User talk:The Paradox



Welcome to the [[Image:DC bullet 02.JPG|50px]] Database Project, !
You can jump in and start editing right away or practice in our sandbox. You should also have a peek at our guidelines and naming conventions. You can also create a new page from scratch.

You can have your own ; it is all about you!

The two easiest ways to interact with other users are to join the forums or leave messages on users' talk pages. Remember to sign all of your posts, so we can quickly tell who left the message.

(Hint: Use four tildes ( ~ ). This will automatically produce your username and date. You can also use the 'signature' button in the edit toolbar.)

If you need some help, just add the text   to your page and someone will come to your rescue.

You can include userboxes on your user page to express yourself. Your page can contain:
 * Pictures of yourself or.
 * Your favorite comic books and characters.
 * Your most notable contributions.
 * Anything else you want us to you know about you! (Keep it clean.)

Be sure to visit our sister-sites, the Marvel, Image, and Dark Horse Database Projects so you can begin posting on them as well!

No need to re-register, just sign in! Your account works on all Wikia wikis!

Have Fun!

--Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 23:25, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Popular Links: Database | Forums | Search Articles | Search Images | Help | Upload Files | Create New Page

Template Documentation
I completely agree. It's on my to do list, but I haven't been able to get to it yet. Do you think it would be a good idea to have pictures?

--Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 23:25, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Character template question
Hey, The Paradox, how's it going? I received your message and just wanted to let ya know, that coding is not really my thang. Which, in no uncertain terms means, I totally suck at it. However, have no fear... I forwarded your message to another admin, User:Peteparker. He's the coding guru here, and is the one most suited to handle your request. I left him a message here. Cheers! --Brian Kurtz 20:23, 9 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Nice project page draft! I'm perusing the character template to see if there's any you missed, and I added some   's so you could see the full option template better.  I could provide descriptions regarding what each field does, along with any special functions they may have, but it might be a little long.  Maybe if I did that you could help me wade through it and we could create some really awesome how to pages together?  Whaddya think?
 * --Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 23:58, 9 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I'm also piecing together complete versions of some other Templates (linked from my user page), so if you want to look at/play with those as well, feel free. The goal, obviously, is to have a kinda Master Copy of each until such time as complete copies are incorporated into the "real" Template pages.


 * As for what I think, my first reaction was "Frak!" My second reaction was, you're the coding guru and admin, so absolutely. I'll continue consolidating always visible and optional fields and let you know when they're ready for your touch. Let me know what else I can do. The Paradox 00:17, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Forums
You're bringing up a lot of interesting questions, and doing a lot of great work, Paradox. I recommend you bop over by the Forums sometime, that's where we do most of our talking about template or policy change. And I'd personally love to see another DC Editor up there.
 * - Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 20:56, 9 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Eh. Not impressed by the level of participation (a handful of messages on the relevant DC boards, most months old), I really try to avoid Marvel these days, there seems to be plenty of room for discussion on the talk pages here, and I have enough tabs open (11 at the moment) without adding forums to the mix. Thanks anyway. The Paradox 00:17, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

That should be it
I added all the fields that were missing from your scratch draft, but only the ones that are in the DC Character Template. I think there might be fewer on the Marvel side, because there's no custom themes like 'Green Lantern' to account for.

--Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 00:19, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Reality Categories
Hi there,

I just added the default sort that you've been putting into the Reality Categories into the Reality Category Template, so you don't have to do it manually anymore. If you still see ones that are broken, lemme know, and I'll try to fix it further. :) Great idea!

--Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 03:29, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks; I really wish I understood exactly how what you added works. I want to copy the basic structure of Reality Category for Destroyed Realities, Hypertime Realities and Placeholder realities versions as well. The Paradox 03:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * On the forums, I started a thread where you can ask questions exactly like that, and I'll respond there so that everyone can learn the same thing if they'd like to. (If you wouldn't mind repeating the question over there). The coding isn't all that hard, it just takes some practice.  You'll get the hang of it in no time. :)
 * &mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 19:56, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I saw that, made the mistake of looking at the Help page you referenced, and immediately felt my sanity starting to slip away. I'll try again later, after I've had more coffee. Like a pot or two. The Paradox 20:25, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Realities vs Universes
In the context of templates and categorization, what is the difference between Category:Realities and Category:Universes? They seem to be redundant, with all the Universe entries manually added, whereas the Realities are autocategorized ("autocat-ed") by the various Character, Location and Reality templates. Are there other conceptual or practical differences that I'm not seeing? If not, then perhaps they could/should be combined. The Paradox 18:47, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Good catch!


 * We didn't always have a Reality Template, so at first, we used the Location Template for realities. There is no discernable difference between a Universe and a Reality, so you're absolutely right.  (I figured I'd fix Category:Universes really quick anyway, since it was so short ;) ).  Everything should be better now, but that was a GREAT find!


 * &mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 19:56, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I think an underlying problem with the Earth-whatever nomenclature is the annoying fact that each one is both a reality and a planet. Short of creating a new template for these dual use locations, I haven't figured out a solution yet, although I'm looking at ways to expand an existing one. Maybe lising a primary planet in the Reality Template...? The Paradox 20:11, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Earth-31
There's a lot of weird things surrounding that reality. I'm still working on that problem, but my laptop is in the shop right now so I'm on dialup. We decided to rename it, because the current reality known as "Earth-31" has proven to be incongruous with its subject material. Earth-31 is supposed to be in general Frank Miller's Dark Knight, and all of the stuff he's done with his take on the character. However, in Countdown: Arena they kill off the Superman of that reality before DKSA. So it really shouldn't matter, but there are some people who think it completely necessary to have a page specifically for the Earth-31 guy who died very quickly, and thus isn't directly linked to the rest of the series. That's why we've been using "Earth-DKR" as the reality's monicker. Yeah, it's messy, but so is this lousy stinking multiverse.

On the side though, thanks for catching that spacial thing on all of my stubs. I probably wouldn't ever have done that by myself.
 * - Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 22:05, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * A lot of what I'm doing right now is testing various ways of categorizing the various realities, and it's impossible to test categorization with sandboxes or showing previews, so don't worry about things staying as they are at the moment. DKR, like many of the Elseworlds and Hypertime realities that have been incorporated/adapted in the 52verse, present a problem. I'm inclined to treat them separately and list the Universe as the title of the comic/storyline, i.e. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, for the original stories, creating a self-contained category than includes character and comicbook issue articles and that can double as the category for the reality. Example can be found at Category:Defunct Realities, specifially the Flash and Superman entries. Notice that there is no "Earth-Speeding Bullets" article or category when done this way, with the comic itself standing in for a separate Earth-whatever article. The Paradox 22:36, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Where from?
Hey Paradox!

You seem really knowledgeable about wiki syntax, what wiki did you start on? I could probably put that talkback template together for ya based on where you saw it last. :)

&mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 04:28, 12 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I've seen it used on Wikipedia. It's the documentation transclusion that baffled me; admittedly, I only gave it about 5 seconds' thought. Hey, while you're at it, would you take the 30 seconds or so to make this change to the Character Template?
 * For Universe to categorize into "Earth whatever Characters" instead of the parent category, "Earth whatever." Makes more sense and keeps the parent category listings to a reasonable size.
 * I'd do it myself, but the Character Template is a protected page. It's the only suggestion I've made for that template to get any agreement thus far. The Paradox 04:44, 12 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Whew! That took a bit of digging.  Silly Wikipedians, making things more complicated than they need to be. :)
 * As for characters, I made the changes, but it'll take a while for the cache to catch up, (like a couple days), so expect some huge Wanted Categories here this weekend or so.
 * &mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 05:39, 12 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh, and PS, I made a template especially for these new 'Universe Characters' Categories, just add, and it'll file it and make a header and all. ;)
 * &mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 06:07, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Reality Template
(Original post to User talk:Peteparker - Excellent update! While you're at it, perhaps you can figure out/explain to me/correct the tendency for references to be listed in the Notes section. At this point, I'm having to hack in a under Links. See the last couple of edits to Earth-13 for an example of the difference. Obviously, I think the references should appear at the end of the page, since a lot of the citations I'm adding are in the Trivia section. The Paradox 23:35, 13 September 2008 (UTC))

Thanks! I made the change you suggested. Funny that the links section was named 'Links and References' and the References were in notes! If you see this anywhere else, (which is entirely possible), lemme know and I'll fix those too. :)

&mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 23:51, 13 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I have actually encounted it somewhere else in the Earth-DCDatabase reality, but now that I've seen what you did I should be able to make corrections to all but protected templates. Thanks! The Paradox 00:02, 14 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Cool! Too bad DC hasn't come out with the name of our reality yet, Marvel did, 'Earth-1218'. :)
 * &mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 01:27, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Team Template
All fixed! I fixed some other stuff while I was in there too. That example page had two sets of itself in the same page somehow, so I removed the second one, and it looks like it's all set now. Thanks for catching problems! :)

&mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 18:51, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Justice Riders
I just got my hands on a copy of the Justice Riders, and I'm planning on uploading the issue when I'm finished, complete with character scans. It's only a one-shot, but it has its own reality designation within the 52 Multiverse. I understand our reality designations are completely in flux, and you seem to be the person to ask about this. For now at least, what should I title my characters? Would it be "Diana Prince (Earth-Whatever)" or "Diana Prince (Justice Riders)"?
 * - Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 22:44, 15 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I would say "Diana Prince (Justice Riders)." There's a whole host of reasons, but basically there's been enough difference between the Elseworlds stories and the new Multiverse stories for them to be treated as distinct. As a side-note, for the "Universe" field in the templates I'd use "Justice Riders." That places the character articles in Category:Justice Riders Characters and the storyline in Category:Justice Riders, which is a subcat of Category:Elseworlds Storylines and Category:Hypertime Realities. The Paradox 23:19, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Wonderful. I like that better anyway, I'm really glad you're taking initiative on this one.
 * - Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 23:58, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Green Lantern Power Battery
Im not sure i get the point your trying to make with a "item stub". It is an item, now i will admit that the information on it is very limited but putting a stub in gives the impression that there is nothing done on the page at all. Now if there is more to add when the information becomes available then it should be added. Salubri 23:31, 18 September 2008 (UTC)


 * A template that say something along the lines of, "This is a very short article containing little or no content." Ya know, a stub of an article, as opposed to one that doesn't exist at all, aka "article request." The Paradox 23:51, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

DEFAULTSORT
I notice you adding this to "Earth-Whatevers" - what exactly does this do? Just curious as to how this manifests itself - is it how the Earths show up in "Category:Realities" or something?
 * Roygbiv666 14:08, 19 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I got this one. Paradox explained this to me a short while ago, Roy, it's really convenient. automatically makes the article categorize itself under whichever title you want it to. I've just recently started implementing it into the Batman Storylines that have "The" in the title. It lets us ignore those inconvenient naming problems that we only have because of categories. So using it on "Earth-Whatever" articles has them show up not underneath the "E" section in the realities category where applicable.


 * (hate to eavesdrop, but I saw this come up and I thought I'd help out)
 * - Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 16:55, 19 September 2008 (UTC)


 * No problem, Billy. These are public pages, after all! The Paradox 21:20, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks!
Again, good eye my friend. All fixed up. :) &mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 02:52, 22 September 2008 (UTC)