Forum:"About" Sections

I've recently been looking at some of our character articles in closer detail than I have in a while, and I've begun to notice the our "About" sections are seeming a bit redundant. The information in this section is already listed in the infobox, summarized at the top of the page, or included in one of the other sections. Everything fits better into other areas of the page, so I really don't feel the "About" sections are necessary. They're taking up space on the articles, but they aren't really needed.

I'd like to suggest the removal of the "About" section from articles. Any information we feel will be lost can be incorporated somewhere else on the page. I obviously won't do this without community support, but I would appreciate prompt replies as I can't carry on with adding references until a decision has been reached.Turambar1  04:34, March 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * Hello, I'm new to this wiki, but I've got experience at Fire Emblem Wiki, Bulbapedia and Wikipedia. This is my first edit hero but I think in place of removing this section, it should be renamed and simplified. Somethig like 'Past' or 'Background' would be more fit.Silver-Haired Hero 19:54, March 8, 2011 (UTC)

Hey, welcome to the community. We already have "History", "Personality", and "Appearance" sections. It's really not about the name, it's that everything in the "About" section is somewhere else on the page.Turambar1  21:00, March 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * Thank you! Well, I've checked some pages of the main characters, and think your right. The 'About' section's somewhat redundant, so, I vote for the deletion. If you agree I could erase them before tomorrow. Silver-Haired Hero 21:13, March 8, 2011 (UTC)

This is a pretty big decision, so we'll have to hold off on deleting them until a few other people have seen this.Turambar1  21:51, March 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * Uh... I was thinking it would be a good idea to compliment the infoboxes with the weapons everyone have used this far, and the vehicules they have drived for Shizuka and Takeshi's cases. Also, can we complement the info about the weapons with real-world info?Silver-Haired Hero 22:26, March 8, 2011 (UTC)

I was actually thinking about adding weapons to the infoboxes as well, but I don't think vehicles need to be added as it would only apply to a few characters. We don't use real-world information in articles unless the same information is in HOTD. Basically, if a source isn't the HOTD manga, anime, or other official material, then you shouldn't use it. You can refer to the page for the Smith & Wesson M37 Airweight as an example.Turambar1  23:42, March 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * Cool, thank you for getting that clear. I will do the summary part then, if there's no problem with that. Awwwwwhh...the new episode's near!! You gonna update it? Is it out now? It's March 9 in Japan now, right? Am I doing too much questions? Silver-Haired Hero 00:38, March 9, 2011 (UTC)

You're not asking too many questions, but we are getting a bit off topic, so if you have any more questions, post them on my talk page. You can do the plot summaries if you want. Just make sure they are detailed. Before you start, you may want to see our Manual of Style. It is March 9th in Japan, and Chapter 29 is out, but we won't update until the scanlation has been released, which is usually around the 12th of the month. We may have spoilers up before then if possible.Turambar1  01:20, March 9, 2011 (UTC)


 * True. I'll go slower now. And sheez, with other mangas we even get it before the japanese guys. Well, I'll start with the weapon summaries tomorrow, I hope. Silver-Haired Hero 02:26, March 9, 2011 (UTC)

I thought of another reason why we should get rid of the "About" sections. These sections were added to the original pages created when this wiki first began, and they were completely copied from Wikipedia (obviously, we rewrote them when we found out). We added more sections to the page which essentially split up the information in the "About" sections, but, for some reason, we never removed it. It seems like something that should have already been done.

By the way, I need to make the decision soon, so if you are an active user and reading this, I would appreciate your vote. I'll wait another day, then just go ahead and delete them, so if you are opposed to it, please say something soon.Turambar1  01:26, March 10, 2011 (UTC)

Hmm...I do sometimes think that the "about" pages are kinda redundant, but perhaps instead of destroying it completely, maybe we can just revamp the whole thing. From what I can tell, the information we originally put into the "about" section looks pretty useless now as most people can get the idea just by reading the summary. What I think is that we should probably rewrite the "about" sections into something that's more informative and like a "synopsis" or shortened form a biography of the character. That way, readers wont' have to read the whole summary to get to know the characters. 00:41, March 11, 2011 (UTC)

I considered changing the content of the "About" sections, but I can't really think of anything that could go there. Biographical information can go into the first paragraph if we make it a bit longer, and everything else can go in "Personality", "History", or "Appearance", and I don't think anything would be lost. I wasn't really talking about the "Summary" sections, just basically everything above them as there's really nothing in the "About" section that needs to go in the summary. If you think about it, the "About" section is essentially the same thing as the opening paragraph, so it's like having the same section twice. I suppose I'll wait for more people to give their opinions.Turambar1  01:53, March 11, 2011 (UTC)

Oh okay, if the case is that the "about" section is basically the same thing as the opening paragraph, then we should definitely get rid of the about section. I know for sure that in the big pages the "about" sections are more or less redundant, but I'm not so certain about the minor pages though... 21:29, March 11, 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I see what you mean with the smaller pages. When I say "delete", I'm not necessarily saying we should get rid of everything, just redistribute it. In the bigger pages, some stuff will be deleted as it's already in other areas, but most will just be moved. I'll start this on the Takashi page for now. I've been working on his page a lot, and I think I'm going to get it up to our new standards for layout, references, images, content, etc. then use it as a guide for all of the other character pages. I'm hoping this will make all of the other pages go smoother once his is finished.

By the way, it's good to hear from you. I wasn't sure if you were in an area that was affected by the tsunami, so I'm glad to see you're safe.Turambar1  23:08, March 11, 2011 (UTC)

All right, I redistributed and removed the "About" section on the Takashi page. You can compare it to the earlier version and see if you like it. Most of it was already in other sections and was deleted, but I moved a couple of things and I'll be adding one or two to the "Trivia" section later. I'm probably going to spend the weekend perfecting Takashi's page, so don't worry about fixing his plot summary.Turambar1  04:36, March 12, 2011 (UTC)