Template talk:Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon episodes

Unnecessary hiding of episodes

My edit yesterday to simplify the template's navigation was reverted by User:Alex 21. Displaying episodes by season is wholly unnecessary here, unless it's for a show like The Simpsons with 600+ episodes. I was bringing this template in line with others like Template:The Sopranos, Template:The Wire episodes, and Template:Breaking Bad. Displaying all episodes makes navigation more easy and accessible. Also removes the need to link to each season twice. Other than it being a change, what was the reason to revert? -- Wikipedical (talk) 17:25, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

There is no need to display Season 5's episodes in the Season 3 article. With this logic, no season is linked twice, as the link is unlinked on the respective article that the template is used, and the only seasons linked are the alternate seasons. Likewise, it makes sense to display all of the episodes on the List of Episodes article. Updating the second of those templates with the same logic would be quite beneficial; the other two are not episode templates, they encompass the entire series.

By the way, pings don't work when you add them after your initial post. -- /Alex/₂₁ 02:06, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

"There is no need to display Season 5's episodes in the Season 3 article." That's an opinion, though I can absolutely understand a reader wanting to switch from a Season 2 Desmond episode of Lost to a Season 5 episode, via Template:Lost episodes. Templates are supposed to help make navigation as simple as possible. It's just as easy to make the template as comprehensive as possible than it is to display episodes by season. So, again, unless there are 600+ episodes, I don't see any advantage to hiding episodes based on season, and your response doesn't clarify one. -- Wikipedical (talk) 22:41, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

Why the decision to make it 600+ episodes? Where does that come from? That's just another opinion, just as you stated that my opinion is only an opinion. Template:Doctor Who episodes only has 287 stories, but the template would be terrible unwieldy to display in full on every season and episode article. The format was updated almost two years ago, and as far as I can tell, there has been no disagreement from the number of editors that have edited the template, or the hundreds that have seen and used it. Sure, navigation template should be as simple as possible, but they should also be as intuitive as possible. -- /Alex/₂₁ 01:23, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

I completely agree with Wikipedical's reasoning here, it's much more logical. I'm fairly certain the "600+ episodes" thing is a reference to The Simpsons episode count, and is not meant to be a suggestion of a literal guideline. I've always found it completely cumbersome when certain episode templates are coded this way and you can only see the links listed for that season. It's actually how I found this discussion and was wondering why it was done being this way; which is why I suggest bringing this to WP:TV and maybe try and conforming a consensus and how these templates should be laid out. Comparing the GoT template to Doctor Who's is completely off base; that DW template is massive with 39 rows with most of those having two columns inside the rows with hundreds of links. The GoT template is 8 rows with 10 or less links in each; the DW template is easily 5x if not more the size, it's completely logical for that template to be coded that way. It's of zero service for the GoT template to be done this way. I still suggest bringing this to WP:TV or MOS:TV to gain a wider consensus, because I don't think many people will see this. Drovethrughosts (talk) 14:55, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

• I'm in agreement with Wikipedical here. The navbox isn't so large that we need to restrict it on a season by season basis. Leaving the navbox open allows free navigation between episodes. --woodensuperman 16:33, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Per Drovethrughosts' suggestion, I notified WP:TV and MOS:TV about this discussion. It's been a week since I opened this discussion, with Alex 21 as the only one opposing. I agree with Alex' reasoning when it comes to larger templates with greater episode counts, but with regards to GoT, I concur with other editors that displaying all episodes is not problematic. I believe that there is a greater consensus to reinstitute the change here at this time. -- Wikipedical (talk) 23:33, 31 March 2019 (UTC)