Forum:Character Template: Automatic VS Manual!

'This thread is very important, so please, don't miss out on the opportunity to express your opinion and weight the options. Your opinion matters! Let yourself be heard!'''

The whole concept of this thread, is to weight the options between a manual and an automatic character template.

Example 01: http://imgur.com/eDuvbfm //Automatic Example 02: http://imgur.com/mImJ9C7 //Manual

Now the pros and cons of each one: The automatic template will add in all the techniques and tools used by the characters when the page is created, and you won't need to link pages (" " <--).

The manual template, however, will require you to manually add each technique and tool to the infobox. However, the quality and aesthetics of the manual template are much much nicer than the automatic one's. The main issue that I've seen that really irritates me is that the technique (and tool) sections are immediately added to each character, and cannot be made invisible (see Mikako), but can be made invisible using the manual template.

I'm sure Sajuuk will write down some other reasons why an automatic template would be better, my main reasoning for choosing the 2nd example is purely aesthetic (and, well.. It's much simpler to use IMO)

'Please, community, vote on either 1 OR 2. And, if possible, explain your reasoning to the best of your ability. I'd say that everyone is required to vote, but that won't happen, so... JUST VOTE!'

BTW, the thread was supposed to be created by Sajuuk, but I jumped the gun since he was busy today

Discussion
Thanks Omojuze! Ended up super busy today with other stuff, thanks for making this! :)

It is late for me at the moment, so I am not able to write much stuff here. I will wait for the others to post their opinions before posting mine. :)
 * I'm voting for template 2, the manual template. Simply because I am used to using these kind of templates and it makes things less complex for me, but now you've also given me more reason to vote for this template knowing about the technique/tool situation! So yeah, my vote goes to the manual template.
 * Edit: Also the template just looks better in general and suits the 'atmosphere of the wiki' imo. :)
 * By the way Omo, the link to the manual template image is not working o:
 * I just wanted to point out that there is a bit of misinformation occuring, though not intentional and possibly of my causing, which is my fault if I did cause a bit of misinformation.
 * It is possible to make the automatic sections invisible using a parameter (like, hiding the whole section) and I can easily set up the parameters as needed. I believe there's one for techniques (suppress-tech=true will hide the whole section), the same can be done for any other collapsible section. However, that is all that can be done, it is impossible to make the section invisible based on anything like "is there any pages?" as that is expensive and Wikia will hate my guts if I do that! :P
 * The reason I didn't add these from the start is because I thought it would be better if the sections were always visible, rather than just being suppressed. As far as I understand it, these will be hidden temporarily in any case, as when the new technique infobox is created, the section on character pages will be populated with data.
 * Automating the addition of techniques, tools and so on will mean less work for editors when a chapter is released: they would have to go and find every single instance and update it, whereas with the automatic method, they don't need to do too much and it updates across the wiki with little effort. A manual infobox would work out on other kinds of wiki's (like gaming wiki's and those which don't need quick updating of their infoboxes, since they don't have much content to automate), but we could be dealing with large amounts of techniques and tools data sooner or later, so I would prefer that the wiki automates this stuff from the outset, rather than many months down the line.
 * For that, I am going to vote for option 1 (though it is a bit biased and obvious that I would vote for my own creation :P). The newer infobox has a lot of fancy tools that all tie in with the feeling of wanting to improve the wiki and make it nicer. The older, manual infobox, at least for me, looks very narrow compared to the automated one (on my 1920x1080 screen) and we have to take into account that people may have wider screens who may find the automated box better to read.
 * I haven't made up my mind yet, so give us notice before ending this discussion. Cheers
 * EDIT: I like the design of the the manual, but im on board with what ever the majority wants.
 * I reverted back to the old (manual) one for the time being as the other one is still missing some sections.
 * People, keep posting your thoughts. OR DO I NEED TO GO ALL PERSONAL IN YOUR BUSINESS!? :D
 * @Gouenji: Strange... Works for me...
 * @Sajuuk: The automatic template would still need lots and lots of work. And, even then, if we can get the infobox extensions (the thing we talked 'bout in the chat) doing everything manually will definitely not be an issue and will be easier to do for regular and new editors if new stuff is discovered in the future, as adding extensions will be much much easier IMO.
 * "Omojuze: @Sajuuk: The automatic template would still need lots and lots of work. And, even then, if we can get the infobox extensions (the thing we talked 'bout in the chat) doing everything manually will definitely not be an issue and will be easier to do for regular and new editors if new stuff is discovered in the future, as adding extensions will be much much easier IMO."
 * What kind of work is needed? I coded the box to do exactly what the previous box did and removed those sections that weren't necessary (since they were merged with another section): it even uses the same stylations with a few tweaks. The box does nothing more than what the previous box was doing, just in a more efficient manner.
 * And I don't know what you mean by "extensions". My memory is a bit faulty atm, due to all the work I've been doing for uni, so please remind me what the extensions were ;)
 * So that the main page would require only the {Infobox}, you know what I mean >_<
 * Either by accident or deliberately, you removed some things, that should've stayed, namely the occupations and the types of generations. Also, in affiliations, not every affiliation should be a link. Though that's not a hard thing to fix, of course. ;)
 * "Omojuze: So that the main page would require only the {Infobox}, you know what I mean >_< Either by accident or deliberately, you removed some things, that should've stayed, namely the occupations and the types of generations. Also, in affiliations, not every affiliation should be a link. Though that's not a hard thing to fix, of course. ;)"
 * Adding an infobox namespace doesn't require any change to the coding of the infobox itself. :P
 * Also, the method of checking to see if a page should be linked is an expensive function and not one I'm particularly keen on implementing at all. Therefore, just linking everything is better on the parser in terms of performance. #ifexist has a limit on how often it can be used, along with all the other parser functions: too many calls will cause anything after the limit has been reached to not be processed at all and be outputted as generic text.
 * If something wasn't included in the infobox, that's because it wasn't mentioned to me that it should have been included or it may have been that I looked at the pages and saw only a single use case at the time: more than likely, it would have been accidental, rather than delibate :P
 * If things like occupations should have been included, it only took a simple message saying "hey, you've missed Occupations, pls add" and I'd have gone and put it into the box without any fuss lol. :P
 * Going just on apperance, i would vote for the manual template.
 * "Shinra Kusakabe: Going just on apperance, i would vote for the manual template."
 * There isn't actually any difference in the appearance of each template, they use the same type of table styling. The newer template is just a tad wider and has a bit more spacing around the text in each cell so that the text doesn't look so crammed up on those who have large resolutions
 * After having thought about it for a couple days, I'd like to make a proposition for the automatic template.
 * Currently, all the templates use a fixed width (250px). What about if we change this to a percentage width (25%)? Using a percentage width means that the template will adapt a bit to screen resolution, so that those with larger screens get a wider box and those with smaller screens see a smaller box. I think the main concern has been the width, rather than the features of the newer infobox.
 * What's your thoughts on using %age width? (Y)
 * ^I'm still iffy 'bout it^
 * The design of the manual one is much much pleasurable to the eye, for me anyways, and for readers, aesthetics are the most important (+ the technique and tool tables being on every character's template really really bothers me, imao >_<). And doing everything manually doesn't really hinder the wiki, if we can get the infobox extensions, it'll be easy and might even be easier and more convenient for never editors.
 * "Omojuze: ^I'm still iffy 'bout it^ The design of the manual one is much much pleasurable to the eye, for me anyways, and for readers, aesthetics are the most important (+ the technique and tool tables being on every character's template really really bothers me, imao >_<). And doing everything manually doesn't really hinder the wiki, if we can get the infobox extensions, it'll be easy and might even be easier and more convenient for never editors."
 * As I mentioned above in a post, we could make it possible to hide the techniques/tools sections on the automatic boxes if that is desired. It's a simple addition if needed :)
 * Okay, I'm closing this thread now. The wiki wants to use the manual boxes at this time. However, I will probably revive this discussion in the future when we have more information to provide and when automatic boxes can be more useful.
 * Thanks for posting in this discussion everyone! :)