Annotated template for topics (h1)

(This, above, is the topic title)

(This is the image; the caption follows): By MiguelMunoz - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84374532
This is a Penrose tiling. This image or graphic needs to have width:height = 4:3, as it will also be used as an image in the topic group grid menu, and the images in the grids all need the same aspect ratio. I had to crop the image to make it 4:3

A template on Wikipedia is a page designed for inclusion in other pages. Templates typically contain standardised or repetitive material that needs to appear across multiple articles or pages.

(This is meant to be an inspiring quote — this example is not very inspiring!)

— Wikipedia (this is the source, if any, of the quote)

This is the “What is …” section of the page. It aims to explain, in understandable terms, what the topic is about, as generally agreed, at least by those of us collaborating on Growing the Commons. You can add subsections (h3-level) to this if desired. Leave the “why” and the “what to do about it” for the following sections.

This is a generally relevant and important section; you could also say something like “what's the point of templates” or “what are the benefits of templates”. You can be creative here. The point is, after explaining what the topic is, it is a good idea to inform readers of why it is important, ideally why it is relevant to the Commons.

The point here is to inform readers what they can do; how they can be involved, etc. The title may vary depending on the topic or its context. If there is any “call to action”, then it is in this section, logically, once readers understand what the topic is about and why it is important.

(In this particular case, readers can't do anything directly with templates. But they can, for example, suggest ideas for modifying the template to the wiki team.)

These three main sections make up the main informative content of the page. As well as editing the precise wording of the headings to fit grammar and common sense, curators can add (h3) subsections to any of them to clarify and separate different aspects of the subject matter.

To say this again in a more explicit way: if possible, we suggest putting the subsections in their relevant places:

• if it's detailing the explanation, then in the “What is …” section
• if it's explaining the reasons, rationale, advantages and disadvantages, then in the “Why …” section
• if it's detailing what people can do about it, then in the “What can …” section

The more you understand about templates, the more you will understand both the point and their complexity. This is really a topic for the more technically-inclined.

(Here ends the main page content. A horizontal rule helps to clarify what is separate.)

(This is a relatively standard section where we put in a link to the relevant areas of the forum, and encourage people to go there. Extend this by giving them some suggestions around why they might want to engage, including connecting with like-minded other people. For the time being, this is a section on its own.)

You can ask questions or add information on the corresponding Forum section.

(Still not quite sure about the title of this section, given what it covers …)

(If there are aspects of your topic that you want to give more detail on, and it would overburden the main page, please link to sub-pages here. If you want to define a term that may be relevant to other topics as well, please link to concept pages here.)

• The groups of topics that this topic belongs in
• other related topics on this wiki here, that are not in the groups of topics, e.g.:
  • different editing techniques
  • templates
  • concept pages
• It may be worth repeating specific topics from the existing groups, if it feels very important. We don't have any strict practice here.

• Here we give links to other resources, e.g.
• DokuWiki's page on namespace templates
• Wikipedia's Help:Templates is much more complex, designed just for Wikipedia, and is not relevant to this wiki.

If you like an academic feel to the page, feel free to put in references to sources that you cite in the text above. If there are links to open access web versions, put them in; but not all references have open access web links.

These are the people responsible for this topic and this page. If you have any constructive suggestions for this page, or just want to ask about the topic, first try the forum (as above), but if that doesn't work, the other option is to contact any of the curators directly.

• List all the agreed curators here, like this:
• Simon Grant, independent commoner
• Katja Durrani

(The point here is, although it is only curators that can edit these sections (and public go to the forum) it is part of my strategy for increasing engagement overall to have these clearly flagged as public, not just for curators.)

(This is intended as a space for curators (only) to add their personal opinions or questions related to the topic. All such comments must be signed by the person adding them. See signing comments. The point is to allow space for different perspectives, enabling more readers to find someone who sees things as they do.)

(When there are unresolved question about the topic, and at least two of the curators agree on how to put the question in an open, honest and unbiased way, the question can be added here. This is intended to open up areas of exploration and so growth of the knowledge commons — not just for curators, but for anyone. And this may lead others to volunteer to be curators, if they care about the questions.)