Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2009 July 23

• Template:Country data FYROM → Template:Country data Macedonia

Was listed at WP:Templates for deletion/Log/2009 July 15 but closed to be relisted here. As I explained in the first nomination, although this is a redirect, it is not used like a standard redirect and wouldn't be transcluded directly, but it would be used as a flag template parameter. Specifically, it would be used like {{flag|FYROM}}, {{flagicon|FYROM}}, etc. to render the flag of Macedonia and perhaps a wikilink to the Republic of Macedonia article with the corresponding template name as display text for that link. In effect, it is an alternate "alias" of Template:Country data Macedonia. This nomination is is response to WP:MOSMAC2, which prescribes the instances where the country should be referred to as "former Yugoslav". I have found no instances where these alias templates are needed, and keeping them is a type of POV, in my opinion. If it is absolutely essential to show "former Yugoslav" with a flag template (as is the case in the current ISO 3166-1 article, for example), then the name parameter can be used, as per its intent (e.g. {{flag|Macedonia|name=Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of}}. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 19:27, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

• Template:Country data FYR Macedonia → Template:Country data Macedonia

Delete per previous explanation. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 19:27, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

• Template:Country data Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia → Template:Country data Macedonia

Delete per previous explanation. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 19:27, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

• Template:Country data Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of → Template:Country data Macedonia

Delete per previous explanation. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 19:27, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete all now that this is open in the right place. I agree entirely with the nominator; these are a potential cause of POV trouble in an area notorious for POV trouble, and there are other means to achieve the purpose of these redirects if that's desirable. — Gavia immer (talk) 20:02, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

• 2 questions, just to make sure: (a) does anybody know in how many pages the (indirect) invocations of these redirects are currently used (i.e. {{flag|FYROM}} and friends)? Owing to the indirect nature of their use, they are not easy to find through whatlinkshere and similar means. (b) Is it possible to tweak the parent template {{Country data Macedonia}} in such a way that the redirects will just all output the same display string, so that we would avoid changing all the pages instead? (I notice that {{flagcountry|FYROM}} already outputs "Macedonia", while {{flag|FYROM}} does output "FYROM".) Fut.Perf. ☼ 21:51, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • "What links here" works perfectly fine on these redirects. There are currently zero transclusions in main article space; these are only now used on a handful of user pages only. There were a small number of instances in main article space not long ago, but I replaced them all per WP:MOSMAC2-compliant edits. (For example, removing the "FYR" from football biography articles.) I only made the nomination to delete these four redirect aliases after confirming they were not needed in article space. I only found one single instance where one could be used (ISO 3166-1), but the name parameter to {{flag}} handles that scenario. As to your second question, there is absolutely no difference for {{flagicon}}, so the "FYROM" label etc. is only seen in wiki markup. Better to use {{flagicon|MKD}} (standard ISO/IOC/FIFA/etc. country code) or {{flagicon|Macedonia}} for clarity. As for {{flag}}, the whole point of that template is to output exactly what the input parameter is, so no, there is no way to make your suggested change. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 22:24, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Okay, thanks for the clarification and sorry for not researching more thoroughly – I seemed to remember there were numerous "flag|FYROM" uses around the place and hadn't noticed they were already all removed. In that case, I quite agree, they should now be deleted to avoid further trouble. Thanks for your efforts. Fut.Perf. ☼ 08:13, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]