UDWiki:Moderation/Policy Discussion/Templates and Namespaces

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Many users in this wiki already know about the template exploit, which allows users to use other pages as templates, even if those pages dont use the template namespace. The new Suburb uses this exploit to display the danger level of the surrounding suburbs, and several people already use them as their signatures, in order to automaticaly change all pages they ever signed. Well, this might be nice, since it makes coding easier to look at when you are in a popular page, like the suggestions page, or the Arbitration page in time of Wiki Drama.

But people are starting to use the exploit in cases where they should just create a template for it, which allows us to know exactly what is calling what on a page. This can bs easily seen on (sorry, Amazing, nothing personal) the Amazing is Watching template exploit amazing added to the Crossman Defense Force page. It took me a long time to realize that the this exploit was the code that transcluded the Amazing is Watching text. If it were being used in the template namespace, things would be much easier to spot. I have seen others using userboxes hosted in this fashion, which should be using the template tag as well.

So, by this policy, i want to make clear where and when this exploit could be used.

Where can it be used

• User signatures
• Templates used by the Community, like the Suburbs template and others

Where it shouldnt be used

• Whenever the template namespace should suit better

this is just a draft for this policy, please discuss it on the talk page.