Talk:Blast from the Past
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Shouldn't the lists be in order of appearance, rather than alphabetical? I know there's the numbers there, but it feels kind of odd to have the numbers bouncing around like that so much. --M Sipher 23:11, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
- The numbers are there because you can have autobots and decepticons intermingled.
- While there's some advantage (more info communicated) by putting the list in order of appearance within faction, I think it reduce the usefulness of the list for stories with many appearances. (Like the Beast Wars comics. It's easier to check if a character appeared among that mass if they're in alphabetical order.)
- So there's some merit to what Siph says, but I think the negatives outweigh the benefits. -Derik 23:27, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
- Can't you people just agree to a standard and stick to it? If we do it your way, then we'll have to go back and change the character box listings in all the other articles that have been or are in the process of conversion to M Sipher's episode article standard. --FFN 23:45, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
- Also, your argument that listening them in order of appearance within faction reduces the usefulness of the list if they appear together all at once is rubbish. In that case, you use common sense an go by the most prominent characters in the scene (like the guy in the foreground, or the guys that have dialogue versus the silent ones or the ones farther in the background). Simple. Easy. And doing this means you no longer have to search for the appearance number in a mass of names to find out who appeared in what order. --FFN 00:09, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
- Can't you people just agree to a standard and stick to it? If we do it your way, then we'll have to go back and change the character box listings in all the other articles that have been or are in the process of conversion to M Sipher's episode article standard. --FFN 23:45, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
- I'm aware of why you have the numbers. I was not about to propose we get rid of them. I kept all the numbers on the episode pages I did... which have the lists in "order of appearance". It just feels more natural to go with the flow of the story in presenting "who appears" as possible. I don't think that breaking that just so people can theoretically pluck out potential cameo appearances slightly faster from a list is really beneficial.
- On a related note, I don't like the comic pages' "big paragraph of characters" format for "who appears". Those really need to be tables like the episodes. Yes, sometimes they end up long. They do in certain episodes too (see early The Heasmasters eps). But it's above all else easier to read and to pluck out names in a bullet-pointed list. --M Sipher 00:43, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
- I dislike the idea of ordering the list by appearance. Mainly, because I think the order that people appeared in is way less important than who appeared at all. If I look at a cast list, 99 times out of 100 it's going to be because I want to know which characters were in the story (or if a particular character was). I don't think I've *ever* cared about the order of appearance. If the lists were ordered by appearance, it would make it harder for me to find what I am looking for. And, I think, probably what most people would be looking for. --Steve-o 01:02, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
