Template talk:San Diego State University

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Contents 1 Format 2 Logo 3 Image request 4 convert to navbox

[edit] Format

I have reviewed the template for Cal Poly Pomona LINK and think that might be a better format. Anyone have any comments? Streltzer 19:15, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Logo

Apparently there is a Wiki policy to avoid use of logos in directory boxes. If so, then I guess it must be removed here. 65.104.77.179 14:49, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

I replaced the SDSU Presidential Logo with one of the old school affiliate logos that was abandoned after the 2003 logo changes. Comments? Streltzer 20:37, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image request

It looks like the policy has shifted to allow images in education navigation boxes...see Template:University of California, San Diego. Does anyone have a suggestion for an image for this navigation box? Streltzer 02:26, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Actually, images have always been allowed in templates, as long as they are free images, as opposed to merely fair-use ones (see WP:FUC). The university seals that everyone seems to want to use are usually copyrighted by their respective institutions, and so by Wikipedia policy, each and every use of them has to be rigorously justified. Since items transcluded with templates can appear anywhere, it isn't really possible to justify each appearance, and so the consensus is that fair-use images shouldn't be used on anything repeatedly transcluded.

As the designer of both the current version of this template and {{University of California, San Diego}}, I have to say that I am more partial to this design. I came up with {{University of California}} to end the constant shifting between template designs there (see that template's history and Talk pages). In re-designing it, I generally kept the layout as I found it and just made it look slicker, adding an appropriate free image in place of the UC logo images everyone had been arguing about before. When that template proved a success, I revamped all the other UCs' templates so that they would match, which is how the current version of {{University of California, San Diego}} came to be. The design is pretty if you're using a standard or wide screen, but its lack of scalability (it looks terrible on an iPhone) and the general conservatism of the design has me seriously pondering a replacement.

When I ran across {{California State University}}, on the other hand, things were so wide-open with the template that I had a chance to really figure out how best to present the information the template needed to convey. The design I came up with scaled well (in large part because, instead of an image with a size defined in pixels as its visual anchor, it used a colored text box whose width I could define as a percentage of the overall template width), it moved less-essential information and links out of the way, and it had a strong visual presence on the page. As an added bonus, it took up less bandwidth than the UC design because it didn't need to reload an image thumbnail each time it was viewed. This SDSU template is a direct descendent of that template design.

If you really do want to have an image in the template, I could retrofit the UC design for you, probably using an image of the clocktower cropped out of Image:StudentServices.jpg. I do think it would be a step backwards, though, in terms of both functionality and aesthetics. It's mainly a call for you and the other contributors to the SDSU articles to make, though. Just let me know what you want to do with it. --Dynaflow babble 05:59, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

• Very good points for discussion. I believe that the best image for inclusion would be of the Monty statute. However, I think that adding an image would be nice, but there is obviously no necessity for it to be in the navigation box. I added one to {{UnivPacific}} and it is just OK, but not spectacular. Does anyone else have any comments? Streltzer 18:12, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] convert to navbox

This really should be converted to use the navbox template, if just so it can be made collapsible--Rtphokie (talk) 13:05, 9 February 2008 (UTC).

The problem is (at least last time I checked) the navbox template design wouldn't allow downward collapses, only upward. The element this template needs to collapse into is at the bottom, so a switch to navbox would require a wholesale change in format. --Dynaflow babble 19:47, 9 February 2008 (UTC)