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

This template is used on approximately 2,300,000 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.

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

This template is used by one or more bots. If you intend to change this template in any significant way, move or nominate it for deletion, please inform the bot operators. Thank you. The relevant bots are: cewbot.

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 |listas= 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

• |living= Answer yes or no. If yes, this also affects the |needs-photo= 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 |living=yes, 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.
• |activepol= 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 |living=yes.
• |blpo= 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 |living=no.

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, category, disambig, draft, file, portal, project, template, na (case-insensitive). See the project's quality scale for details. Setting an explicit value of NA is rarely necessary; for this, either leave |class= blank or omit the parameter.
  • 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. Setting an explicit value of NA is rarely necessary; for this, either leave |priority= blank or omit the parameter.
  • This parameter is deprecated. Please use the priority parameters specific to the relevant project task forces instead.
  • Will add articles to Category:Biography articles with plain priority parameter and, if a project task force is specified, Category:Biography articles needing priority parameter replacement.
• auto – This parameter is for the use of bots and indicates that the article has been automatically rated:
  • |auto=length – based on the length of the article
  • |auto=inherit – because one or more other projects use this class
  • |auto=yes (or |auto=stub), in conjunction with |class=stub – 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 |a&e-work-group=yes 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 |class= parameter.
  • a&e-priority (only used if |a&e-work-group=yes is set; uses the same values as |importance=) – 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 |filmbio-work-group=yes instead; if the article is about a musician, please use |musician-work-group=yes instead. Note: setting either |filmbio-work-group=yes or |musician-work-group=yes will cause |a&e-work-group=yes to be ignored.
• filmbio-work-group – set |filmbio-work-group=yes 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 |class= parameter.
  • filmbio-priority (only used if |filmbio-work-group=yes is set; uses the same values as |importance=) – 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 |military-work-group=yes 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 |class= parameter.
  • military-priority (only used if |military-work-group=yes is set; uses the same values as |importance=) – 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 |musician-work-group=yes 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 |class= parameter.
  • musician-priority (only used if |musician-work-group=yes is set; uses the same values as |importance=) – Importance rating within WikiProject Musicians
    • This importance rating populates the relevant subcategory of Category:Biography (musicians) articles by importance.
• peerage-work-group – set |peerage-work-group=yes 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 |class= parameter.
  • peerage-priority (only used if |peerage-work-group=yes is set; uses the same values as |importance=) – 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 |politician-work-group=yes 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 |class= parameter.
  • politician-priority (only used if |politician-work-group=yes is set; uses the same values as |importance=) – 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 |royalty-work-group=yes 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 |class= parameter.
  • royalty-priority (only used if |royalty-work-group=yes is set; uses the same values as |importance=) – 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 |s&a-work-group=yes 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 |class= parameter.
  • s&a-priority (only used if |s&a-work-group=yes is set; uses the same values as |importance=) – 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 |sports-work-group=yes 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 |class= parameter.
  • sports-priority (only used if |sports-work-group=yes is set; uses the same values as |importance=) – 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 |attention=yes 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.
• |needs-discography= 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 |musician-work-group=yes.
• |needs-filmography= 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 |filmbio-work-group=yes.
• needs-infobox – set |needs-infobox=yes 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.
• |needs-photo= 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 |past-collaboration=yes (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 |peer-review=yes 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 |old-peer-review=yes 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 Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Peer review/((SUBJECTPAGENAME)), set this parameter; i.e. if the peer review page is Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Peer review/Foobar, set |title=Foobar
  • Invalid combinations of |peer-review= |old-peer-review= and |title= will place the page in Category:Biography articles with incorrect peer review or A-Class tagging .
• |A-Class= Answer pass if the article has passed an A-Class review, or fail if the article has failed a review, otherwise remove this line.
  • |A-Class=pass populates Category:Successful requests for biography A-Class review.
  • |A-Class=fail 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 |listas=Doe, John 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 Wikipedia:Categorization of people § Ordering names in a category.
  If the article is using ((WikiProject banner shell)) then it is preferable to add |listas= to that template instead of a project banner template. Putting the parameter on more than one template is not required.
  • If left undefined, this parameter populates Category:Biography articles without listas parameter.

Special

The following parameters should not normally be used:

• category – set |category=no 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 |core=yes if, and only if, the article is listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Core biographies.
  • This parameter populates the categories listed here.

Aliases

• The parameter |baronets-work-group= is recognised as an alias for |peerage-work-group=. If both |peerage-work-group= and |baronets-work-group= are present, |baronets-work-group= is ignored.

• The parameter |baronets-priority= is recognised as an alias for |peerage-priority=. If both |peerage-priority= and |baronets-priority= are present, |baronets-priority= is ignored.

• The parameter |military-task-force= is recognised as an alias for |military-work-group=. If both |military-work-group= and |military-task-force= are present, |military-task-force= is ignored.

Usage with WikiProject banner shell

If this template is placed within ((WikiProject banner shell)), the following parameters should be specified there instead:

• |class=
• |living=
• |blpo=
• |activepol=
• |listas=

Tracking category

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