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Bulbapedia Suggestions, ideas, and problems

Hmm...I'm waiting to see on what the refined implementation of Mega Evolutions will be on Bulbapedia, but I'm more of the opinion that they should have their own articles (or "sub-pages", like the PWT article has with certain tourneys) (mainly to detail exactly what the changes are compared to the "pre-evo" of the Mega Evolution) while still being mentioned in some areas of the original "species" page (such as in the "Evolution" flowchart section). The Mega Evolutions don't seem to be consistent (some retain original typing yet change Ability, some change typing but retain Ability, some change BOTH typing and Ability, not to mention how lots of the movesets and Base Stats are potentially altered), and the species pages are getting longer with more information already.

I'm happy that my english has been good enough to make my opinion come through! :)
I really agree with you, they really should have their own page with personalized template, artwork and so on.
Thanks for answering! I hope that someone of the staff will take into consideration it too!
 
At this time, there's simply not enough information regarding Mega Evolution to make a decision whether Mega Evolutions are new species, or simply another form change. That is why we have decided that, for now, Mega Evolution information is to be part of the normal species articles. If future reveals show that Mega Evolutions are more than just another form system, and that they do need additional pages, we'd split the Mega Evolutions off as such. But, we're certainly not there yet.
 
At this time, there's simply not enough information regarding Mega Evolution to make a decision whether Mega Evolutions are new species, or simply another form change. That is why we have decided that, for now, Mega Evolution information is to be part of the normal species articles. If future reveals show that Mega Evolutions are more than just another form system, and that they do need additional pages, we'd split the Mega Evolutions off as such. But, we're certainly not there yet.

Yes I know, but they still are really different from their non-mega formes. Just the fact that they undergo under a Type-change/addition makes them too much different from their own normal species.
I hope they'll have their own pages!

Anyway, thanks for answering me! :)
 
Yes I know, but they still are really different from their non-mega formes. Just the fact that they undergo under a Type-change/addition makes them too much different from their own normal species.
I hope they'll have their own pages!

Anyway, thanks for answering me! :)
Just of note, formes can also go through type changes. And base stat changes, moovepool changes, and nature changes. Land Shaymin, for one, changes all those things when it becomes Sky Shaymin, and that form lasts even outside of battle, unlike Megas. But there is no separate page for Sky Shaymin; both are on Shaymin's page. So just because it type changes (which some form-changes already do [Meloetta, Darmanitan, Rotom]), it's not enough to warrant its own article. So from what we currently know, it's not really that different from a form change and can be encompassed in an article with relative ease. But as Kogoro said, it might change depending.
 
Well, i knew that sooner or later the question of the Formes would came out. Well, in my opinion, they also deserve a page on their own, for the same reasons I explained before.
Has Bulbapedia a limited server space? Because if it has, so I can understand that parsimony of pages, but if it has not, so why don't create more pages? Formes and Mega Evolutions would have more focus and the result - for us readers - would be a better sectioned enciclopedy with more related images and more specific information.
I mean, Bulbapedia is a Pokémon enciclopedy, isn't it? So what's the point in doing economy with species pages and then create thousands discutible (imo!) pages such us the shipping ones?

That's just my thoughts, I hope I won't offend anyone, and sorry again if my English isn't very good.
 
Shouldn't the Mega Evolutions artworks be added somewhere in their respective Pokémon pages?
 
Has Bulbapedia a limited server space? Because if it has, so I can understand that parsimony of pages, but if it has not, so why don't create more pages?
I mean, Bulbapedia is a Pokémon enciclopedy, isn't it? So what's the point in doing economy with species pages and then create thousands discutible (imo!) pages such us the shipping ones?
That's just my thoughts, I hope I won't offend anyone, and sorry again if my English isn't very good.
I don't think space isn't quite an issue, given that we literally only host text, images, links, and templates.
I have no idea why shipping pages are allowed. Frankly, I think it harms our image.
Dude, literally everything anyone posts on the forums is just their opinion. You don't have to apologize for it! And don't worry, we can understand you well enough.
 
Well, i knew that sooner or later the question of the Formes would came out. Well, in my opinion, they also deserve a page on their own, for the same reasons I explained before.
Has Bulbapedia a limited server space? Because if it has, so I can understand that parsimony of pages, but if it has not, so why don't create more pages? Formes and Mega Evolutions would have more focus and the result - for us readers - would be a better sectioned enciclopedy with more related images and more specific information.
I mean, Bulbapedia is a Pokémon enciclopedy, isn't it? So what's the point in doing economy with species pages and then create thousands discutible (imo!) pages such us the shipping ones?

That's just my thoughts, I hope I won't offend anyone, and sorry again if my English isn't very good.

It's not a lack of server space, or anything of the sort. The reason forms are part of the species articles is because they're the same species. Whether a Giratina is in its Altered Forme or Origin Forme, it's still a Giratina. Splitting the species articles up because of form differences would only prove to make things more difficult to find, as all of the alternate forms would be hidden under further links. Keeping them on the main species pages keeps them highly accessible. As you said, we're an encyclopedia, we don't want to bury our information under sub-pages if we can help it.
 
As an additional note, having the forms on the same page makes it a lot easier to compare them and see what the difference is. Anything that isn't labelled as specific for one form doesn't change between them, while everything that does change is labelled. On separate pages that would just become duplicate information, making it much harder to see what changed as you would need to switch between the pages and compare them manually. As a result, I believe that the form information is more useful on a single page than separated over two pages.

Shouldn't the Mega Evolutions artworks be added somewhere in their respective Pokémon pages?

I believe the update to the infoboxes is going to have a place for alternate form artworks.

The existing infobox doesn't handle images well - it can only show one image at any one time. In the mean time, the images are being uploaded to the archives, and can be found by following the "Artwork on Bulbagarden Archives" link in the external links section of the infobox. (This link will also be more prominent in the redesigned infobox.)
 
Well, i knew that sooner or later the question of the Formes would came out. Well, in my opinion, they also deserve a page on their own, for the same reasons I explained before.
Has Bulbapedia a limited server space? Because if it has, so I can understand that parsimony of pages, but if it has not, so why don't create more pages? Formes and Mega Evolutions would have more focus and the result - for us readers - would be a better sectioned enciclopedy with more related images and more specific information.
I mean, Bulbapedia is a Pokémon enciclopedy, isn't it? So what's the point in doing economy with species pages and then create thousands discutible (imo!) pages such us the shipping ones?

That's just my thoughts, I hope I won't offend anyone, and sorry again if my English isn't very good.

It's not a lack of server space, or anything of the sort. The reason forms are part of the species articles is because they're the same species. Whether a Giratina is in its Altered Forme or Origin Forme, it's still a Giratina. Splitting the species articles up because of form differences would only prove to make things more difficult to find, as all of the alternate forms would be hidden under further links. Keeping them on the main species pages keeps them highly accessible. As you said, we're an encyclopedia, we don't want to bury our information under sub-pages if we can help it.

Ok, I strongly agree with you, but then, if server space isn't a problem, so why don't do both the things?

I make an example, take Mewtwo:

It has its onw page, in which you write, as you did, "Mewtwo can Mega evolve via Mega Stone in MegaMewtwo" (with the name "MegaMewtwo" as an iperlink leading to its own page - as it is for normal evolutions), you put in the page all the conditions it needs to Mega Evolve (or change forme, if you take, for example, Deoxys) and then you continue to talk about normal Mewtwo, mentioning, when you need it, its Mega Evolution, keeping, in this way, the information still higly accessible. The you could create a chart in which its Mega Evolution/Forme Change is shown (just like normal evolution!), with links leading to the Mega Evolved/Forme Changed Pokémon.

It won't be difficult to find them - is difficult to find Forretress page in the Pineco one? I don't think so. Then I don't think this would bury information under sub-pages, but it would add more interesting and specific stuff to the encyclopedia.

Thanks!!! :)
 
Some suggestions on things I've been contemplating...

First, I really like the new Biology sections established in the latest Message from the Editor. I also like the fact that referencing sources is now required. Could sourcing be made more prevalent? Too often there are pieces of information with no way to figure out a source in, for example, the trivia section, and, before the change, the various Biology sections, and readers are left wondering where this and that was stated or was it stated at all. Sourcing could make the whole wiki more reliable and professional. It's very rarely that I see a references section in a Bulbapedia article. They exist, but a policy or help page on references could work wonders. Which brings me to ask if the Biology section sourcing could be done fully with footnotes instead of linking phrases to their sources. That's clumsy, doesn't look nice and is confusing, as it's not the way wikilinks should be used. I'd really like to see Bulbapedia embrace footnote-type references.

Secondly, another way to streamline the Pokémon (and other) articles would be to do some sort of "behind the scenes" sections. These could include the information from Origin and Name origin sections, plus if there's more on, for example, who designed a particular Pokémon, how they were created, if they're involved in something notable (for example, with Squirtle, the Niue coin thing), public reception, et cetera. (It would also expose the fact that the then-diminished trivia section is often unneeded.)

Thirdly... I posted about Bulbapedia using flags to mark languages on the main page's talk page a while back, I'll bring it up here now to possibly even get responses. "Why you should not use a flag as a symbol of language, Why flags do not represent languages. Specifically, Template:Epilang (there may be other cases, too) always makes me uncomfortable. I know you guys really like graphics and colors, but just... don't do it this time. Also, the links to the "respective" (that's some serious quotation marks I put there) 'Pokémon in [country]' pages..." —Me
 
I believe the update to the infoboxes is going to have a place for alternate form artworks.

The existing infobox doesn't handle images well - it can only show one image at any one time. In the mean time, the images are being uploaded to the archives, and can be found by following the "Artwork on Bulbagarden Archives" link in the external links section of the infobox. (This link will also be more prominent in the redesigned infobox.)

Thanks for the replies, both of you. So, how about putting the Mega Evolutions artworks in an extra box like this? Preferably in a more noticeable place in the page.

Just a suggestion.
 
Re: Official Bulbapedia suggestion/idea thread

It would be cool to have an audio button on each pokemons bulbapedia page that when you press it the sound of the pokemon plays
 
Recently I've tasked myself with looking at Pokémon sprites that aren't on that section of their pages. Today, for example, I found Flaaffy's Crystal back sprite alone in the Archives. I doubt I'll look through every Pokémon's image archive, so I hope someone can help me. That, and it's best if we replace the G/S sprite with the C one. Of course, since the main Sprites box is invisible when I edit that section, it's out of my power.

I've never really seen this explained anywhere, but what constitutes a "minor" edit? I made up my own rule that minor edits are ones that neither add nor remove info, but correct or reword. I'm just curious.
 
With the recent squaring of the Pokémon artwork, is there a standard size the images should be? I suggest something like 180-220, so then all images are the same size. I'd suggest also this wants to be done through a fixed size on the template page and then we delete the size=???px | parts of the Pokémon articles.

Of course, there is likely something to be put in place already, but just in case there hasn't, I'd thought I'd suggest this.
 
With the recent squaring of the Pokémon artwork, is there a standard size the images should be? I suggest something like 180-220, so then all images are the same size. I'd suggest also this wants to be done through a fixed size on the template page and then we delete the size=???px | parts of the Pokémon articles.

Of course, there is likely something to be put in place already, but just in case there hasn't, I'd thought I'd suggest this.

One dimension should have no gaps, while the other just uses transparency to match the other. Ideally, they would all be as close to the maximum 1280x1280 as possible. The images don't all need to be the same size as they are easily scaled.
 
With the recent squaring of the Pokémon artwork, is there a standard size the images should be? I suggest something like 180-220, so then all images are the same size. I'd suggest also this wants to be done through a fixed size on the template page and then we delete the size=???px | parts of the Pokémon articles.

Of course, there is likely something to be put in place already, but just in case there hasn't, I'd thought I'd suggest this.

One dimension should have no gaps, while the other just uses transparency to match the other. Ideally, they would all be as close to the maximum 1280x1280 as possible. The images don't all need to be the same size as they are easily scaled.

I meant in the infoboxes haha, like a fixed size in the infobox, not the image itself.
 
With the recent squaring of the Pokémon artwork, is there a standard size the images should be? I suggest something like 180-220, so then all images are the same size. I'd suggest also this wants to be done through a fixed size on the template page and then we delete the size=???px | parts of the Pokémon articles.

Of course, there is likely something to be put in place already, but just in case there hasn't, I'd thought I'd suggest this.

One dimension should have no gaps, while the other just uses transparency to match the other. Ideally, they would all be as close to the maximum 1280x1280 as possible. The images don't all need to be the same size as they are easily scaled.

I meant in the infoboxes haha, like a fixed size in the infobox, not the image itself.

We're currently working on a new version of the species infobox. All art used in it will be set to standard sizes when the new version goes live.
 
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