Board Thread:Administrative/@comment-61022-20181030200804

I really want to bring up another issue regarding the appearance section of comic summaries. I feel that people are going overkill with listing races/species and characters that are being referenced/invoked.

Races and Species:

I think that races and species are being added that aren't unique or add anything to the appearance list. This is primarily because nobody is going to create a page for these races/species or add any continuity relevant issues. Especially if the listing is a mention.

Example: There are pages that reference different animal species. Example, before I edited it had listings for Humans, Horses, Spiders, Komodo Dragons, and Boa Constrictors


 * Listing Humans/Homo Sapiens in the race section. I think this is pointless since humans appear in virtually every comic book published. Likewise, I highly doubt anyone is going to have a practical use for an index of every comic book a human appears in. Unless someone can give a compelling explanation as to how this is useful, I think we should scrap it.


 * Horses & Spiders: Both of these links go to listings of characters that are either horses or spiders. How do you create a race page for these species without (a) listing stuff people can find on Wikipedia and (b) Create canonical information that isn't just a list of characters that are members of these animal races. I would argue that creating pages for these animal races as an unnecessary duplication of information.


 * Komodo Dragons and Boa Constrictors: These link to Wikipedia pages. Which is functionally useless for the Wiki since it doesn't categorize any appearances. Creating pages for these animal species would pose the same issues of relevancy as above.

My final point on all of these items being in the race section is the fact that they are all listed as mentions. I think that's overkill. Why not list all the items and vehicles that are mentioned or appear in the panels of a comic? Should we start creating pages for Cars and Chairs? It's overkill and serves nothing more than bogging down pages with useless details that nobody will care about.

Invoking:

The same issue here. Primarily when someone is saying "Oh my god" or something to that effect. Even though it is being used as an exclamatory, people are using it as though they are being evoked. Can we all make a solid agreement on what counts as an invocation? We don't do this when someone says "By Odin!" or similar exclamations.

To me, an invocation has to have some sort of effect on the plot: Doctor Strange invoking Raggador, or Faltine to cast a spell. Sure. But someone exclaiming the name of a deity they worship doesn't strike me as useful information.

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At the end of the day, I think we really need to start talking about restraint when it comes to what goes into those appearance sections. I have always been for keeping the appearance sections neat. Frankly, one of the most bothersome issues for me is that certain categories are over saturated with pointless details that don't add anything with the summarization of the comic in question.

Taking a look at our sister sites (DC and Image in particular) they don't go to these lengths to list items of irrelevancy. 