Forum:Infobox: Do we need a current actor variable?

{{forumheader|Panopticon]] A motion has been brought up at this talk page that we should add the variable {{{current actor}}} to {{tlx|Infobox Individual}} in order to allow for the page on the Doctor to have Matt Smith in a featured spot in the infobox.

This motion was brought forward because of a disagreement about the interpretation of the {{{actor}}} variable, which renders as "main actor" in the template. In order to eliminate bias, this variable is interpreted to mean "the actor who played the role most often" — a quantifiable metric. Otherwise, we'd have people endlessly squabbling about whether Hartnell, Troughton, ad nauseum were the "main" Doctor, Tamm or Ward were the "main" Romana, Leeson or Brierley were the main K9 — not to mention the vexed question of who's the "main" Master or Davros.

So should we add a variable for "current actor" — which, honestly, would only apply to the single page of the Doctor – or is the potential for abuse of this one-use-only variable greater than the benefit of having it around for the Doctor? I mean, I know I don't want to see {{{current actor}}} being used on any other page, as there is no reason that it should supplant {{{actor}}}. This possibility would, of course, be lowered by simply not including the variable in the instructions to {{tlx|Infobox Individual}}. We could also call the variable {{{current doctor}}}, not {{{current actor}}}, so that people would be disinclined to use it in other situations.

But the question before us remains: is the infobox at the Doctor actually confusing enough to warrant the introduction of a special variable just for it alone?

A secondary question would be: if you add {{{current doctor}}} would you then not use {{{actor}}} on the Doctor? Would the infobox parse oddly to have Smith listed as "current" and Baker listed as "main"? {{user:CzechOut/Sig}} 15:17: Thu 16 Aug 2012