All The Tropes Wiki Project, Part XVIII

[robkelk]

A proposal for a non-trivial change to the wiki (which is why I'm making it here first - no point in suggesting something that the other mods are against): Add a new type of page.

We have Trope, Work, and Creator (and the less-used types Useful Notes and Just for Fun).

We don't - currently - have Character

Not to say that we don't already have pages about specific characters - Category:Public Domain Character, Category:Historical Domain Character, Category:Top One Hundred Comic Book Villains, Category:DC Comics Characters, and Category:Marvel Comics Characters list dozens of these pages.

I recommend we limit Character pages to characters that have appeared in multiple works. If somebody want to list "that droid who guarded the cell door in a single scene in one obscure fanfic", we already have Characters subpages to put such minor characters on.

If we make "Character" its own type of page, then we'd have to define its look-and-feel.

• First, the title would not be italicized - a character is not a stand-alone work.
  
• A description is mandatory, as it is with every other type of work. Mention who created an fictional character and when the character was created, if these are known. Alternately, mention that a Historical Domain Character is based on a real person.
  
• A trope list analogous to "creatortropes" would follow, detailing the character's personality and circumstances
  
• Then there's a list of the character's appearances in fiction, analogous to an "examples" list for a trope. This is required - the character has to have appeared in multiple works! (If we allow pages for "that droid who guarded the cell door in one fanfic", then we risk becoming swamped with trivia the way Memory Beta and Wookiepedia are.)
  
• Finally, there's an optional stinger and a required category cloud.
  

Pros? Cons? What sorts of subpages would we expect, and how much coding would it take for a new page header type?

We'd have to make clear that Category:Characters and Category:Character are different things.