Discussion ComicBook / Blade

This page has been ruined. The worst part is, it appears to be the result of a collective effort. I can only hope it was an effort driven by one over zealous individual, with the rest not putting much thought into what they were doing, but that's still not a good sign. It still suggests more than one person didn't see why this was a bad idea.

The page used to be a description of the Marvel Comics character, a list of some comics he appeared in(Tomb Of Dracula, MI 13, Strikeforce, etc.), a list of some adaptations starring or featuring the character, and some tropes that weren't on any specific pages.

Now the page is...a list of Blade's solo titles? Not one mention of Tomb Of Dracula, the comic book he originates from? Nothing about his longest running stuff like Nightstalkers or Midnight Sons, about the film adaptations and how they permanently changed the comic book character, nothing about Civil War, Spider-Man, X-Men, about him taking up the Ronin identity, The Avengers? How is this more useful? To someone who wanted to know anything about the comic book character, who started in and primarily features in collaborative stories rather than solo staring series? Most of the tropes listed are still on the wiki, that information's been retained, but irrationally so on the character tab page. What does The White Worm, Doombots, Mikado or Mosha have to do with Blade as a character? Nothing. They have everything to do with comic books Blade appears in, all from his solo runs in this case, and thus could be listed on the "comic book" tab as currently structured, but the fact they aren't visually reeks of a "clean up" effort that creates a bigger mess than it sets to sort out. The body surf example not only has nothing to do with Blade as a character, but as typed doesn't even belong on a character page. That has everything to do with Blade's role in a comic he had the starring role in but was not his own comic as such.

If the page was to be "cleaned", the latter is the kind of thing that should have been broken off. Make a trope page for this particular comic book that is not a Blade book but happened to star him in issue number ___, __ and ___. Thing is, that cleanup was unnecessary(and thus thankfully wasn't done) because there weren't mentions of these comics on the wiki beyond the involvement of Blade and whatever other characters appearing that people cared about. It would have simply resulted in what the other Wiki calls a "stub", a superfluous page with little content better off merged with something else. That's why the exceptions usually prove the rule, why Comic book/ Blade was okay, why Monic Rambeau, Bucky, Wiccan, Angela were, but Strikeforce has so much less content. Now stubs are what most of the "Blade" pages as relates to Marvel's character. Stubs better off merged, maybe at this point deleted altogether, but since the page wasn't exactly causing problems to begin with I suggest simply reverting it back to form.

I'm noticing it fairly frequently on the wiki in general. Your mileage may vary existing but tabs failing to show up on pages relating to comic book characters due to clumsy namespace changing, wildly inappropriate entries on character pages that not only do not belong but don't even make any fucking sense in the context of a character page, trying to contain character tropes to teams when the tropes in question apply to solo runs or other teams with several degrees of separation, gutting the actual comic book tab pages of content that was accurately summarizing the convoluted nature of in story and publication history, moving content that should be on a stand lone page to a comic book's character page...the latter's more a DC problem than a Marvel one, but I digress.

It all became obvious to me there was a real problem here when I decided to look at Blade and saw what it became, and I think it boils down to a misunderstanding. Someone seems under the misconception Comicbook / Blade was a character page, rather than a work page. It was a work page for several different works, comic books, featuring the character Blade, dealing with these comics specifically, but not the character specifically. This is why the "Blade" character section/folder on the comic's character page is not only filled with information that doesn't belong there, but also several times longer than the comic page. Because even with the descriptive information removed its still the more useful, more comprehensive, more accurate comic book page compared to what is now occupying its previous space.

I honestly think making pages for superhero comic books, especially the sprawling snarling, cosmically Plot Hole inducing retroactive, shared universe settings of Marvel/DC, was fool's errand to begin with, but I also recognize that if something exists the wiki policy is to allow fans to make trope pages about it. The Just Here for Godzilla approach of listing all the comic book titles related to character X and then adding trope lists was a lot less headache inducing than whatever this "fix" is supposed to be. Redirecting the character page tropes to these just here for Godzilla type works lists was also useful in keeping all the crap about the superheroes/villains in one area easy to ignore or curate at one's leisure.

If you want to limit the creation of these pages based on the character in question ever starring in a solo title or not, that's a start, but making it an absolute limit simply won't work. This wiki actually has a warning for when a page gets too long. Sometimes all the content on a page is valid, so splitting it is the only really viable solution. As stated, Comicbook / Blade was a works page, not a character page. Deciphering split off character pages from the character specific work pages might get a little confusing, but the properties themselves are confusing by their nature. The old way of doing business was certainly easier to understand than what pops up on my computer screen now. Not only do I suggest reverting to the format that worked, but also the subsequent cutting of all the super hero comic stub pages. Cut the stubs, not the pages thriving by this own wiki's measure.

When the repair shop opens up I will move this here and then this can be deleted.

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes Hide / Show Replies

Uh, why was the image◊ changed? TV Tropes quirk of switching perfectly serviceable images with no discussion, so want to discuss it before I change it back?

That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes Hide / Show Replies