Thread:Byfield/@comment-24916335-20150524184323/@comment-220364-20150524200034

For the most part, the actors pages started of as a list under Actors. As Hatebunny said the Database's primary focus has been the characters and stories, so the actors were really down the list for coverage.

At some point, likely for ease of editing, some of the entries on the list were either moved or created on Actor: pages and transcluded to the list using a generic "Glossary Entry" template. That was the state it was in when I got here. Using that template as a base and the implied limited scope of the entries - name as credited, only the work related to DC characters, image to be used is "in character" and with mask if available - I created Actors Template and started migrating list entries so each actor actually has a separate page.

Even in that I wound up limiting the format a bit when compared to the Staff pages or the actor articles on other wikia. The only biographical data that seemed pertinent was the name, date of birth, and date of death. That along with the resultant size of the text made an infobox seem silly, The information from the 'box would be front and centre in the text, the text would be higher up than the data section of the 'box, and the 'box would almost always be longer than the text.

As for comparisons to the actor pages for Avatar Wiki - or the go to wikias for Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, etc - yes, the articles there are a lot broader. However, they tend to replicate either Wikipedia or IMDb articles. Right now our template is design to Incorporated direct links to Wikipedia, IMDb, and a third wikia, if needed and appropriate, for more information of the actor.

That said, I am currently going through the articles again to clean up and add some new bits:
 * Captions for the images on the Actors: pages. I wound up adding that parameter to the template late.
 * Selected filmographies for the DC related work. It's not templated, but I do have a frame work I'm working from that is definitely present on the pages up to Actors:Jackie Earle Haley and scattered pages after that.
 * A link to the Actor Images categories. This one is automated if there is a category.
 * Adding a ShortText parameter if the article text is really long.

I'm also tempted to see if I can add coding to recognize gallery pages so we can get images up for actors that have more than one appearance to deal with.

Aside from that the only general guideline would be that we try not to create actor pages when the actor is essentially appearing only as an extra.

I'm not sure if I've covered your question, or if brought anything up that raises more questions or need for clarification.