Post by DocQuantum on Apr 2, 2022 15:45:15 GMT
5earths Who's Who
After having a few server issues over the past couple of years, I've finally come to a point where I'd like to invite other 5 Earths writers to contribute to our official Who's Who site, where I hope to have short biographies of pretty much every character we've ever written about, or any character that exists in the DC Universe, really.
I've already set up timelines for each of the Earths, but they can always use more work, as most of what's up there now I wrote several years back. I'm now adding notes from my character-based indexing efforts whenever I can.
Some of the things I'd like us to figure out is a template for a Who's Who character. The most basic template is an all-text encyclopedic-type entry, based on the "in-universe" history of each character (instead of focusing on the creators, literary influences, etc). What I haven't done is add in a section for vital statistics, like you'd see in the original Who's Who series by DC. So I'd like to get a working template down that could be copied and pasted into any of the character entries. Dan came up with a basic template that we can start with, and I'm going to try to find out if DokuWiki has any way of displaying it as a box, sort of like how the DC Database at Fandom does it: dc.fandom.com/wiki/DC_Comics_Database. It would be good to figure out templates for locations, too, like fictional cities and countries.
What I don't want to do is create an endless amount of entries that are EMPTY, however. I see that a lot at the DC Database, and it makes for a terrible user experience. I'd much prefer that an entry is created with at least a short writeup rather than it be mostly blank. I may start creating writeups for any obscure characters showing up in my stories, so I can refer to the writeups during the story. It would often be easier to do so that way than to just say a character appeared in a certain issue, since many readers may not know how to find or read comics online.
Another thing to avoid is adding things to character entries in timelines that haven't appeared in the comics or our stories. I have done this before, but I have gone back and tried to remove much of those ideas from the timelines until they can be written out in story form. Still, there is room for speculation on the site, because often things aren't clear in the comics, and we have to reason why, say, a character might be given one surname in one issue, and another surname in another. I would ask that any such speculation be reasoned out in italics like this: Note: Blah blah blah blah blah. And everything should have a citation written like this, with the story title, series with issue number, and cover date, ie: [“Dark Genesis,” Swamp Thing #1 (October-November, 1972).]
We'll have to figure out options for images. They can't be too large or too small, and I don't want to start uploading them to my server for bandwidth issues. I'd prefer if we use a photo-hosting site, like postimages.org/ for that. I'd prefer to keep to good quality images from the comics, but in the case of original characters I'd just request that the images look like the typical "house style" of DC comics, rather than Anime-style or too cartoonish (unless it's appropriate, ie. for Earth-C or Earth-12). If we have any readers who love our work and want to draw out some of our original characters at a professional level, I'd love that, too. A thumbnail sketch could work at the concept level for a good drawing for the site later on. I've got a costume concept for the original Yankee Eagle, for example, that is based on something from another Earth, but would have to be adapted to fit his build and hair color (Yankee Eagle never had any costume in the comics, but in my Earth-X stories I've referred to him as a mystery-man, and I hope to show why soon).
Anyway, it's invite-only, but if you're familiar enough with the 5 Earths version of the DC Universe, you could probably fill in some info with at least the characters you've written so far. So let me know if any of you are interested, and I can send you an invite.
After having a few server issues over the past couple of years, I've finally come to a point where I'd like to invite other 5 Earths writers to contribute to our official Who's Who site, where I hope to have short biographies of pretty much every character we've ever written about, or any character that exists in the DC Universe, really.
I've already set up timelines for each of the Earths, but they can always use more work, as most of what's up there now I wrote several years back. I'm now adding notes from my character-based indexing efforts whenever I can.
Some of the things I'd like us to figure out is a template for a Who's Who character. The most basic template is an all-text encyclopedic-type entry, based on the "in-universe" history of each character (instead of focusing on the creators, literary influences, etc). What I haven't done is add in a section for vital statistics, like you'd see in the original Who's Who series by DC. So I'd like to get a working template down that could be copied and pasted into any of the character entries. Dan came up with a basic template that we can start with, and I'm going to try to find out if DokuWiki has any way of displaying it as a box, sort of like how the DC Database at Fandom does it: dc.fandom.com/wiki/DC_Comics_Database. It would be good to figure out templates for locations, too, like fictional cities and countries.
What I don't want to do is create an endless amount of entries that are EMPTY, however. I see that a lot at the DC Database, and it makes for a terrible user experience. I'd much prefer that an entry is created with at least a short writeup rather than it be mostly blank. I may start creating writeups for any obscure characters showing up in my stories, so I can refer to the writeups during the story. It would often be easier to do so that way than to just say a character appeared in a certain issue, since many readers may not know how to find or read comics online.
Another thing to avoid is adding things to character entries in timelines that haven't appeared in the comics or our stories. I have done this before, but I have gone back and tried to remove much of those ideas from the timelines until they can be written out in story form. Still, there is room for speculation on the site, because often things aren't clear in the comics, and we have to reason why, say, a character might be given one surname in one issue, and another surname in another. I would ask that any such speculation be reasoned out in italics like this: Note: Blah blah blah blah blah. And everything should have a citation written like this, with the story title, series with issue number, and cover date, ie: [“Dark Genesis,” Swamp Thing #1 (October-November, 1972).]
We'll have to figure out options for images. They can't be too large or too small, and I don't want to start uploading them to my server for bandwidth issues. I'd prefer if we use a photo-hosting site, like postimages.org/ for that. I'd prefer to keep to good quality images from the comics, but in the case of original characters I'd just request that the images look like the typical "house style" of DC comics, rather than Anime-style or too cartoonish (unless it's appropriate, ie. for Earth-C or Earth-12). If we have any readers who love our work and want to draw out some of our original characters at a professional level, I'd love that, too. A thumbnail sketch could work at the concept level for a good drawing for the site later on. I've got a costume concept for the original Yankee Eagle, for example, that is based on something from another Earth, but would have to be adapted to fit his build and hair color (Yankee Eagle never had any costume in the comics, but in my Earth-X stories I've referred to him as a mystery-man, and I hope to show why soon).
Anyway, it's invite-only, but if you're familiar enough with the 5 Earths version of the DC Universe, you could probably fill in some info with at least the characters you've written so far. So let me know if any of you are interested, and I can send you an invite.
