>>106331103
>>106330896
depends on the model and method, 90% of sloppy example dialogues people make are actively harmful to the output
for something like sillytavern w/ gemini, having a bloated non-instructional example dialogue is heavily detrimental because it has to read, index, process, digest and ultimately format that example text every time you prompt it (using token count fully)

if you're going to use it at all, only put things that should be imperative to your world setting if it's extremely specific, ie. everyone in this world setting uses gay choom gonk cyberpunk slang, everyone in this world casually throws taboo slurs into conversation, etc.. you can sculpt this further by adding a list of examples to specify but generally want to leave it as barren as possible
>How much should I give a fuck about Token counts of character cards
a lot, imo
ability for recent models to withstand a barrage of bullshit doesn't mean they operate best while doing so, you still want to keep a relatively clean working space without throwing piles of unnecessary paperwork everywhere (paperwork that it must read, top to bottom, every time you prompt it if it isn't cleanly categorized or using lorebooks)