Wikipedia talk:Automated taxobox system

This talk page can be used to discuss issues with the automated taxobox system that are common to the entire system, not just one of its templates. Discussions of this nature prior to 2017 can be found at Template talk:Automatic taxobox

Those familiar with the system prior to mid-2016 are advised to read Notes for "old hands".

Is this the largest template category on Wikipedia?

It looks like there are over 119,600 pages under the {{Taxonomy}} namespace now. Northern Moonlight 06:33, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

My count is 119,448 taxonomy templates, so the number in the category seems about right. No idea how to find the largest category.  —  Jts1882 | talk  10:32, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Anonymous edits

The Automated taxobox system has become one of the real strengths of WP - many thanks to those who set it up. Under the advantages and costs sections described here, vandalism appears to be one of the principal risks to the system. Is there any good reason to allow anonymous edititing of these templates and pages? Roy Bateman (talk) 05:37, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

I agree that it would be better, but I think any request to protect ~120k templates would meet resistance. It undermines the encyclopaedia anyone can edit ethos. The most used templates do get protection and for others there would need to be evidence of repeated vandalism. We just have to hope they have watchers.

One thing we could try and encourage more is the addition of references to support any new or changed template. An unsourced IP edit then could be deleted as unsourced with no further scrutiny. But it's hard to advocate this when many named editors don't add references or change the reference when they change the template.  —  Jts1882 | talk  08:57, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

I too agree that it would be better, but doubt that any request to protect in this way would succeed. Watchers is a difficult issue; I've given up watching taxonomy templates because I ended up with so many on my watchlist. Because I regularly check the error-tracking categories, I do see changes that create problems and try to fix them, but of course this is not a universal solution. Trying to get editors to add references is highly desirable, but doesn't seem very successful, as Jts1882 says. Peter coxhead (talk) 11:30, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

@Peter coxhead: What about adding an edit warning to taxonomy templates without a reference? It would just show the warning in the editor, but would stop people saving the template. An alternative is a category, but I suspect it would be too big to be useful.  —  Jts1882 | talk  16:38, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

An edit warning seems a good idea to me. I had thought in the past about a category, but I agree that it would be too big to be useful: no-one would be likely to work through it. Peter coxhead (talk) 17:45, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

The other issue I often see is editors putting the authority in the |refs= field. YorkshireExpat (talk) 16:59, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

Yes, this seems to have become more of an issue recently. Peter coxhead (talk) 17:45, 9 November 2024 (UTC)