Wikipedia:WikiProject Succession Box Standardization/Completed proposals

The following are completed proposals from within Wikipedia:WikiProject Succession Box Standardization. They are moved here after a proposal has passed or not received enough votes and stored for archive purposes.

(APPROVED: Closed 12 July 2007) Proposal: Additional Parameter in Template:s-bef and Template:s-aft

Proposal: As per a request I received some weeks ago from the individual responsible for all the double headers and screwy succession boxes throughout the French pages, I promised I would propose this revision to s-bef and s-aft. This small edit would allow title changes to be added in a preset format within the s-bef and s-aft templates as in the example below:

to

The later case uses an optional parameter, "as", added in after the name of the predecessor or successor thus allowing one to place title changes without having to resort to breaking up the template's code flow internally (adding lots of breaks and style additions and subtractions).

Give me your votes!
–Whaleyland ( Talk • Contributions ) 17:37, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

• Approve: I think this will standardize change of title fields across wikipages more smoothly than the current format.–Whaleyland
• Strong approve; this should greatly aid consistency and ease of use. Alkari (?) 22:13, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
• Approve: I like efforts to replace that sort of bodged-in text with parameters. Choess 17:21, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
• Strongly approve: this will better "enforce" the guidelines for name changes and will make it easier for new editors to create succession boxes with the correct format for content (and will help to completely eliminate those odd cases of double successor cells). Waltham, The Duke of 09:00, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
• Support: Excellent idea. Get more info into less screen space without hardcoded hacks and kludges. — MrDolomite • Talk 11:52, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

VOTING CLOSED: Proposal APPROVED: This discussion has been closed and the proposal has passed with a unanimous vote from the current active members. I have notified the administrators of the passed proposal and am currently pending the replacement of the current source code with the new code.
–Whaleyland ( Talk • Contributions ) 21:44, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

(FAILED: Closed 11 Jul. 2007) Proposal: Wider succession boxes

A proposal has been forwarded by User:Fabartus to expand the size of succession boxes from the current standard, which is based on a 30-40-30 percentage rate with no relevance to the actual page width to a mandatory 100 percent width, that would appear in most cases as a full page span consistent with that of Navigation templates that often follow a succession box. The following are examples of that template in action routed through a test template found at User:KuatofKDY/Template:s-start.

Original {{s-start}} (simple)

Proposed {{s-start}} (simple)

Preceded by Athelstan

King of England 939–946

Succeeded by Edred

Original {{s-start}} (standard)

Proposed {{s-start}} (standard)

Hirohito Imperial House of Japan Born: April 29 1901 Died: January 7 1989
Regnal titles
Preceded by Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito)	Emperor of Japan December 25, 1926 – January 7, 1989	Succeeded by Akihito present emperor

Original {{s-start}} (advanced, with Navigation box)

Proposed {{s-start}} (advanced, with Navigation box)

Henry VIII of England House of Tudor Born: June 28 1491 Died: January 28 1547
Regnal titles
Preceded by Henry VII	King of England April 22 1509 – January 28 1547	Succeeded by Edward VI
	Lord of Ireland 1509 – 1541	Declared king by an act of the Irish Parliament
Vacant Title last held by Edward Bruce	King of Ireland 1541 – 1547	Succeeded by Edward VI
Peerage of England
New title	Duke of York 1494 – 1509	Merged in crown
Preceded by Arthur	Prince of Wales 1502–1509	Vacant Title next held by Edward VI
Political offices
Preceded by Sir William Scott	Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1493 – 1509	Succeeded by Sir Edward Poyning

If approved, this template change will be implemented into Template:s-start and effect all templates that currently use {{s-start}}, {{start}}, or {{start box}}. Let the voting begin! (A copy of this proposal is also located at Template_talk:s-start.
–Whaleyland ( Talk • Contributions ) 08:14, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Approve! – This change will make the template more consistent across Wikipedia articles and allow for some more space to write before a break is required in a succession box template.

Strong approval – This change will:

• Make succession boxes more consistent
• Utilise the space now lost at both sides of succession boxes
• Reduce the impression of crammed succession boxes
• Make large successions shorter

And can someone please fix this page? It is ridiculously wide. Waltham, The Duke of 11:59, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Disapprove. I don't find the proposed change very aesthetically pleasing, and I don't see that it would provide any great benefit. Since the boxes automatically expand to fit their contents, the only space being "lost" is that which wouldn't be used anyway. Likewise, the boxes already make themselves as wide (horizontally) as necessary, and therefore as short (vertically) as possible, so this change wouldn't make long successions shorter than they already are. Alkari (?) 22:43, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Exactly, they are as wide as is necessary for the words to fit inside, and therefore some of the cells will look crammed by definition. However, a little more space would make them look brighter and better in appearance. Waltham, The Duke of 13:14, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Disapprove. As Alkari stated, there's no "lost" space. Additionally, it's useful to have succession boxes with a different width than other templates, to make it easier to scroll to - or past - a succession box when looking for information. --Tim4christ17 ^talk 23:07, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

How does a narrower template make scrolling easier? And if you are referring to distinguishing them by appearance, I would say succession boxes have a distinctive enough look. Waltham, The Duke of 13:14, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't bother me either way, but when the move from the "rail line" to the "s-rail" template was mention, one of the reasons the UK railways WikiProject said no (the Americans and the tube embraced it) was some editors didn't like that look. Thus the change risks ruffling feathers on a global scale without achieving any greater usability. Pickle 14:09, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Disapprove for the reasons articulated by Alkari and Tim4christ17. Mackensen (talk) 12:52, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Approve! – This change will make the template more consistent across Wikipedia articles and allow for some more space to write before a break is required in a succession box template.

Strong approval – I have already stated the reasons for my support in this section of this very page. Waltham, The Duke of 11:52, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Approve. This seems like a good idea. john k 18:16, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Disapprove. I don't find the proposed change very aesthetically pleasing, and I don't see that it would provide any great benefit. Alkari (?) 22:17, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

VOTING CLOSED: Proposal NOT Approved: I have closed voting on this proposal and labeled it as a failed proposal. While it seems some members wanted the more consistent look of this template change proposal, it seems others have noted that the change may damage other templates that WP:SBS does not monitor. On those grounds, I have closed this debate. The discussion has been archived at Wikipedia:WikiProject Succession Box Standardization/Failed proposals where it will remain indefinitely. Thank you to everyone who voted and keep at it!
–Whaleyland ( Talk • Contributions ) 21:54, 11 July 2007 (UTC)