Wikipedia talk:Userboxes/Education/United States

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Contents 1 Additions 2 What to do when this page gets too long? 3 User FSU 4 Re-organization 5 Issues with wikitable 6 Duplicates 7 addition 8 ?? 9 I made a new university userbox 10 New university userbox 11 Proposed replacement of University of Maryland userbox 12 You can help 13 Too long? 14 University of California 15 University of Tulsa 16 Blinn College 17 Centenary student/alum userbox 18 Eastern Michigan University 19 Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/School related user templates

[edit] Additions

Um, hi. I didn't graduate university, so I added a box for people like me, the "School of Hard Knocks" (that's probably an Americanism, but widely understood in America to mean no college degree). I don't know if its OK to just add a userbox here unilatererally, so if not, sorry, go ahead and remove. Herostratus 10:39, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• No I think that's fair enough... It's a good idea actually. I've got no idea, but you've put in under "United States" so as long as the Yanks understand it then that's more than fair enough! Deano (Talk) 16:20, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What to do when this page gets too long?

Any ideas?evrik 20:49, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Very simple. At that point each state gets its own page with the main page having 50 links, one to each state. Lawyer2b 23:16, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] User FSU

I tried to add FSU's userbox to the page but the whole page messed up. Can someone correct the format in the template itself so it doesn't do this? Mike H. That's hot 11:27, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

FSU has been added. The user box itself was messed up. Had a missing div tag and some extra table tags that weren't being used anywhere and were messing the formating of this page. I guess that is the potential problem of using 'subst' on any page. You have to trust the code that you are inserting. Andrew Powell 15:09, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re-organization

Alright, I've got a thought, Why Don't we move this page somewhere where it is a little more pretty. First thing, the sketchy geographic separations, it's a bit confusing. I kind of like the idea of separating schools by state with different links on this page, or how about by Athletic Conference? Let me know what you all think

Throughthelens 14:49 MST, 14 March 2006

If you think the geographic separations are sketchy, wait until you try by Athletic Conference, with some schools being both at large school in one sport, but within a conference when it comes to other sports[like Notre Damne football]. Also, what do you mean by sketchy geographic separation. The regional separation is well known in the United States, when referencing timezones or historicaly events, North v. South. Not to critize too much, the page does need some house-keeping. If regions aren't doing it for you maybe time-zone, however my vote is for an improvement along the lines of the current breakdown. --dirtyliberal 23:57, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

I'll take that, but why they broad geographic regions? What about eliminating the greater regions all together and have a breakdown by state, alphabetically? I think as the current page is, it would be at least less cumbersome. Here's a thought, make individual links by state, it would make the pages much more easily searched, because that seems to be an issue with a lot of these userbox pages, they're too long! Any thoughts? --Throughthelens 17:39 MST, 15 March 2006

Here are two ideas: First maybe it's not the breakdown that is cumbersome but the presentation. There is alot of wasted space on the page between userboxes. When this page reaches maturatiry [more schools are added] it's going to be very, very long in its current format, regardless of how it is re-organized. Second idea, split the page in two with one being the schools and the code required with links to the other, a page just for the userboxes themselves setup in a table with rows and columns. --dirtyliberal 07:12, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

There are other geographical divisions of the country with finer detail that could be used if it continues to be cumbersome. For now, though, it seems manageable. NThurston 15:18, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Issues with wikitable

The wikitable class assumes that you want lines between all of the cells, which means that you end up with phantom gray lines within the userboxes (at least on my browser). I am working on a way to re-do the formatting that gets rid of them, so you can see the true look of the userboxes. However, I haven't got a clue how to make a CSS, which seems to be the preferred way to handle this. If anybody has an idea, please let me know. In the meantime, I will work out a manual style system to get the job done. NThurston 15:18, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Are you the one who put the table into different regional boundaries? "East South Central"? Delaware in the South? This looks kind of weird, from a geographical standpoint. Mike H. That's hot 03:34, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes. I figured that as long as I was making the changes to the table formatting, I might as well correct the regions for the states, and some of them were pretty long, so I did the subdivisions. These are the divisions used by the Census bureau and are pretty commonly used. (See Census division map.) I wouldn't be opposed to going back to the four regions, however, until all the lists get longer. Delaware, Maryland and Arkansas are definitely in the South (not Northeast and Midwest). NThurston 13:34, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Duplicates

I have removed the "alternate" version for SUNY Albany. I highly recommend that we keep just one userbox per school on this page for now, especially with the current formatting. In any case, here is the one that I removed: University of Albany {{user UAlbany2}} NThurston 18:32, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] addition

I'm an undergrad student at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and would greatly appriciate if UNCA were to be added to the userboxes list Dr Denim 00:20, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

The best thing would be for you to create one to your liking and include it. If you need help creating the template or editing the page, please leave a message here, and I can guide you. --NThurston 17:20, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I noticed that you might be new, so I created a default UNCA template and added it to the list. Feel free to modify to your liking. NThurston 18:12, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

wow...thanks that was fast!...I was kinda expecting this to go unanswered for at least a few days...anywho...I just found out how to make them...so I've been playing with that...although I'd yet to make a unca one. Thanks again! Dr Denim 19:59, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to take you up on your offer - how does one create a new university template? -Ame_Errante

• Glad to help. The first step is to actually create the template. For example, you could go to the following web address: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:User_NewUniv (Substitute an appropriate name for your template instead of NewUniv). If there is no existing template, you'll get a chance to create one.

Cut and paste the following text to create a standard user box, then save it. I will use the example here of the Yale template (just because it's the first on the list).

<div style="float: left; border: solid black 1px; margin: 1px;"> {| cellspacing="0" style="width: 238px; background: #0044AA;" | style="width: 45px; height: 45px; background: #162A53; text-align: center; font-size: 24pt; font-family: times, serif; color: white;" | '''Y''' | style="font-size: 8pt; padding: 4pt; line-height: 1.25em; color: #CCCCCC;" | [[:Category:Wikipedians by alma mater: Yale University|<span style="color: #CCCCCC">This user</span>]] attends or attended '''[[Yale University|<span style="color: white">Yale University</span>]]'''. |}</div> <includeonly>[[Category:Wikipedians by alma mater: Yale University|{{PAGENAME}}]]</includeonly>

You can see that there are many options for changing things, such as the font-family and colors. I recommed fiddling with this in a sandbox somewhere until you have it how you like it, then paste it into your own template. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. --NThurston 17:29, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ??

What? Doesn't anybody attend high school anymore. What about us people who didn't bother with college? -- Jason Palpatine 03:24, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

So far, this has developed into a college page. I don't have a problem with high school userboxes, but I wouldn't put them here. We'd want to think about a better place for them. --NThurston 15:50, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I think that we should have a high school userbox page, too. I could think of HS we could make some for, such as Benet Academy and IMSA. And what about College of DuPage?? It's a junior college.--walkingencyclopedia 14:38, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Due to potential volume issues, I would like to keep this as a college/university page. I will be moving any high school templates that appear to a new sub-article for High Schools. --NThurston 13:18, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I made a new university userbox

But can't quite seem to get it in the table so it looks like the others. I didn't realize I didn't have to use the German userbox solution, so it's on a user subpage. Could someone add it to the table for me?

.

~ ONUnicorn (Talk / Contribs) 20:49, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

OK. Will do. --NThurston 20:50, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New university userbox

I created a userbox for Auburn University but after reading all the pages discussing how to save them on Wikipedia, I am thoroughly confused. Save them in user space? Name space? as a template? I can't figure it out. If somebody would let me know, or just take the time to do it correctly, I'd appreciate it. The userbox could be found on my personal sandbox. AuburnPilot 21:53, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I think I finally figured it out, but if I screw it up, please somebody correct me. :) AuburnPilot 02:13, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed replacement of University of Maryland userbox

Since only one userbox per university is allowed here, I'm proposing replacement of the current userbox, because:

• the existing oversized userbox doesn't fit standard Wikipedia userbox dimensions
• current userbox photo of mascot "Testudo" at the College Park campus is too small to be meaningful in a userbox
• the proposed new userbox is more generic of the entire Univ-Md. system, not just the College Park campus
• the University of Md.'s official logo features a stylized version of the Maryland state flag – by using only the public domain state flag in my proposed new userbox, we have a symbolic representation of the university without any copyright infringement. JGHowes 16:17, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Current userbox	Proposed new userbox
This user is a student or alumnus of the University of Maryland.	This user is a student or alumnus of the University of Maryland.

I agree with your concept, however, in the spirit of userbox non-proliferation, I highly recommend that you have this discussion on Template talk:user UMD. I have copied your comments there. I also suggest that you be WP:Bold and make your improvements directly to that template. --NThurston 18:18, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Update – the photo in the current U-Md. userbox is now the subject of a Speedy Delete discussion as a copyright vio. JGHowes 22:14, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes. As odd as it may sound, that is probably correct. I will go ahead and modify user UMD with your proposed improvement. Further discussion on this matter should probably happen at the user UMD talk page. --NThurston 13:21, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

• Fuzzy510 has changed this Userbox as a "Disambiguation" (see "Current userbox", above left), contrary to the discussion here. I've invited him to join this talk here, so that the right hand knows what the left is doing. I object to Fuzzy510's change. JGHowes ^talk - 17:04, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

It looks like his changes have been reverted. --NThurston 17:58, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

So I see. In a comment he made at Template talk:user UMD, he said that the "Category and template don't completely jive" because "the category it feeds into specifies just UMCP". I don't see that or know what it means, nor how to fix it - do you? JGHowes ^talk - 22:55, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

There is another similar issue with CUNY. That solution would be to create a category for University of Maryland, then each school UMCP, UMB, UMBC, etc. could have their own categories as sub-cats. As for the userbox, I am ok with one box for UMD, and another for each of the specific schools, including UMCP. You guys are welcome to go ahead and fix it. --NThurston 20:55, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] You can help

Things to do to clean up and standardize this list:

1. Make sure that every userbox has a category following the format: Category:Wikipedians by alma mater: University Name
2. Use the "nocat" parameter option found in {{User Stevens Tech}} to allow users to opt out of being included in the alma mater category
3. Make sure that every "alma mater" category uses the template {{educat}} in addition to whatever other information needs to be there. Note: There are some alma mater categories that are not associated with a userbox. {{educat}} is not for them. I'll have to think of something. --NThurston 18:48, 9 March 2007 (UTC) {{Educat}} now has an option for pages with no userboxes. Just omit the second parameter or put in "nobox". All categories in Category:Wikipedians by alma mater: United States currently use educat.--NThurston 16:47, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
4. Modify {{educat}} to display the userbox with the "nocat" option employed
5. Employ the "nocat" option from {{User Stevens Tech}} to remove the alma mater categories from this page
6. Make sure that no categories are "self-referenced"
7. Make sure that every userbox is categorized into Category:School user templates
8. Update the heading to indicate that all boxes should have these features

--NThurston

Currently, the only remaining "to do" is to wait the the CfD process to work its way out on the duplicate categories. --NThurston 16:47, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

• Alternatively, you might be interested in spending your time working on the encyclopedia known as Wikipedia. It's --> that way, and we desperately need help there, not on userboxes which contribute nothing to the encyclopedia. There's lots of backlogs. Come on in, you're all welcome there! Just a suggestion. --Durin 19:55, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Or, NThurston can do as he/she pleases. auburnpilot talk 20:04, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

• Certainly. But, we're not here to build myspace. We're here to build an encyclopedia. There's considerably better websites around if people are interested in social networking. See this. I'm not suggesting NThurston be forced to stop or anything. Just that the focus is misplaced when our entire effort here is centered around building an encyclopedia, and nothing more. --Durin 20:07, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

This page, the userboxes, and the categories associated with them all help in that effort to build an encyclopedia. So instead of ridiculing anyone who spends so much as a second outside of article space, why not let people do as they please? On more than a few occasions, I have referenced the categories associated with these userboxes in an effort to locate somebody associated with a university/school. This has nothing to do with myspace or a social networking service It aids in collaboration. auburnpilot talk 01:00, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

• You will note, of course, that I ridiculed nobody. I made a suggestion. Sorry you took offense. Seemed a natural thing, building an encyclopedia. --Durin 02:36, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I thank Durin for his suggestion. I take no offense, because I am sure he intended none (at least towards me). I try to regular contribute to other articles, but sometimes I have nothing to say. This particular effort of keeping the education categories standardized does help the encyclopedia as noted, but others coming here may be more interested in the social aspect. In that sense, I agree with Durin, that people should be regularly reminded why we're all here. In the same way that Durin contributes a lot of his spare time to the encyclopedia by patrolling userboxes for fair use image violations. While some might think that this doesn't contribute to the encyclopedia, I think it does. We should value legitimate efforts. --NThurston 13:18, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Too long?

Is the page too long now? Which of the following options would help:

• 1. Organize by States instead of Census Regions
• 2. Create sub-pages by four census regions?

--NThurston 16:52, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] University of California

I have redone all of the UC userboxes (except for UC San Diego's, which seems to be someone else's show, and UC Merced's, which no one uses) in the campuses' official "identity standards palette" colors and with a common layout. If anyone wants to dig up UCM's identity-standards documentation and redo the colors for its userbox, you are more than welcome. I already put it in the standard UC format; all you have to do is plug in the color codes. --Dynaflow 11:04, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Nice work. Please feel free to update USCD too. --NThurston 14:14, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Done. I've also put together userboxes for SF State, CSU East Bay, and USF. --Dynaflow 14:18, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] University of Tulsa

I hate to nitpick, but is there any way we can switch the University of Tulsa's userbox to say University of Tulsa instead of Tulsa University? Strangely enough, TU is the acceptable shorthand but University of Tulsa is the acceptable longhand. I've never completely understood why. matt91486 06:03, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Done and done. --Dynaflow 06:09, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blinn College

I've created a box for Blinn College in Texas.

Template:User Blinn

I tried to add it to the list, but I can't seem to quite get the table right and the Optional Parameters keeps looking off, so can someone with a better understanding of this page add it? Collectonian 14:47, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

ditto for LDS Business College in Utah.

--Rojerts 01:30, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Centenary student/alum userbox

I tried to create a UBX for Centenary affiliates, but I have no idea how to make it usable i.e. others can put {{User centenary}} and add it to their page.

11:41 PM CST, 6 December 2007

[edit] Eastern Michigan University

Howdy! I've created:

I orginally had this UBX under (User EMU) but I'm unsure if I should include this UBX within my User page (User:Generic248/UBX/EMU) or under (User EMU)? Suggestions?

Generic248 (talk) 22:19, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/School related user templates

Who is going to cleanup after the denial of the above? clariosophic (talk) 12:43, 4 March 2008 (UTC)