Category:WPSHIPS:Infobox list errors

It is used to build and maintain a list or lists of pages—primarily for the sake of the lists themselves and their use in article and category maintenance. It is not part of the encyclopedia's categorization scheme.

More information:

This category is hidden on its member pages—unless the corresponding user preference (Appearance → Show hidden categories) is set.
These categories are used to track, build and organize lists of pages needing "attention en masse" (for example, pages using deprecated syntax), or that may need to be edited at someone's earliest convenience.
These categories also serve to aggregate members of several lists or subcategories into a larger, more efficient list (discriminated by classifications).
Typically, tracking categories are automatically populated by templates invoked in pages or by the MediaWiki software (see Special:TrackingCategories for an overview of the latter).

Administrators: Please do not delete this category as empty!
This category may be empty occasionally or even most of the time.

list comparison
unordered list	plainlist	ship infobox list
item 1 item 1a item 2 item 2a item 2a1	item 1 item 1a item 2 item 2a item 2a1	item 1 item 1a item 2 item 2a item 2a1

This is a tracking category for list errors in WP:SHIPS infoboxes. Lists in the various infobox templates use the common unordered list (*) markup. The templates read the list markup and produce the correct HTML for unbulleted lists. This overcomes limitations that exist in the Mediawiki:Common.css plainlist class and the templates {{plainlist}} and {{unbulleted list}}.

In the past, the WP:SHIPS infobox usage guide required unbulleted lists for reasons of limited available space and for aesthetics. Editors used a variety of other methods to create lists in infoboxes. These included <br /> line break HTML tags and the use of {{plainlist}} and {{unbulleted list}} templates. Problems with these methods are:

use of <br /> makes visually 'correct' lists that are not correct for those who use screen readers. See MOS:ACCESS §Vertical lists.
limitations in Mediawiki:Common.css, prevent {{plainlist}} and {{unbulleted list}} from correctly rendering multi-level lists

The WP:SHIPS infobox templates can detect certain list formatting errors. When those errors are detected, the page is added to this category. In some cases, an error message is rendered in place of the list. The error conditions are:

error messages and their meanings
message	meaning	comments
list error: <br /> list	The parameter value is plain text that includes `<br />` markup	When creating vertical lists, a common mistake that editors often make is to use line-break tags (`<br />`) instead of proper list markup. Vertical lists made with line-break tags should be replaced with proper unordered (`*`) or description (`;:`) lists. Line-break tags are also used for aesthetic purposes. This too is discouraged because tailoring an infobox parameter to suit your display device may not produce the same results on other readers' devices.
list error: {{clear}} list	The parameter value is plain text that includes `{{clear}}` template (or an alias like `{{br}}`)	When creating vertical lists, a common mistake that editors often make is to use `{{br}}` templates instead of proper list markup. Vertical lists made with `{{br}}` should be replaced with proper unordered (`*`) or description (`;:`) lists. `{{br}}` templates are also used for aesthetic purposes. This too is discouraged because tailoring an infobox parameter to suit your display device may not produce the same results on other readers' devices. Consider rewriting the parameter content as a single sentence or as a list of sentences.
list error: mixed text and list	the parameter value is plain text followed by an unordered list	Plain text, commonly marked up as bold, italic, or both, is often used to mimic the 'term' portion of description lists (`;:` markup). When this is the case, the whole parameter value should be converted to one or more description lists. To override the bold styling normal to the 'term' portion of a description list, wrap the term in `{{nobold}}`.
list error: too many * at start of list	improper first list-item markup: `** item text` instead of `* item text`	In the ship infoboxen, the first item of an unordered list is expected to begin with a single `*` just as is expected outside of these infoboxen.
list error: list item missing markup	the parameter value has a line that does not begin with list-item markup (one or more `*`)	Ship infoboxen support only one list per parameter and do not support a mix of list and plain text. Each item of an unordered list is expected to have its own line and to begin with a ``. This error message arises when a line in the parameter does not begin with `` as the first non-white-space character. Remove blank lines and add unordered list markup (`*`) as appropriate or convert to description list (`;:`).
list error: empty list item	the parameter value begins with list-item markup (one or more `*`) but has no item text	The error message occurs when the list item is truly empty (only a ``) and also when all of the list item content except the `` is hidden inside HTML comment markup (`(<!-- -->`). Remove the line, remove the comment markup, or add list item content.
list error: mixed list type	an unordered list item begins with definition list item markup (`;`or `:`)	Ship infoboxen do not support a mix of list types. This error arises when the first non-white-space character following the `` is `;` or `:`. Often used to indent a list item, `:` should be replaced with a `` (so that the number of `*` at the beginning of the line is no more than one more than the preceding line). Alternately, convert the list to a description list.
list error: too many asterisks	indent by more than one step: `* item text` followed by `*** item text` for example	For proper rendering both inside and outside of ship infoboxen, the number of indents associated with unordered list may only increase by a step of one. Trim the number of `*` at the start of the offending list item.