I'll segment this post since there are several things I want to make clear.
1. Regarding my previous post
I think you mistake me a bit.
I absolutely was not blaming you. I understand perfectly well that you did what you did out of enthusiasm, and out of the best of intentions. This is precisely why I did not attempt to abruptly stop you in the middle of what you were doing. I was essentially content for this to be an anomaly until I come around to fix it with a bot. This is why I said "before the next time."
But it is also my job to make sure that everything is as efficient as possible, so that all contributions have the maximum value possible, which is why I posted that rant above (I will explain this in the sections below).
I would be crazy indeed if I put people in my bad book when all they did was out of enthusiasm and good intentions. I was absolutely not criticizing you for what you did. I actually said this in the previous post, but I'm not sure it came across correctly amongst the other things in the rant.
2. Why templates are good
The reason I used such strong language and bold font in my previous post is this: previously, I've observed silently some (well intentioned, but more limited in scope) breakage of the template system, and I was convinced this time that time is ripe to act, and to make clear what I as a technical person see clearly and have a duty to discuss.
The future of IMSLP depends on the template system. Not only has the template system made possible various redesigns of the site, but it is also enabling possible complex searches. For example, maybe someone wants to find all English composers born between 1800-1900. The only way to do this is by processing the information from templates. Obviously this has not yet been implemented, but I would say that it is almost 100% certain it will be at some point down the road. Templates are way way more efficient than wikitext itself.
I understand perfectly that a normal person would not think of potential uses in the (perhaps far) future. This is why I worded my previous post strongly, to make sure that people notice it for a relatively major issue. This is not because I like shouting at people (I don't), but because I believe it is my job to guide IMSLP along the most efficient and forward-looking way possible.
3. Regarding what to do now with the categories
Please do not fix them into the template if you do not want to. I have absolutely no interest in "punishing" people (especially since nobody did anything wrong) or making people do stuff that bots can do (it is horribly inefficient, because people should be doing other things rather than mechanical transformation). As I said before, it is most possible that I will simply run the bot over the wiki at some undefined point in time and fix them in a batch.
My greatest fear is that, because new contributors see "random" categories on composer pages, that they will add more "random" categories. If this happens, we may need to either (1) alert the new contributor that he/she should not be breaking the category system like that, or (2) fix the nationality categories such that they are in the template, and thus prevent new contributors from assuming that adding categories is a free-for-all.
Unfortunately, I'm horribly and extremely busy at the moment, so the bot will most likely have to wait until Christmas at the earliest.
In the meanwhile, I've already added |Nationality= and |Nationality2= into the code. Not only that, but the composers will be sorted correctly if their names contain accent marks. Technical solutions always have some nice little perks
And since the template has thus been fixed, please feel free to resume adding nationality to composers if you want. I think what is lost in all of this is that I actually think adding nationality is a very good idea; just that I disagreed with the way it was implemented.
The next time, you can bug Leonard or me (or both of us) if you want some simple change to the template like this. Alternatively, you can even try to change the template yourself. I greatly encourage trial and error as long as the error is not hard to fix, as is the case for all minor changes to the FTE template. Major changes should probably be left to Leonard unless you are confident, because the templates do have a little bit of voodoo magic (mostly intuitive however). But I will certainly not blame you for trying to modify the templates in good faith and with reasonable caution, whatever the result of that modification may be.
4. Regarding implementing novel ideas on IMSLP in general
I've always said that
if you think of something that can be done on IMSLP, do it. I still stick to my word. You do
not need my permission for every project you want to do on IMSLP.
However, I will occasionally rant about it and tell you not to do it again, just because that is my job as the technical staff of IMSLP. So here is the statement for this case:
If you want to add a category or some other systemic change to IMSLP, please make sure that it is supported by the template. This is even more so if the change involves every page (as it does in this case).
Again, generally you do not need my permission to do something on IMSLP. Even if you end up doing something wrong, I will not accuse you. However,
if (1) you are trying to do this to almost every page (i.e. systematic change), and (2) the technical measures do not provide for what you want to do, it is probably a good idea to contact me first via my talk page, so that I can check if it is technically sound. At the very least it will prevent me from posting badly-worded rants on the forums
-- Feldmahler
Notnd is also helping with this, and hopefully others will join in as well...
I'm not sure where it stands now, though; no one seems to have pursued it after your system was withdrawn...