Board Thread:Wiki discussion/@comment-84037-20161228193955/@comment-84037-20170101201305

Sol Pacificus wrote: To be frank, I don't understand why we never had "Appearances" and "Sources" section in this wiki. Instead, we always had an "Appearances" list merged with "References" which created the disorganized scenario where for some articles, media was listed under "References" like an "Appearances" list where in others, it was a list of citations.

In my opinion, having an "Appearances" list should be default for any wiki for organizational reasons. We also need a "Sources" section, which is the same but covers OOU appearances (such as in The Essential Guide).

I think that we may be over-complicating it because it's a new idea for this wiki. It should be a relatively simple affair, just list all Appearances for each character and place. If we miss any, that is okay, we'll add it in when we figure out we've missed it.

For that reason, I disagree with the usage of subpages because I think it also complicates it unnecessarily. Why not just add appearances directly to the article as we do other things like citations or infoboxes? In Wookieepedia, users are used to just going to the article, and editing the Appearances section or Sources when a new Appearance/Source comes up for that article. It's a minor edit that even anons disinterested in major edits often partake in. Through subpages, they'll have to know to search specifically for Category:Appearances, or search for the specific subpage, then edit it. Subpages mean extra steps without any practical reason as far as I can tell :-/

I also disagree with the small text partially because it's awkward when juxtaposed with the rest of the text in normal size in my opinion. However, the more important reason is because for any Appearances section, it is important to add notes such as (First mentioned), (First appearance), (Mentioned only), (Flashback only) ~ though we might not use this one b/c technically all past settings is a flashback. These notes should be made in small font so as to not disrupt the actual listing. They are notes after all. On the other hand, the items listed should be in normal font so as to not mix in with the notes, increasing readability.

Here's are some examples from Wookieepedia.

Korriban

Darth Nihilus

Aayla Secura

I actually would prefer having the appearances on the pages rather than subpages. I was just trying to take everyone's advice to make appearances what everyone wanted, but that is really hard to do, as when someone has an idea they like, another may say the opposite of that idea. Ha. :)