Template talk:W

Your reminder that this template is pointless as we can already link to Wikipedia two other ways that don't require expanding a template. --abates (talk) 22:23, 13 September 2018 (EDT)

This template is much more intuitive, IMO. And with this kind of template we can actually track its usage by page. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 47 (talk) 22:37, 13 September 2018 (EDT)

Indeed. Template > wikicode. - TBR (talk) 01:29, 14 September 2018 (EDT)

And it's WAY cleaner than the alternatives. Compare [[wikipedia:Transformers|Transformers]] to {{w|Transformers}}. So much simpler and more straightforward. (Also, most of the Wikipedia links have been switched over to the template now, so phasing it out would do more harm than good at this point.) -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 08:30, 14 September 2018 (EDT)

By the way, Cyberlink. I think abates finally fixed the code for this template, but it looks like several pages using the template need to be "refreshed" to stop showing up in "Category:Templates". If you have the time, can you take care of all those pages? A single edit submission should do the trick. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 47 (talk) 13:35, 14 September 2018 (EDT)

Sure thing; I'll take care of that now. On a side note, I think I've got all instances of [[wikipedia:]] replaced, save for those on talk pages, user pages, and locked pages I can't edit like Ruined Forever. I'd like to track down all the [[w:]] instances too and update those, but those are much more difficult to search for, so that may have to wait. (It'd be nice if there was an easy way to search for raw links as well, as those DEFINITELY need to be updated. -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 14:08, 14 September 2018 (EDT)

Okay, I've refreshed all the pages and templates. Unfortunately, due to the latter, it seems many images have also gotten added to the category. Like, almost all of them from the looks of it. I'll continue refreshing those as well, but it's going to take a very, very long time to get through all 4600 still remaining, so bear with me. -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 15:12, 14 September 2018 (EDT)

Ugh, there must be some faster way to distribute the category correction. Hmm. Hey abates, could it work out if you straight up deleted this template and then recreated it with proper code? Would that get every page and image out of "Category:Templates"? S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 47 (talk) 15:21, 14 September 2018 (EDT)

If not, it's not a huge deal. I've gotten through over 1000 over the weekend, so I'm sure if I keep plugging away at it, the remaining 3500 shouldn't be too much trouble. Besides, I'm party to blame for updating the pages without realizing the template was busted, so it's only fair that I help clean things up. -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 20:29, 16 September 2018 (EDT)

It's taking a long time because any time you edit a template that is used on thousands of pages, it adds thousands of jobs to an automated job queue to update everything. Deleting and recreating the template would presumably just add more jobs to the job queue. --abates (talk) 23:28, 16 September 2018 (EDT)

Looks like the automated system is taking care of the rest; it's dropped about 3000 since I posted that last message. I'll let it finish up. EDIT: It seemed to have stopped going, so I went in and cleared the rest myself. We should be good now. -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 00:52, 17 September 2018 (EDT)

Yeah, I ran a script that made a dent in the half a million jobs in the queue. --abates (talk) 02:02, 17 September 2018 (EDT)

Much obliged, then! -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 03:37, 17 September 2018 (EDT)