Template:Orphan/doc

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

If you plan to make breaking changes to this template, move it, or nominate it for deletion, please notify Twinkle's users and maintainers at Wikipedia talk:Twinkle as a courtesy, as the standard installation of Twinkle adds and removes this template. Thank you!

This template is used by the standard installation of AutoWikiBrowser (AWB). If you are planning to make any major changes to this template, move it, or nominate it for deletion, please notify AWB's users and maintainers beforehand at Wikipedia talk:AWB as a courtesy.

Template:Orphan populates sub-categories of Category:Orphaned articles. This should be added only to the talk namespace, following an RfC.

When to use

This template should only be put on talk pages of articles which meet the orphan criteria.

Do not use this template on articles that you honestly believe will be impossible to de-orphan. The community wants this tag used to identify potentially solvable problems, not to create a complete index of all articles with zero, one, or two incoming links. If the community actually wanted every orphan tagged, it would be using a mindless bot to tag these articles, rather than relying on editors and their best judgment.

How to use

The simplest way to add this template to a talk page is to copy and paste either {{Orphan|date=December 2024}} or {{Orphan|{{subst:DATE}}}} at the bottom of all the templates on the talk page, but before the first section.

This template is a self-reference.
Please do not subst: this template.

Parameters

date

You may use a date parameter with this template, for example {{Orphan|date=December 2024}} to help with the categorisation of articles requiring links. If you leave it out, a bot will fill it in (but this will result in more edits and watchlist alerts, so adding the date right away is preferred).

att

If you have made an unsuccessful attempt to de-orphan the article, then please add the month/year of the attempt to the template, like so:

{{orphan|date=Month Year|att=Month Year}},

where the "date" parameter is the date the template was ORIGINALLY placed on the page, and the |att= parameter is set to equal the CURRENT month and year. This places it in Category:Attempted de-orphan for that date and also hides the article message box.

few

If the article only has one or two links to it and it is felt more are required and possible the few option can be used. for example {{Orphan|date=December 2024|few=December 2024}}

incat

If the article has no link and probably never will, but is well categorised the incat option can be used. for example {{Orphan|date=December 2024|incat=December 2024}}

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Orphan in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Orphan

This template should only be put on articles which meet the orphan criteria.

Template parameters
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Date	`date`	The date this template was added to the page. (Input: Monthname Year)	String	optional
De-orphan attempt	`att`	If you have made an unsuccessful attempt to de-orphan the article, please fill in this field to record the attempt. (Input: Monthname Year)	String	optional
Few linked articles	`few`	If the article only has one or two links to it and it is felt more are required and possible this option can be used. (Input: Monthname Year)	String	optional
In Category	`incat`	If the article has no link and probably never will, but is well categorised this option can be used.(Input: Monthname Year)	String	optional