User:Hi878/DoF Icon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a metatemplate used to build the DoF top icon, a little (25x25 pixels) icon in the top-right area of userpages and user talk pages ONLY!
How do I use it?
Copy and paste {{User:Hi878/DoF Icon}} to the top of a userpage or user talk page to create the effect.
What will it look like? Where will it be located?
It will be located in the top right corner of your userpage or user talk page.
Code originally used to create it
{{topicon|imagename=Ambox humor.svg
| wikilink=Wikipedia:Department of Fun
| description=This user is a member of the Department of Fun
| icon_nr = {{{icon_nr|{{{number|0}}}}}}
| extra_offset = {{{extra_offset|{{{offset|0}}}}}}
| width = {{{width|24}}}
| style = {{{style|}}}
}}
Purpose
The DoF icon is a hack. It originates from {{topicon}}. The only supported top icons are the four used in article space; the protection lock 
, the spoken article speaker icon 
, the good article symbol 
and the featured article star 
. Editors have been increasingly using the same trick to add custom icons to their userpages. However, due to how the icons are implemented, they have a tendency to break rather easily, for instance when sitenotices are active. Because it is impossible to correct this for each and every userpage every time the top icons are broken (not to mention a waste of valuable editor time), a new template ({{top icon}}) and class (topicon) were introduced to make it simpler to support the icons. Note that officially, the top icons on userpages are allowed to break at any time. Other technical changes that are important to the entire mediawiki software or changes to article space will always be more important than keeping the userspace top icons working. This template is therefore meant to simplify support, not to guarantee it.