Is there a simple way to incorporate templates from Wikipedia without flouting the don't repeat yourself principle? The example I'm concerned with right now concerns Lucena position on the chess wiki; it would be extremely nice to use the WP chess templates without having to maintain a separate copy of the markup; in fact, some means to do this seems essential to respecting DRY. But I've tried different combinations of template redirects, Wikipedia in the braces, etc. and nothing seems to work. TIA, PhilipR 22:58, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

You can't transclude templates between Wikimedia projects, and expecially not from Wikimedia to Wikia (which are separate entities). Also, while on Wikimedia you'd be able to use shared images from commons, here you currently must upload them to each wikia.

You may be interested in: A template for chessboards at Uncyclopedia which is only loosely based on the wikipedia one, and much cleaner (IMHO) as it uses about half as many images (using transparent backgrounds): Uncyclopedia:Template:Chessboard (instructions). You can copy it over by grabbing the template code and uploading the associated images (listed at the bottom). It supports gif and png transparency, but you only need gif really (13 images). If you like I can copy/upload it over and customize it to your needs, but if you want one just like Wikipedia, you'll have to copy Wikipedia's, as well as upload all the images. --Splarka (talk) 01:51, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

PS: Games:Template:Chess --Splarka (talk) 01:51, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. Isn't forcing the user to copy a template from another wiki a foolish violation of DRY, though? What if Uncyclopedia enhances their template? Now I'll have to maintain a separate copy. Still, I guess DRY can't be perfect and at least it's free content, so that's probably the route I'll (reluctantly) take. Regards, PhilipR 05:53, 29 June 2006 (UTC)