Forum:New appearances template

Last night I was trying to come up with a better way to document all the appearances in each novel, and I borrowed and touched up a template used on Memory Alpha that allows you to expand and collapse nested lists. As I was doing that, it occurred to me that it could also be used to replace the current navbox appearances setup. I know I originally pressed for it, but after editing around it for a couple years, I think there's a lot to be desired about Template:Appearances as it currently exists. The new template has a lot of advantages over it:
 * No need to constantly format around the 100% width and make sure nothing is cutting into it. The new list can have images or anything else next to it.
 * No need for dozens of grey links on a page for a character that was only ever in one thing. The list template is adaptable to characters with hundreds of appearances and characters with only a handful.
 * Appearances ordered chronologically again. Way back when, the appearances used to be just a bulleted list; the grid only came about because there got to be too many. This new version allows everything to be put in one place - without taking up too much space - and better matches the timeline that's been established thus far. I still support sticking to "First episode" and "Last episode" in the sidebar, but for the appearances list I think it's much better to be able to see the earliest and latest appearance of a particular person.

To see it in action, log in as ListDemo24 (password: abc123) and visit User:Pyramidhead/appearances. (You need to log in on that account or else it will just look like bulleted lists.) What's really great is that, if we decide to go forward, all it will take is one change to Template:Appearances and everything will automatically switch over. I'd like to add support for the list template in the site's JS regardless, if only to update the "Appearances" section on each novel, but I really believe this will also be a great way to improve the appearances for each character. --Pyramidhead (talk) 21:43, January 8, 2014 (UTC)