User:NYKevin/Grand Unified Citation Complaint System

I propose merging the citation templates ({{unreferenced}} etc.) together into {{citations missing}} to make a grand unified citations compliant system.

Here's a basic skeleton:

{{ambox|
type={{#ifeq:{{{zone}}}
|    footnotes|style|content}}|
image={{#switch:{{{zone}}}
|     footnotes=[[Image:Text document with red question mark.svg|50px]]|references=[[Image:question book-3.svg|50px]]|#default={{ns:0}} }}|
text=<div><!-- div used to escape |, }}, etc. -->
{{#switch: {{{zone}}
|references = {{#switch:{{{level|none}}}
|             none = /unreferenced text & categories/
|             few = /refimprove text & categories/
|             /unreferenced text & categories/}}
|footnotes = {{#switch:{{{level|none}}}
|            none = /nofootnotes text & categories/
|            few = /morefootnotes text & categories/
|            /nofootnotes text & categories/}}
|/citations missing text & categories/}}</div>
}}

You could then place it at {{citations missing}} since it defaults to show the text of {{citations missing}}. You could transclude it into all the other templates as a replacement for their raw wikicode. No one would even notice on the old articles using them, but it would make it easier to insert the appropriate template, without having to hunt for it.

Affected templates

• {{unreferenced}}
• {{refimprove}}
• {{nofootnotes}}
• {{morefootnotes}}
• {{citations missing}}

Pros

1. One name for all four specific templates ({{citations missing}} is far too generic to count as a "specific template," but makes a great name, as it is true of all four cases)
2. {{citations missing}} doesn't have to be redirected/deleted, both of which are seen by some as suboptimal outcomes
3. NO MASSIVE CLEANUP!!! (i.e. you don't have to do a thing to the thousand or so articles these templates are used on to implement this full scale)
4. {{citations missing}} has a purpose in life, namely, to serve as the default should someone be careless/lazy
5. Discourages use of {{citations missing}} with appropriate {{documentation, template}} and provides alternatives. When none are appealing, they may be added via {{sudo}} if/when consensus is reached, with little announcement necessary, just add them to the docs as param options, and in the meantime, the generic form may be used with appropriate commenting on the affected article's talk page.
6. Demonstrates why {{citations missing}} in its current form is redundant and vague.

See also

Wikipedia talk:Template messages/Sources of articles#RFC:Grand Unified Citations Complaint System (GUCCS)