Template talk:Subject bar

Discussion of placement of this template

A discussion of where to place this template on pages is now open at WT:MOSLAYOUT. Please feel free to join the discussion! — hike395 (talk) 19:39, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

Add WikiProject Parameter

Is there any objection to including a parameter to generate links to Wikiprojects? Any tips on how I can do it? Guilherme Burn (talk) 20:19, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

I believe that would violate the guideline against self-reference. This template is used in articles (not talk pages). Articles don't mention Wikiprojects. — hike395 (talk) 06:21, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Replacement of commons category by subject bar

@Duncnbiscuit has been doing widespread replacements of {{Commons category}} by {{subject bar}}. I have not seen any general consensus that this should be done. My personal opinion is that it is a poor change, so I would like to revert those on pages I am monitoring (at the very least). Did I miss an RfC which decided that widespread replacements is now the MOS choice? Ldm1954 (talk) 10:57, 4 March 2025 (UTC)

@Ldm1954: I too just noticed the addition of the {{subject bar}} template by Duncnbiscuit to MECE principle (Special:Diff/1284817387), where the addition seems pointless to me: the only link in the {{subject bar}} template in this case is to Wikidata, and the relevant Wikidata item for every page is already available from the Tools menu! It seems that there should be a rule that the {{subject bar}} template should only be added to a page when there is some other resource accessible from it beside Wikidata? Thoughts from anyone? Biogeographist (talk) 02:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Taking a look at the guidelines:

• WP:ELWD says "no Wikidata links in the body of an article", but MOS:ORDER says that everything "See also" or below is an appendix or end matter, so a {{Subject bar}} that only contains a wikidata link doesn't violate WP:ELWD.
• WP:MOSSIS guides against having EL sections where floating boxes are the only item in the section, and offers either inline links (e.g., {{commons-inline}}) or the bar templates (e.g., {{Sister bar}} or {{Subject bar}}) as substitutes.

What I have done in my own editing is obey the converse of WP:MOSSIS: I only use {{commons-inline}} or {{subject bar}} if {{commons category}} violates WP:MOSSIS or makes the article look ugly. I use {{commons-inline}} when there is only one link and {{subject bar}} if there is more than one link. I thus oppose the use of {{subject bar}} when there is only a wikidata link. But this is my own editing pattern: I don't think this has been endorsed by the community. — hike395 (talk) 03:19, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Later -- there is another issue with some of Duncnbiscuit's edits. When they added {{Subject bar}} to MECE principle, they added an "External Links". That isn't correct --- {{Subject bar}} is end matter, no an external link per se. That section header shouldn't be added. — hike395 (talk) 05:34, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

To editors Biogeographist and Hike395: I think it may be time to ask Duncnbiscuit about these edits. I just counted, and of the 1,000 edits they have made since Dec 9 2024, 668 have been {{Subject bar}}. This certainly appears to be highly unusual.

I raised the issue at his talk page here back in March, and he did not provide a response that convinced me of anything. I did not follow up on this because nobody else said anything, but maybe it is time. With 3 people raising the issue I think it is appropriate for Duncnbiscuit to try and persuade us to reach concensus, we don't want WP:One against many. Ldm1954 (talk) 15:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I share the concern that the widespread {{subject bar}} replacements/additions by Duncnbiscuit may be too indiscriminate. This template seems most appropriate when there are relevant resources in many sister projects. It may not violate any guidelines, as Hike395 said, to add the template to a page that doesn't need the template because the page doesn't have many relevant resources in external projects (i.e. only Wikidata, which as I said is already accessible from every relevant page!), but adding the template to such pages seems unwise to me. In any case, I would like to hear some reasons from Duncnbiscuit for why {{subject bar}} was added to a page like MECE principle that doesn't need the template. Biogeographist (talk) 15:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Biogeographist,@Hike395, and @Ldm1954, Generally I've been adding {{Subject bar}} to articles I review where there is only Wikidata as a sister project item because the link to Wikidata is not available through the Wikipedia Android App. I have taken onboard your comments and would be more likely now to use {{Wikidata-inline}} where it's appropriate. However, most of my edits adding {{Subject bar}} are where there is at least Creative Commons and Wikidata artifacts relating to the Wikipedia article and {{Portal bar}} has also been used.

@Hike395, I also take on board your point about not adding an External Links section if there are only Sister projects as external links.

Also @Ldm1954, referring to our earlier discussion where you stated that {{subject bar}} has poor formatting in Mozilla based browsers like Chrome; when I had an opportunity to experiment with this scenario, I couldn't see a difference with the rest of the article's formatting. Duncnbiscuit (talk) 04:43, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

One template you may be familiar with is {{Sister project links}}. You can use {{Sister project links|auto=y|d=y}} just like {{Subject bar|auto=y|d=y}}, but it will generate a sister box to the right (in an External Links section). I advise use of this when there are enough other external links to accommodate the length of the sister box before the end matter. See, e.g., Māori language or Nigel Terry. — hike395 (talk) 10:45, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Add functionality of Template:Tl:EB1911 poster

Be useful to add the functionality of {{EB1911 poster}} into {{Subject bar}}. Also reduce the bos clutter by one. Might execute faster with a searchable list of the EB1991 articles. — Lentower (talk) 13:47, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

What I do is just add the link from {{EB1911 poster}} to the |s= parameter. EB1911 isn't a sister project, nor is it a namespace in Wikisource, so it doesn't really match the other existing parameters. — hike395 (talk) 02:51, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. Adding this example for others:
{{Subject bar|s=1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Labyrinth}}
— Lentower (talk) 13:19, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

Moving parameters of these templates into {{Subject_bar}}?

How does one move parameters of {{Commons category multi}} or {{Commons and category}} into {{Subject_bar}}? — Lentower (talk) 15:27, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

The parameters for both of those templates require a display of more than one link per sister project, which is currently not possible in Module:Sister project links (the underlying Lua code for this template). — hike395 (talk) 18:35, 12 April 2026 (UTC)