Template talk:Delaware Government

This template is intended to provide a summary index of Delaware more relevant to non geographical articles than the "Delaware" template. stilltim 02:12, 27 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This template is arbitrary, bulky, non-standard, and unattractive. It should not have the same flag graphic twice (violating the wikipedia standard of not using images for decoration only), it should use the standard state navigation layout, and it should be collapsible. Most importantly, if the goal is to use it in place of one that is heavily favored to geography, it should contain the high-level categories related to the state of Delaware. Please see {{Delaware government}} and {{Delaware education}} for examples of more specific templates. Elpiseos 14:48, 6 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, this is starting to shape up a little better. What I meant by arbitrary is that the top level categories for the state of Delaware should be reflected in the "topics". By removing "culture" and adding "religion", you've made an arbitrary decision about what is considered a top-level topic for Delaware. Is there consensus for this? By adding other rows of detail about people, geography, and government, you've moved away from this being a general template, and toward it being more suitable for those specific topics. Is it necessary to have links to all the information about Delaware state government on an article about Delaware geography? Elpiseos 15:12, 8 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Some time ago I came to the conclusion that one "state" template could not suit all articles relating to a state. That was the reason for the creation of the "DEGeneral" template for non geographical articles and leaving the "Delaware" template on the geographical ones. I grant you that by adding topics to DEGeneral, I paid somewhat arbitrary lip service to the idea of consolidation, but actually never convinced myself. Your activities have forced me to think through this a bit more, and I now think three or four templates with the same "look and feel" but their own links would work fine- one for government oriented articles, one for geographically oriented ones, and at least one for everything else, perhaps called culture.

In the current version of DEGeneral I replaced "culture" with "religion" because I believe culture is a higher level description that includes other categories already mentioned such as sports, symbols, economy, history, etc. I know that is not exactly how the WP categories are organized, but that is in itself an arbitary arrangement, perhaps one of omission than comission, but arbitrary nonetheless. Surely religion is as important as sports.

I also have to say that after looking at the current design for several days, and doing my best to fall in love with it, I really don't like it. Your adjectives of "bulky" and "unattractive" seem to me to apply perfectly here. I acknowledge the need to follow what has become an unfortunate standard, so will continue to experiment. One thing I really dislike, but see no way to fix, is the uncentered title. Standing alone it is not noticable, but when paired with another template it looks cock-eyed. Some of the bulkiness problem would be solved by having it default to a "hide" version, but the only way I can get that to happen is by adding another template. Any ideas?

By the way who are you? I have taken my lead from User:Raul654, a fellow Delawarean, WP big whig, and great guy to boot...and repudiated anonymity. This is Delaware after all. Turns out Raul654/Mark went to the same high school as my daughter. stilltim 11:41, 10 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The most recent edits have left this template even more non-general than before. Further, it has the word "Government" in the title, and redirects to the article for "U.S. State". This seems totally unacceptable. To solve the centered problem, one need only remove the graphic from the corner and use the standard navigational box layout.

I think another possibility is to remove this template and any of its brothers and sisters from articles that aren't directly about the "State of Delaware" and are more about a person from Delaware. Navigational boxes shouldn't really be used in the place of categories.

In response to the question "who are you", I am a Delawarean Wikipedian who respects and cherishes internet privacy. Elpiseos 16:44, 12 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]