Template talk:Infobox Biography

Is there a way we can make this template hide the Born parameter if no value is given? Right now it shows up empty (see Jewel Cannada-Wynn). dscosson ··· talk 10:31, 8 March 2008 (CST)

Yeah, fixed it. --Admin 10:33, 8 March 2008 (CST)

Can we allow the Infobox to show grandchildren values if they are inputted? Many Pensacolians have grandchildren of Pensacolian fame as well. Sethisodd 00:03, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

That could get to be too much, I think; once you get past a single generation, it's hard to show who is the child of whom. If the grandchildren are/were especially notable (but the children are/were not), then I think just a mention somewhere in the grandparent's article would suffice. — admin • talk  00:19, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

Can we get the Infobox to display education values? 70.191.248.144 01:48, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

We could... but honestly I tend to prefer shorter infoboxes that don't overpower the article's text. — admin • talk  07:36, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

Yet if you look at any politician's page on Wikipedia, they tend to have pretty large Infoboxes. Isn't that what they're good for? Providing quick information? If someone needs the information for a paper, it's much easier to find it in an Infobox. After all, it doesn't make it that much bigger and it wouldn't be too hard to code.Sethisodd 15:02, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

I see your point, but there are a few key differences:

• In general, Wikipedia articles are longer and more detailed than what we've got here (those with infoboxes even more so), so the text of the article continues well past the height of the infobox. (For example, see our two most recent House Speakers, here and here; the infoboxes only go as far down the page as the table of contents.)
• On Wikipedia, if a politician's infobox lists his/her alma mater (and many don't), that field doubles as a link to the corresponding Wikipedia article on the school. We generally only link to local schools.

It's important to keep infoboxes to a reasonable size because they use the same "float:right" CSS as images, which means if you add an illustrative image to an article with an infobox, that image gets bumped below the infobox instead of appearing inline with the article text. The John Appleyard article is an example of this. — admin • talk  15:37, 5 August 2008 (CDT)