User:Pigsonthewing/Harmful interface templates
Templates which are intended to change Wikipedia's editing or search interfaces, such as {{New message}} (reproduced above), no matter how well intentioned—no matter, even, how good the changes they introduce—are harmful.
Consider this scenario, for example:
- A new user arrives at a user talk page. Seeing the above template prominently displayed, they click the link, write their message and leave happy. The next day they arrive at a different talk page, look for the link in the same place, and find it missing. They are now confused.
If there is a problem which a template like the above is intended to address, it should be resolved at the software level, via a Phabricator ticket, or by a site-wide CSS change.