For a long time, there's been a serious issue wherein offsite and even onsite users have a difficult time finding attribution info about a particular work on the wiki. We've received numerous requests to have a place on the page itself where one can see author and licensing info, and the use of the rating module information box is not a viable solution for this purpose as many have already gotten used to using it as a custom authorial space rather than a standardized function. As such, the licensing team is proposing the addition of a licensing box module in the wikiwalk footers of our articles, a creation of CityToast. Toast's module provides a standarized, nonintrusive, and functional method of solving this issue going forward.
HOW IT WORKS:
the license-box template creates a collapsible with the "licensing" class. The top part of this box includes basic "how to cite this page" information which is generated via listpages.
"=====" creates a section break (also known as <div class="content-separator">) putting the content into what Wikidot identifies as Section {2}.
the second "=====" ends section {2} by creating another separator.
the license-box-end template closes the section break, collapsible and the list box.
the license-list page uses the "Content{n}" magic-word to pull only text from section {2} on pages tagged with "licensebox" (which could be any tag, or ideally no tag at all.)
POTENTIAL BENEFITS:
- Having an auto-generated license page is a Creative Commons best practice and is highly recommended for projects of our size.
- Now there's a one-stop-shop for "where did that thing come from" and "how do I use this thing under Creative Commons".
- By citing exactly where things come from on-page, licensing staff (or any staff, for that matter) wouldn't have to go digging in the forum pages to find sources.
- It provides a single place to grab a citation for people making derivative and adaptive works.
POTENTIAL OBSTACLES:
- A page which improperly uses this template could break the table on the license page (but this would be an easy fix because we'd be able to see exactly where it was broken, go to that page, and fix it)
- If the Wiki were to ever move to a different platform, this would break (I mean, that applies to a lot of things, but it's true so I added it here.)
- Licensing will need to apply the code to all existing pages, but we're willing to do so.
- Some users may not like it for aesthetic reasons, though Toast has prepared 6 style options for the function, one of which will hopefully be broadly acceptable to the community at large.
This discussion will run for one week, following which a vote on the proposal will take place. This discussion is open to staff of all levels, and community input from non-staff may be added to this thread by messaging a staff member and passing on the comments. In addition to discussing the proposal itself, an important point of discussion will be determining which of the 6 style options should be used in the final proposal.