Board Thread:Administrative/@comment-1713281-20160318145300/@comment-61022-20160322143326

Can't say that I'm a fan of those either. If you take a look at Earth-928 that's a great example. Little actual information about the reality itself and then a wall of what seems to be one-off characters that someone decided to add. If this was a separate page maybe? Earth-928/Residents that would be great. But with all these sub-pages is there a way we can set up a tab system on the main page? (I recall that there might be a coding issue with that though, anyone want to clarify?)

I think a "bare bones" Minor Character template could work if we can define what a "minor character" constitutes. I think it's pretty straight forward: If you can't write more than four paragraphs about the character (One for context about that reality, and three about the character themselves) then it should be a minor character profile. Obviously if the character appears in a single panel that's a minor character. It would also help stick characters like Sam (Prison Guard) (Earth-616) in their proper place. Because if there is anything uglier than an empty character profile, it's a character profile that can amount to a single sentence. If we can also have them categorized differently so they are lumped in a different category than just normal characters that would be great also.

Ideally, I think we should put a moratorium on people creating profiles or edits about generic people-on-the-street level characters. I'm sorry, but there are more important things that are lacking information over "Sam the Prison Guard who was in that one Daredevil comic 50 years ago". I get some people's position that we need to add "everything", but honestly there is information that is MORE IMPORTANT that people should be focusing on more.

I don't know if it's laziness, a lack of desire to research, just a fear of having edits scrutinized, badge hunting or what... But I think it needs to stop. There are so many things more important issues that are lacking. But I digress, that's another subject.

Back on point....

It seems that when it comes to Disambig pages the biggest issue is that typing in Iron Man automatically redirects to Tony Stark. Like I was saying earlier, if disambiguation pages are being too bogged down, we should have the two tier disambiguation pages based on Code Name/Common Name is the best way to go about it.

I get that Tony Stark has been consistently Iron Man, but to assume that when someone who is inquiring about Tony Stark is presumptive. Also from an organizational standpoint, it's just really ugly if in the middle of it all you have non-Tony Stark related characters.

I think when we also organize code names disambiguation pages... Spider-Man for example... we can change the organization of how the information is displayed. If we adopted my suggestion Spider-Man wouldn't have any reality distinctions, it would just redirect to a disambiguation page about each person under the mask (Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, Miguel O'Hara, Miles Morales etc.) It also wouldn't include similarly themed characters. It should only have characters who specifically identified AS Spider-Man. (Maybe we can get into a Related Characters sub-page if need be, but I personally think "related characters" are unnecessary)

Another method of organization we should have it broken down into a number of different categories.

(1) Primary: Characters who have operated under that identity for an extended period of time -- or specifically, the title character. (So for Spider-Man, it would be Peter, Miguel, Ben, & Miles. Those are the only four that could be considered primary Spider-Men)

(2) Secondary: For less popular characters who have also *only* operated under the Spider-Man guise. Max Borne, Takuya Yamashiro, Yu Komori, Bruce Banner (of the Bullet Points Universe) etc.

(3) Temporary: Characters who briefly assumed the role. The intend of these characters was -- for whatever reasons -- temporarily use a character's identity (good or bad) for the intent the original had in mind for the identity.

Using Spider-Man as an example here again, this would be for anyone who used the Spider-Man identity for heroic purposes. Mattie Franklin, Marc Spector, Hobie Brown. Basically someone who has filled in as Spider-Man for one of the main Spider-Men. (Although I know that with Spider-Verse that blurs some lines at bit, but I hope everyone catches my meaning.)

(4) Impostors: Would be a list of people who posed as that character as a means of deception. So for someone heroic like Spider-Man, it would be anyone who has dressed up as the character to ruin their reputation. Venom (Both Brock and Gargan), Mysterio, the Time-Spinner Robot, Zoltan Amadeus, the Chameleon. If it's a villain, we'd denote heroes who posed as the villain. (For example both Solo and Moon Knight have posed as Bullseye)

When it comes to a disambiguation page for a given name like Steven Rogers, we should organize it like so:

(1) Common Code Name: So with Steven Rogers this would obviously be Captain America. It would break down each reality where he was Spider-Man. We could also have sub-headings that divide between Comic Books, Television, Movies, and Video Games.

(2, 3, 4 etc.) Second/Third/Fourth Common Codename: We would then list each other more common codename. For example Steve Rogers was also Nomad, simply "The Captain", Commander Rogers, Colonel America. Some of these identities also appear in multiple realities, so we'd organize those ones under different headings. The criteria for a separate heading is that iteration of the character should have appeared in more than one reality.

(Followed By) One Off Identities: These are realities where Steve may have operated under a different identity that happens in only one reality. So realities where he was Captain Colonies, General America, Iron Man (Bullet Points), etc.

(Followed By) No Double Identity: This would be designated for versions of the character where they did not have a double identity. They were just Steve Rogers. This could be characters who never were empowered, or were empowered and just never adopted a costumed identity.

(Followed By) Posed as: A list of the various other characters that that hero has posed as. Either they were filling in for someone on the same size, or that an opposition character they were impersonating. This could link people either to that code name or the common name of the character they were posing as.