Template:Orphan is responsible for populating sub-categories of Category:Orphaned articles. There are currently 1,233 orphaned articles.
Visibility
The template message is visible on all pages where the date parameter is set to either the current month or the previous month (currently May 2024 or April 2024). It is also visible on all pages where it is used inside the ((multiple issues)) template. Older-dated orphan templates used outside of the ((multiple issues)) template are invisible by default, but are still categorized. To override the default and make the message visible on all pages where it's placed, put the following line in your common.css file (create the file if you don't have one yet):
.ambox-Orphan{display: table !important;}
.ambox-Orphan{display: block !important;}
Alternatively, to never see this tag, you could instead add to your common.css:
.ambox-Orphan{ display: none !important; }
The orphan message box is invisible on this page by default. If you have correctly installed the above common.css the orphan message box is visible here.
Rationale
With 1,233 orphaned articles in the project, the category All orphaned articles has an extreme backlog. The tags on newly created articles are visible for a month or two, in hopes that the article's creators or reviewers will tend to the issue. The community consensus is that this issue is insufficiently critical to merit notifying general readers of the issue for more than a couple of months, unless the article has ((multiple issues)). Please review the discussions related to this on en:Template talk:Orphan and its archives.
Automated placement and adjustment
Several semi-automated tools and bots facilitate orphan-tagging. Some notes on tool implementation:
- Per Another tweak for orphans, as of March 9, 2010 AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) restricts orphan tag addition to linkless pages.
- Per Move orphan (and some more) tags on the top, AWB moves incorrectly positioned orphan tags to the correct location for orphan tags, at or near the top of the article.
When to use
This template should only be put on articles which meet the orphan criteria.
How to use
The simplest way to add this template to an article is to copy and paste either ((Orphan|date=May 2024)) or ((Orphan|((subst:DATE)))) at the top of the article.
- Please do not subst: this template.
Parameters
date
You may use a date parameter with this template, for example ((Orphan|date=May 2024)) to help with the categorisation of articles requiring links. If you leave it out, a bot will fill it in (but this will result in more edits and watchlist alerts, so adding the date right away is preferred).
att
If you have made an unsuccessful attempt to de-orphan the article, then please add the month/year of the attempt to the template, like so, ((orphan|date=Month Year|att=May 2024)), where the |date= parameter is the date the template was originally placed on the page, and the |att= parameter is set to equal the current month and year. This places it in Category:Attempted de-orphan for that date and also hides the article message box.
few
If the article only has one or two links to it and it is felt more are required and possible the few option can be used. For example, ((Orphan|date=May 2024|few=May 2024))
Setting the |few= parameter populates Category:Low linked articles.
incat
If the article has no link and probably never will, but is well categorised the incat option can be used. For example, ((Orphan|date=May 2024|incat=May 2024))
TemplateData
TemplateData for Orphan
This template should only be put on articles which meet the orphan criteria.
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | date | The date this template was added to the page. (Input: Monthname Year) | String | optional |
| De-orphan attempt | att | If you have made an unsuccessful attempt to de-orphan the article, please fill in this field to record the attempt. (Input: Monthname Year) | String | optional |
| Few linked articles | few | If the article only has one or two links to it and it is felt more are required and possible this option can be used. (Input: Monthname Year) | String | optional |
| In Category | incat | If the article has no link and probably never will, but is well categorised this option can be used.(Input: Monthname Year) | String | optional |
Categories
This template places the article into "Category:All orphaned articles" as well as "Category:Orphaned articles from (({date))}".
If the "att" parameter is set, the article will still be in Category:All orphaned articles, but instead of placing the article into "Category:Orphaned articles from (({date))}" (e.g. Category:Orphaned articles from May 2024), it places it into "Category:Attempted de-orphan from (({att))} (e.g. Category:Attempted de-orphan from May 2024).