Board Thread:New Features/@comment-24739709-20150518230347/@comment-4189499-20150520134618

Shareif wrote: Hey Imamadmad and AwesomeOrange89. Thank you for the feedback. This is exactly the info we would like to learn. Current markup is just a framework that allows us to separate view from the display and by doing that display it correctly on any device. We know there is still a lot work to be done to make this feature full mature, that is why we need your help :)

Would you prefer the new infoboxes if they were more tabular with label on the left and data on the right?

What are the main limitation of the current markup? We know it's very minimalistic, that's why your feedback is so valuable to us.

I'll talk with our engineering team about your idea Imamadmad! If they were more tabular, I would give one a try and see if I can either replicate or improve an existing infobox with the new tags via CSS.

One other thing to mention is that taking the infoboxes away from regular wiki markup may scare some newer users away from trying to edit the default ones as the compactness of the information combined with the more involved markup makes it look "scarier". On the other hand, it may be easier for people coming from an HTML background, or even just a regular coding background, to understand the infoboxes with the tags rather than the wiki markup.

Another point is that having the tags is relatively restrictive. For example, the levels infobox I made for CCSW, which can be seen on a page here, has three cells on the same row in the bottom two rows to demonstrate the previous, current, and next levels. That could be achieved using the regular infobox format because there was no restriction on what needed to ake up the infobox, so a second table could be appended to the first with 3 columns instead of two and merged with a clever bit of CSS. There is no equivalent infobox tag which could do that in the original proposal. While you might say "well, we could add one", what about tags to solve the problems encountered by the next user? They won't have as many tools to manipulate the infobox to their prefered design/design which works best in the context of their wiki. By restricting the amount of possible elements that can be used to create infoboxes, you are giving users less tools to work with to solve their unique problems, which I think would be a great loss.

I still think, on balance, that it would be preferable to find a solution which works with current wiki markup rather than having to use these new tags. However, my mind is still open and, with enough evidence, could be convinced that this new system is superior. I still need to see that evidence though.