Template talk:WikiProject U.S. Roads

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Template-protected edit request on 16 March 2025

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Replace

 |tf 10 ={{{state|}}}{{{state1|}}}{{{state2|}}}

with

 |tf 10 ={{{state|}}}{{{state1|}}}{{{state2|}}}{{{state3|}}}{{{state4|}}}{{{state5|}}}{{{state6|}}}{{{state7|}}}{{{state8|}}}{{{state9|}}}{{{state10|}}}{{{state11|}}}{{{state12|}}}{{{state13|}}}{{{state14|}}}{{{state15|}}}{{{state16|}}}{{{state17|}}}{{{state18|}}}{{{state19|}}}{{{state20|}}}

Because the template's documentation states that you can have up to 20 "state" parameters, right? OpalYosutebito (talk) 03:56, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi editor OpalYosutebito, and thank you for asking this! I've been playing around with this banner template and its sandbox, and all I can say is that this is a weird-acting template. I added 21 states using parameters up to |state21=. You can actually add as many states as you want using |state3=, |state4= and higher numbers, and you can do this without adding more parameters to the |tf 10= parameter. Since the "automatic parameter checking" is enabled, you will see red warning notices in Show preview that tell you the extra parameters are "unexpected". I added your edit to the sandbox, but I still got the warning notices. I think that's because the automatic parameter checking is done by the module. So the bottom line is that adding more |stateX= parameters doesn't seem to make any difference in the ability to add more states. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 06:05, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Realistically, there shouldn't be more than 4 or 5 states. Any highway with more than that many states will have state-detail sub articles, and those are not assessed for all of the states. When there are state sub articles, those are assessed for the states and the national article is not. In short, the support for |state6= and higher should be removed. Imzadi 1979 → 07:13, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Well, there are some highways that go through more than six states, such as US 1 and I 95. And I'm not sure how removing that capability would affect other functions in this curiously complicated banner template. Also, such an edit to the maximum number of states would need a consensus to implement. I'd like to welcome editor Martin in to take a peek. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 07:41, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The unlimited number of parameters is down to Module:If any equal which I wrote to support this template (and a few others) when updating their task forces to use Module:WikiProject banner — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 19:22, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Again, past practice is that even on an article like US 1 or I-95, we don't assess the national article for each state. (Take a look and you'll see that the banner on Talk:U.S. Route 1 only assesses as |type=US but not also for the states, and it's the highway that passes through the most states.) Once state sub articles were created, those sub articles were assessed by state and the states were removed from the banner on the national article. It's the cases like U.S. Route 8 (three states) or Interstate 24 (four states) that aren't going to get sub articles that the national article is assessed by state.

US 1, I-95, I-90 or US 20 are the highways that would pass through the most states, and they'd top out at 15 tops, so even supporting up to 20 is overkill if we still assessed national articles by state, which we don't. Imzadi 1979 → 20:20, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't missed your point, but I thought I'd repeat that I added 21 states using parameters up to |state21=, so it would appear that the number of possible state parameters is unlimited as Martin also pointed out. Since there is no lower limit, I fail to see any problem with the way the module and template are presently fashioned. We've all heard it before... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 22:27, 18 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It would be good to come to a consensus on this, as I would like to see Category:Pages using WikiProject U.S. Roads with unknown parameters emptied. Currently the category contains banner calls with |state3=, |state4= and higher numbers that aren't explicitly in the template syntax. Harryboyles 00:19, 29 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I added support up to |state10= as a test and amended the template documentation so that it matches the supported number. Imzadi 1979 → 01:51, 29 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks User:Imzadi1979 - that completely cleared the unknown parameters category to 0! Harryboyles 16:01, 29 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]