User:OttselSpy25/First TW appearance infobox variables: Difference between revisions
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=== Complications === | === Complications === | ||
{{Infobox off-wiki first | {{Infobox off-wiki first | ||
|name = Death's Head | |||
|image = Time Bomb! Death's Head.jpg | |image = Time Bomb! Death's Head.jpg | ||
|alias = | |alias = | ||
Revision as of 23:34, 10 April 2023
Introduction
So I had this idea a few days ago, and I thought it would be a good idea to pitch it to the fourms. It's a really good idea I think, and it's something a little less contentious than some of the other big rule changes we've been making. It's basically about inter-wiki linking and infoboxes.
For many many years, infoboxes on TARDIS wiki have had the "first=" variable. Historically, this has been used to denote the first valid source where this character appears. Despite sounding simple, caused a lot of headaches. For instance, Zog from the stage play Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure listed a short trips story as his premiere story, despite this being an out-of-universe variable.
We recently changed this, making the standing rule that the first story that Tardis wiki has a page discussing will be the "first" variable for this topic. So Zog's page says his first appearance is the stage play, even thought it's not a valid source.
However, I've now realized that this shift in rules actually might give us a chance to go even further with this. Basically, I am proposing the introduction of a new variable for infoboxes:
|firstTW=
So why would we ever need this? Well, the idea is that we specifically would only use this for characters and concepts which originated in non-DW stories, and that instead we would use first= to denote their actual premiere in fiction. THEN we would use the firstTW variable to list their first appearance in a story we have a page on.
So, Mickey Mouse's first variable would like w:c:disney:Steamboat Willie. Penelope Creighton-Ward's first variable would list w:c:Thunderbirds:Trapped in the Sky. (obviously in each of these cases we'd hide the inter-wiki guts and gears, but I wanted you to be able to see how it works if you're not familiar)
I originally wanted to have it be "firstDWU", with the infobox text reading "First DWU appearance," but I realized this would just reset us to things which are non-valid being once again discluded from the first variable... But I'm open to alternate suggestions.
The test template I'm using in this OP is at Infobox off-wiki first. I changed barely anything, it's probably not good enough to be used right away, and I am not good at coding templates. But this is the basic idea of what I'm suggesting.
Complications
There are only one big complication I can think of for this.
While our infoboxes will allow very easily for FANDOM wikis to be linked, off-site wikis are going to be a challenge to link in the infobox. It might even be impossible. So far, there are three non-FANDOM wikis I can think of that we would want to link for this: TFwiki, the Magrsverse, and Wikipedia.
TFwiki we'd need to cite for Death's Head (Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!), Magrsverse wiki we'd want for a few things but mostly Iris Wildthyme (Marked for Life) and then Wikipedia for... I don't know, something where the first story isn't popular enough to have a wiki but does have a Wikipedia page. I don't have an example. Sue me.
So basically, we may need to either make a functioning template that making off-FANDOM linking more realistic, or we need a second variable, something like:
|firstnotfandom =
Which would just let you do a typical [link title] sorta vibe.
I went ahead and added the broken example to the right to give you a clear example of this not working, in case some of you didn't understand.
Tell me what you all think! OS25🤙☎️ 23:17, 10 April 2023 (UTC)
