Template:Admin backlog/doc

This is the admin backlog message box.

It can be put at the top of pages and categories that have a backlog which require the attention of administrators. A backlog is a list of things that need to be done and that have not been done for some time.

This template puts the pages into Category:Administrative backlog, where admins can see where work needs to be done.

Usage
Usually this template is used without any parameters, then it is always visible until it is manually removed. Like this:



Which renders like this:

This template automatically shows the appropriate style depending on what kind of page it is shown on. The style above is for "other" pages such as "Wikipedia:" pages, and the style shown in the examples below is for category pages.

By adding, the box and accompanying category disappear from the page. This is functionally equivalent to removing the backlog notice.

Autoreport
Often it is more efficient to handle several cases in a backlog at a time, since then we are up to speed with what needs to be done. Thus we often don't want to know about a backlog until it has reached some size.

When this template is placed on a category page it can count the number of items in the category (pages + images + subcategories). Then it can be set to automatically only report when the number of items is above some limit. The autoreport limit can be set to whatever value you prefer. Like this:

If the category has 10 or more items this template will render like this:

But if the category has less than 10 items then this template will not report the page (not categorise it into Category:Administrative backlog), and will instead render like this:

Note that MediaWiki only parses the code when the category page is re-rendered. That is, when someone views the page and it is more than one week since it was last re-rendered. Thus, it can take a week before this template changes when the number of items have changed. (But if no one visits the page then it can take forever.) To get an immediate change you can purge the page, for instance by clicking the button in the template.

You can display a different number from the number actually used by placing the display number after the number which the auto-detection system uses. This option is designed to deal with a situation where a category has a few permanent items (such as subcategories), which shouldn't be counted. For example, Category:Requests for unblock has 3 subcategories which don't count towards the backlog, so it has the following header:



Silence
To prevent any output when there is no backlog, use

Bot updates
In some cases, a bot automatically adds and removes this template from a page. In this instance, the bot parameter should be used as follows (using "RFC bot" as an example):



Which renders like this: