The following guidelines apply equally to all user templates (including any userbox or userbox-like markup), regardless of where the code resides; and regardless of whether they have been transcluded, substituted, or written from scratch. Such templates which fail to meet these guidelines may be subject to deletion.
A userbox is a small rectangular box that looks like this. More examples below.
Userboxes can come in many different styles and colors.
Userboxes can have one or two sideboxes.
Auserbox (commonly abbreviated asUBX) is a small colored box (see examples) designed to appear only on a Wikipedian'suser page as a communicative notice about the user, in order to directly or indirectly help Wikipedians collaborate more effectively on articles.
The first userboxes were introduced to support theBabel inter-language effort by indicating the skills of users in other languages.
Be mindful that, like anything else you add to Wikipedia, userboxes you add will likely be public forever, even if you later have your user page deleted. (Like other Wikipedia pages, your user page will be regularly archived in the database dumps and may be archived by third parties, such as theInternet Archive.)
Using existing userboxes
Userboxes belong on their users' pages. In some cases, it may be considereduncivil to place userboxes on other users' pages without their permission (especially in a mean-spirited way—such as accusing a user ofracism,sexism,homophobia,transphobia, etc.). However, userboxes may be placed on non-mainspace talk pages by anyone. (See alsoWikipedia:Talk page.)
The{{clear}} template can be placed after the plain userbox if text is added on a new line immediately after it.
The standard syntax for adding a userbox to your user page (also known astransclusion) is:{{username_of_box}}.
If you do not have any userboxes on your user page yet, you want to begin using them, and you want to add them down the right side of your user page starting at the top, then edit your user page and, at or near the top of the source for your user page, add{{Userboxtop |}}, add the transclusion(s) for the userbox(es) you wish to include, and add{{userboxbottom}} just after the last userbox transclusion. Please see the#Grouping_userboxes section for other ways of grouping and placing userboxes.
Optional substitution
You may decide tosubstitute the template code onto your user page using the syntax{{subst:username_of_box}}. The use of "subst:" will ensure that the template is always displayed in its form when you add it to your user page (i.e. it will not reflect subsequent edits to the template). This method will lead to large amounts of code on your user page.
If you wish to offer an idea for a userbox, do so on theideas page.
If you have designed a userbox that you would like to make available to others, you may wish to first display it on theNew Userboxes talk page for community comment.
Thenamespace you place your userbox in matters. Userboxes mayonly be created or displayed in theUser,Project (Wikipedia), orTemplate namespaces.
So which prefix is best for your userbox:User:,Wikipedia:, orTemplate:?
Since content inUser:space represents individual editors more than the community, they are traditionally given more leeway than in other namespaces. Thus, userboxes inUser:space may not be as directly collaborative in nature as those inTemplate:orWikipedia:namespaces, which are expected to adhere more tightly with certainpolicies and guidelines, especiallyNeutral point of view andWhat Wikipedia is not. This should also be considered beforemoving a userbox from userspace to any other namespace.
User:
To host a userbox in the user namespace, create asubpage of your own user page orUser:UBX.
Please remember to addnocat = true and wrap the category inincludeonlytags (seethis example diff) when using theTemplate namespace. Otherwise, your userbox will automatically be categorized, causing inconvenience to WikiElves.
If you are uncertain if your userbox is in the correct namespace, consider presenting the userbox at theNew Userboxes talk page for community comment.
A userbox can be coded to autocategorise any user pages whichtransclude the userbox into one or moreuser categories. However,do not use autocategorisation without good reason.
Users of the userbox can be located using theSpecial:WhatLinksHere tool from the userbox template. Networking between editors with similar interests or views is best done using aprojectspace essay with a signup section for editors interested in networking.
If there is a good reason for the user category, first create the category pages and include a description that explains its purpose and scope.
Please be mindful of thecolour contrast guidelines atWP:COLOUR – low-contrast colours present accessibility barriers to people with colour-blindness or other visual disabilities.
Content examples
The following section is not to be considered all-inclusive. As such, other word combinations (both appropriate and inappropriate) are obviously possible.
Another option is to allow changing the verb phrase usinga template parameter. This is especially useful in location userboxes:
This user {{{1|lives in}}} <location>.
To avoid the awkward third-person phrasing ("This user"), you can use "{{#titleparts: {{PAGENAME}} | 1 | 1 }}" (without the quotes) to insert the name of the user that includes it on their page (e.g. "{{#titleparts: {{PAGENAME}} | 1 | 1 }} uses second-person phrasing" produces "Userboxes uses second-person phrasing").
Avoid negative verb phrases which can be potentially divisive, such as:
dislikes, despises, hates, loathes
Also avoid compound sentences which are positive and negative, such as:
This user likes <noun phrase>, but does not like <another noun phrase>.
Essentially: Express what you do like, rather than what you don't like. Express what you comprehend, rather than what you don't comprehend. Express what you do, rather than what you don't. Express who you are, rather than who you aren't.
Design: How to construct the box
There are a number of box types to select from when deciding to make a userbox. The most commonly used design is the "Standard box". It has one square shaped area on the left ("id label") and a larger rectangular space on the right ("info area").
For ease of use, userboxes are typically made using maker-templates that have a number of parameters.
Unit-less numerical value for border size/width,equivalent to pixels, but do not append 'px' to the number. E.g.border-s = 3 .
id-c
Backgroundcolor for theid label area of the userbox.
CSS color string (hex or name)
id-s
Textsize for theid label area.
Unit-less numerical value for font-size(do not append 'px')
id-fc
Textcolor for theid label.
CSS color string (hex or name)
id-p
Space/padding Between theid content and the userbox border.
This cell padding uses a CSS length value. Unlike the other unit-less values, thismust have aCSS length unit such aspx orpt. (E.g.id-p = 8px ).
id-lh
Vertical distance betweenid text lines (line-height).
It is recommended to use unit-less numerical values for line-height. Optionally, CSS length unitscan be used for this parameter.
info-c
Background color for theinfo area of the userbox.
CSS color string (hex or name)
info-s
Textsize for theinfo area.
Unit-less numerical value for font-size(do not append 'px').
info-fc
Textcolor for theinfo area.
CSS color string (hex or name)
info-a
⇦ Horizontal text alignment for info area only.⇨
A text string of, one of:left,right, orcenter. Do not enclose the key word in quotes. (E.g.info-a = center ).
info-lh
Vertical distance betweeninfo text lines (line-height).
It is recommended to use unit-less numerical values for line-height. Optionally, CSS length unitscan be used for this parameter.
id
Specifycontent for the the id label.
Free-form text (E.g.id = Co )
info
Specifycontent for the info area.
Free-form text (E.g.info = Cobalt is Very Blue )
Theid label andinfo content area can include text, links, and/or images, using the usual Wikipedia syntax. Typically, theinfo box will contain a sentence with a link or two, while theid box will contain a few letters, a symbol, or a 43px image.
To make it easier to quote the generation code for a userbox in a uniform format, a template{{Userbox sample compact}} has been made available, which produces a picture of the userbox along with the code necessary to create it. To use it, just give it exactly the same parameters you would give the{{Userbox}} template. You must usesubst:, or the template will not work properly. An example is shown below:
{{subst:Userbox sample compact|id=UBX|id-c=yellow|info=This is a '''[[WP:UBX|Userbox]]'''.}}
Produces:
{{Userbox | border-c = #999 | border-s = 1 | id-c = yellow | id-s = 14 | id-fc = black | info-c = #EEE | info-s = 8 | info-fc = black | id = UBX | info = This is aUserbox. | float = left}}
As with theBabel box, there is a box to group userboxes together. Just make a list of userboxes with {{Userboxtop|box-name}} at the top, followed by your list of userboxes, and{{Userboxbottom}} at the bottom. For the first example, the box is created using the following list:
If you wish to group your userboxes into expandable lists in the{{Userboxtop}} template, one way of doing this is by using collapsible tables with certain classes. Wikipedia's Mediawiki configuration attempts to make this happen through a combination ofECMAScript andCSS. This method is accessible to users with ECMAScript (jScript/JavaScript) disabled, and should work in most modern browsers (it is the method used by{{Navbox}}).
Using the codes inHelp:Collapsing works much better and simpler using normal wiki table markup!
Include 'collapsed' if you want the box to start closed, omit it if you want the box to start open. You can also use multiple tables to get separate collapsible parts like in the example to the right.
You can now use{{Userboxgroup}} to create this kind of box.
Using the Babel grouping system
The Babel grouping system can also be used, e.g.{{Babel|sv|no-4|in Rome}}, which generates:
However, it only works for user boxes with the "User" prefix, which must then be dropped for the arguments.
Also, boxes that need arguments of their own (such as {{User:UBX/Monty Python}} or{{User Translator}}) are difficult to use with the Babel system. They can be used by including parameters with magic word replacing the vertical bars and equals signs, e.g.{{Babel|fr-5|ja-2|Translator{{!}}fr{{!}}project{{=}}no|:UserBox/User Earth}} (result below), but this behavior is not officially supported by the template, and may not work in all contexts and break at some point in the future.
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