Board Thread:Policies/@comment-20551-20190224085917/@comment-18172179-20190225032146

This again?

The purpose of a Database is to index information. As such, the more tools available for purposes of cataloguing info, the better organized the system will be.

Koavf wrote: I am genuinely surprised to see others claim that "1st" implies "2nd"--that never occurred to me. A first appearance is just that: the first.

The point of having both {1st} and {Only} is precisely to differentiate between the first of many appearances of a notable character from the sole and irrelevant appearance of a trivial character. The point is to separate a historicaly relevant event from random encounters. Deleting either of those templates would defeat the purpose of cataloguing and properly indexing information.

The biggest argument is that "once forgotten characters could reappear any time in the future." Well, yes. But the key word is could. It's not a certainty. Not enough of an argument to eliminate a tool that certainly works for its intended purpose.

And yes, there's bound to be the occasional misuse of these tools given how large and extensive a database such as this is. But if someone, as an interested reader, comes across these mistakes such as the ones pointed out, guess what?-- they can edit it and fix the issue.

Bottom line, this is certainly a non-issue, whichever way you see it.