SacredWiki:Userboxes/Design and construct

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Creating a new userbox

If you wish to offer an idea for a userbox, do so on the ideas page.

If you have designed a userbox that you would like to make available to others, you may wish to first display it on the New Userboxes talk page for community comment.

Which namespace?

See also: Wikipedia:Namespace

Userboxes may only be created or displayed in the User, Project, or Template namespaces.

So should your userbox be prefixed with User:, Wikipedia:, or Template:?

As content in User: space is traditionally given more leeway than in other namespaces, userboxes in User: space may not be as directly collaborative in nature as those in Template: or Wikipedia: namespaces, which are expected to adhere more tightly with policies and guidelines, such as neutral point of view and what Wikipedia is. (This should also be considered before moving a userbox from userspace to any other namespace.)

If in doubt, consider presenting the userbox at New Userboxes talk page for community comment.

User:
To host a userbox in the user namespace, simply create a subpage of your own user page or User:UBX.
Wikipedia:
Userboxes in the project namespace are generally for WikiProject or task force usage. Simply create it as a subpage of the WikiProject. (e.g. Wikipedia:VG/DAH!/userbox)
Template:
In the template namespace, userbox names must begin with "User " (e.g. Template:User Brazil or Template:User en)

Caution about image use

The Wikimedia Commons has a large range of icons for use within boxes. However, if you select an image from somewhere else, make certain the image license is free. Templates (which includes userboxes) or user pages may not contain any copyrighted content not under free license; so, for example, "fair use" images are explicitly forbidden. This is interpreted strictly and without exception. See Wikipedia's fair use policy guidelines for more details.

Caution about user categories

Main article: Wikipedia:User categories
See also: Wikipedia:Overcategorization/User categories

Content restrictions

  • All userboxes are governed by the civility policy.
    • Userboxes must not include incivility or personal attacks.
    • Userboxes must not be inflammatory or divisive.
    • Wikipedia is not an appropriate place for propaganda, advocacy, or recruitment of any kind, commercial, political, religious, or otherwise, opinion pieces on current affairs or politics, self-promotion, or advertising.

Simply: If content is not appropriate on a user page, it is not appropriate within userboxes.

Content examples

The following section is not to be considered all-inclusive. As such, other word combinations (both appropriate and inappropriate) are obviously possible.

Typical userbox content:

Typical verbs:

  • verbs of action: contributes (to), drives, eats, edits, plays, uses, watches
  • verbs of comprehension: reads, speaks, understands
  • verbs of preference: enjoys, likes, loves

Additional examples, using the linking verb is:

  • This user is <noun phrase>
  • This user is a fan of <noun phrase>
  • This user is a member of <noun phrase>
  • This user is interested in <noun phrase>
Potentially divisive words

Avoid verbs (often followed by the word "that") which may be used to suggest negative comparison and would thus be potentially divisive, such as:

  • believes, considers, finds, knows, prefers, thinks, wishes.

Avoid negative verb phrases which can be potentially divisive, such as:

  • dislikes, despises, hates, loathes

Also avoid compound sentences which are positive and negative, such as:

  • This user likes <noun phrase>, but does not like <another noun phrase>.

Essentially: Express what you do like, rather than what you don't like. Express what you comprehend, rather than what you don't comprehend. Express what you do, rather than what you don't. Express who you are, rather than who you aren't.

Constructing a userbox

How to construct the box

There are a number of box types to select from when deciding to make a userbox. The most commonly used design is the "Standard box". It has one square shaped area on the left ("id") and a rectangular area on the right ("info").

For ease of use, userboxes are typically made using maker-templates that have a number of parameters.

Template Parameters Meaning Value type
border-c The border color of the userbox. CSS color value (#hex or color name)
border-s The border size of the userbox. Width in pixels
id-c The background color of the id box. CSS color value
id-s The font size of the id box. Size in PostScript points
id-fc The font color of the id box text. CSS color value
id-p The distance between border and content of id box. CSS padding width value. px, pt
id-lh The distance between text lines of id box. CSS relative line height/length value. em
info-c The background color of info box. CSS color value
info-s The font size of info box. Size in PostScript points
info-fc The font color of info box. CSS color value
info-p The distance between border and content of info box. CSS padding width value. px, pt
info-lh The distance between text lines of info box. CSS relative line height/length value. em
id This is the content of the id box. Free-form
info This is the content of info box. Free-form

The id and info boxes can include text, links, and images using the usual Wikipedia syntax. Generally, the id box will contain a few letters or a 43px image, while the info box will contain a sentence with a link or two.

Userbox types
Userbox sampling templates

To make it easier to quote the generation code for a userbox in a uniform format, a template {{Userbox sample compact}} has been made available, which produces a picture of the userbox along with the code necessary to create it. To use it, just give it exactly the same parameters you would give the {{Userbox}} template. You must use subst:, or the template will not work properly. An example is shown below:

{{subst:Userbox sample compact|id=UBX|id-c=red|info=This is a '''[[WP:UBX|Userbox]]'''.}}

Produces:

{{Userbox | border-c = #999 | border-s = 1 | id-c = red | id-s = 14 | id-fc = black | info-c = #EEE | info-s = 8 | info-fc = black | id = UBX | info = This is a '''[[WP:UBX|Userbox]]'''. | float = left }}
UBX This is a Userbox.

There are not yet any similar templates available for userboxes created by the templates Userbox-r, Userbox-2 and Userbox-m.

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