User talk:Jackpot/Sandbox/Sections
Organizing principles
I've organized all the various series and such on these principles:
1) Real-world chronology. Within each section, all subsections are arranged in real-world chronological order, even if that doesn't follow the fiction. This helps achieve the best approximation of prominence, roughly following the creative flow that produced a series. A negative example is BW Megatron's article, which begins with an incredibly obscure tidbit from a Japanese toy catalog that was made well after the character's first series. This elevates that tidbit to an undue state of importance, as though it had any kind of influence over the series that are listed after it. Likewise "Dawn of Futures Past," "Theft of the Golden Disk," etc. Derivative works should, I think, come after the works that inspired them.
2) Subsections by continuity. As fractured as the TF multiverse is, we can still preserve some amount of continuity flow. For example, the "Beast cartoon continuity" section begins with the BW 'toon, which exists within the G1/Beast family but is independent of all specific G1 continuities that preceded it. BWII, BWNeo, BM, etc., all follow in chronological order within their continuity because they're directly connected to BW in their fictions, even if they aren't connected to each other. We work our way up to the present day (as IDW-BW is yet another direct continuation of BW), then we jump back out to IDW-G1, which came after BW but is not connected to it and is similarly independent of all G1 fiction that preceded it.
2) Section-titles as links. Not only is this just a self-evidently good practice to keep readers fully informed, but it also helps address an issue I've pondered: TF continuity is fairly nonlinear, and we can only do so much with our page format to show what really follows from what. The Classics comic is a perfect example, where every time it comes up, there's a continuity note about how it disregards G2 and UKG1. To be consistent, we'd have to have a LOT of notes about how BW follows from no single G1 continuity, BM has no particular connection to J-BW, 3H-BW and IDW-BW are mutually exclusive, etc., etc. But if all the section-titles are links, we can forget about trying to keep the readers super-informed, as they then have tools to easily do their own research.
3) "Publisher + continuity + media" over specific titles. When I'm uniformed about a topic, I find it more confusing to see a title like "Linkage" than "Micron Legend DVD pack-in comics." Despite the brevity and specificity of the former, it's acutally more obfuscating to a reader who isn't already in the know.
That's all I can think of. I'll add more if they occur to me. Discuss!
- Jackpot 00:55, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
Japanese continuity
Small issue. Beast Wars II and Neo are definitely in continuity with the original cartoon. Also, links shouldn't be in section titles; storylinks should be used instead. —Interrobang 00:20, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
- Ah, thanks for pointing out the BWII/Neo thing. I've made a change that will hopefully clarify how I see continuity-subdivision working. Also, see above for my thoughts on title-linking. - Jackpot 00:55, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
Real-world chronology
Lordy, I know we've clashed over this before, but I am so against this. When I go to BW Megatron's page, I want to read his story, from start to finish, not give me the middle, then give me a little farther, and then jump back to the beginning, and then jump forward again. I shouldn't have to assemble the character history in pieces. You're right -- the Japanese catalog thing shouldn't go first. It should begin a separated Japanese continuity section, further down, since theirs is obviously not ours at this point.
I will fight you to the end on this, if necessary. The whole idea of a character article loses its potency to me without the narrative. --ItsWalky 01:05, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
- I agree with Walky. I mean, perhaps we can put some kind of date-note in there to note when something was a later prequel, but ehn. It's bad enough the fiction jumps around as much as it does. I'd rather read a single comprehensive flow of time when possible, and for a character overview, I'd think that's vital. --M Sipher 01:41, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
- I assume you're talking about the Unicron debate. I see this as a different matter, since the Unicron subject has the added weight of the explicitly-multiversal Cybertron comic behind it. If we're talking about someone like Megatron, there IS no one "his story" unless you assume that the latest fiction automatically supersedes all that came before. You say the J-catalog bit "should begin a separated Japanese continuity section, further down, since theirs is obviously not ours at this point." Well, what counts as "ours"? IDW-BW? In that case, shouldn't we excise all UKG1 and G2 content from G1 articles and shunt them into their own sections because the Classics comics disregard them?
- As long as we present all fiction, past and present, on this Wiki, I think we should be more systematic about how we display it, rather than shuffling whole series around to make the storylines seem more chronological. To my mind, that's only acceptable within the actual write-ups (where, for instance, we can talk about the Constructicons building Crystal City first, since we don't have subsections for seasons).
- One more point: We're sticklers about making sure that continuities are arranged in real-world chronological order. Turning around and breaking that rule at the sub-continuity level is just plain confusing and misleading to anyone not in the know.
- - Jackpot 01:39, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
