Template duplication
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Wikimedia transwiki templates
[edit]Due to the similar nature of many of the Wikimedia projects there exist templates that are similar or identical on more than one project and that are used for the same purpose. This leads to branching and inconsistancies as the branches develop differently.
Keeping centralized versions of these templates would concentrate development of these templates, make their use simpler for editors of multiple projects and make these templates easily accessible to all projects without one of their users having to copy it over.
Ideal solution
[edit]There has been made a feature request at MediaZilla:4547 for transwiki templates (see: MediaZilla:1126) to be activated to enable the use of a template from one wiki on another. Essentially, were the template {{Wikibooks}} stored on Meta, it would be available on any other Wikimedia wiki by something similar to {{meta:Wikibooks}}.
Though currently (07:34, 2 October 2006 (UTC)) marked as "Resolved", this feature is nowhere documented and educated guesses as to the syntax don't reveal any working method. This calls for an interim solution which would serve to localize transwiki templates until the feature request has been implemented.
Interim solution
[edit]Until the ideal solution can be implemented, templates can be put up on Meta and categorized. Other projects will then copy the templates from here and place a link on the template pages, requesting that discussion and improvements be done on the Meta template and then copied over to the projects.
Templates of a general nature will go in Category:Wikimedia transwiki templates which will have several sub-categories such as Category:Templates linking to Wikibooks.
Duplicate templates
[edit]Below are a few templates that exist on more than one Wikimedia project.
- Template:Disambig exists on both Meta and the English Wikipedia.
- w:Template:WikimediaAllLicensing, w:Template:WikimediaTextLicensing, and w:Template:WikimediaMediaLicensing all exist on both English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.