Board Thread:Clean up Concerns/@comment-14660436-20171029213337

Another day, another issue to bring up. I've seen antics like this going on for quite a while, and I think its time to bring more attention to this topic.

Imagine this scenario (Yes, I'm aware this is somewhat exaggerated, but I swear this is the kind of thought process that goes through people's heads when it comes to stuff like this): A brand new crossover franchise emerges with a brand new villain going against all of these characters from different franchises in said-crossover.

So naturally, his page gets written up with hopefully no problems...and then this happens: Several users start adding multiple franchise categories because said-villain was going up against characters within those franchises. Superman fights him? Let's add "DC Villains" to the page, because why not. Hulk shows up? Let's add "Hulk Villains". Wait a minute, this nasty villain joined forces with Dr. Neo Cortex?! "Crash Bandicoot Villains". Oh no, did Ganondorf join sides with him too?! "Must be a Zelda Villain!" But wait, did a Goomba just so happen to walk into the battlefield?! "He must be a Mario Villain!" And so on and so on...

For those of you who are still confused about what I'm talking about, here are a handful examples:
 * http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Xaldin?diff=prev&oldid=2171125
 * http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Sephiroth?diff=next&oldid=2287325
 * http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Kaos?diff=prev&oldid=2249119
 * http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Ultron_Sigma?diff=next&oldid=2256098
 * http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Phantom_Zone_Criminals_(The_Lego_Batman_Movie)?diff=next&oldid=2300181 (Worst offender of them all, by the way)
 * http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Bowser?diff=prev&oldid=2124081

This is something I'd like to call, "Crossover Abuse". Not only are edits like these blatant category spam, but one of the biggest problem I have with edits like these is because the category known as "Crossover Villains" is all that you really need. If a villain appears in crossovers, you add the Crossover Villains category. It's as simple as that. But similarly to the antagonistic scale, the main problem involved here is over-specification: people start becoming way too specific to the point where it becomes ridiculous by spamming any franchise category they can possibly find to point out which villains crossover with who (the Bowser example above is where this issue comes into play, since "Skylanders Villains", a crossover franchise, is added, and then "Spyro Villains", another franchise crossing over with Skylanders, is also added to Bowser's page).

It just really makes a huge mess out of several category sections within articles. Franchise articles are mainly used for villains who actually appears and more importantly originate within said franchise, so when you start mish-mashing articles between franchise categories, it just makes said categories a headache to look at (even moreso when you start cleaning up the mess).

In general, I think we need to be a little more strict against edits like these due to the mess they can make in certain pages. Feel free to leave your thoughts below. 