Thread:Talk:New Page Patrol Zoom Interface/Don't encourage templating/reply (7)

Unfortunately I too have noticed that  a lot  of tinkering  goes on  with  template messages at  the UW template project, and many  changes get  slipped through  with  out  much  consensus. hence the reason why  so many  of those templates are absolutely  TLDR,  and are not  necessarily  written by  people who  have a fine touch  for prose. I have sneakily  improved a lot  of them  myself, but  some are so  complex with their  layers of embedded php  calls that  I  can't  always find the location of the text  block I  wish  to  modify. I'm no  stranger to  php, but  the way  some of these templates are conceived is a real  headache if you're not  the original  developer. It's a bugger for a lot of  others too, because quite often the original  template author has done a bunk.

Your Hotcat idea is good, and it  brings me to  another idea: I'm  not  too  enthusiastic about  Brandon's Zoom Inteface, but  that's because it's too  soon, and does not  address the the main, and more urgent problems with  the NPPers. It does however load some very  interesting  meta information about  the new page and its author, and I  think  we could build on  that. It does however have some distinct  disadvantages over the tried and trusted Twinkle that  people like you and I,  SW, and Blade  are using when patrolling, but  I'll  probably  have to  talk  to  Brandon  separately  about  that. (one aspect I  sorely miss is the analog  list  of new pages). If development of  Zoom  and development on a solution  of either ACTRIAL or making  NPP a user right  could advance in  tandem,  and fairly  quickly, I  think  we could make progress. That said, the more I  look at  Zoom, the more I actually  like it, but  it's still  only  going  to  be a tool for policy-savvy patrollers - and ones with  a very wide monitor!