Board Thread:Administrative/@comment-61022-20160420203803

I would like to propose some method of cleaning up character pages. I take a look at a lot of popular characters and there is just so much junk and repeat information.

The main concern about character pages has always been page lengths and I think that reorganizing character pages and removing certain data and placing them in more appropriate places would be the best way to sift out the junk that has accumulated over the years this Wiki has been in operation.

My vision would be that character pages basically stop after the "Weapons" category. A character page should just have information about that character.

Example:

Anthony_Stark_(Earth-616)

"Cameos": Cameos of a version of the character appearing in other media seems really unimportant to the Earth-616 version of the character. If they appear in another Marvel property we likely now have a separate page for THAT version of the character. We don't need to mention that Iron Man appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because we have separate pages for Cinematic Universe.

The "Trivia" section seems redundant if a character profile is complete and up to date. Mentions about Tony's double-identity status are mentioned in the Character history, in Trivia, and in the Notes. If it's something that fits in the history of a character it's not exactly trivia, it's fact and it should be placed in the proper chronology of the character. This is incredibly redundant. I think the trivia section should be excised from the main page entirely.

Toys: To me, listing all of the different toys based on the character seems incredibly inappropriate to that section.

Other articles that suffer from this same sort of thing: Peter Parker (Earth-616), Steven Rogers (Earth-616), and just about any popular characters.

Suggested Solution:

Since we are designating a sub-page for Expanded Histories (IE: Peter Parker (Earth-616)/Expanded History) I think all other items of note that don't deal with a summarization of the characters history, abilities, and attributes should be culled from the main page and placed on a subpage and applied to an appropriate character.

Perhaps if we could set up a tab system of some kind to direct visitors to those pages? I recommend the following subpages. Of course these subpages are applicable depending on if it is warranted for the character:


 * The main page: Should have a breakdown of the characters history, powers and abilities only. Nothing else. Cutting out all the junk data that is not as important as the key data about the character would be delegated to other pages. A main character page would include: the Characters origins, an abridged version of their history would be broken down to a "yearly" basis organized by the Sliding Timescale and how that character's personal journey advances on that timeline. Each year would have a "See Also" link that would lead to....


 * Subpage 1: An expanded history page, where each year is broken down in greater detail on a chronological appearance-by-appearance basis. This page would only cover their history from start to finish.


 * Subpage 2: Social History - This would cover in greater details aspects of the characters life that are touched on in their personal history: the characters personality, social standings with characters, romances, relationships, marriages, deaths and resurrections.


 * Subpage 3: Publication history - Would delve into a creative process behind the character and address the characters history from a publication stand-point. About how the character was created, what different creative teams have done with the characters, what titles they appeared in and so on. This section would only cover the publication history of that version of the character (Example: Earth-616 Tony Stark publications only)


 * Subpage 4: Merchandise - This would cover all the merchandise that involves these characters. Toys. Posters. Promotional materials Etc.


 * Subpage 5: Non-Cannon - This section would cover any published material that doesn't fit any canonical universe designation. Cameos in other non-Marvel related media, parodies, non-cannon children's books, novels etc. But this section -- again -- would be focused on the non-cannon stuff pertaining to that character (Earth-616 Tony Stark for example)

Thoughts? 