قالب:Automatic taxobox/doc/about

The {{automatic taxobox}} is a template which utilizes a relational database composed of قوالب المعرفة and a highly complex network of templates التي تنتج خوارزمية متقدمة تحدد كيفية عرض تصنيف علمي لأي taxon.

The template utilizes much of the same code used for the manual {{taxobox}} template, making it easier for editors familiar with the manual taxobox to add information such as range maps, synonyms, etc., without having to relearn how to do that.

The way in which the taxonomy is generated is highly complex and has what has been regarded as a severe learning curve to it, but after creating a few automatic taxoboxes, our hope is you'll catch on as well as other editors have.

Benefits

The benefits of the automatic taxobox are as follows:

  • Less research is required when adding a taxobox to an article. Usually only one or two taxa will need researched, since the automatic taxobox pulls already-existing information about the upper-level taxa from its database. In some extreme cases, however, five or more taxa may need entered.
  • The code takes up less space in the editing window, making it easier to find the head of an article.
  • When a taxonomic revision occurs (which happens all the time), all members of the affected taxa (provided they are using the automatic taxobox already) are updated automatically with as little as a single edit.
  • Out-of-date taxonomies on Wikipedia articles using the automatic taxobox are not an issue.
  • Taxonomies can be normalized more easily across Wikipedia, although paraphyly is possible to produce with a little technical know-how.
  • Vandals not familiar with the automatic taxobox are unlikely to disrupt fully transcluded taxonomies.
  • Category:Automatic taxobox cleanup automatically tracks several types of errors, making structural vandalism and misguided editing easy to track down.

Costs

  • Server-end lag during page loading due to the large amount of data being processed in generating the taxobox.
  • Timely vandalism spotting is more difficult because few people watch any given taxon template.
  • Vandalism is more exposed across Wikipedia due to transclusions of taxon templates.
  • Many editors who wish to edit the taxonomy may be discouraged by the code due to its technical learning curve.
  • Representing paraphyly or other rare phenomena requires technical know-how.