Editing Forum:Marking templates that are on the Starter wiki

{{Forumheader|Watercooler}}

<!-- Please put your content under this paragraph.  Be sure to sign your edits with four tildes ~~~~ -->
[[w:c:starter|The Starter Pages Wiki]] has over 60 templates, most of them also here (<s>maybe not</s>NOT ALL exactly the same). As our front page says, the best of what's here (currently over 120) will be added to Starter. (I wonder whether any responsible person is in charge of that process.)

As part of the selection process, and to reduce risk of divergence, I suggest that each of our "/doc" pages carry [[{{T|SPW}}|a little template]] indicating whether or not the template is on Starter. It could add those that are to a category here, which can very easily be visually checked against [[w:c:starter:Category:Template_documentation|the Starter /doc pages category]] to see whether any have been missed or wrongly noted.

The proposed template could be added routinely to every /doc page here (with new ones getting it from [[Template:Documentation/preload|the new preload]]), requiring an editor to find out whether the template exists on Starter. With appropriate coding, the process could be made easy to do at preview stage, with a link to the matching Starter page that can be checked in another window to find whether it's a live link.

If a template here is on Starter with an only slightly different form or name, we should urgently discuss it here, with a view to making the name here match the Starter name (which will have gone into several or thousands of wikis) and maybe improving the Starter template content if our content is actually better.

— [[User:Robin Patterson|Robin Patterson]] [[User talk:Robin Patterson|(Talk)]] 10:53, January 12, 2010 (UTC)

:The {{t|delete}} template is different between the two.
:So basically, this is just a way to mark pages that are on the starter wikia. New pages just made here will probably not be on the starter wikia, so I see no need to say "double check to make sure that this new page is not on the starter wikia". Who would marking which pages exist on the starter wikia help? --[[User:Yoshord|Yoshord]] 00:30, January 13, 2010 (UTC)

::Yes, "delete" was one I had noticed. This one has the provision for stating a reason, which makes a lot of sense: anyone wondering why the page has been flagged can get at least half an idea (which may be enough) if the person applying the template has explained. As I said somewhere, in the last few days, I think the Starter one should be brought into line with what's here. But the experts may feel that it's too complex for Starter. At least by marking our version we can let people make a quick comparison, so that if there's a difference we can discuss it like this. — [[User:Robin Patterson|Robin Patterson]] [[User talk:Robin Patterson|(Talk)]] 11:20, January 13, 2010 (UTC)

::I agree that "New pages just made here will probably not be on the starter wikia" - but it can happen. It can (now and at any time in the future) happen that there's a template on Starter that's not here. (There are at least two at this moment: [[Template:Album]].)  Say someone working here doesn't know about that and (maybe copying the name and idea from the same source) creates one here that is rather different, maybe even incompatible. Someone then has the Starter version on their new wiki but thinks they're improving their wiki by using our version - but that may then muck up their wiki. By having the comparison template, and asking people to check, we tend to avoid that outcome. — [[User:Robin Patterson|Robin Patterson]] [[User talk:Robin Patterson|(Talk)]] 11:20, January 13, 2010 (UTC)

:::So I misunderstood, then. The template will not be "This template exists on the Starter Wikia", the template will be closer to "This template (choose one: equals; approximately equals; does not equal; does not exist as) a template on the starter wikia". That makes more sense. And you provided a good example. --[[User:Yoshord|Yoshord]] 00:27, January 14, 2010 (UTC)

:{{t|Documentation}} is also slightly different between them. Other than that, I'd support this, as well as marking all templates here so reusers have an idea where to look if they want to check for new versions. As for who's responsible for Starter Wikia content, that would seem to be [[User:KyleH|Kyle Harmon]], based on an email I sent in early December about updating the Starter copy of {{t|Documentation}}. --{{User|Dinoguy1000}} as [[Special:Contributions/67.58.229.153|67.58.229.153]] 05:58, January 13, 2010 (UTC)

::Thanks for that. (Anyone who's an admin on Starter - as I am from time to time - CAN create templates on it; but it's useful to know who might be in charge!) You improved {{T|documentation}} here recently. Nothing of that on the Starter version: see [http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Template:Documentation&diff=prev&oldid=3176 its history from November]. Another case where an easy link to the Starter version would help anyone thinking of discussing improvements to either version. — [[User:Robin Patterson|Robin Patterson]] [[User talk:Robin Patterson|(Talk)]] 11:20, January 13, 2010 (UTC)

==Moving towards implementation?==
Dinoguy in favour, Yoshord unconvinced. No harm in trying, then? I'll set out my ideas a bit more clearly and may want one of you parser experts to make it really easy. — [[User:Robin Patterson|Robin Patterson]] [[User talk:Robin Patterson|(Talk)]] 11:20, January 13, 2010 (UTC)