Template talk:University of Virginia

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This template was considered for deletion on 2007 November 28. The result of the discussion was to keep.

Contents 1 TfD nomination of Template:University of Virginia 2 Creation 3 Revise or throw out 4 Readability 5 "Campus"? 6 Logo 7 This template is a monster

[edit] TfD nomination of Template:University of Virginia

Template:University of Virginia has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. — 204.111.165.239 (talk) 01:27, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Creation

I created this template to link all University of Virginia material... please add anything I couldn't find. Thanks. Jazznutuva 14:47, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

I deleted Wilk Hall today because the article was removed and this box shouldn't have a dead link. If someone restores the article, I'll restore the link. This is a separate issue from the other user who complained that Wilk Hall isn't UVA-sponsored. I agree that the template shouldn't relate only to "official" things (the Cavalier Daily, for example, receives no funding from UVA, but I doubt anyone would argue that it doesn't belong here). 1995hoo 13:49, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Revise or throw out

This would make a nice infobox on the University of Virginia page. That should be the extent of its usage. Leave it on your talk page if you like; I don't care about that.

If you want to continue to use it elsewhere, please trim out the trivia and keep only a few of the most relevant links.

A few of the major problems with it are:

• This is redundant with categories.
• If you want to include redlinks as well, make a list and link to it.
• It is far too big and has far too many links to be useful as a navigation tool in articles that are only peripherally related to most everything else there.
• This wreaks havoc with the "What links here" list of every article in which it appears, making that tool next to useless.

If you don't come up with a better way to deal with this, we can take it to Wikipedia:Templates for deletion. Gene Nygaard 21:06, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Just for one example:

• Fan Mountain Observatory has 62 articles listed in its "What links here" page"
• Of those articles, 61 are there because somebody slapped this template on those articles.
• There is exactly one article linking to Fan Mountain Observatory which isn't there because of this template.
• Can you find it?

• Now, of course, there might actually be some of those with this template which also have some other link to Fan Mountain Observatory in their text, and would be linked to it even without this template.
• Is that in fact true for any articles?
• How many?

Gene Nygaard 21:20, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Similar boxes exist as to other universities (Duke and UNC, for example). Either they all have to go or they all get to stay, but varying the rule isn't reasonable. Abeg92 may have the best idea. On the page about the Duke-UNC rivalry, the box showing basketball scores (poor saps need to learn what FOOTBALL is!) defaults to having the scores hidden and expands only if clicked. It's a much cleaner look. But again, that's only appropriate here if the same requirement is imposed on boxes of this sort for other universities. 1995hoo 00:00, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

• Perhaps we should have a "hide" option, like the Presidents template. Abeg92contribsBoomer Sooners! 12:54, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Readability

Am I the only one who has to squint to read this thing? Uvaduck 21:39, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Campus"?

I suggest we change this to "Grounds" because "campus" is incorrect. I seriously doubt that any non-UVA people would be confused by such a change. 1995hoo 20:06, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Logo

I changed the UVa logo to the official one. Monty 06:57, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

• Copyrighted, fair use imagery is not permitted to be used on templates per Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria item #9. Please do not put the official logo back on the template. Thank you, --Durin 12:53, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

User:J Milburn deleted the logo from this template because it was unofficial. As noted above, it appears that in the past official logos were specifically proscribed. What is the project to do here? I'm reverting the change so that we can have some discussion about how to proceed here. Tjarrett (talk) 13:46, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

The official logo cannot be used for copyright reasons, this logo can't be used because the use of a fake logo is misleading at best, outright wrong and libellous at worst. There is no reason to have a logo- text is best, that is what is used on the vast majority of these templates. I am reverting back, I request we err on the side of caution (without the logo) while we discuss this, though, obviously, I am happy to discuss the matter. J Milburn (talk) 15:49, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, I don't know that I'd say "libelous" -- them's fightin' words! :) After all, we're talking about representing the University of Virginia related content on Wikipedia, not setting up our own UVA webserver and pretending we are the university.

But your point is taken regarding how other universities are represented in their navboxes. So I am experimenting with an alternative. I've made a copy of the infobox in my userspace that has had some styling applied. I'd welcome opinions, here or there. I'm not crazy about the orange on blue, but blue on orange is bad too and neither orange nor blue by themselves convey much of the University identity. Other suggestions? Tjarrett (talk) 17:44, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, obviously, in this case, I don't think libel is a potential problem, I was just talking generally! I don't know anything about the university, so I can't really comment on alternatives- I assume those are the university's colours? That could work; but fair use images and unofficial logos are out of the question. A public domain shield/seal? A picture of an iconic building/statue/whatever in the university? J Milburn (talk) 17:51, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

For right now I stuck with color and type to carry the UVA branding. We can certainly explore adding a PD picture of the Rotunda -- there are a few on Commons and I will add some more -- but as the default state for the template is collapsed, I want the title bar to carry the brand. I'm not super happy with the look of the orange type on blue but it's grown on me over the past day. Tjarrett (talk) 13:54, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that looks great to me at the moment. Glad we could reach a conclusion on this; it's going off my watchlist now. J Milburn (talk) 16:37, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the discussion... this template started as a side project for me a couple years ago and has expanded into something that represents our University well. Jazznutuva (talk) 12:28, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

A note on the new colors: these are the same colors that are listed as the official school colors in the University of Virginia infobox. For consistency, if we are going to keep the orange on blue color scheme, let's keep the official school variants of those colors. Tjarrett (talk) 11:24, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] This template is a monster

It seems a bit unwieldy. I would suggest some pruning of details so that it at least fits in the window on a 17" monitor set to 10 point. -- Flyguy649 ^talk _contribs 18:59, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

I agree, although I can't be of help as to the 17-inch monitor because mine is larger than that. I think one thing that's definitely worth deleting are the abbreviations for the different schools. They add no value, and it also bears noting that many folks associated with UVA wouldn't recognize those abbreviations anyway (consider that the Alumni Association uses COLL or COL for the College, rather than CLAS, and EDUC for the School of Education, rather than SED). Anything that is a red link or a non-functional link ought to be deleted as well. I also think that if there is a link entitled "Notable Alumni," the list of alumni is redundant and unnecessary. I think the final "OTHER" category ought to go because the points in there are not UVA-specific. Some effort to prune the template is needed, given that there's a discussion of whether it ought to be deleted, but I don't want to jump the gun and start trimming given the circumstances. 1995hoo 21:32, 3 December 2007 (UTC)