Template talk:Infobox military person

Infobox width inconsistent with other person infoboxes

The width of this infobox is inconsistent with pretty much every other person infobox; it is quite a bit wider.

Looks like setting the "width_style" parameter to "person" brings the width in line with all the others, but by default, its width ends up being whatever the default for Template:WPMILHIST Infobox style.

Is there any functional reason why this infobox in particular should be a different width versus all the other infoboxes we have for people? If not, can we modify this infobox so that "width_style=person" is the default? RachelTensions (talk) 22:22, 26 June 2025 (UTC)

When reporting a technical issue, always link to one or more pages where the issue can be observed. On the page you linked to, the documentation says that the box will be 315px wide, but the example box provided is 275px wide on my screen. The sample infobox at {{Infobox military person}} is 375px wide on my screen. Linking to real-world transclusions that use default values will help. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:23, 28 June 2025 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I, too, would really like this infobox to be more standardized alongside the other biography infoboxes. — Fourthords | =Λ= | 21:52, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

Is there any way to do the opposite of the above request? The page of Velta Benn embeds the Military Person infobox within the regular Person infobox. But because it is now using the thinner width of the Person infobox, the field identifiers are all text wrapped (with Years of Service being the worst offender). I tried various combinations of "width_style" but had no luck. Thanks! CaptainAngus (talk) 00:12, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

The documentation for this template and for {{WPMILHIST Infobox style}} appear to be wrong. The settings were changed to use ems instead of pixels in 2018. You can see the current settings in Module:WPMILHIST Infobox style. The default appears to be "main_box_raw", which sets "width:25.5em". I verified this default width using my browser's Inspector feature on the /testcases page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:00, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

I think I'm still a little lost. I would like to use the Person infobox as the 'main' infobox because it offers the 'occupation' field. In the case of Velta Benn, more of her life was spent as a non-military person, so its worth calling out she was a pilot. So I think I'm asking if there is any way to override the default width in an Infobox? CaptainAngus (talk) 01:13, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

There is a workaround that you can see in use on the /testcases page: set an image size using image_upright. The image width will determine the infobox's width. Of course, an image will have to be provided. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:12, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Wow, great image find! Thank you! CaptainAngus (talk) 23:41, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Template:Infobox person has an RfC

Template:Infobox person has an RfC for possible consensus regarding the removal of color from person infoboxes. A discussion is taking place. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. — Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 18:30, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

Change default battles_label

Joe Smith
Conflicts	World War II

I have long not been a fan of the default battle label of Battles / wars and am looking to change it. I'd like to get some other feedback on exactly what to change it to. It just looks clunky to me. My thought was to change it to Conflicts? Anyone have any opinion on this? Again, to be clear, this is a change to the DEFAULT value. |battles_label=some value would still work as before. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 17:00, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

I've always changed the label to "Conflicts"; it better encompasses the wide variety of events that can/do get listed. — Fourthords | =Λ= | 18:39, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Going to change to Conflicts. If there is an objection, I will happily revert and we can have more discussion. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 16:42, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Chronology

Where there are multiple entries in Commands or Conflicts fields should they chronological or the reverse?

See William McGonagle, which has one of each, and is just confusing to the reader. - Davidships (talk) 00:16, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

Oy vie... Basing this on NOTHING other then personal preference I would assume chronological with the first Command/Conflict at the top, the last at the bottom. But maybe someone else can link to a doc that specifically says which is supposed to be used. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 00:56, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

I, too, have always just structured this in chronological order from top-to-bottom. If there were some way of polling all the implementations, and determining if there was an SOP or majority implementation, that'd arguably be an implicit consensus—I just don't know how such a thing would be done. Maybe just by polling FA-rated articles? — Fourthords | =Λ= | 01:05, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

Deprecated parameter cleanup

On the heels of the successful cleanup of {{Infobox officeholder}}, I am proposing a cleanup of the conflicting parameters here. To be clear, this will not change the display on any transclusions. What I am suggesting is reducing technical debt and reducing errors caused by conflicting parameters. The replacements I plan to make are the following:

Deprecate/Remove	Replace with
|honorific prefix=	|honorific_prefix=
|honorific suffix=	|honorific_suffix=
|birthname=	|birth_name=
|status=	|disappeared_status=
|death cause=	|death_cause=
|serviceyears_label=	|service_years_label=
|serviceyears=	|service_years=
|servicenumber=	|service_number=
|signature alt=	|signature_alt=
|known for=	|known_for=
|known=
|later_work=	|other_work=
|otherwork=
|laterwork=
|homepage=	|website=
|URL=
|placeofburial=	|burial_place=
|placeofburial_label=	|burial_label=
|placeofburial_coordinates=	|burial_coordinates=

If anyone has any questions, comments or concerns, please speak up! --Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 21:14, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § RFC: Alma mater vs Education in Infoboxes

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § RFC: Alma mater vs Education in Infoboxes. —Myceteae‍🌈 (talk) 19:55, 13 June 2026 (UTC) —Myceteae‍🌈 (talk) 19:55, 13 June 2026 (UTC)