no point making the change if it's going to be reversed at the first complaint. The request should be supported by reference to the MOS:, a policy statement at the relevant WP:WikiProject, or some other longstanding precedent, to show that it's a well-founded change, not a whim.

• Does the change have consensus? If the change is in any way controversial there needs to be evidence that it has consensus, such as a link to an RfC, or a resolution by a Wiki Project.

If you need to obtain consensus start a discussion on the template's talk page, explaining the pros and cons of your request. Most template talk pages don't get much traffic so you'll need to advertise the discussion (in a neutral manner, avoiding WP:SOLICITing) on the talk pages of any relevant WikiProject or, if no there is no relevant project, at one of the village pump pages.

• Will the change break something? Show that it won't, either because it's trivial, or because you've sandboxed the change and shown with testcases that it works. WP:TESTCASES provides a guide to what's required of the sandbox & testcases.

• Is the sandbox work done in the template's sandbox? The {{edit template-protected}} template provides tools to help service your request, but only if it's in the template's sandbox. If the preparatory test work is done in your userspace or elsewhere, it just adds to the size of the task.

• Pinging one editor who has the relevant experience to perform your edit implies to the hundreds of other editors that there's something special about the request, that they probably don't have the required experience and that they shouldn't bother trying. You could be in for a long wait.

In short

If your request is explained, justified, sandboxed and tested, if you mention those 4 points, and if the request could fairly be summarised as "Please copy sandbox to live", it's far more likely to be picked up by the first passing TE rather than waiting unanswered for days.

Don't ask the TE to...

• update the documentation. The TE's role is to do the work you can't do, not the work you can't be bothered to do. The TE is not your house elf.
• use the TE rights to take your side in an argument. The TE's role is to do the work that's been agreed, not to act as your cat's paw.

Editnotices

When requesting an editnotice please use one of the existing editnotice templates or design a specific one using the {{editnotice}} template. That way everyone can see the end result before implementing the notice, and the implementation will be a simple copy-and-paste.

More guidance on editnotices can be found at Wikipedia:Editnotice.

Finally

Keep a note of your request. If you ever decide you'd like to work in this area and apply for the Template Editor right you'll need to show 3 template changes trialled in the sandbox and 5 successful template changes made through requests.