Forum:Appearances Templates

Harrison, I took the liberty of updating the template with all XWP episode names. It's in the source code on this page, so you can edit it whenever you are able. I'm thinking we can also center the last row of the 22-ep seasons (so it's *blank* ep19 ep20 ep21 ep22 *blank* instead of ep19 ep20 ep21 ep22 *blank* *blank*) and maybe, just maybe, unite all three potential templates here (with "X Appearances in the Xenaverse" or something). In that case, the order could be : Hercules Movies - HS1 - HS2 - XS1 - HS3 - XS2 - HS4 - XS3 - HS5 - XS4 - YH - HS6 - XS5 - XS6. Thoughts?--Tim Thomason 08:25, June 25, 2010 (UTC)
 * nm, looks like you're editing it one season at a time. There still seems to be quite a few redlinks however, as can be seen with this Joxer template:

Hey Tim, I hope you like this idea - I thought it was more 'smart' (and less boring) than the normal looking list of episode appearances. I like your idea about merging HTLJ and YH together - Since you understand the coding, maybe you could add the HTLJ and YH sections, as it would take me longer (as I would have to refer to an episode list) and you can organise the ordering of the seasons and movies.

One other thing that worries me is that it may be a bit confusing for some of the users to insert ino articles. I've tried my best to describe how to do it.

What are your thoughts on the colour scheme? Change or keep?

Thanks - Harrison Preston 11:57, June 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * It's not bad. It is confusing, but there's no way around it. We could adapt some sort of Lostpedia style where you put and it takes the information from some centralized page, but that's beyond my expertise and would involve a ton more coding. It's best that we describe it as best we can, implement it ourselves as much as necessary, and don't sweat it when users can't follow the design closely. I'll take a crack at the template and see if I can't implement all the series together.--Tim Thomason 17:48, June 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * It *may* take some time for the wiki to be updated with the template. Here's what Callisto's template looks like on a page seperate from the template page:



Wow Tim, that's really impressive! Can't wait to begin adding this template in - it'll look perfect in the articles.

I've just got to figure out how to center the last rows of episodes. Surely it should be as easy as adding  tags? I'm not sure, but I will work it out tommorow - it's 11:30pm in England and I'm too tired now.

Thanks for your help on this template by the way - I was dreading doing the HTLJ and YH templates. As much as I love HTLJ, it's next to impossible to get the DVDs in region 2.

Thanks - Harrison Preston 22:39, June 28, 2010 (UTC)

Alternative ideas
I like the idea of the appearences, but I really like how Lostpedia does it, its alot more easier to read, with the tables per season, and the totals of all appearences at the bottom. What does everyone else think? Buffyfan123 01:54, June 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * Lostpedia has a simple "1 2 3 MP 4 5 6" thing in the sidebar and a seperate page (Character appearances) that lists the appearances (if they're 5 or over). If we adapted that, the sidebar would need something like "HM H1 H2 X1 H3 X2 H4 X3 H5 X4 YH H6 X5 X6," and characters with 3 or 4 appearances would be gypped. I'd prefer to keep a list of appearances on the character page in some form (unlike Lostpedia). I mentioned the idea of utilizing a character appearances like page so when we add the template we just go like, but we'd need a bit more coding and I'm not quite sure how we can do it with all the template calls and whatnot (and it causes the problem where people can't simply fix a page they see a mistake on).
 * The examples (originally) above might not be the best. Most characters will only have a few appearances anyway (characters with only 1 or 2 don't need the template), and will only require one or two seasons (like Iolaus 2). If we could get the whole template to be close (and automatically remain closed upon page opening, like on Wikipedia), it could help with overall article readability.--Tim Thomason 01:29, June 30, 2010 (UTC)

Tim - I like the idea of not using the template for characters that have only made 1-2 appearances, but to expnad on the idea, how about a completely different template; one that is more sufficient to maintain a character that has made 1-2 appearances? I'm not sure how/what that template could be - maybe something smaller and more "compact" (to use the term loosely). It could maybe be a type of "list template" that we could also use to cite the mentions and cameos of characters.

--Harrison Preston 23:16, June 30, 2010 (UTC)

Tim, I'm thinking that it maybe better if the seasons occured on the template in a numbered order, instead of the order they aired, so we'd have: HS1, XS1, HS2, XS2, HS3, XS3, HS4, XS4, XS5, HS6, XS6, YH. I think that this would make more sense to the characters that have appeared in random episodes all over the shows. Maybe even create different templates: 1 for the movies (HTLJ movies, YH movie and Battle for Mount Olympus), 1 for HTLJ episodes, 1 for XWP episodes, and one for YH episodes. The templates can be organised on the character's page with HTLJ first, XWP second, YH third and finally the movies. This could also eradicate any other problems that may occur with such a large template.

Thanks, Harrison Preston 22:15, July 2, 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't quite understand the need or use of the numbered order. I could get behind a half-measure, not fully seperating the template, but seperating the order by series. So it'd be like (HM, HS1, HS2, HS3, HS4, HS5, HS6) followed by (XS1, XS2, XS3, XS4, XS5, XS6) and then maybe the animated movie and YH. It's a very simple matter to move the seasons around on this page anyway, and we can add a new header on this template that specifies the character's series (So, instead of "Iolaus 2 in the Xenaverse" it'd be "Iolaus 2 in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"). The headers could be simply |HTLJ=yes |XWP=yes |YHS=no . So, to summarize:
 * Current Order: One template, all series, by season's original airdate (HM, H1-2, X1, H3, X2, H4, X3, Animated, H5, X4, YH, H6, X5-6)
 * Harrison Proposal 1: One template, all series, by number of season (H1, X1, H2, X2, H3, X3, H4, X4, H5, X5, H6, X6, YH)
 * Harrison Proposal 2: Four templates, seperate by series (H1-6, X1-6, YH, Movies)
 * Tim Proposal: One template, all series, by series (HM & H1-6, X1-6, YH, Animated), with seperate headers for each series
 * And also, I got most of the big templates out of the way (outside of Hera and maybe some crazier ideas) and most other characters will only need a few seasons tops. The most (currently, and conceivably) is Ares with 13 out of 15 possible "seasons."--Tim Thomason 08:22, July 4, 2010 (UTC)


 * Tim, Very sorry but I made the templates before I saw your last message. If people do not like my idea, then I can happily change them back. I've moved the topic to the forums so the topic can be more openly discussed throughout the series.


 * Again, sorry for doing the seperate templates idea, it can be easily reverted if you or other users don't like it.

-- Harrison Preston 19:34, July 4, 2010 (UTC)