Talk:Simpsons Wiki

Featured Articles/Images/Episode
Any ideas for the article and episode? I am going to upload the new Simpsons opening image for the pciture. Also im going to make a record of previous featured articles/images/episodes somewhere. --Sgtcook 17:07, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Language Links
Here's a copy of what a posted on every Simpson wiki for reference.

Hi(i used google to translate this in case you can't understand English) I'm from the English Simpsons wiki and i'm going to update our language links tonight and over the weekend.One question though, does it update your Homer page if i put it on the English page?--Sgtcook 21:45, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

About the Language links... I think that they're a wiki in french, the admins can adds this links please? I can't because i'm not an admin. Thanks. Sincerely.
 * -- 02:34, 6 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Anyone can add language links just on this wiki just put page name and on the French put page name.--Sgtcook 15:36, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Spam?
Hi ive been visiting numerous of pageson this site and have been seeing this on alot of pages about characters.

"Great Great Nephew. Bart Great Great Nieces Lisa, Maggie Great Nieces Marge, patty and selma Great Nephew, In law Homer Brother in law Abe"

Is someone spamming that or is that intended to be there, i have the feeling its not supposed to.


 * "Unregistered contributor 85.12.64.150" keeps changing the Roofi page and Abe Simpson page, adding caps- and bold-filled nonsense. Someone get a handle on this while I revert the edits. JaffaCakeLover 15:05, March 18, 2010 (UTC)

About This Wiki The Simpsons Page
This Alex Estrada, this page should be edited with a little more heart and soul, meaning there needs to be more info on every page, and most importantly, on the home page.

Thanks, for anyone who read this all the way.--Novatv456 23:35, 29 July 2009 (UTC)--Novatv456 23:35, 29 July 2009 (UTC)--Novatv456 23:35, 29 July 2009 (UTC)


 * well anyone can add the info,we all don't know everything off the top of our heads.--Sgtcook 11:24, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Video games pic?
OK, there's Template:Ep, which is used for the TV show in the Appearances box for characters (i've revamped Homers). There's also Bon (for comics) and UL (for the Tracy Ullman shorts). Where's the one for Video Games? Does it still need to be made, and if so, what picture would suit it? Are there any other catagories for appearances (the templates aren't in a group)? JaffaCakeLover 18:19, 12 August 2009 (UTC)


 * There's MOV for the Movie. A gaming controller maybe. I don't think there's one, Kingcjc made them so i'd check with him.--Sgtcook 18:35, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * What about adverts as well?--Sgtcook 20:40, 15 August 2009 (UTC)
 * And books.--Sgtcook 20:51, 16 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Don't think there's any for adverts or books; i've come across Ullman Shorts (Ul), Episodes (Ep), the movie (mov), Treehouse of Horror (THOH), comics (Bon), and games does exist (Game).

I made games, books and adverts the other day.Here they are

--Sgtcook 19:13, September 8, 2009 (UTC)

Hiding attributes?
In the infoboxes (episode, character etc.), I could swear there's a way to hide attributes: for example, if you don't fill in a 'hair' attribute on a Character template for Milhouse's page, then the 'hair' line doesn't show up at all. What's the code/syntax for this? JaffaCakeLover 15:33, September 8, 2009 (UTC)
 * I saw it on another wiki, i'll dig it out for you.i was going to add it but i never forgot it.--Sgtcook 16:03, September 8, 2009 (UTC)

This is probably it, i'm trying now. .--Sgtcook 16:46, September 8, 2009 (UTC)

This wiki needs serious fixing
There are too many stubs, bad spelling and grammar, and plus some pages I can't even find here. It needs to be more updated. BuddyComics 08:13 27 September 2009


 * Well i and other user can't do everything. We have lives away from the wiki, like school. It's up to users like you to fix these things.I had been using the AutoWiki Browser to fix spellings (my spellcheck is in British English), but it hasn't been working recently.--Sgtcook 15:46, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

Skin
This wiki seriously needs a skin, maybe a yellow kind or something else. But really get an admin to deign a skin for you many wiki's have them. --Homer-simpson 15:50, December 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * They just added a new skin, but it's rather ugly in my standards. Ldude893 00:59, February 27, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well i have cleared my catch but still can't see the new skin.--Sgtcook (My Talk Page) 01:04, February 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * Why dont u insert the episode and season number? very strange ;)
 * What are you on about? ☆ The  Solar  Dragon  ( Talk ) ☆ 18:08, May 5, 2010 (UTC)

Main page header
Please, if any admin read this, I edited the Template:MainPageIntro and added a border. Anyone who can edit the Main page, please remove the link  and I will add it to the Mainpageintro box. Thanks, -- 15:02, January 20, 2010 (UTC)


 * Done.--Sgtcook (My Talk Page) 16:03, January 20, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, -- 16:11, January 20, 2010 (UTC)

Facebook
I've created a Wikisimpsons page in Facebook. Please join if you have an account there. Please, write it in the Main Page. -- 23:26, February 3, 2010 (UTC)

Joined.--Sgtcook (My Talk Page) 17:40, February 4, 2010 (UTC)

The main page's looks
Can we change the look of main page? We can use the look of the page in spanish. I think is better. We should do a vote. What do you think? Link to page


 * -- 02:59, February 8, 2010 (UTC)


 * Edited link, i does look cooler. Another thing we need is a better skin. Anyone know if the skins are in CSS(CBA to look)?

You have to go in Special:Preferences, then you go to "Skin" and click the "Smoke" skin and you save your changes at the bottom of the page. It's yellow you can watch it here.

PS: Congratulations for the 4,000 articles.


 * -- 15:12, February 9, 2010 (UTC)


 * It is CSS, so if anyone has a colour scheme i could give it a go. Also can't see anything cos i think we use a custom.--Sgtcook (My Talk Page) 15:43, February 9, 2010 (UTC)

Maybe you should talk with Simpsons88.


 * -- 18:17, February 9, 2010 (UTC)


 * Me and Solar kinda failed.--Sgtcook (My Talk Page) 20:15, February 9, 2010 (UTC)

Time to make a request then? ☆ The  Solar  Dragon  ( Talk ) ☆ 21:00, February 9, 2010 (UTC)

I've tried to improve the background. Took it into Photoshop, made it a seamless tile & removed the logo & crow. Here you go. I also improved the logo image (but didn't get round to posting it), by tracing Homer's head from the DVD cover & the wikipedia logo. That one's here! I made a favicon too (why is the logo Homer but the Favicon Bart?), but it doesn't look better than the current one, so nothing yet. --JaffaCakeLover 14:48, March 10, 2010 (UTC)
 * Looks good. One thing. Can you change the file format to a jpg or something similar please? ☆ The  Solar  Dragon  ( Talk ) ☆ 17:19, March 10, 2010 (UTC)


 * Wow, nice work, love the Homer - Also Solar the logo has to be a .png. Can't comment on background as mines still the old one.--Sgtcook (My Talk Page) 18:34, March 10, 2010 (UTC)


 * Changed them now. When my cache resets, I will tell you what I think. ☆ The  Solar  Dragon  ( Talk ) ☆ 22:11, March 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * Very nice :) JaffaCakeLover 14:57, March 18, 2010 (UTC)

About the main page
This wiki has nearly every article for nearly every subject in the Simpsons, and yet they lack an article about the show itself. The article name "The Simpsons" is just the main page. Ldude893 09:44, February 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * The Simpsons (show) Started it off. ☆ The  Solar  Dragon  ( Talk ) ☆ 22:13, March 16, 2010 (UTC)

Odd text characters glitch
Back working on the Season templates, someone's stuck on proper next and previous arrows... nice. Trouble is, for some reason the right arrow ( &rarr; ) shows up, but not the left one ( &larr; ). I'm replacing them with different arrows, they don't look as nice but both display. ( &lArr; &rArr; ) JaffaCakeLover 15:01, March 18, 2010 (UTC)

Featured Video
If Fox ever decide to update there YouTube with Simpsons promos, we could do like the featured picture, with fan choices when new episodes stop. Any comments?--Sgtcook (My Talk Page) 12:16, March 27, 2010 (UTC)
 * I guess. We could include small sections of video footage. ☆ The  Solar  Dragon  ( Talk ) ☆ 13:02, March 27, 2010 (UTC)

Default Skin
About 1/10 times I visit a page it appears in the Default Sapphire skin, does this happen to anyone else? --Smiley12 was here at 22:55, June 4, 2010 (UTC)
 * This happens occasionally to me when Wikia is messing about. When Wikia becomes slow, due to database errors and the like, this will happen. If this happened yesterday, it was probably because there was an error they were trying to fix, hence the image upload being disabled as well. 06:54, June 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * Hmm. Just did it to me then. Must be a Wikia fail. 09:18, June 5, 2010 (UTC)

Where to begin
First let me say, I’m new to Wikisimpsons, but no to Wikipedia, where I’ve had my share of edits. (I went by a different name there.) I want to help improve Wikisimpsons and there are just some thing I want to discuss.

I noticed that the actual articles that inform you on how to edit at this Wiki, such as the Manual of Style, are not very organized. For example, the MoS makes it clear how to list a character’s or location’s appearances, but it doesn’t show the actual templates to do this. There is no link to Wikisimpsons:Templates from there, or anything. There is also no locations section at the MoS page.

The MoS also doesn’t make clear when and how to use section names. I still don’t know for sure if the “scenes” in “Behind the Scenes” is supposed to be capitalized or not, or if I’ve even been using that section correctly. Is it the same thing as a Trivia section or no? And is the “Used for” field in the location template supposed to be used to actually describe what it is the location is for, or name what the actually location is? For example, for the Springfield Public Library, should it say, “Library” or “Research”?

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, I’m not, it’s just that if we want this Wiki to get organized, we have to start here. I don’t mind fixing these things myself. (Also, not that it’s a big deal, but I noticed that the syntax of the location template is itself unorganized. It requires that you capitalize the t in “Town” or otherwise it won’t show up, while other fields require that they remain lowercase such as “first appearances.”)

I also plan on improving the Project Locations page if no one minds. There is also no box.

Now unto another topic. A “stub” is characterized by an article that is a paragraph or less and could be more, but then there are some articles that could never be more than one paragraph, let alone a paragraph, such as “Ron's Meat.” My question is, are articles this small--in this case, something that was just mere background scenery--worth an article at all? I would think no, but this is in essence an encyclopedia, so why not? I’m just wondering, for an article like that, when is it considered to be in a “finished” or “definitive” state, since it will technically always be a stub. Is there something we could use for this Wiki that says, though this article is just a stub, and will never reach featured article status, it is “complete”? An infobox or something. If not, do articles like this warrant their on page.

And last, but not least, these are just some suggestions that I have for Wikisimpsons:
 * Change “Behind the scenes” to “Behind the laughter”. More to the point, and a lot of fans will immediately get the connotation.
 * Perhaps making the yellow used in the episode tabs a little lighter. The current dark orangey yellow makes it a little hard to read.
 * This is The Simpsons, so why not a quote of the day on the main page.
 * Adding an “Employees” section to the location template would really help.
 * And a picture for video games appearances that’s more related to the Simpsons like the others appearance pictures.

Again, these are just suggestions and my feeling won’t be hurt if they are not accepted.

I do all this rambling because I only want this Wiki looking its best. TheUnderfaker 16:06, July 4, 2010 (UTC)


 * Great suggestions! We'll have to wait and see what the other users says though, before making any big changes. 16:12, July 4, 2010 (UTC)


 * To be honest, we need to agree to what we want in a MoS, as it seems all editors do it their way. I would be happy for you to help. I personally am fine with articles that cant be expanded being short. Over on brickipedia, where I also admin, we have a completness system, where if an article can't be made into a good or featured article, it can be complete. It could work here, but it only came about following a very rigid and structured FA and GA scheme. Behind the laughter sounds cool, and a quote a day is a good idea, as I found some funny quotes earlier, "Its Mr. McGreg, with a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg". Your rambles, are very good. Kingcjc 17:07, July 4, 2010 (UTC)


 * We do need a few changes I feel. I never use the Manual of Style so if someone could bulk it up and start discussions on the talk page. If an article can't be made any bigger, it is not a stub. Remove the template. we should have the article as we are a Simpsons encyclopaedia. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  18:17, July 4, 2010 (UTC)


 * Each Bullet Point is a response to each of your ideas.


 * Why didn't I think of that. Good Idea.
 * I don't see what's wrong with the current colour, but it's like that because it was originally copied from Family Guy Wiki...
 * Yep. There is heaps here and all over the internet.
 * Yep.
 * Not quite sure what you mean there.

You should see what the MoS looked like before I started here. ;)

--Smiley12 was here at 05:10, July 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh, never mind, I get it now --Smiley12 was here at 08:54, July 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * I didn't copy it, I borrowed it.... Kingcjc 18:24, July 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * It doesn't matter. You took it and personalised it. I take templates all the time. The vandalism template is from Futurama Wiki, Licensing from Fable wiki, the new style quote template from Futurama again. All members of Wikia are a community and we share ideas and templates. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  20:20, July 5, 2010 (UTC)

Featured quote now in place. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  10:05, July 5, 2010 (UTC)

Main Page Layout
What does it look like? I designed it for people who have ads. I have to suffer a bit due to having a massive white space on the right bottom hand side. But, it is a small price to pay for having no ads, no pop ups etc! If you have Firefox, search for the Adblock Plus add on. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  20:52, July 5, 2010 (UTC)

We have to take ourselves seriously before anyone else can
We need a new name, one that is more attractive than “Simpsons Wiki” or “Wiki Simpsons”. I was thinking Mmmcyclopedia.

The front page needs to look more attractive. I don’t know if you can actually do one of these on a Wiki, but perhaps a scroll-over box like at Yahoo.com.

The current goldenrod color that is used throughout most of the Wiki is just unattractive. I say either use a more attractive yellow closer to the Simpsons’ color, or use another color all together.

Get rid of the Featured Clean Up box and just have a Spotlight article a day/a week. This is an article that is not a featured article, which is the point, we’re highlighting it on the main page to get editors to get it up to code, add more information, etc.

I wouldn’t mind at least trying for a week having blog posts at the end of each article. The same 5 or so editors keep editing here (me, Effluvium, TheHomer, Ldude, Mythigator, Josegiraffio, Kingcjc, Smiley12, Solar Dragon, did I miss anyone?); we rarely get any new editors (who stay); editors come, make large improvements, and then just leave--I want to know why this is, and allowing people to comment on the articles (since no one is actually coming here to edit them) would allow for us to get advice on how to improve them and gauge just how many people are actually coming here to read them. This also might reduce vandalism if visitors can just post their thoughts on an article. Sure, most of the posts will probably be spam, but if we only display two posts at a time, it won’t really matter.

WE NEED TO GET ORGANIZED. It’s no wonder why editors keep leaving: there is no clear and concise guidelines to go by for any of our articles: episodes, characters, locations, items, lists, or other articles. I am also shocked at what passes for “Featured Article” at this Wiki. Several of these so-called featured articles have bad prose, no references (or references with broken links), and are not fully comprehensive. (By that, I don’t mean, for example, that Homer Simpson’s article should name EVERY job he’s ever had; I mean that articles shouldn’t have key pieces of information missing from them.) We want to be taken seriously, but we don’t take ourselves or our articles seriously.

Original research has got to go. I don’t know who went around wrongly naming all the characters, but it has to stop. “Gilbert” Gunderson, Chester Turley? Are we going to enforce the Non-canon policy or not, because Chester Turley is what a card--not an episode--claimed Snake’s real name to be. I don’t mind that being mentioned in the article under a non-canon section, but to start the article out claiming that that is his real name, just no. Cecil Terwilliger’s page said that he has a son--a non-canon character from a comic--solely because he appeared as Bob’s nephew in that comic. For all we know, it could be someone else’s son.

We have to get a policy on appearances. To list EVERY character’s appearance is ridiculous, when just about every Simpsons episode has a crowd scene. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to list every character’s every appearance for that matter. And I don’t think we need to list the appearances for the Simpson family because everyone knows, even someone who has never watched the show in their entire life can assume, that they’ve appeared--and they have (with the exception of Maggie)--in every episode.

We need to take prose seriously. We should have a template so that if you don’t feel comfortable with your prose (sentence structure, grammar, spelling), you can put it at the top of the article so that another editor can come along it improve it. No article should be allowed featured status until the prose is excellent.

Implement a system like the one Wookieepedia is trialing now, which is similar to what I was trying to explain in Where to begin. This way, for editors’ records and readers’ knowledge, we know when an article, which is not featured, is not a stub but complete and comprehensive. If we are going to implement a system like this, we have to be strict. If the article can reach featured status then it shouldn’t apply and any article that does qualify should be fully comprehensive.

I really don’t think writing in an in-universe style is going to help this wiki in the long-run. It might work for Wookieepedia and Lostpedia, but something obviously ain’t gelling here, and that might be it. People rather read Wikipedia’s Simpsons articles why? Because they are written from a real-world perspective.

We have to take referencing seriously. I’ll be reading an article and want to know where a bit of information is from, but there is no reference. We need references to verify that things are factually accurate and not just made-up by some fan. I also suggest that we make the References section be a drop-down box.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. It is no wonder why editors come here and then leave. Because they see all the tasks in front of them--they see all that needs to be repaired--and they get overwhelmed. I’m overwhelmed myself. People see this Wiki as a joke, not a trust-worthy online resource for Simpsons information. We’re an encyclopedia, let’s start acting like one.TheUnderfaker 17:14, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * You have some good points there. If you try designing some of the things you suggest for the main page and make it look better (It is only semi-protected). I will move the Featured Cleanup to a separate section, something like Wikisimpsons:Cleanup. In-universe style should be kept. Most wikis use it. We should too. We will not be changing that. If you start these changes and show us what they look like, we will then decide whether it will be kept or scrapped. And, we do need to name pages after their proper TV show name, not behind the scenes things like books and Top Trumps etc. Maybe mentioned in the behind the scenes sections instead. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  17:22, July 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, I wouldn't know where to begin to implement the things that I suggested for the main page, but I'll try to figure it out. I'll also start working on the MoS page. No, I don't need it or use it, you don't either, nor do most of the editors I named above. But we still need a set of guidelines for new users and so that every page on a specific subject (all location articles, for example) is in unison. I'll also be adding a reference templates page soon.TheUnderfaker 17:34, July 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * That is exactly the reason I asked you to do it :) Thanks for working on the MoS page. No one has touched it I think. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  17:38, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * The Underfaker is right about the appearances. Milhouse appears in lots of episodes, but not all, so we should have all his appearances. But Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge, Maggie, the USA, etc. appear in every episode. We could just write "(name) appears in every episode, comic and video game" (in the case of Bart, "with the exception of Four Great Women and a Manicure"). 18:10, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * Other wikis have separate pages for the recurring characters like X - List of appearances. We could do that I guess. But, in the case of continuity in articles, we need to list all appearances. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  18:12, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * I was also thinking of making the main white space of the wiki yellow as well. I tried it out but judging by the main page, it looked horrible (due to the main page structure and the boxes on the main page). It would take some fixing but i think we could make it work. Also, what don't you like about the yellow colour Underfaker? It looks allright to me. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  18:17, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree with the name change. "Wikisimpsons" is not a very good name, in my opinion. I like the idea of a home-page redesign too. This is a wiki dedicated to the biggest cartoon in world history! We need to start getting things together and being more professional. Great ideas, Underfaker. I noticed today the new "Wikia" logo up in the top left-hand corner, which looks great. However, I see no need to change the colour scheme of the wiki, it looks great and seems to be a decent enough colour to be recognized as something to do with The Simpsons. Maybe we could look at other wikis (Wookiepedia, Lostpedia, DC Comics?) to get some ideas which we could use? I'm happy to see that we are all putting forward our niggles and trying to find something that all of us are happy with - its great to see the community working together again! Maybe we could start re-designing the homepage before anything else? And the achievement system that Solar made a blog on is a step in the right direction. Im busy with other things at the momment, but in the summer holidays, I'll start getting to work on some new features. 18:45, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * Also, I disagree with the articles being written in-universe. If we do that, we may as well all just pack up our things and go and help out Wikipedia. If you look at other Wikia projects, many (if not all) of them are written in-universe. I agree, we should of some in-universe (Episodes, Show Runners, Production companies etc) but no, not the character pages - no. I agree that we need to establish some sort of new guidelines for editing and start making things uniform. I don't we on the episodes for instance, should start by saying: "Episode name" is the "episode number" of "season number". It was broadcast on "date" etc. I think we should just have a sentence or two of the basic plot (like they do on Memory Alpha) and have an extra tab or extra location for that information. Or maybe a template? These are all things we could work on. Its great to finally see some new blood running through the wiki! 18:52, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * I disagree with the comments bit. I've seen this comment thing on several wikis and most of the stuff that gets posted there is just Spam. The talkpages is the best way to get points across, I feel. Good ideas by the way, Underfaker! :) 19:01, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * About the name change, Wookiepedia was already a big wiki outside of Wikia. Wikisimpsons started at Wikia. Wikisimpsons is probably the closest we could get to having a name change. More people are likely to search for Simpsons Wiki, which could return Wikisimpsons. Less, next to none, will search for Mmmpedia. It is not a well known name. In fact, Wikisimpsons is actually more well known. I don't feel we should change our name. It is a good name for the wiki, the closest we can get without having our wiki go down the Google rankings even more as it will do. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  19:03, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * OK. I've been thinking that maybe we could contact some Simpsons fan websites and ask if they can list us as a friend. Quite a few I've visited are all linked up. Seeing as we have quite a high article count, this could be a good way to get more traffic and editors, aswell as some extra attention. Maybe they could just add our logo with the words: "Wikisimpsons, the Simpsons encylopedia" or something like that. Lostpedia and Wookiepedia are linked to other websites and I don't see why the Simpsons community cannot be connected with this wiki. 20:08, July 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, we do need to publicise the wiki as much as we can. Add links to other wikis in return for linking them to us somewhere. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  20:15, July 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * <<< Here would be good. At the bottom of the page, they have a "buddies" section. Aswell as such other websites as: Last Exit to Springfield and The Springfield Connection. We should try contacting the site manager or owner to see if we can be added to the list :) 20:20, July 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * before we do that, we should design one of those button-thingies. Is anyone good with graphics and artistic? ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  20:23, July 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * I do Graphics and Art, what do you mean by "Button thingies". --Smiley12 was here at 22:31, July 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh, I get it, we could just use that image of our spotlight, but I'll see what I can do. --Smiley12 was here at 22:40, July 14, 2010 (UTC)

Ok, I made this: ↓

Which would look something like this on Simpsons Crazy:



Let me know if it's fine or if I could add anything. --Smiley12 was here at 00:49, July 15, 2010 (UTC)
 * That would make a great spotlight too. If we ever ask again, I would suggest that as a spotlight. I will email Simpsons Crazy asking them if they could add us as a buddy. ☆ The   Solar   Dragon  08:49, July 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * That looks great! Good work, Smiley! :) 15:34, July 15, 2010 (UTC)
 * . This will make

--Smiley12 was here at 22:22, July 15, 2010 (UTC)