Template:Supplement/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Supplement.
It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

History

This template was originally intended as a separate "supplement" template used for essays like Wikipedia:The difference between policies, guidelines and essays. In discussions about how to improve and explain policies and guidelines, many editors thought that it would be easier to handle significant, yet overly detailed or instructional material on separate pages, instead of trying to shoehorn them directly into the official policy or guideline pages causing instructional creep. See also Criticism of Wikipedia § Excessive rule-making and Wikipedia:Content forking/Internal § Policy forks.

Current usage

Use this template carefully, only when there is a well-established consensus at the relevant policy or guideline page to use this template on an essay that links from the relevant policy or guideline.

The noun supplement does not mean "an interpretation" nor just "something added". It means precisely "something added, especially to make up for a deficiency", in this case a lack or gap in an official Wikipedia's policy or guideline. The intent is to further elaborate on Wikipedia's policies or guidelines in an impartial and informative manner.

Note: this template does not indicate a "higher status" within the community for an essay, but is used to denote that the essay in question has wide acceptance to be linked from said policy or guideline page. If consensus changes or content is outdated and the essay is no longer referenced in a policy or guideline, change the tag to the more common {{Essay|interprets=}}, {{Guidance essay|interprets=}} or {{Information page}} template, as appropriate.

Parameters

This template has an |interprets= a.k.a. |pages= parameter that must be used. Replaces "such guidance" with "the foo" where "foo" is a link to one or more policies or guidelines and label(s) for what they are, e.g.:

|interprets=[[Wikipedia:No original research]] policy
|interprets=[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]] guideline
|interprets=[[Wikipedia:No original research]] and [[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view]] policies
|interprets=[[Wikipedia:Verifiability]] policy and [[Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources]] guideline

The template also has optional |shortcut=, |shortcut2=, |shortcut3=, and |shortcut4= parameters that can be used to add a Shortcut: box to the right-side, with up to four shortcuts.

Error: No page specified

This is an explanatory supplement to Error: No page specified.
This page gives more information about things in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been agreed by the community.

Examples

{{supplement|interprets=[[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view]] policy}}

becomes:

This is an explanatory supplement to the Wikipedia:Neutral point of view policy.

This page gives more information about things in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been agreed by the community.

{{supplement|interprets=[[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view]] policy|shortcut=WP:SHORTCUT|shortcut2=WP:SHORTCUT2}}

becomes:

This is an explanatory supplement to the Wikipedia:Neutral point of view policy.

This page gives more information about things in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been agreed by the community.

Shortcuts

{{supplement|interprets=[[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view]] and [[Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons]] policies}}

becomes:

This is an explanatory supplement to the Wikipedia:Neutral point of view and Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons policies.

This page gives more information about things in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been agreed by the community.

Categorization

This template adds a page to Category:Wikipedia supplemental pages.