MarioWiki:Proposals

List of Talk Page Proposals

 * Merge Cactus King and Ghastly King. (Discuss) Passed.
 * Delete List of cartoon voice actors. (Discuss) Passed.
 * Recreate Junior (II). (Discuss) Passed.

Writing Guidelines
None at the moment.

Create Template: Unfinished
While going through a few random pages recently, I noticed that many unfinished pages have the Construction template, so I decided to check the page history on them. Oddly enough, many of these supposedly "under construction" pages haven't been edited for years.

In these cases, the pages aren't under construction (at least not anymore, if the page was under construction at some point. You can't just trust the original "constructors" to come back and complete the page suddenly after three years.) Therefore, such a template doesn't make sense. We need a separate template to tell editors that the page is unfinished, and that help is needed to help complete the page to a satisfactory level.

Just to make the distinction, something "under construction" is incomplete, but actively being edited towards completion. Something "unfinished" is incomplete, but not being actively edited towards completion. In other words, it's unfinished and forgotten.

Here is what the template can look like. I deliberately made it look similar to the construction template, since they are relatively similar:  This is unfinished. Please try adding as much as you can to complete this page.

Proposer: Deadline: October 31, at 23:59 GMT

Support

 * 1) Per my reasoning above.

Comments
So... basically and/or ? They're both used to signify articles that are in need of more information.

Removals
None at the moment.

Do not consider ports for an article's most recent name
At the moment, there are a few articles that have had their names changed due to rereleases, including Super Mario Bros. 3's worlds, which was put into place due to a proposal held on a single talk page, and Spiky Gloomba (to Spiked Gloomba), which was put into place after citing SMB3 as precedence (there are likely other examples, but I can't recall them at the moment). To use the Gloomba as an example, it was "Spiked" in Paper Mario, but was renamed to "Spiky" in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and the article followed suite. However, with the Virtual Console release of Paper Mario, the article changed names once again. The logic behind it is that, since the re-release is technically the most recent game, the names of our articles should reflect that. I don't agree with that.

First of all, it'd be incredibly off to only apply this to names, and there are quite a few other aspects that would have to be changed, namely the general order of the games in history sections and every article's latest appearance. It's seems odd to arbitrary exclude everything but the names in our changes. Also, how surreal would it be to see an article with their first appearance listed as "Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988)" and then its latest appearance listed as "Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012)"? It presents the idea that there's a whole new game called SMB2, but it's really the exact same game with minimal differences (I'm not exaggerating). This idea of being misleading is another reason I dislike the idea: having a game carry the same name as it did twenty years ago is not a change; it's an example of preservation. If a museum was commissioning a replica of the Mona Lisa, with the intent of presenting it as it was originally depicted, would you want them to paint a giant clown nose on it? While it'd be a bit funny, it'd completely lose the intent and disappoint a large amount of people looking forward to it. With that said, preserving something is not the same thing as presenting it as something new. Attitudes at Nintendo have not changed by re-releasing an old game, and the wiki's attitude should likewise not change. It's not even as if they're a "new" game; for all intents and purposes, these games are the same games that were once available a few years ago, just for a different platform.

In the case of the Super Mario Land enemies whose names were changed in the Virtual Console, those are different to what's being discussed here. Those names were changed with the re-release itself; it's not a matter of the same name popping up again and clashing with a later game, it's a matter of the same game containing different names than it did previously. One is about staying true to the source, while the other is about a clear change in though. Basically, per what was said by me and Walkazo on the forums.

This proposal intends to revert the Lands proposal and the Gloomba move (and any other ones that may be out there), as well as set a precedent for the future.

Proposer: Deadline: October 28, 2015, 23:59 GMT

Support

 * 1) Per proposal.
 * 2) Definitely, this makes perfect sense. I'm not sure why they were renamed back to the old ones in the first place.
 * 3) Per proposal.
 * 4) Per proposal, Especially because re-releases' modifications are kept to a minimum. The name could have been changed from one game in the series to another, but the developers didn't modify the original game for a re-release. If it was modified to a new name, then this name automatically becomes the newest.
 * 5) I never even knew this was an issue. Per all.
 * 6) Per all.
 * 7) PP.
 * 8) - Per proposal and per myself on the forums. If stuff in a a re-release was actively changed to be different from the original (like the SML names), we should update our titles accordingly - like how we'd update the body text to mention the changes between versions. However, if the differences from current names derived from subsequent games are only because the re-release is being authentic to the original, then we shouldn't use the antiquated name, like how we don't mention over and over in the body text how Goombas are the same in every port of SMB, etc. The infobox "appearance" lines are best saved for original games too, since re-releases aren't new appearances by the subjects at all, just the same old original appearances. We also don't make new History sections for re-releases unless there's major differences involved, so again, leaving the names be would be most consistent with how we handle all other aspects of re-releases.
 * 9) Per all.
 * 10) I think it's dumb to rename a recurring entity only because the predecessor the entity appeared in was released in Virtual Console or as a remake. If I'm correct into thinking this is what the proposal is about, then I agree.

Comments
I think it's dumb a name from a re-release of a predecessor has replaced the sequel's name, but I'm not extremely sure about standalone games, so I'm still iffy on applying a blanket standard to disregard all ports. 16:23, 22 October 2015 (EDT)
 * Could you give an example of what you're talking about? Usually, the newer game would take precedence over the older one, so I'm not sure what it being standalone has to do with. it
 * I was thinking about something like one-off enemies in a game getting a rename in the port version. Or the lands in the proposal getting a rename in the port version. But maybe I'm not clear in this whole issue. 15:27, 23 October 2015 (EDT)
 * I think I had the Super Mario Land issue in mind, but the proposal title seems like applying a blanket standard when it really isn't. 15:35, 23 October 2015 (EDT)
 * If a change is made from the original in the port/remake/whatever, then we would reflect that in the page title/etc. (like the SML names). This is just about not reverting to old names simply because remakes were eventually released with the outdated names preserved for authenticity despite later games (or even different remakes released in the meantime, like SMA4 and SMAS) updating the names. - 16:25, 23 October 2015 (EDT)
 * So maybe the proposal's title should change a bit just for easier reference in the future? Because I think it confused me for a bit. 16:29, 23 October 2015 (EDT)

Miscellaneous
None at the moment.