Template:Very long

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What is “Very long”?

According to Rules and other Rules, a page constitutes to be “very long” when its size in bytes exceeds somewhere around 200 000. In most cases, this corresponds to 17–23 000 words. However, that is the upper limit for how big a namespace page can be before you end up with an error. An example of a “namespace page” is an article.
Which is to say that this template should be used prior to the page reaching that number.

So, when should you put it this banner? This is part of a VERY CONTROVERSIAL 30–YEARS OLD DEBATE. The User which transcsluded this template and wrote this section of the documentation herself is a “Separatist”.
In short, Deletionists believe that the number of articles on any wiki should be kept minimal. This, of course, emerged on the Most irrelevant sister wiki project among them (Wikipedia). Opposite to them are the Inclusionists, who emerged on the dead cursed project known as “Fandom”. Separatists are inclusionists who are aware of technical difficulties (see the other Rules link above) which arise when page sizes are too big.

The size of any page can be checked by clicking on the “Page information” link, underneath the ″Tools ″bar.
In general, the following table should be followed:

When to use

Byte size	Est. number of words	More yes or more no	Definite yes or no
200 000	23 000	Definite yes	Definite yes
140–200 000	15&nsbp;000	Yes	Place this banner here
85–140 000	9-15 000	Probably	Place this banner here
6–86 000	300–8 500	Definite no	No.

Usage

Add {{Very long|date=December 2024}} to the top of the article, below any hatnotes.

small parameter

{{Very long|small=left|date=December 2024}} generates the following smaller-sized template, a left-size box instead of a banner (which is usually only of use with |section=, below):

Section-specific use

If just a particular section of an article is getting long, it can be tagged by adding the |section= parameter, or using the {{Very long section}} template variant:

{{Very long section}} and {{Very long|section|small=left|date=December 2024}} both render: Template:Very long section

Readable prose size (in words)

The readable prose size in words, calculated with the help of tools like Prosesize or Shubinator's DYK tool, can be added manually to the template:

{{Very long|words=14,000}} generates the following template:

nosplit parameter

Adding |nosplit=yes (or any other value for that parameter, such as y or true) will suppress mention of splitting the material to new sub-articles, since not all content is suitable for splitting (usually because it would fail WP:Notability as a stand-alone article).

Categorization

This template adds tagged articles to Category:Articles that may be too long, or one of its dated subcategories.

{{Wikipedia:Template messages/Splitting/List|noheading=yes}}{{Wikipedia:Template messages/Merging/List|noheading=yes}}

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Very long in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Very long

Use this cleanup template to indicate that an article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably.

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	date	The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically. Example January 2013 Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	Line	suggested
Don't suggest splitting	nosplit	Enter any text here to remove "splitting content into sub-articles" from the suggested fix, if the content would not be suitable for splitting (usually because it would fail WP:NOTABILITY as a standalone article). Example y Auto value y	String	optional
Suggested fix	fix	Text to replace the suggested fix ("Please consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings.") Example Please consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings.	String	optional
Affected area	1	Text to replace the word "article", usually "section" Example section Auto value section	String	optional
Make template small	small	Enter "left" here to make the template box small and aligned to the left. This also condenses the text and replaces "article" with "section". Example left Auto value left	String	optional

See also

• A list of related cleanup templates at Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup
• {{Lead too long}}
• {{Long plot}}
• {{Sections}}
• {{Sub-sections}}
• {{Overly detailed}}
• {{Too many see alsos}}
• {{Very long section}}
• {{Archiveme}} – a template for long talk pages

Tracking categories

• Category:Pages using Very long with unknown parameters (0)

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Very long/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.