Appearance Tags[]
There are a lot of characters tagged as appearing in this episode that don't physically appear themselves. This is related to the mentioned tag situation but I feel like we've discussed this portion even less than that. Do characters that only appear as statues, holograms, on tv screens, in photos, etc. deserve an appearance link? I'm actually fine linking in these instances but I'm not sure they deserve the {{a| tags. Opinions?
The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kyletheobald
- Holograms, TV Screens, photos yes. At least that's how it's normally done. I was unsure what to do with the statues though, since most of those just seem to be displays for costumes.
- LoveWaffle (talk) 21:44, January 24, 2013 (UTC)
- I know that's how its normally been done in the past but my question was should it be done? Should they be tagged as "appearing" even if they don't physically appear themselves? Its something I think should be discussed at least and it doesn't pertain only to episodes. I just saw that this episode had more of it happening than most. Kyletheobald (talk) 22:02, January 24, 2013 (UTC)
- Well, they do appear, just not in person to someone else.
- And, like I said, I was just unsure what to do with the statues. Most of them just appear to be displays for the characters' costumes, and not a representation of the character itself. And it's not like we give Harvey Dent (Burtonverse) and Edward Nigma (Burtonverse) appearances in Batman & Robin because their costumes appear in the background of a shot. Or at least we shouldn't.
- LoveWaffle (talk) 22:10, January 24, 2013 (UTC)
- My thinking was more towards a site policy that would affect comics and episodes. I used to buy a lot of comics to try and collect appearances of certain characters and would get upset if I bought something and found out they only appeared in a picture on the wall or as a statue or in a one-panel flashback group shot. Luckily, we're able to note most of those things on the individual issue pages but I thought it would be worth bringing up whether those merit the additional {{a| tag that adds it to the appearance category. I didn't know if other people felt the same way about it as me or not but I guess I'm in the minority on it. Kyletheobald (talk) 23:54, January 24, 2013 (UTC)
I disagree, just because it seems to set up an arbitrary definition of what an "appearance" is based on importance to the story. I could list a bunch of counter-examples, but I've done that before and it doesn't really seem to work well, so if you want some I could name a few if you ask. As I see it, "appearance" should just designate who appears in any episode, issue, movie, etc. regardless of how "important" they are to the story. If the character does only appear via a photograph, hologram, or TV screen, well, that's what {{Photo}}, {{Hologram}} and {{TV}} are for. And if you buy a comic specifically because Superman appears in it, only to be disappointed that he only appears in a picture on the wall, that's your fault as the consumer and not the fault of an encyclopedia that only told you he appeared in it.
LoveWaffle (talk) 01:24, January 25, 2013 (UTC)