Forums: Helping Hand > Beginning articles with quotations
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I kind of wanted to gather general opinion on this. An example of an article that begins with a quotation is
Winski Perorate, for reference.
Wikipedia maintains that the article should be introduced by a paragraph of summary text, and that quotations should be in their own section, or live outside of the article. Something like Han Solo over on Wookiepedia has a quotation. The style of that wiki does tend to be more tongue in cheek.
What do you think? Should we be introducing articles about individuals with a quote from that individual, or should we be staying factual?
Fw190a8 21:59, January 24, 2012 (UTC)
I think they are good, but the quotes should be short, one liners. I dont think it works on the Winski Perorate page for example as it is too long. A quote that length should be in its own section.
The Han solo line is perfect, it summarises his personality in a few short words. I appreciate that there is far less dialogue for us to choose from for Forgotten Realms characters, but if there is not an appropriate quote we should just not put one, rather than putting a quote that's not really appropriate.
SUMMARY: Good idea, but only for short quotes, no more than a sentence.
FW, I am biased... I like the quotes, such as
Conyberry and
Old Night... it's like introducing a character or place though their words or someone elses words about them, and you get to read everything. A nice introduction! I agree with Thom, though... short. Of course... I can and will change these pages if the vote goes the other way :)
I'm of the opinion that, if the quote
encompasses the character's general outlook, it's fine, but that (as Thomaslove92 mentioned above), it should be short. I'm working my way through
Shadowbane right now, and in it there's a voidsoul genasi named
Sithe. In the novel, she says (and this really isn't a spoiler, so no worries): "I am not a shadow. I am the nothing that the darkness hides - the void that the darkness cannot fill." That quote pretty much tells you exactly what Sithe is.
Cronje is right... reading the books becomes even more fun, because great quotes just jump out at you... plus, it adds a sense of research as you enjoy the novel!
I like quotes but I think they should go at the end of an article, like the "flavor text" at the bottom of a Magic:The Gathering card, keeping disambiguation, definition, and info boxes at the top (the
Winski Perorate quote displaces the info box a lot). That way there can be more than one quote and they can be as long as you want. A ==Quote== heading can be added so people can jump to the quotes if that is what they want to read. Just my $0.02.
