Template talk:Nutshell
Scope
This template currently serves the same purpose as the {{Policy}} template while also providing a nutshell summary of the policy page. As a result, it replaces the Policy template on pages that use it, since having both Nutshell and Policy would be redundant. I feel it would be more consistent to use Policy across the board, and instead broaden Nutshell so it can be used on more than just policy pages, such as other guideline pages or help articles.
This would both make it immediately clear when a reader is on a policy page, since those pages would always have the same template at the top, and give the Nutshell template more overall utility. To that end, I've drafted a broader version of this template here, and moved some of its current formatting into a visually refreshed version of the Policy template, which I've also drafted here. Landfish7 16:58, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- If we made this change, would policy pages get both the policy template and the nutshell template? Having nutshell explanation of policy pages is helpful, at least for some policies. Storm Aurora (talk) 18:18, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- Yeah, this is my initial concern as well. We wouldn't want to load up the top of the page with a bunch of notices (more than one often looks bad), so nutshell is intended to serve both purposes. MaverickNate 18:27, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- Yes, policy pages would get both (this would be a very simple text replacement task). I don't think the look of them together would be too cumbersome personally, based on my testing, and I feel the benefits I outlined outweigh the potential drawbacks of some added weight at the top of the page. The current Nutshell template is limited and doesn't have any parameters or switches to be used for other purposes, unlike Policy. We could add those, but I don't think that would be as simple a solution, and would still involve avoidable visual discrepancies between policy pages. We could also merge the functionality of the templates and have the nutshell feature be optional, though that would involve adding yet another parameter or switch to an already pretty loaded template, and we'd still lack a Nutshell template for other types of pages where it could be just as useful. Landfish7 18:44, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- I'd heavily prefer the solution that doesn't involve front loading the lede of our policy pages with more than one permanent template. MaverickNate 18:47, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- If we are doing both; im not against it; but maybe this can serve as a broader "TL;DR" template. I'd remove the "This is an official Bulbapedia policy." text in this template in that case because thats redundant, instead it could just be "This page in a nutshell:" 4iamking 19:36, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- I've created a merged version here. My other Nutshell template draft could still work as a separate template for other use cases, though if there are any templates at the top of other meta pages we'd need to merge the nutshell functionality into those as well so there isn't two templates (though none come to mind at the moment). Landfish7 19:39, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- I was mainly thinking it could be potentially useful in certain long help or documentation pages; I wouldn't expect to see much use in the main space for something like this. 4iamking 19:41, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- That's what I was saying as well. Landfish7 19:46, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- Having the "nutshell" be a parameter of the main
{{policy}}template seems to be a happy medium for those pages, and then having a separate nutshell template for other pages is a good way to go. But please please please don't build it with table markup. That should only be used for making tables. Please use<div>instead. - Rustle (talk) 17:57, 15 January 2026 (UTC)
- I was mainly thinking it could be potentially useful in certain long help or documentation pages; I wouldn't expect to see much use in the main space for something like this. 4iamking 19:41, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- I'd heavily prefer the solution that doesn't involve front loading the lede of our policy pages with more than one permanent template. MaverickNate 18:47, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- Yes, policy pages would get both (this would be a very simple text replacement task). I don't think the look of them together would be too cumbersome personally, based on my testing, and I feel the benefits I outlined outweigh the potential drawbacks of some added weight at the top of the page. The current Nutshell template is limited and doesn't have any parameters or switches to be used for other purposes, unlike Policy. We could add those, but I don't think that would be as simple a solution, and would still involve avoidable visual discrepancies between policy pages. We could also merge the functionality of the templates and have the nutshell feature be optional, though that would involve adding yet another parameter or switch to an already pretty loaded template, and we'd still lack a Nutshell template for other types of pages where it could be just as useful. Landfish7 18:44, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
- Yeah, this is my initial concern as well. We wouldn't want to load up the top of the page with a bunch of notices (more than one often looks bad), so nutshell is intended to serve both purposes. MaverickNate 18:27, 14 January 2026 (UTC)