Template talk:Characters

Formatting and Defining Characters in Template

Thanks to Undc23, we have a character template that makes it easier to navigate to characters. There's probably some that choose to adjust the formatting; I've already put my 2 cents in and quickly reached my wiki coding limits. I recommend that contributors compare the format to the template used in Wikipedia for The Matrix saga entries listed there.

We also need to determine two additional points:

• What characters should appear in this list. I feel that characters who have been in at least 3 episodes qualify, but if they are dead for longer than 2 seasons, the entry could be removed unless their contribution to the overall storyline is significant. Crashdown, for instance, may deserve retention here because his death is a critical juncture for Gaius Baltar. Hadrian and Wallace Gray, at present, aren't really characters of depth. I haven't removed or added any characters due to my wiki code skill limits, so look over the template and consider my thoughts and share your own.

• The Original Series character lists would benefit greatly from a similar template, probably similarly named as template:toscharacters). Although the series ran for just a season (and 1/2, counting the dreaded Galactica 1980), the "planet of the week" and "alien of the week" formatting generated dozens of characters. Maybe Undc23 will step to the plate for this, or someone else.

--Spencerian 09:11, 28 December 2005 (EST)

I agree. The TOS could probably use something like this. I'm not sure whether it would be better to follow this example (main characters only) or the matrix one (to organize all the secondary/minor characters as well). I'd be afraid of having an excessive amount of minor characters cluttering it up, but perhaps one season wouldn't be that bad. --Steelviper 10:09, 28 December 2005 (EST)

I don't like this at all. I think it looks ugly on the Matrix pages on Wiki, and is redundant with our Characters category. --Peter Farago 11:59, 28 December 2005 (EST)

Is there any way to organize the Characters category? Maybe a category-subcategory relationship? The character category pages by themselves are difficult to read (in terms of determining which characters are major and going to have a big writeup, vs. minor characters). Having character subcategories might be able to render an easier to navigate category page without adding clutter to each of the characters that falls in the subcategory. --Steelviper 12:22, 28 December 2005 (EST)

Yes, I've been meaning to give some thought to revising the categories here for some time. Let's get to work. --Peter Farago 13:00, 28 December 2005 (EST)

I'm torn. Last night I was trying to figure out the name of the Pegasus's XO so I could see if there was a good picture of him, but I couldn't find him. I didn't go hunting through the Category, however. Something like this would help with that (or just cross-linking him in Cain or Pegasus's articles), but I agree with Peter that it doesn't look wonderful, and deciding who should be on it and all... updating it... Seems like a lot of hassle. I like the idea of subcatagories in the Characters one, maybe so one for Galactica personell (include Lee and Kara because, really, they're from Galactica), Pegasus personell and the Civillians. --Day 15:04, 28 December 2005 (EST)