Template:Automatic taxobox/doc/about
- Introduction
- About
- What is this template?
- When and why should I use it?
- What makes it tick?
- How to
- Use this template
- Format an automatic taxobox
- Understand taxonomy templates
- Correct the taxonomy
- Advanced features (extinction, question marks, references, paraphyly, etc)
- Convert a taxobox to an automatic taxobox
- Parameters
- Glossary of all automatic taxobox parameters
- Glossary of parameters that are new to the automatic taxobox
- Glossary of taxonomy template parameters
- Technical
- Conventions
- Test cases
- Gory technical details
- Map of all called templates
- Taxobox Task Force Watchlist
- Compare sandbox and installed versions
- See also:
- {{Speciesbox}} – create an automated taxobox for a species
- {{Subspeciesbox}} – create an automated taxobox for an animal subspecies
- {{Infraspeciesbox}} – create an automated taxobox for a plant subspecies or variety
The {{automatic taxobox}} is a template which utilizes a relational database composed of Wikipedia templates and a highly complex network of templates which produce an advanced algorithm which determines how to display a scientific classification for any taxon.
The template utilizes much of the same code used for the manual {{taxobox}} template, making it easier for editors familiar with the manual taxobox to add information such as range maps, synonyms, etc., without having to relearn how to do that.
The way in which the taxonomy is generated is highly complex and has what has been regarded as a severe learning curve to it, but after creating a few automatic taxoboxes, our hope is you'll catch on as well as other editors have.
Benefits
The benefits of the automatic taxobox are as follows:
- Less research is required when adding a taxobox to an article. Usually only one or two taxa will need to be researched, since the automatic taxobox pulls already-existing information about the upper-level taxa from its database. In some extreme cases, however, five or more taxa may need to be entered.
- The code takes up less space in the editing window, making it easier to find the head of an article.
- When a taxonomic revision occurs (which happens all the time), all members of the affected taxa (provided they are using the automatic taxobox already) are updated automatically with as little as a single edit.
- Out-of-date taxonomies on Wikipedia articles using the automatic taxobox are not an issue.
- Taxonomies can be normalized more easily across Wikipedia, although paraphyly is possible to produce with a little technical know-how.
- Vandals not familiar with the automatic taxobox are unlikely to disrupt fully transcluded taxonomies.
- Category:Automatic taxobox cleanup automatically tracks several types of errors, making structural vandalism and misguided editing easy to track down.
Costs
- Server-end lag during page loading due to the large amount of data being processed in generating the taxobox.
- Timely vandalism spotting is more difficult because few people watch any given taxon template.
- Vandalism is more exposed across Wikipedia due to transclusions of taxon templates.
- Many editors who wish to edit the taxonomy may be discouraged by the code due to its technical learning curve.
- Representing paraphyly or other rare phenomena requires technical know-how.