Template:Rationale discussion/doc

This short template is used for indicating that the rationale given in a !vote in an RfA, XfD, RfC, RM, noticeboard thread, or other consensus discussion has been disputed, and where this dispute is detailed, without inserting the details of the dispute into the !voting section. An alias of this template is.

Parameters
rationale – to change the words "The rationale" to something else, e.g. "One rationale", "The rationales", "The tone", "'s comment" etc. It should start with a capital letter.

response a.k.a. reason – to change the wording "responded to" to something else, e.g. "questioned", "reinforced", "challenged", "discussed in detail", "refactored into a sub-thread", etc.

1 a.k.a. where a.k.a. talk a.k.a. discuss – to change the default  wikilink to the location of the material in question, such as , or  , or. It will insert the  for you. You can use elsewhere on the page to create a link anchor to your specific comments if they are buried in a long ==Discussion== section, or one with a long title that you'd rather refer to as just.

2 a.k.a.diff – to provide a diff/permalink in addition to or instead of a normal wikilink (it suppresses the default   talk page wikilink). It is entered as a URL (full, or preferably with  protocol-relative format), and the enclosing   will be added for you. If you prefer to use wikilink-formatted diff linking, use the where parameter. It is useful to include a permalink if referring to a discussion on another page that will or may get archived. This parameter be named or explicitly numbered, or the   in the URL will cause it to fail. Multi-diffs: You can "cheat" and add additional diffs, by accounting for the auto-generated brackets and adding the needed intervening ones, e.g.  (though by request or if someone wants to just do it, we can add diff2, etc. parameters).

Rationales for use
Consensus discussions often get mired in nit-picky threaded disputes that are better moved to a general discussion sub-thread, outside of the main discussion (which might be the ==Comments== section for !voting on an RfC, or just the normally concise responses directly under a proposal). This template can be used by posters, or by WP:REFACTORers, to keep the main section cleaner, and to avoid WP:BLUDGEONing the discussion.

One can even use this to refer to one's own comments, e.g.:, yielding:

It can also be used for evidentiary notices, e.g.: