User:Key of G Minor/Don't be attracted to the infobox's bright colors
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Don't change things in the infobox without changing the relevant parts of the body text. |
| You proved my point. | |
| Read the page and you'll get it. | |
 This was put here to GRAB YOUR ATTENTION!!!!!!!!!!!! | |
| Useless information | |
|---|---|
| Section 1 | |
| Label A | Data A |
| Label C | Data C |
| Section 2 | |
| Label D | Data D |
A lot of the time, editors (particularly genre and ideology warriors) will edit the infobox rather than anything in the text. This is usually because the infobox is the first thing people look at the second the page loads. If someone is editing Green Day and they see "Genres: Punk rock, pop-punk, skate punk, alternative rock, power pop", their knee-jerk reaction is
I'm a punk rock elitist, and they're too popular! I'm gonna remove "punk rock" from the genres without changing the large, meaty text!
because the text is big. It's scary. For an IP or brand-new users, it's intimidating and complex. If you're gonna be a genre or ideology warrior and change, add or remove things without sources, at least delve into the juicer parts of the text.
Other types of infoboxes
editPerson
editThis rule also applies to other types of infoboxes. For instance, to a infobox for a person, if it says someone was
Born: January 1, 2000 New York City, New York
But one thinks it was more in Queens, they would also be attracted to the infobox's bright colors. Same also applies to the "Occupations" section. Yes, technically, John Lennon acted in A Hard Day's Night and other Beatles movies, but he's not listed as an actor.
Countries
editSwitzerland has two capitals: Bern and Lausanne. If one doesn't think that's true, than one might delete that, without knowing why it's the way it is. Also, if you disagree with the founding date or something along the lines, they would also be attracted to the infobox's bright colors.
...however...
editIt depends. If, the infobox says something obviously wrong, (i.e. N.W.A being Easy listening, Nazi Germany being Progressivist), duh! Be bold and change it. If in doubt, discuss it on the talk page.
Criticism
editAmong the main criticism of this essay is that it encourages telling already bombarded newcomers to make genre warrior edits in prose, but not the infobox. This is only semi-true. The point of the article isn't to suggest a newcomer to make such an edit, the point is to say that if you're going to make such an edit, don't just do it in the infobox, at least change the body text.[note 1] Feel free to add your criticisms below.
Other criticisms
editSee also
editNotes
edit- ^ However, to prevent disruption to the formatting, you should read up on the Manual of Style.