UESPWiki:Archive/CP New Quote Template

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New Quote Template

I have pulled the Cquote template from Wikipedia and put it on the UESP. It can be found [[Template:Cquote|here]]. An example of an "in use" quote template can be found on my sandbox. Basically, Cquote stands for "centered pull-quote". I vision this being used on Lore pages, Place pages, and maybe NPC pages, either using a quote they say or a quote about them in a book or about them that someone else has said. I think it will give a more artistic/elegant feel to some of the pages that are just blocks of texts. Any input? Also, there is another type of quote template I can bring over here that makes it more versatile. It can be placed on the side of page instead of spanning across the entire page. --Mr. Oblivion^(T-C) 12:42, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

Just to cover our bases, are there any copyright restrictions on the original CQuote? --Robin Hood (Talk • E-mail • Contribs) 17:38, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

As far as I am aware, no, there is no copyright. --Mr. Oblivion^(T-C) 17:41, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

No, I don't think there are copyright issues. The bottom of the Cquote page says "Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License." Their info for the license is here and the terms of use are here. I didn't read through everything, but I think it's okay for us to use it. To be safe, we could even throw a link back to the original page on the template documentation. –Eshe^talk 17:43, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

Should I go ahead and write it? Remember, there is another quote template that is used for smaller quotes that has text wrapping. --Mr. Oblivion^(T-C) 17:50, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

I've always really, really disliked that template. It's more about trying to make sites look cool than adding anything useful. I'd rather not have it here. –Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 17:56, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

Hrmmm. I think some of the lore pages look rather bland. Adding this would give it some artistic/aesthetic qualities which they seriously lack. Giving this too them will bring readers eyes to that section, which is two more eyes than the page likely had before. --Mr. Oblivion^(T-C) 18:02, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

I think it would look nice on the Lore pages, but it probably shouldn't be used on quest pages, NPC pages, etc., since it might be a little distracting when users are just looking for quick information. –Eshe^talk 18:22, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

Lore pages should, generally, be more encyclopedic, which means quotes should be typically be rendered into third person language. For instance, if Tiber Septim were to say "I, and all my followers will shop at MagicCo!", the Lore page should render it more like "Tiber Septim promised that he and his followers would shop at MagicCo (reference would go here)". The number of pages where a direct quote is suitable can't be very large (could somebody provide examples?) and maybe the template could be used in such cases, but I don't see that it's necessary even there when <blockquote> does the job so well. –Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 18:48, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

(outdent)Yes, maybe they should be more encyclopedic, but I don't think that rules out a little visual interest. Actually I might argue that polished, more aesthetically pleasing articles might convince users to read more. Take Lore:Elsweyr for example. The quote "It may be fair to say Elsweyr is in crisis. And it may further be accurate to say that such chaos is home" would make a nice highlight for the page and could be featured easily with the quote template. It doesn't mean we have to put every bit of dialogue into a shiny template, but it could improve the appearance of some pages. –Eshe^talk 19:08, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

I have put out some examples of the two different templates. They can be found in my sandbox. They are based off of Lore:Azura. I don't see the harm in it. --Mr. Oblivion^(T-C) 19:18, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

Visual interest is fine, and I'll be the first to agree with you that the Lore articles could be kicked up a notch on that score. To my mind, though, the cquote template is style over substance rather than genuine aesthetic improvement. In the context of that article, you'd end up with the quote dangling off the bottom of the paragraph. That template is just bad. I'll bow to the community's will on the matter, but I'll argue against its use all the way. –Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 19:20, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

I would personally call this a case of style in addition to substance. If used sparingly, the template could be used to change up the flow of the page without compromising content in any way. Also, we'll have to be careful with formatting, but I rather like the more contained quote as shown in the first example on Mr. Oblivion's sandbox. –Eshe^talk 19:25, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

Well we'll have to agree to disagree. Looking back at the history on WP, I found the edit summary "Not appropriate for an encyclopedia as opposed to a children's television program. See talk." (accompanied by an edit that basically changed it back to a blockquote) most amusing, and comments on the talk page like "Cartoon quotes [which incidentally seems to be the real expansion of the template's name] are beginning to infest the whole encyclopedia." and "I personally think this Cquote format is clunky and unattractive on the page." quite accurate. The more I look through WP at pages using this template, the more I dislike it. –Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 19:36, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

Please note that there is a bounty of quote templates we can use. Not just the cquote. --Mr. Oblivion^(T-C) 19:47, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

Just say no! If a quote is a legitimate part of an article, it needs to be contained in the paragraph to which it relates. If it isn't (such as the quote on the examples in your sandbox) then it's just eyecandy and shouldn't be on the page at all. If an article is interesting enough, people will read it whether it's ugly or not, but most long Lore articles will be able to use at least one image rather than an unrelated lump of text. –Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 19:57, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

\=> I partially agree with Rpeh, I don't like quotes dominating the page. Seeing the collection of quote templates on Wikipedia, they all share in common they take the quote out of the text flow. Which might be fine for a news article, but has issues on an UESP article. On the other hand, looking at the various quotes popping up with the OBNPCRP, I believe that we may benefit from some sort of special quote formatting. Currently it may be a bit too hard to distinguish one quote from another at first sight. Perhaps we can find something new in between?

Something that would allows quotes to be placed in the paragraph itself: "This is just an example of quote formatting." Don't forget, alot is possible with CSS. --Timenn < talk > 07:24, 20 June 2009 (EDT)

That's a fair point, and that's a decent first stab at a template, although I'm not sure it would work with lots of quotes together. It's definitely better than cquote and its ilk though. –Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 10:41, 20 June 2009 (EDT)

I don't like it. Quotes within the paragraphs should have the same font settings has the rest of the paragraph but with italics. The point is to bring/pop a quote out and mention the author if it is a book (which could then provide a link to more information). --Mr. Oblivion^(T-C) 10:50, 20 June 2009 (EDT)

Hmm...it would definitely be better than nothing. I was thinking of the NPC pages as a separate issue because this kind of template wouldn't work at all there, but while we're at it we might as well come up with a fix for that too. Some NPCs have so much dialogue all squashed together that it just looks...meh...so that could do with some reformatting for sure. –Eshe^talk 11:00, 20 June 2009 (EDT)