Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-61022-20170213225824/@comment-61022-20170214051127

Dimadick wrote: The post assumes that all flashbacks are recaps of past events. What happens when these flashbacks reveal new information, or are extensive enough to include several scenes?

I'm going to recommend you go back and re-read the OP, specifically when I mentioned flashbacks that didn't affect continuity.

Even then, the example you cited,, is a bad example to prove your point. The only characters of import in that appear in said flashback are Charles Xavier and Juggernaut. Both a protagonist and an antagonist. In the broader context of the story, while Kurt Marko, Brian and Sharon Xavier add to the story is minimal to overall story because the primary story in said issue is the X-Men's battle with the Juggernaut.

While they are important to the flashback, they are not integral to the main plot of the story. They would not be considered supporting characters because if you were to remove them from the story, you still have the animosity between the Juggernaut and Xavier and the battle with the X-Men.

Those characters, in question, in the context of THAT story:

(1) Brian Xavier is actually DEAD before the Flashback begins. It starts at Brian's funeral.

(2) The dynamic between Cain Marko and Xavier that involves Kurt Marko is about three pages tops and again, it's mostly focused on Xavier and Cain.

All told, the portions of the flashback that involved that story accounts for 14% of the story. The rest of the 86% of the story (flashbacks and all) centers around Charles Xavier and Juggernaut, who are the primary protagonist and antagonists of the story.

RE: Any detractment regarding "Mentions"

I think people don't understand the difference between a Mention and someone acting Behind the Scenes. There are two very different tags for both.

So let's first be clear on that. If you can't tell the difference between a mention and someone operating behind the scenes, then you're coming in on the wrong part of this discussion.

Behind the Scenes: Someone who is cited as doing something that is not physically seen.

Mention: Someone talks about someone else in passing. I've edited thousands of comic book summaries. When I say I've edited: I mean I've gone in, corrected the appearances (including APN tags), wrote a summary and wrote continuity notes. I've researched each book intensively before a finger hits the keyboard. I'm not going in adding a few appearances here and there, adding APN tags for the few characters I like, I'm actually completing entire pages that have been left blank or improperly filled out for over a decade.

That said most people who are adding mentions are adding mentions because a character is evoked by name only. The amount of times a character like Spider-Man or Thanos is given a mention tag when the character in question is mentioned off hand is staggering.

These mentions add nothing to the story. Ever. And even then, most people don't add every character mentioned, just the ones they can be bothered to type in because it is a character they have preference to.

On the discussions about mention tags, I was never privy to any of the discussions about the creation of said tag, let along how it was implemented. I can tell you that had I been part of those discussions I would have never agreed to said tag because it's a useless reference, especially when you compare it to the amount of information that is missing on this site.

That said, I concede that people think it's should be important, it falls under the "nearly insignificant" level of importance.

RE: Sorting "Other" appearances by type

While I can agree that it was not discussed at any great length. Not grouping thing by order of appearance type in the other category creates a visual mess.

From an aesthetics standpoint, it looks sloppy and unprofessional. I find the idea that people are okay with that sort of sloppiness embarrassing.