Forum:Character sidebar

Forum: The Situation Room > Character sidebar

Jack Bauer
Name:	Jack Bauer
Aliases:	Jack Roush Frank Flynn John Barrie Ernst Meier see all...
Status:	Alive
Age:	49 (Day 7)
Date of birth:	18 February 1966
Nationality:	American
Residence(s):	Hotel Chelsea, New York City Okavango School, Sangala China Mojave, California Chicago, Illinois Washington, D.C. Los Angeles, California Santa Monica, California
Education:	B.A. English Literature, UCLA M.S. Criminology & Law, UC Berkeley US Army Officer Candidate School see all...
Affiliation:	Counter Terrorist Unit Department of Defense Central Intelligence Agency United States Army Los Angeles Police Department
Profession:	DoD: Advisor to Secretary James Heller CTU LA: Director of Field Operations CTU LA: Special Agent in Charge see all...
Father:	Phillip Bauer
Sibling(s):	Graem Bauer (brother)
Marital status:	Widower
Spouse(s):	Teri Bauer
Significant other(s):	Renee Walker (lover) Diane Huxley (ex-girlfriend) Audrey Raines (ex-girlfriend) Claudia Hernandez (undercover) Kate Warner (ex-girlfriend) Marilyn Bauer (ex-girlfriend)
Children:	Kim Bauer
Other family:	Marilyn Bauer (sister-in-law) Josh Bauer (nephew) Carol (sister-in-law) Stephen (son-in-law) Teri (granddaughter)
Played by:	Kiefer Sutherland
Seasons:	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
First episode:	"Day 1: 12:00am-1:00am"
Last episode:	"Day 8: 12:00pm-1:00pm"

For a while, I've felt that the sidebar should have more on each character than the barest OOU information. This would be one way to effectively summarize each character and take out the bullet lists from the Fox website, which we arbitrarily add things to as the show progresses. Here's the one for Jack Bauer, since it would obviously be the longest of any - it doesn't intrude with any of the images on the actual page, from the preview, so it's certainly doable. --Pyramidhead 19:44, May 4, 2010 (UTC)

Seems a bit long doesnt it... --Dunit1014 16:14, May 4, 2010

Maybe because this page is completely empty? This is what it will actually look like on the page. And again, this is the longest one there will be, so no other page will have that problem, if in fact it is a problem. --Pyramidhead 20:33, May 4, 2010 (UTC)

Several issues:

1. We've been here before: the wiki used to have content like this in the sidebar template, but over time it was winnowed out by consensus to be almost exclusively for OOU information.
2. The character profiles page and introductory subheadings for all of this material already exist.
3. Extreme amounts of work to implement when nothing is gained except increased complexity for the sidebars and the shifting of information.
4. Will EU content be permitted here?
5. Extended sidebars will definitely have a dramatic effect on the image placement layout and will create problems for subheadings.

Something like this, even with all the issues resolved, I'd only be comfortable implementing it with major, main cast characters. Blue Rook  talk  contribs 20:39, May 4, 2010 (UTC)

1. The character profiles are just a listing of dossier screenshots and website profiles for whichever random characters happened to get one. There's no unifying organization to them. What this will do is provide a uniform, consistent means of presenting the basic stats on every character, regardless of whether they were pulled up on a CTU screen or not.
2. Actually, the basic task of converting the sidebar could be done with the bot, as the basic arguments are the same. Adding bio info would take longer, yes, but so what? We'll have plenty to do once the show is over. Seems to me this would go hand-in-hand with SignorSimon's Ultimate Project.
3. That's another topic for debate, but I would restrict the appearances to episodes. Mostly because the actor listing is right above it - Kiefer didn't play the Jack Bauer from Cat's Claw. For EU-only characters, maybe a field "Feautured in:" and then the listing of books/w/e they were in.
4. Not particularly - in some rare cases, the first image might have to be shifted left, but between the table of contents and all the Before Day X sections, there would be very little intrusion by the sidebar. I've previewed it on a few pages and there haven't been any major issues. What problems with the subheadings do you mean?
5. Why not for every character? For Joe Nobody Field Agent, this new template would pretty much be the same size as the current one. And again, it would be consistent, which is what I'm mostly going for. --Pyramidhead 20:54, May 4, 2010 (UTC)

But everything is already consistent. When you say Joe Nobody Field Agent will have a similar template to the one he currently has, and then you look at Jack's altered template, there is absolutely nothing "consistent" about this comparison at all. Both sidebars will be dramatically different in size and content. It seems as if your mission is to be as inconsistent about the sidebars as possible but to simultaneously claim it will be "consistent". It's like seeing a bunch of footlong rulers, and saying "I will increase the size of many of these rulers anywhere to 2 through 4 feet, but it will be "consistent".

Also you've got to use the sandbox for experiments, please save the revisions there for these sidebars. Blue Rook  talk  contribs 18:58, May 5, 2010 (UTC)

What?! I've only been talking about the presentation of this information. Of course not every character will have the same amount of data, I wasn't implying that in any way. My point is, the Character profiles is just a listing of info for most of the main characters, as well as whichever arbitrary characters had a dossier shown on screen. What this will do is create a profile for all characters in the series, based on however little or however much info the show presents about them, using the same format and listings (name, residence, affiliation etc...) for each. We can still keep the profiles page, since it documents specific dossiers from the show and the website, but use this to give an overview on each individual page. It's pretty common practice on most wikis to use something like this. --Pyramidhead 19:19, May 5, 2010 (UTC)

And sorry about that, I will stick to the sandbox from now on. --Pyramidhead 19:31, May 5, 2010 (UTC)

Some more page examples: Tony Almeida, David Palmer, Todd, Hector Salazar. --Pyramidhead 20:05, May 5, 2010 (UTC)

Not sure why I bother, but bump. --Pyramidhead 03:16, May 11, 2010 (UTC)

I feel like we need to let this brew before implementing, don't be worried if the community is slow to reply. Wait for some other folks to drop in, maybe if it's accepted it could be our big thing before the movie comes out. Blue Rook  talk  contribs 03:52, May 11, 2010 (UTC)