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{{retitle|The Panopticon/Plot summaries vs. character biographies}} | |||
[[User:Shambala108]] recently posted the following on [[Thread:264470]]: | [[User:Shambala108]] recently posted the following on [[Thread:264470]]: | ||
{{quote|Some of our character pages, specifically any version of [[the Doctor]], any companion or any oft-appearing character, have very long pages. Character pages are supposed to be brief summaries of the character, as well as other items spelled out at [[Tardis:Guide to writing Individuals articles]] (keep in mind this is a very old page and therefore uses some out-of-date language). What character pages are '''not''' is long paragraphs of plot summary for every story a character appears in. | {{quote|Some of our character pages, specifically any version of [[the Doctor]], any companion or any oft-appearing character, have very long pages. Character pages are supposed to be brief summaries of the character, as well as other items spelled out at [[Tardis:Guide to writing Individuals articles]] (keep in mind this is a very old page and therefore uses some out-of-date language). What character pages are '''not''' is long paragraphs of plot summary for every story a character appears in. | ||
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Bear in mind, as well, that a story can often give disjointed nuggets of information that are tremendously important to a character's biography, but not, in and on their own, plot-relevant. If a story set on Gallifrey mentions, out of order, a ton of details about the Doctor's education at the Academy, for instance, then even if we see fit to mention ''some'' of these details in the plot summary of the story, they'll only be there in the order that they come up. Surely it is the whole point of having in-universe character biographies that they would be a place to put all that information in one easily-digestible paragraph, in order. Even if that paragraph amounts to more than "two or three sentences". | Bear in mind, as well, that a story can often give disjointed nuggets of information that are tremendously important to a character's biography, but not, in and on their own, plot-relevant. If a story set on Gallifrey mentions, out of order, a ton of details about the Doctor's education at the Academy, for instance, then even if we see fit to mention ''some'' of these details in the plot summary of the story, they'll only be there in the order that they come up. Surely it is the whole point of having in-universe character biographies that they would be a place to put all that information in one easily-digestible paragraph, in order. Even if that paragraph amounts to more than "two or three sentences". | ||
Note that I do bear in mind [[Tardis:You are bound by current policy]] and invite others to do the same. If what Shambala108 wrote on the "To-do list" thread does reflect policy, then we must continue to follow that policy for now… but then the point of this thread becomes to ''change'' that policy, which I think can only be to the benefit of this community and of the encyclopedia it is designed to build. | Note that I do bear in mind [[Tardis:You are bound by current policy]] and invite others to do the same. If what Shambala108 wrote on the "To-do list" thread does reflect policy, then we must continue to follow that policy for now… but then the point of this thread becomes to ''change'' that policy, which I think can only be to the benefit of this community and of the encyclopedia it is designed to build. | ||
<noinclude>[[Category:SOTO archive posts]]</noinclude> | <noinclude>[[Category:SOTO archive posts|The Panopticon/20200113121045-6032121]]</noinclude> |