User:SolemnStormcloud/Sandbox

Welcome to my sandbox. If you want to contribute anything here, please feel free to edit it yourself.

MarioWiki:Proposals

Determine if certain "notable" versions of characters and species without their own articles should have their specific sections linked to

To quote myself from almost a year ago:

So, a user (who I will not name to avoid harassment of them) has been updating links for Pauline in the context of her younger appearance in Donkey Kong Bananza so that they link to that game's section of her article, like so:
[[Pauline#Donkey_Kong_Bananza|Pauline]]
My sentiment on doing this is...more negative than positive. While I see the rationale behind it—a prominent younger version of a character that isn't portrayed as a distinct entity is somewhat unprecedented for this franchise, and thus linking to a page where the infobox artwork depicts said character with their usual adult appearance could be considered a little weird—it also has problems of its own. There's no indication that these links would lead to just a section of Pauline's article instead of the beginning of it until they are hovered over—and said article beginning happens to include relevant information for her appearance in Bananza, such as her voice actress, Jenny Kidd.

My biggest complaint with this, however, is also my hook for this discussion: Why single out Pauline? While we often link to certain sections of recurring locations in the context of specific games (though this is becoming less common as more iterations of such locations are being split off via proposals), this is the first time (to my knowledge) we're consistently doing this with a character. One would think some of the articles we chose to merge—such as some of the 1993 live-action film versions of characters and species (relevant proposal here) or the various representations of species as individual characters in the Mario Party series (relevant proposals here, here, and here)—would be ripe for this treatment. However, besides articles where we forgot to update links following a merge like John Leguizamo, the only article I could find with such a link was Koopa Krag in reference to his grandson...but Koopa Troopa is already linked there twice without a redirect in reference to Koopa Krag's species, so that probably doesn't count either.

I do recognize that we have no rule for or against linking to a specific version of a character or species when needed. Still, given the potential user-unfriendliness of doing this with Pauline, yet also considering the possibility of applying it to more versions of characters and species, I do think some action must be taken. Heck, even though I agree to merging the 1993 film characters with their main counterparts, they're probably more at odds with them than 13-year-old Pauline is with her adult self. Assuming we do establish an official policy for this kind of linking instead of nipping it in the bud, where would we put said policy? Could it be added to one of our existing policy pages, or would it take a new one? How would we determine if a version of a character or species is notable enough to have their specific section linked to? Such a policy may well encourage people to link every instance of King Boo in the Luigi's Mansion series to King Boo#Luigi's Mansion series (or a specific game therewithin) because of his different design and crueler characterization there, or further subjects down the slippery slope.

This poll proposal seeks to remedy this. I've laid out options for whether or not 13-year-old Pauline from Donkey Kong Bananza, the incarnations of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Bowser (President Koopa), Goombas, and Snifits from the 1993 live-action film Super Mario Bros., and certain generic species representatives from the Mario Party series (relevant proposals: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Proposer: SolemnStormcloud (talk)

Should Pauline in Donkey Kong Bananza have her section linked to?

Deadline: {{subst:#time:F j, Y|+2 weeks}}, 23:59 (UTC)

Yes

No

Should the 1993 film versions of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Bowser, Goombas, and Snifits have their respective sections linked to?

Deadline: {{subst:#time:F j, Y|+2 weeks}}, 23:59 (UTC)

Yes

No

Should certain generic species representatives in the Mario Party series (specifics linked above) have their sections linked to?

Deadline: {{subst:#time:F j, Y|+2 weeks}}, 23:59 (UTC)

Yes

Only Goombob, Bob-omba, and (if the Bamboo dancers article is divided into sections) Hulu

No

Regardless of the above options' outcomes, should we create a policy for and/or against linking to these sections?

Deadline: {{subst:#time:F j, Y|+2 weeks}}, 23:59 (UTC)

Yes

No

Determine how to treat final lap/section variants of Mario Kart musical themes

[describe what issue this proposal is about and what changes you think should be made to improve how the wiki handles that issue]

Proposer: SolemnStormcloud (talk)

[option title (e.g. Option 1)]: [brief summary of option]

Deadline: {{subst:#time:F j, Y|+2 weeks}}, 23:59 (UTC)

Support

Oppose

[option title (e.g. Option 2)]: [brief summary of option]

Deadline: {{subst:#time:F j, Y|+2 weeks}}, 23:59 (UTC)

Support

Oppose

[option title (e.g. Option 3)]: [brief summary of option]

Deadline: {{subst:#time:F j, Y|+2 weeks}}, 23:59 (UTC)

Support

Oppose