Fixing Our Wiki Character Pages - New Years Resolution 2011

Hello wiki editors.  We are embarking on a new initiative here at Comic Vine.  The focus of the next month or so is organizing our character wiki pages to follow the new Comic Vine Style Guide.  And I am filling our Task Queue up with character pages that need your help.   Super shout out to POKEYSTEVE who just completed a task for the Catwoman page and added the H2 Section titles properly. 
 
The main fix we need help with is, we need all character pages to start with the following H2 section titles: 
 

Origin

Creation 

Character Evolution 

Major Story Arcs

What are other suitable H2 tags? Didn't you say Powers & Abilities and Alternate Realities are acceptable as well? Are there any others? 
 
I just did the Silver Surfer's page. I'll work on some more when I get a chance.

Huzzah. Thanks for the example layout. 

I know I'm very new on the grand scale of things but I think it's a bitter sweet feeling when you see a Wiki page of a character that's a huge narrative longer than your arm in detail.
 
As lame and red-tapey as it sounds... a standardised formart would be pretty cool and more acessible to new comers.  I always see this site as my wikipedia of comics in that way.

" I know I'm very new on the grand scale of things but I think it's a bitter sweet feeling when you see a Wiki page of a character that's a huge narrative longer than your arm in detail.  As lame and red-tapey as it sounds... a standardised formart would be pretty cool and more acessible to new comers.  I always see this site as my wikipedia of comics in that way. "

" what's the difference between "Character Evolution" and "Major Story Arcs"...I ask because for example, some characters are never in major story arcs...at least not major in the idea that the arcs they are appearing in are big, they're self-contained...for example let's say Dangerous Habits (Hellblazer #41-46)...it's not a huge arc, most of it's significance comes from the fact it was Ennis' first crack at American comics...it's not a major story arc by any means in the grand scheme but it's very important to John Constantine...however, the info is just as much a part of his character evolution as any other mini arc in Hellblazer...and if every arc in Hellblazer went under Major Story Arcs...what would go under Character Evolution because Hellblazer is the place where he evolves...I guess what I'm asking is...does Character Evolution apply to characters that were created in the Modern Age of Comics (80's-Now) "

Oh my gosh a super shout out?! Sadly nothing as awesome as that will happen to me for a while. You made a comic nerds week. The Wiki Style Guide and the Wonder Woman/Superman pages together are the perfect references. I had the Wonder Woman page open in another tab for the Catwoman page. Aztek is right about the Character Evolution and Arcs. It's really tough to distinguish between the two. A clearer explanation of that might help some of the people having trouble with the character pages. 
 
The bottom of that Catwoman page is still a disaster by the way.

I'm more trying to distinguish between Creation and Character Evolution right now. 
 
So just to clarify. Is Creation the place to talk about the people who created the character AND other creators who had major impacts on the character? Or does the latter belong in Character Evolution instead and only belongs in Creation if there's really nothing to say about the original creators? Take a lot of the Secret Warriors for example. Bendis created them but Hickman did most of their development. Would mention of HIckman also belong in the Creation section?

" I'm more trying to distinguish between Creation and Character Evolution right now.  So just to clarify. Is Creation the place to talk about the people who created the character AND other creators who had major impacts on the character? Or does the latter belong in Character Evolution instead and only belongs in Creation if there's really nothing to say about the original creators? Take a lot of the Secret Warriors for example. Bendis created them but Hickman did most of their development. Would mention of HIckman also belong in the Creation section? "

 I don't see a need for citations or borrowed information, everything here should be original written work unless it is a solicitation which has to be in italics or is a text blurb from inside a comic. Only places that should have info from other sources is news articles, forum posts, and blogs that use it for quotes.

 Huge shout out to Angel1993,   omegaiceman and   Jacquenette_Harper for tackling the Task Queue in the last 24 hours.  They fixed the page formating on many of the most important characters.  Follow these guys!  

" @Blurred View: @aztek the lost: @Pokeysteve:  
 @The Dark Huntress: Good points you are all making.  "Creation" should focus on the original creators.  And yes "Character Evolution" would be the place to talk about other creative teams and the direction they took the character.   The main difference is that "Creation" is about the the real life people, and "Character Evolution" is about the changes to the character over time -- and you can choose to or not to write about real human beings in the "Character Evolution" section. "

" @Red L.A.M.P. said:

" @Blurred View: @aztek the lost: @Pokeysteve:  
 @The Dark Huntress: Good points you are all making.  "Creation" should focus on the original creators.  And yes "Character Evolution" would be the place to talk about other creative teams and the direction they took the character.   The main difference is that "Creation" is about the the real life people, and "Character Evolution" is about the changes to the character over time -- and you can choose to or not to write about real human beings in the "Character Evolution" section. "

This is a great post. Character Evolution charts a Character/Team through the ages (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Modern) or writers/artist that had an impact if Age doesn't apply. I think that's what you're shooting for.  "

" I have to admit, I am getting adjusted to most of the ideas proposed here...but no matter how I think it through, having Major Story Arcs be the standard title across pages just doesn't work IMO...how do we write bios for non-mainstream-superhero-comic characters...most characters in the database will never get a bio if they are confined to Major Story Arcs as most comics don't have any...and in general you can't really write a bio that isn't splattered with major gaps in the character's history if you only write about the arcs...I can understand trying to draw attention to story arc pages but what good is a character bio that isn't about the character at all but about what story arcs they appeared in...really all I'm proposing here is the standard H2 title to be something along the lines of "Biography" or whatever "

A lot of these pages need a little more love than just some headings.  I went through the Catwoman page and tried to pretty it up some with some general formatting, spelling and grammar, and such.  I didn't comb it with a fine tooth comb or anything, and I really need to work on some of the stuff at the bottom of that page.  However, there are pictures down there which can be difficult to work around without deleting and reuploading and such.  If it's one thing that I hate on my own wiki pages that I've put a lot of time in, it's when people delete stuff and then re-add it or whatever. 
 
I will say, however, that people need to make sure they are not MAKING ASSUMPTIONS ON WIKI PAGES!!!  The Catwoman page specifically said that Catwoman was going to be in The Dark Knight Rises.  However, no one...not Nolan, Bale, Hardy, Hathaway, NOBODY...has stated that Catwoman will be in the movie - only Selina Kyle.  I changed up the piece in Catwoman's film history that stated "Anne Hathaway is signed on to play Catwoman and Bane is the main villain being played by Tom Hardy".  If I'm wrong on that, then hey...let me know, but that type of stuff doesn't work on some of the other Whiskey sites (like the Infamous ice-powers scandal).

" A lot of these pages need a little more love than just some headings.  I went through the Catwoman page and tried to pretty it up some with some general formatting, spelling and grammar, and such.  I didn't comb it with a fine tooth comb or anything, and I really need to work on some of the stuff at the bottom of that page.  However, there are pictures down there which can be difficult to work around without deleting and reuploading and such.  If it's one thing that I hate on my own wiki pages that I've put a lot of time in, it's when people delete stuff and then re-add it or whatever.  I will say, however, that people need to make sure they are not MAKING ASSUMPTIONS ON WIKI PAGES!!!  The Catwoman page specifically said that Catwoman was going to be in The Dark Knight Rises.  However, no one...not Nolan, Bale, Hardy, Hathaway, NOBODY...has stated that Catwoman will be in the movie - only Selina Kyle.  I changed up the piece in Catwoman's film history that stated "Anne Hathaway is signed on to play Catwoman and Bane is the main villain being played by Tom Hardy".  If I'm wrong on that, then hey...let me know, but that type of stuff doesn't work on some of the other Whiskey sites (like the Infamous ice-powers scandal). "

" @OrionStarlancer: We don't want people going to Wikipedia and re-wording or plagiarizing them for articles here.  Besides I'd say at this point we have more detailed info about comic books than any wiki/database.   Anyone who writes articles for the wiki should be reading the comics they are writing about. "

" A lot of these pages need a little more love than just some headings.  I went through the Catwoman page and tried to pretty it up some with some general formatting, spelling and grammar, and such.  I didn't comb it with a fine tooth comb or anything, and I really need to work on some of the stuff at the bottom of that page.  However, there are pictures down there which can be difficult to work around without deleting and reuploading and such.  If it's one thing that I hate on my own wiki pages that I've put a lot of time in, it's when people delete stuff and then re-add it or whatever.  I will say, however, that people need to make sure they are not MAKING ASSUMPTIONS ON WIKI PAGES!!!  The Catwoman page specifically said that Catwoman was going to be in The Dark Knight Rises.  However, no one...not Nolan, Bale, Hardy, Hathaway, NOBODY...has stated that Catwoman will be in the movie - only Selina Kyle.  I changed up the piece in Catwoman's film history that stated "Anne Hathaway is signed on to play Catwoman and Bane is the main villain being played by Tom Hardy".  If I'm wrong on that, then hey...let me know, but that type of stuff doesn't work on some of the other Whiskey sites (like the Infamous ice-powers scandal). "

Hi, 
I just attempted to fix Spider-woman's (Jessica Drew's) page in this way. Let me know what you think.

" A lot of these pages need a little more love than just some headings.  I went through the Catwoman page and tried to pretty it up some with some general formatting, spelling and grammar, and such.  I didn't comb it with a fine tooth comb or anything, and I really need to work on some of the stuff at the bottom of that page.  However, there are pictures down there which can be difficult to work around without deleting and reuploading and such.  If it's one thing that I hate on my own wiki pages that I've put a lot of time in, it's when people delete stuff and then re-add it or whatever.  I will say, however, that people need to make sure they are not MAKING ASSUMPTIONS ON WIKI PAGES!!!  The Catwoman page specifically said that Catwoman was going to be in The Dark Knight Rises.  However, no one...not Nolan, Bale, Hardy, Hathaway, NOBODY...has stated that Catwoman will be in the movie - only Selina Kyle.  I changed up the piece in Catwoman's film history that stated "Anne Hathaway is signed on to play Catwoman and Bane is the main villain being played by Tom Hardy".  If I'm wrong on that, then hey...let me know, but that type of stuff doesn't work on some of the other Whiskey sites (like the Infamous ice-powers scandal). "

Looks as if this is going well.

" Hi, I just attempted to fix Spider-woman's (Jessica Drew's) page in this way. Let me know what you think. "

" @Strafe Prower: Darn good job! "

One thing I wanted to ask ... what is the optimum monitor screen resolution for this site?  Because I work off two computers, with two different resolutions, and the spacing between the paragraphs and even the position of the images is very different.  Meaning to look right on the wider screen, I end up putting extra spaces between paragraphs.
 
@jakob187 said:

" A lot of these pages need a little more love than just some headings.  I went through the Catwoman page and tried to pretty it up some with some general formatting, spelling and grammar, and such.  I didn't comb it with a fine tooth comb or anything, and I really need to work on some of the stuff at the bottom of that page.  However, there are pictures down there which can be difficult to work around without deleting and reuploading and such.  If it's one thing that I hate on my own wiki pages that I've put a lot of time in, it's when people delete stuff and then re-add it or whatever.  I will say, however, that people need to make sure they are not MAKING ASSUMPTIONS ON WIKI PAGES!!!  The Catwoman page specifically said that Catwoman was going to be in The Dark Knight Rises.  However, no one...not Nolan, Bale, Hardy, Hathaway, NOBODY...has stated that Catwoman will be in the movie - only Selina Kyle.  I changed up the piece in Catwoman's film history that stated "Anne Hathaway is signed on to play Catwoman and Bane is the main villain being played by Tom Hardy".  If I'm wrong on that, then hey...let me know, but that type of stuff doesn't work on some of the other Whiskey sites (like the Infamous ice-powers scandal). "

I came to the bottom of that page while editing the headers and later found myself crying in the shower. Gives you a headache just looking at it but I didn't know what to do with it. Good luck to you brave sir =D "

Thanks!  I'm not sure.  I was watching TV while on the computer, so was distracted.  Maybe an hour or two.

" @Rheged: The images need to be right aligned but other than that you did a beautiful job. Any idea how long it took you? "

Just tackled Psylocke, She-Hulk, Namora and Venus.

" @Red L.A.M.P.:  Couple more questions I don't think were addressed yet.  
 
1) How would you like us to handle the H2 sections on Mantle pages like Flash or Batgirl where there is multiple Origins, abilities and so on.   
2) Basically the same question but with team pages. Justice League and Avengers most notable. Justice League International, Europe, of America.  So many.  

Im adding in TEAM pages to the queue now.  The H2 section titles we need for those are almost identical to the Character pages.  Check out the official style guide here:   Comic Vine Wiki Style Guide

Whoever fixed the Ms. Marvel page did a great job - let me say that! 
I've been working on several more - Black Widow, She-Hulk, Namora, Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, Black Cat, Venus and Emma Frost. I hope these are ok.

I just did the Wrecking Crew. I would add more to the page, but I haven't read that many issues with them in it.

" Whoever fixed the Ms. Marvel page did a great job - let me say that! I've been working on several more - Black Widow, She-Hulk, Namora, Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, Black Cat, Venus and Emma Frost. I hope these are ok. "

" I just did the Wrecking Crew. I would add more to the page, but I haven't read that many issues with them in it. "

Character / Team 

Many people have added super long plot summaries -- that read like transcripts -- under the story arc section of the character/team articles.  Firstly, we have story arc pages, so ask yourself if the character page truly needs this section written out on the character page, or is it clearer to move it to the actual story arc page?  Secondly, don't list out story arcs as h2 or h3 section titles.  Just write about them under the "Major Story Arc" H2 section in paragraph form, and link the name of the story arc to the appropriate page.  In general the paragraphs explaining the "Major Story Arcs" should be connected to each other in a linear narrative.

" @Red L.A.M.P.:   I know eventually you won't have these at all, as the Major Story arcs won't have headers.  However, when we are just trying to make the formatting uniform, do you want the Major Story Arc headers to be H3 tags?  Or do you want them to simply be bolded?  Or do you want them eliminated entirely?  Cause in the Style Guide you say you don't want them listed out as either H2 or H3 tags.

Character / Team 

Many people have added super long plot summaries -- that read like transcripts -- under the story arc section of the character/team articles.  Firstly, we have story arc pages, so ask yourself if the character page truly needs this section written out on the character page, or is it clearer to move it to the actual story arc page?  Secondly, don't list out story arcs as h2 or h3 section titles.  Just write about them under the "Major Story Arc" H2 section in paragraph form, and link the name of the story arc to the appropriate page.  In general the paragraphs explaining the "Major Story Arcs" should be connected to each other in a linear narrative.

"

See the Booster Gold page for what to do when reformating a page and there is no info on the article, currently, that is about "Character Evolution".    We can leave a note to have people fill it out later, rather then leave out the "Character Evolution" title, and also rather then trying to make something that would be better put under the Major Story Arcs section fit.

I'm always afraid of even being accused of plagiarism so I don't do wiki editing except for little corrections and additions. One thing I have noticed on pages are a lot of personal bias but I suppose that is unavoidable.