<p>I.R.T. " How do we categorize it if it was once secret but is now public? ... Which do we list? ... How about villains that had a secret identity throughout the story but were “unmasked” in the final panel and don’t appear again? Or those who are only revealed once they go to prison?" </p><p>The "now" is the problem here. Some characters' entire careers begin and end before others even begin, and that includes the changes in their identities, and the changes in the secrecy of their identities. Not to get all Zen and stuff, but there is no "now." That's why "| CurrentAlias" becomes a problem. And "| Identity" in its present form, is a problem that Tupka described above. </p><p>Proposed: A character's birth, identity adoption, identity abandonment, identity discovery, and any other identity-related event, are all events in that character's career. They should be treated like events, that is, chronologically. </p><p>Pretty much like the Naming Standard for characters calls for the closest match possible to that character's "birth name," this should be the starting point for any added identities. It might look like this...
| RealName =
| Identity2 =
| Identity3 =
</p><p>This avoids the problem of deciding which is the "real" identity, and it doesn't discriminate between secret and public identities (most of those should be pretty obvious anyway), thus eliminating two sources of contention. And it's flexible in that any number of fake identities can be accommodated. All that's needed is to list the identities in the order in which they were adopted. </p>

<p>Focusing on the no dual identity, some characters with a public or secret identity actually have a no dual. </p>

<p>This approach would accommodate that. But it may have other problems... Like maybe it's technically unfeasible? There's probably things wrong with it that are obvious to everybody but me, but it sure got quiet on this thread, about 7 hours ago. </p>

<div class="quote"><i> <p>Stoop Davy Dave wrote: This approach would accommodate that. But it may have other problems... Like maybe it's technically unfeasible? There's probably things wrong with it that are obvious to everybody but me, but it sure got quiet on this thread, about 7 hours ago. </p> </i></div>
<p>So no need for a no dual identity category? </p>

I am definitely not building a second parameter into the field.

<p>“No dual” feels like a Marvel thing I dislike. </p>

It's the only Marvel Database thing I don't dislike.

<p>I don’t mind the idea but I would prefer it phrased differently. Maybe no secret identity or no costumed identity. The word dual just bothers me. </p>

<p>Well, I'm trying to eliminate the "secret/public" part, which happens in the current version at "| Identity". Is that the "dual" part? Because this gets rid of that. Trying also to replace the "| CurrentAlias" and "| Alias" thingies with a sequential series of identities, thus not compel the editor to decide which secret identity is the "real" secret identity. </p><p>Here's a worst-case example:
| RealName = Kal-El (New Earth)
| Identity2 = Clark Joseph Kent
| Identity3 = Superboy
| Identity4 = Superman
| Identity5 = Clark Smith
| Identity6 = Clark White
| Identity7 = Commander El
| Identity8 = Gangbuster
| Identity9 = Nightwing
| Identity10 = Superman Red/Blue
| Identity11 = Kellel
</p>

<p>Stress on "worst". </p><p>As for alias, I'm actually working on a way to change the parameter's name from CurrentAlias to MainAlias, but it's something that needs to be changed on 27000+ pages so I want to extra sure before I break things. </p><p>It's not uncommon for wikis to have a tabber with multiple images in the infobox, for example unmasked, and all major looks. That's not something I'm willing to dismiss off-hand but it's going to take a lot of work. </p>