Wikipedia:Boxes

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This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.

Shortcuts: WP:NOBOX WP:UNBOX

“	When I retire I'm going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned.	”
—some dick

[edit] The problem

The basic thesis is that Wikipedia has too many boxes. Userboxes were bad enough, but now we have the infobox virus, and dozens of superfluous navigation boxes spouting up all over otherwise decent articles. We have a multitude of boxes on talk pages claiming ownership by some project that typically has contributed nothing to that article, except of course the box. We have boxes appearing at the top of an article to warn us of 1004 different things.

Enough is enough. No more boxes. The fightback starts here.

Be Free. Think outside the Box

[edit] Testimonials

“	As a wikinewbie, but with a bit of editing experience, I did my first "contribution" page, listed the references and found that a box had snuck up and enclosed them without my consent or any markup characters that I can see. Now my page looks ridiculous. The boxes have taken on a life of their own.	”
—Ampherlaw 11:50, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Celebrity endorsements:

“	Some of the most wonderful people are the ones who don't fit into boxes.	”
—Tori Amos

“	I found myself in too much of a box situation.	”
—Jimi Hendrix [Complaining about his info box]

“	I'm not ready to be put in a box.	”
—Rachael Leigh Cook [Unfortunately, despite her protests, they did put her in a bio box]

“	In every one of those little stucco boxes there's some poor bastard who's never free..	”
—George Orwell

“	I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.	”
—Terry Prachett

“	Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets.	”
—William Makepeace Thackeray

“	I'm moving to Mars next week, so if you have any boxes.	”
—Steven Wright

“

Little boxes, little boxes,

Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.

”

—Malvina Reynolds, [1]