View source for Template:Over-explained/doc

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{{Tl|Over-explained}} is a [[Wikipedia:Template messages|template]] used to identify claims which feature an over-explanation. It produces a superscripted notation like the following:

:[[Bill Clinton]] was born in a delivery room at Julia Chester Hospital on either South Main or South Walnut Street in the city and state of [[Hope, Arkansas]] in the country of the [[United States]] of America on the planet [[Earth]] of the [[Solar System]] in the [[Local Interstellar Cloud]] within the [[Orion Arm]] of the [[Milky Way]] galaxy within the [[Local Group]] within the [[Virgo Supercluster]] in the [[Observable universe|observable]] portion of the [[Universe]], according to some theories part of a larger [[multiverse]].{{Over-explained|date={{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}}}

=== Usage ===

You may append a date to the template in the following format:
:<code>{{Tlx|Over-explained|date{{=}}{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}}}</code>

'''Notes''':
* Do not [[Help:Substitution|substitute]] this template.
* If you don't add a date parameter, a [[Wikipedia:Bot policy|bot]] will date your entry with the month and year at a later time.
* The date parameter consists of the name of the current month and the year only, no dates. The names of the months are capitalised in English.<br />''Any deviation from these two rules will result in an "invalid date parameter" error.''

You are also recommended to also add the (non-displayed) {{para|reason}} parameter to leave a better record for future editors. For example, the following usage might be appropriate to the claim that "Bill Clinton was born in the city and state of Hope, Arkansas in the country of the United States of America on the planet Earth of the Solar System in the Local Interstellar Cloud within the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy within the Local Group within the Virgo Supercluster in the Observable universe.":
:<code>{{Tlx|Over-explained|reason{{=}}isn't this article about the requirements for presidency in the US, not astronomy?}}</code>

Adding this template to an article places the article into [[:Category:Articles needing cleanup]] or a dated subcategory thereof.

Please remove the template when you address the amount of explanation for a statement.

=== When not to use this template ===

Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about [[Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons|living persons]] should be '''removed immediately'''. Do not tag it:  immediately remove it. For more information, see the section on [[Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons#Remove unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material|poorly sourced contentious material]] in the Biography of Living Persons policy.

Material which is doubtful and harmful may be removed immediately, rather than tagged. See [[Wikipedia:Verifiability#Burden of evidence|Burden of evidence]].  Claims that you think are wrong may alternatively be tagged with {{Tl|Dubious}}.

Any editor may add this template to any over-explained passage for any reason, but many editors object to what they perceive as overuse of this tag, particularly in what is known as "drive-by" tagging, which is applying the tag without attempting to address the issues at all. Consider whether adding this tag in an article is the best approach before using it, and use it judiciously.

Per [[Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not a manual, guidebook, textbook, or scientific journal|WP:NOTGUIDE]] it is not the responsibility of Wikipedia to be an instruction manual. However, Wikipedia does have an obligation to [[Wikipedia:Make technical articles accessible|make technical articles accessible]] for its [[Wikipedia:Reader|reader]]s.

'''This template is intended for specific passages that are may be over-explained but which you, as an editor, are not qualified to address.''' Since the amount of explanation depends on context ''a selection which over-explains its claim on article or section may not over-explain the same claim on another page''. Over-explanation also is a red flag to many editors indicating an attempt to either lengthen the article or make the subject appear more notable than it actually is.

Reasons why you would not be able to handle over-explanation include a lack of context in the article, an abundance of explanation in the rest of the article, or lack of knowledge regarding the general topic.

The selection:
:[[Bill Clinton]] was born in the city and state of [[Hope, Arkansas]] in the country of the [[United States]] of America on the planet [[Earth]] of the [[Solar System]] in the [[Local Interstellar Cloud]] within the [[Orion Arm]] of the [[Milky Way]] galaxy within the [[Local Group]] within the [[Virgo Supercluster]] in the [[Observable universe]].
would be over-explanation on an article about Bill Clinton or about the requirements for presidency in the US. It ''may'' not be over-explanation as an example within a section about the Earth's location within the galaxy.

=== How to respond to this tag ===
The addition of this tag is a request for less explanation to support the tagged statement.  If you are able to provide a more appropriate explanation to support the claim, then please do so, and if possible move the information provided in the explanation to a more appropriate location.

There is no specific deadline for trimming explanations. Please do not delete information that you believe is correct simply because an editor has tagged it as an over-explanation and no other editor has moved it to a better location.

However, what often makes an explanation of a claim an over-explanation is that the information either does not belong anywhere or is already duplicated. As with the example above:
*Bill Clinton was born in the city and state of Hope, Arkansas in the country of the United States of America on the planet Earth of the Solar System in the Local Interstellar Cloud within the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy within the Local Group within the Virgo Supercluster in the observable universe.
most of the information may be deleted and safely assumed to already be elsewhere. The "Hope, Arkansas" article describes Hope as a city in Arkansas and Arkansas as a state in the US, and so on, requiring none of the excess information to be relocated.

Thus, unless it was an example of the Earth's location within the universe, the text could be rewritten as:
*[[Bill Clinton]] was born in the city and state of [[Hope, Arkansas]].
both on the less safe assumption that a general audience will be familiar with Bill Clinton as a former president of the US and its location (thus it is unnecessary to describe) and the much safer truth that [[Bill Clinton]] and [[Hope, Arkansas]] and subsequent links will provide one with all that information.

=== See also ===
* {{Tl|technical}}, for under-explained material
* [[Wikipedia:Be bold]]
* [[m:Deletionism]], [[m:Inclusionism]], and [[m:Exclusionism]]

==== Inline templates: Content ====
*{{tl|dubious}}{{dubious}}: flag something as suspected of being incorrect
*{{tl|or}}{{or}}: flag something as possibly containing [[Wikipedia:No original research|original research]]
*{{tl|undue weight inline}}{{undue weight inline}}: show that a statement does not ascribe appropriate weight to its sources, according to their prominence; use in preference to...
*{{tl|POV statement}}{{POV statement}}: dispute the [[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|neutrality]] of a passage
*{{tl|weasel inline}}{{weasel inline}}: [[Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words|Avoid weasel words]]
*{{tl|peacock inline}}{{peacock inline}}: [[Wikipedia:Avoid peacock terms|Avoid peacock terms]] too
*{{tl|technical inline}}{{technical inline}}: ...and [[WP:Jargon|Jargon]]
*{{tl|who}}{{who}}: for placement after descriptions of a group of persons
*{{tl|according to whom}}{{according to whom}}: placement after mention of a vague third party claim that is not sourced
*{{tl|quantify}}{{quantify}}: flag a statement as being vague regarding the amount of something
*{{tl|when}}{{when}}: flags a particular time period as being vague or ambiguous
*{{tl|chronology citation needed}}{{chronology citation needed}}: request a source confirming or providing the chronology or timeline of a statement
*{{tl|definition}}{{definition}}: flag a definition as being ambiguous/confusing

=== Article message box templates ===
*[[WP:Explainism]]
*[[WP:Over-explainism]]
*{{tl|Unreferenced}}, article/section has no sources/references/citations given at all
*{{tl|More citations needed}}, article/section has weak or incomplete sources/references/citations
*{{tl|Cite check}}, article/section may have inappropriate or misinterpreted citations
* Citation method and style
** {{tl|Citation style}}
** {{tl|No footnotes}}

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