Board Thread:Policies/@comment-18172179-20170103063927/@comment-3020860-20170114003453

Hatebunny wrote: as FeRDNYC rightly points out, every incomplete page that gets completed and introduces new data requires that every APN link in a chain of links be changed unless it's the first or last in that chain. That is a very fatal flaw. I'm not sure it's quite that bad, if I'm understanding correctly. Inserting a new Appearance between two other existing Appearances, which is the worst-case scenario, would require three edits.

If we have on page A, and on page B, then inserting an appearance between them involves:
 * Editing page C to include
 * Editing page A to
 * Editing page B to

It gets only a little squirrelier if A or B contain a transclusion of the form (where the template "assumes that the character's previous and next appearances are the previous and next issues of the current volume") — C has to be inserted into the appropriate side of the call, and the other one still left blank, and the arguments on Page C's APN can't simply be cut-and-pasted over.

...However, even that is far, far more involved and breakable than simply inserting a line into a list.