Wikipedia talk:Categories, lists, and navigation templates

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Acceptable for navboxes to link to other-language Wikipedias?[edit]

I think this question is only answered implicitly by the page here and at Wikipedia:Navigation template ("links between existing articles belonging to the same topic on English Wikipedia", "do not provide external links to other websites"): should a navigation template include links to other-language Wikipedia projects? Template:Nut confections has a sprinkling of French and German articles buried in its links, which surprised me, but I'm not sure how obvious it is that they shouldn't be there. (Checking the archives here I see a discussion about sister projects, but that seems to be more about Commons and Wikiquote than other-language Wikipedias.) --Lord Belbury (talk) 17:24, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

Not to other Wikipedias (a template could get overrun with other-wiki links by someone determined to do so). The sister-project links could be revisited, the original suggestion to codify it (after the use had become common practice for many years) was to allow two or three (i.e. for a painter, Commons. an author, wikisource and wikiquote, etc.) but someone went ahead and put the RfC up as open-ended, the RfC was closed before new information was added and missed by the closer, and it still makes sense to put into the guideline but limited to two or at most three. Randy Kryn (talk) 17:40, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
An opinion likely not shared by the group at large, else the RFC would not have been closed as it was. :^) --Izno (talk) 04:07, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
No as per many talks on the matter.--Moxy 🍁 04:17, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
I have to agree with Randy Kryn. Inter-wiki links should not be used in nav boxes unless the other project intends to use the same template and be WP:BIDIRECTIONAL. In other words, the linked subject is to have the template. It would be difficult if not impossible to include the English language template on another project's page. Walter Görlitz (talk) 07:48, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll remove it. May be worth making this unambiguous in the guideline here, if it's come up before. --Lord Belbury (talk) 09:04, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Navbox and sidebar at same articles[edit]

Can both navbox and sidebar be placed at the same article? Or, can the two navigation templates be created for the same topic? Because, both Template:Indian martial arts and Template:Indian martial arts sidebar are used in same articles.--157.44.144.187 (talk) 17:51, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

They can. Should they be? Current thinking seems to be trending toward "no, we don't need two kinds of navboxes on a single article". --Izno (talk) 17:56, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
I also think they are redundant. What are you suggesting? One should be deleted? In that case which one should stay? 157.44.144.187 (talk) 18:08, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

Linking to categories in navboxes[edit]

Some navbox templates rely heavily on linking to categories rather than articles. This seems problematic for two reasons:

  1. The links may confuse users expecting to go to an article.
  2. In many cases it's basically a reproduction of the category tree UI and is redundant.

What are people's opinions on how to handle this?

A. Do nothing (leave as status quo).
B. Discourage linking to categories in navboxes.
C. Require that category links are displayed as category links ("Category:Cats" vs. "Cats") to avoid confusion.

Kaldari (talk) 23:58, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Does WP:BIDIRECTIONAL apply to sidebars?[edit]

Does WP:BIDIRECTIONAL apply to sidebars? The paragraph specifically says "navboxes", but the whole section is called "navigation templates", and appears to encompass both navboxes and sidebars. Also, at the bottom, it says "The collection of articles in a sidebar template should be fairly tightly related, and the [sidebar] should meet most or all of the preceding guidelines." Just double checking before I go removing a bunch of sidebars. Thanks. –Novem Linguae (talk) 09:56, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Seems like you're reading it correctly, yes. Walter Görlitz (talk) 06:59, 20 May 2021 (UTC)
Junk rule that leads to lots of spam and big reason why they are omitted in apps and mobile view. They are considered as link spam by content writers.--Moxy-Maple Leaf (Pantone).svg 13:01, 26 June 2021 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) § WikiProject links in navigational templates[edit]

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) § WikiProject links in navigational templates. --Trialpears (talk) 16:02, 8 July 2021 (UTC)