User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-7302713-20130409112511/@comment-7302713-20130409171004

No I understand how redlinking creates a want for the page and I love that this wiki has so much that isn't directly linked to the Whoniverse. I guess I have a bit of an issue with both how incredibly vague and excessive a lot of it is. Holiday is linked on that page and there's not even a specific holiday that is being referred to. Or the following sentence from that article:

She then picks up a tablet which shows his name and picture, and sliders marked conscience, paranoia, obedience and IQ.

What is keeping someone from redlinking the few words that aren't in that sentence? Picks, name, picture, sliders, marked? It's a bit distracting to read a sentence or paragraph littered with redlinks. Partially because it's jarring, but also partially because I use links in an article to help expand what I know. When things are linked, I often mouse my cursor over the link to see where it goes. When I mouse of the linking of the mad monk and see that it links to Aliases of the Doctor I remember that it's there but I don't open it. If it had however linked to a page called the mad monk I would have opened the page in a new tab and looked at it when I got to the end of the paragraph. Sure, there would be a chance that the page was just summarizing the information gleaned about the mad monk from this episode, but maybe there are references to the mad monk or the Doctor's life as a monk in earlier seasons. If there was I'd skim the article briefly before going back and finishing the episodes article.

So when I see that tablet is linked I open that article page because I assume that there is information I don't know that could be relevant. Maybe it's not just any old tablet, but a special one. Maybe there is a special meaning to tablets in Doctor Who. Maybe there is some history to tablets in Doctor Who. Maybe certain characters are found of tablets. Maybe this is a mistake but when I see something ordinary linked on this wiki I assume that if I go to that page I will learn information about the use of [whatever it is] in Doctor Who. Maybe [it's] something the Doctor [or another character] is fond of, or doesn't like. Maybe the use [of X] highlights a particularly theme or is used by writers to show a particular emotion.

I like that there can be pages of just about anything--I guess my problem is with the idea of pages on everything. It seems so counter-intuitive and is completely against the way I edit and the way I read that I have a hard time wrapping my head around it.