This is a documentation subpage for Template:WikiProject Biography. It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template is used on approximately 1,910,000 pages, or roughly 4% of all pages. To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them. Transclusion count updated automatically (see documentation).

This template uses Lua: Module:Check for unknown parameters (sandbox)

Because the {{WikiProject Biography}} template is used on almost two million pages, and that it puts a big strain on the servers every time it is updated (see the job queue), the template is currently protected and can be edited only by template editors and administrators.

If you would like to propose a change to this template:

• If the changes are significant, then discuss it on the talk page first.
• Test the changes in the Template:WikiProject Biography/sandbox and then request an edit to the template on the talk page.

Usage

Please note: This template should be transcluded as {{WikiProject Biography}} and not substituted, because it employs conditional code. Transclusion also allows easy updating of all the Project's talk pages without having to edit hundreds of thousands of pages. Many of these parameters place the talk page of the article into an appropriate category. A manually generated (though sporadically updated) list of all the categories used in this template is at Template:WikiProject Biography/category list.

Place this template on the talk page of biography articles.

Basic usage

If the person is living:

{{WikiProject Biography
| living=yes 
| class= <!--Start, Stub, etc.--> 
| listas= <!--see note below -->
}}

If the person is not living:

{{WikiProject Biography
| living=no 
| class= <!--Start, Stub, etc.--> 
| listas= <!--see note below -->
}}

• Note for most talk pages, the parameter will be formatted as "Surname, Given Names", but this is not always true in certain cultures. See WP:NAMESORT, MOS:SURNAME, and MOS:GIVENNAME for further details.

Extended usage

If you have a lot of time on your hands:

{{WikiProject Biography
| living = <!-- yes/no (MANDATORY FIELD) -->
| class = 
| listas = 
| a&e-work-group = 
| a&e-priority = 
| filmbio-work-group = 
| filmbio-priority = 
| military-work-group = 
| military-priority = 
| musician-work-group = 
| musician-priority = 
| peerage-work-group = 
| peerage-priority = 
| politician-work-group = 
| politician-priority = 
| royalty-work-group = 
| royalty-priority = 
| s&a-work-group = 
| s&a-priority = 
| sports-work-group = 
| sports-priority = 
| A-Class = 
| activepol = 
| attention = 
| auto = 
| blpo = 
| needs-discography = 
| needs-filmography = 
| needs-infobox = 
| needs-photo = 
| past-collaboration = 
| peer-review = 
| old-peer-review = 
}}

Parameters

Living people, active politicians and other BLP issues

• Answer yes or no. If yes, this also affects the parameter, to emphasize the fact that free images must be used. This parameter must be specified whether or not the person is living. In case of music bands or any other list of people that is under the scope of this WikiProject, the parameter should be set to "yes", if at least one of the people in that list is alive.
  • If , this parameter adds {{BLP}} above WikiProject Biography and populates Category:Biography articles of living people.
  • Articles lacking this parameter are found in Category:Biography articles without living parameter.
• Answer yes, if the article is about a currently active politician, otherwise remove this line.
  • This parameter adds {{Active politician}} above WikiProject Biography and populates Category:Active politicians.
  • It can only be used if .
• Answer yes, if the subject of the article is not a living person, but the article contains sensitive information about other living persons, otherwise remove this line.
  • This parameter adds {{BLP others}} above WikiProject Biography.
  • It can only be used if .

Note: The {{BLP}}, {{Active politician}} and {{BLP others}} banners will not be visible if WikiProject Biography is used within {{WikiProject banner shell}}, but the relevant categories will still be added. In such cases, these banners can still be added to a talk page by using the relevant parameters in {{WikiProject banner shell}}; please refer to that template's documentation for further instruction.

Any changes to the wording of these banners should be requested on the corresponding template talk page, not here.

Assessments

• class - valid values are fa, a, ga, b, c, start, stub, fl, list, book, category, disambig, draft, file, project, redirect, template, na (case-insensitive). See the project's quality scale for details.
  • If left blank, this will default to Unassessed. This parameter populates the corresponding subcategories of Category:Biography articles by quality. Additional categories will be populated, if one or more work groups are specified.
• priority - valid values are: top, high, mid, low, na (case-insensitive). See the project's priority scale for details.
  • Please note that the priority parameters are only used by the task forces of the project.
• auto - This parameter is for the use of bots and indicates that the article has been automatically rated:
  • - based on the length of the article
  • - because one or more other projects use this class
  • (or ), in conjunction with - as Stub-Class because it uses a stub template
    • Use of the above values (or value combinations) with this parameter populates Category:Automatically assessed biography articles.
    • Additional categories will be populated, if one or more work groups are specified.

Work groups

• a&e-work-group - set if the article is supported by the arts and entertainment work group.
  • This parameter populates Category:Arts and entertainment work group articles, and the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (arts and entertainment) articles by quality based upon the parameter.
  • a&e-priority (only used if is set; uses the same values as ) - Importance rating within the arts and entertainment work group
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (arts and entertainment) articles by importance.
    • If the article is about an actor or filmmaker, please use instead; if the article is about a musician, please use instead. Note: setting either or will cause to be ignored.
• filmbio-work-group - set if the article is supported by WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers.
  • This parameter populates Category:Actors and filmmakers work group articles, and the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (actors and filmmakers) articles by quality based upon the parameter.
  • filmbio-priority (only used if is set; uses the same values as ) - Importance rating within WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (actors and filmmakers) articles by importance.
• military-work-group - set if the article is supported by the military biography work group.
  • This parameter populates Category:Military biography work group articles, and the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (military) articles by quality based upon the parameter.
  • military-priority (only used if is set; uses the same values as ) - Importance rating within the military biography work group
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (military) articles by importance.
• musician-work-group - set if the article is supported by WikiProject Musicians.
  • This parameter populates Category:Musicians work group articles, and the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (musicians) articles by quality based upon the parameter.
  • musician-priority (only used if is set; uses the same values as ) - Importance rating within WikiProject Musicians
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (musicians) articles by importance.
• peerage-work-group - set if the article is supported by WikiProject Peerage and Baronetage.
  • This parameter populates Category:Peerage and Baronetage work group articles, and the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (peerage) articles by quality based upon the parameter.
  • peerage-priority (only used if is set; uses the same values as ) - Importance rating within WikiProject Peerage and Baronetage
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (peerage) articles by importance.
• politician-work-group - set if the article is supported by the politics and government work group.
  • This parameter populates Category:Politics and government work group articles, and the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (politics and government) articles by quality based upon the parameter.
  • politician-priority (only used if is set; uses the same values as ) - Importance rating within the politics and government work group
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (politics and government) articles by importance.
• royalty-work-group - set if the article is supported by WikiProject Royalty and Nobility.
  • This parameter populates Category:Royalty work group articles, and the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (royalty) articles by quality based upon the parameter.
  • royalty-priority (only used if is set; uses the same values as ) - Importance rating within WikiProject Royalty and Nobility
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (royalty) articles by importance.
• s&a-work-group - set if the article is supported by the science and academia work group.
  • This parameter populates Category:Science and academia work group articles, and the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (science and academia) articles by quality based upon the parameter.
  • s&a-priority (only used if is set; uses the same values as ) - Importance rating within the science and academia work group
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (science and academia) articles by importance.
• sports-work-group - set if the article is supported by the sports and games work group.
  • This parameter populates Category:Sports and games work group articles, and the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (sports and games) articles by quality based upon the parameter.
  • sports-priority (only used if is set; uses the same values as ) - Importance rating within the sports and games work group
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (sports and games) articles by importance.

Maintenance

• attention - set if the article needs immediate attention from experienced editors. Use only if another parameter does not cover the need for attention; this should be used sparingly. It is strongly encouraged to also add a section to the talk page explaining what needs attention.
  • This parameter populates Category:Biography articles needing attention.
• Answer yes, if the article needs a discography section, otherwise remove this line.
  • This parameter populates Category:Musicians work group articles needing discographies, and can only be used if .
• Answer yes, if the article needs a filmography section, otherwise remove this line.
  • This parameter populates Category:Actors and filmmakers work group articles needing filmographies, and can only be used if .
• needs-infobox - set if the article needs an infobox. Remember that infoboxes are not suitable for all articles, and can overwhelm short articles.
  • This parameter populates Category:Biography articles without infoboxes.
• Answer yes to request that a photograph or picture of the subject be added to the article, otherwise remove this line.
  • This parameter populates Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of people or relevant subcategories if one or more work groups are specified.

• past-collaboration - set (or any non-blank value other than "no", "n", "0" or "¬", such as the dates it was part of the collaboration) if the page was a past project collaboration.
  • This parameter populates Category:Past Biography collaborations.

• peer-review - set if the article is currently undergoing a peer review, or to request that the peer review process for this page should be begun.
  • This parameter populates Category:Requests for Biography peer review.
• old-peer-review - set if the article has had a peer review which is now archived.
  • This parameter populates Category:Old requests for Biography peer review.
  • title - if the peer review page exists but is not at popflock.com Resource: WikiProject Biography/Peer review/, set this parameter; i.e. if the peer review page is popflock.com Resource: WikiProject Biography/Peer review/Foobar, set
  • Invalid combinations of and will place the page in Category:Biography articles with incorrect peer review or A-Class tagging .
• Answer pass if the article has passed an A-Class review, or fail if the article has failed a review, otherwise remove this line.
  • populates Category:Successful requests for biography A-Class review.
  • populates Category:Failed requests for biography A-Class review.
  • Please note that the A-Class review department of WikiProject Biography is currently inactive. This parameter cannot be used to request a new review.

Listas

• listas - This parameter, which is the equivalent of the DEFAULTSORT sortkey that should be placed on all biographical articles, is a sortkey for the article talk page (e.g. for John Doe, use so that the talk page will show up in the D's and not the J's of the various assessment and administrative categories). This is important because it is one source used by those who set DEFAULTSORT on the article; consider also setting the DEFAULTSORT for the article when setting this parameter. For more information about this, please see popflock.com Resource: Categorization of people § Ordering names in a category.
  It is not required if another WikiProject template on the same page has its own set, since it not only affects categories used by the banner in which it is set, but it also affects the sortkey of all other banners and templates.
  • If left undefined, this parameter populates Category:Biography articles without listas parameter.

Special

The following parameters should not normally be used:

• category - set if, and only if, a banner is being used for demonstration or testing purposes, to prevent unnecessary or undesirable categorization. Otherwise, omit this parameter.
• core - set if, and only if, the article is listed at popflock.com Resource: WikiProject Biography/Core biographies.
  • This parameter populates the categories listed here.

Aliases

• The parameter is recognised as an alias for . If both and are present, is ignored.
• The parameter is recognised as an alias for . If both and are present, is ignored.
• The parameter is recognised as an alias for . If both and are present, is ignored.

Tracking category

• Category:Pages using WikiProject Biography with unknown parameters (0)

See also

• {{BLP}}

TemplateData