One common problem is importing infobox templates. Recent examples: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Vghx0nc3fxrpx9km or https://discourse-mediawiki.wmflabs.org/t/really-confused-with-infoboxes/1656 which links to the "draft" page at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Importing_Wikipedia_infoboxes_tutorial

Are infobox modules also in scope for this? See e.g. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Vj4cjb8wctxk8izr

@Aklapper I think not in the scope of this very task but the parent task, yes! But, maybe in the first phase we focus on the items already filed as subtasks.

Two possible approaches to share far developing a list of recommended templates to be included in the "Templates" section of the Starter Kit:

• Recommend the top 50 most used templates on English Wikipedia from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_reports/Templates_transcluded_on_the_most_pages. Remove the ones that are English Wikipedia specific.
• Recommend the top 50 most used templates across Wikimedia wikis: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_and_large_wikis. Sidenote: Probably, see how the tool https://tools.wmflabs.org/templatecount has been implemented.

The ones that are not in the top 50 can be added to a subpage of the Starter Kit and done in a second phase of the project. The advantage of the second approach is that it covers all language and Wikimedia projects, but the disadvantage is that it would be time-consuming, we might have to write scripts, etc.

This list I imagine will have the following columns:

Also, some existing guides/template tutorials can be pointed to in a "See also" (e.g., https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Templates#Copying_from_one_wiki_to_another) section. Once we have an initial list of recommended templates, we reach out to communities for feedback.

Thoughts?

I think I have similar feelings as for gadgets in T246181#6096557 and T246181#6102145 - making it clear to only import templates if you see a use case.

Hmm, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Accessibility/Most_widely_used_templates/Top_200 looks pretty dormant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_index provides some potential "categories" of templates. All only en.wp though, nothing cross-wiki.

Also wondering whether https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Templates should cover protection, like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:High-risk_templates

Also wondering if there are any takeaways from https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/Templates . Though probably out of scope / too early.

Thanks, Andre, for sharing all these helpful links. First, to one of your previous questions in this task–infoboxes indeed should be in the scope as they are in the Templates category.

I've started compiling some information in this doc https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:SSethi_(WMF)/Sandbox/Templates (just a starting at this point).

For templates, as there are many, I think that the "most-used on wikis" statistics (like we did for Gadgets) might not be worth putting effort into at this point. So, building the list of popular templates (with help from others), templates that are the building blocks on article pages on wikis might make sense.

Also, going to check with Amire80, their thoughts on this.

Gist of conversation with Amire80:

A central repository for templates is a dire need (someone should work on it, but it cannot be our team). An interesting approach to solving this problem:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multilingual_Templates_and_Modules (and this project might benefit from some kind of support).

Smaller and related projects (to be promoted in Outreachy/GSoC) that can help kill some pain:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T243150
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T245737

Folks who might be worth reaching out to for seeking input on the recommendations around templates:

• https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuari:Amadalvarez - Catalan Wikipedia templates helper
• https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lankide:Theklan - Basque Wikipedia templates helper
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisatrice:Harmonia_Amanda - French Wikipedia templates expert
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Koavf - English Wikipedia small wikis fan
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Putnik - Russian Wikipedia template expert
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Trappist_the_monk - English Wikipedia citation templates expert

Additional resources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MostTranscludedPages
• https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Which_templates_should_be_global%3F (list developed in collaboration with community+staff members)

Additional notes:

• Talk about modules in conjunction with templates. Templates are dependent on modules in many cases :)
• Also mention about TemplateStyles along with Templates.
• Some useful templates: Cite Book, Cite Journal, Cite Web, Infoboxes (English, Russian, Catalan, French families)
• Most wikis don't use a Portal, so may be don’t recommend that to the wikis.

Reached out to the folks listed in the previous comment, asking their feedback on the "Templates & Modules" document of the Starter Kit. Link to one such message https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sujet:Vnxdewnxb3tdd5xx.

@srishakatux: One quick comment:
"you will need help from an experienced technical contributor and system administrator to help gain advanced user rights" - how and where to get help?

@Aklapper I will look into your comment soon! Also, the doc is this one as I saw some edits on the one in my Sandbox: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_wiki_toolkits/Starter_kit/Templates_and_Modules (my bad I don't have it linked from this task but only from the Starter kit page).

@srishakatux: If https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:SSethi_(WMF)/Sandbox/Templates isn't the place to review anymore, then transferring my relevant edits and setting a redirect would be welcome.

@Aklapper I have made minor changes to explain how to get help when dealing with a complex template.
Also, deleted the Sandbox page after copying the edits you made. How does it read now?

Thanks, looks good! I've made some further edits on https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_wiki_toolkits/Starter_kit/Templates_and_Modules (linking to some explanations for terms; using internal links for Wikimedia sites, etc).
(Not important, but why would you delete (destroy information) instead of redirect to the information? See https://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI.html :)