I'm noticing a semi-recent pattern of quotes appearing at the top of articles.
Now, normally I would approve of it. I've seen similar patterns on other wikis, and it provides a bit of extra personality to the page. However, I think we should stop it.
The main reason is consistency. Simply put, there are not enough relevant quotes in the library of official material to cover enough pages to stop it from looking patchy or incomplete, especially outside the Brawl area. Toomai Glittershine The Riotous 20:33, 29 October 2011 (EDT)
- There's a quote possible on every character page (SSBM and SSBB), every move, and a few stages and items. I think there's enough relevant quotes in the library of official material. Toast ltimatumComplaints Box 21:24, 29 October 2011 (EDT)
- I don't see a possibility of things looking "incomplete". Even without the manual, there's still plenty of options for quotes; we've got the DOJO!! and trophy descriptions that can aid in adding quotes to the top of all pages, among other sources. Take Roy, for example. On the top of the page, there exists the possibility of merely using a line from his trophy: "While Roy's moves are well balanced, he's a little on the slow side, and doesn't excel at midair combat." Roy's special moves can also receive this treatment; on Flare Blade, for instance, another trophy quote can be added: "When it's fully charged, Roy's destructive Flare Blade delivers an instant KO.".
This has been bugging me again recently. Now that it's been popping up in various places it's looking rather less desirable. The top paragraph no longer meshes with the top of any infobox on the page, and the first thing in the text area isn't the sentence-with-the-bold-title people are generally expecting to see. It also creates redundancy and/or inconsistency - if we use instruction booklet quotes, then either some things will have the quote at the top and the quote again near the bottom in the "from the instructions" header, or some things will have "from the instructions" headers and some won't. There's also the case of things that currently have two quotes at the top - it looks even uglier, putting somewhat of a large blank space in the top of the screen.
In short, now that the idea has taken hold, I don't like the results and think we should squash it. Toomai Glittershine The Eggster 23:33, 4 February 2012 (EST)
- Compromise. I believe on the Smasher articles, the quotes are small enough and non-intrusive enough to stay; the quotes are small and short enough to be of sufficient length, though I will admit that some quotes, such as those on Marth's article, could use some pruning. On the special moves articles, particularly for characters who appeared in both Melee and Brawl, I am inclined to agree with you; two quotes looks unsightly, and I don't believe the articles can be of sufficient length to warrant the quotes.
- I don't believe the argument of consistency applies in this case, however, as there exist clear differences between Smasher and Special moves articles. Additionally, within individual topics (for instance, Smasher articles alone), I don't see how consistency would be a problem, since one can simply look at all pages in the span of less than ten minutes to see if anything is wrong. --- ReiDemon, Author Extraordinaire, 23:49, 4 February 2012 (EST)