Template talk:Wikipedia how-to

message: Why does this template have a broom icon? It's not a cleanup template. - Rocket000 02:52, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I just thought the same. So I looked around for some tool icons. I found some but they didn't look good in that box. --David Göthberg 10:54, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Icon 

message: This template can be used on any kind of how-to guide. That means that it is often used on how-to guides that describe brand new practices or processes, already before they become common.
Thus I changed the wording in the box from:
:This page is a how-to guide detailing a common practice or process on the English Wikipedia.
To instead be: 
:This page is a how-to guide detailing a practice or process on the English Wikipedia.
As I see it the purpose of this box is to say two things: "This is a how-to guide" and "This is not a policy or guideline". Currently the second part is only implicated, which might be a good thing since listing everything that a page is not could be a long list.
The text now feels a bit short, but perhaps that is a good thing? 
--David Göthberg (talk) 21:54, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wording 

message: However, user pages should not be categorized.  Problem occurs when articles are copied to user pages for editing. 69.106.253.194 (talk) 04:24, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for spotting this. I added code to prevent categorization outside the Wikipedia: and Help: namespaces. —TKD [talk][c] 08:07, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: How-to when placed on a user page generates the How-to category

message: I have just updated the code of this template. Here's what I have done and why:
* I made the image link to the image page again. That icon is not public domain. For pretty much all other licenses we must attribute the author and provide a link to the license text. So unlinking non-PD images is probably illegal.
* I moved the documentation to a /doc subpage, since this template is semi-protected. Having a /doc subpage allows IP-users from other language editions of Wikipedia to add interwiki links, and allows anyone to update the documentation.
* I made the box appear without the shortcut box on the template page, thus simplifying the code. Instead I added an example in the documentation showing the shortcut box.
* This template still only categorizes when on Wikipedia and Help pages.
* Since this template is used in Wikipedia space I added the , which automatically suppresses categorization on several pages in Wikipedia space where we only list and demonstrate templates. I also added the "nocat = true" parameter, if anyone wants to suppress categorization when on some other page. (And for backwards compatibility I retained the old suppression method that this template already had.)
--David Göthberg (talk) 09:12, 28 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  New code 

message: Wikipedia:Producing maps with xplanet desires to sort their page in the Wikipedia how-to category by "xplanet" as in "Category:Wikipedia how-to|xplanet". I was going to add the  template and remove the separate category, but the  template doesn't have an optional sort-by parameter for the Wikipedia how-to category. Would you please add  an optional sort-by parameter for the Wikipedia how-to category called by the  template. Thanks. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 11:13, 21 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I have attempted this change.  should set the category key. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:46, 21 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: how-to needs sort-by feature for category

message: Proposal - To rename Template:Wikipedia how-to to Template:Wikipedia help page (I just created that page as a redir that points here), and change text from 
::Old - This page is a how-to guide.  It details....
::New - This help page details.....
:::note both links point to the same thing
Reasons 
# The target pages are generally in the help namespace, or at least a strong argument could be made for moving them there
# The relevant policy is Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines#Role which includes a bullet point that implies 'how-to' is a synonym for 'help page'
# Widespread adoption of the 'how-to' synonym dilutes the distinctions between the various namespaces.  We don't have a 'how-to' namespace, but we do have a 'help' namespace. Note the blurry clumping of various pages in this recently created project guideline
# Template:How-to is already used for an entirely different purpose but it is easily confused with the how-to synonym for wikipedia help pages.  
# The Help namespace lacks a generic template using some derivation of "help".   This change would fix that 
NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 17:29, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Elaborate on proposal and reasons  

message: :Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *Support or *Oppose, then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.
*Support  simple is always the best way to go....they are help pages....mostly in the help namespace.--Moxy (talk) 21:33, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Survey