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Community discussion

OK, I really think we should have one of these like every four months or so. No need everyone going off and doing their own thing; we all need to be on one accord.

This is not intended to be a long rant by me. This is me opening up the discussion to the ENTIRE community on their concerns or ways to improve the wiki. So I’ll start…

First, an idea I have: Just because we’re an encyclopedia, doesn’t mean we have to look like one. We look dull. Is it any wonder why new editors never stay around, which is why I admire those that do month after month.

What am I saying? Let’s spruce the place up. I was hoping that when we moved over to Shout, we would makes ourselves look vastly cooler than Wikia. Instead, it’s the same old same old.

Whatever the case, my idea was this: Adding a poll, to be directly located under the infobox, to every episode article, allowing users to rate the episode. Remember, we’re fans of the show, first and foremost, and I for one would like to know what other fans think. Here’s an example:

Rate “Who Shot Grampa’s Hat”.

You are not entitled to vote.
You are not entitled to view results of this poll.

A (Classic)

B (Very Good)

C (OK)

D (D'oh!)

E (Worst. Episode. Ever.)

There were 31 votes since the poll was created on 14:27, January 24, 2014.

poll-id A0C424F22265DCDF9EC3089D5BD6FB96

Then, each month, when we do the Featured Episode, we could display the average user rating (the one with the most votes), like so:

Old Money is the seventeenth episode of Season 2. It aired on March 28, 1991. It was written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky and was directed by David Silverman. Audrey Meadows guest starred in it as Bea Simmons, Grampa's new girlfriend. Professor Frink makes his debut in the episode. The episode features references to films such as If I Had a Million, and the Star Wars and Batman film franchises.

Grandpa Simpson falls in love with Bea Simmons, a fellow resident of the Springfield Retirement Castle. During the course of their brief romance, Bea passes away and leaves Grandpa her entire savings, $100,000. Grandpa decides to give the money to charity but can't decide which one is worthiest, but when he can't decide, Grampa heads for a casino to gamble it away.

Average User Rating: B - Read more of this episode | More featured episodes | Vote for Featured episode

We don’t have to use the parenthetical info, I was just playing around. I don’t know if it’s possible, but we can make the poll signed–in users only, so it’s more legit.

Anyway, that was my idea. Now on to the more important matters. We gon’ nip all this s**t in the bud, TODAY! Just kidding, anyways…

Behind the Laughter. Originally, it irked me, the ‘L’ being capitalized. Unless it is a proper noun or the first word in the heading, it should be lowercase. But now it doesn’t much bother me. AS LONG as it just with that heading, and nothing else. However, we still need to reach a consensus as a community on whether it should be lowercase or uppercase.

I was on Wikisimpsons Forum, and saw a discussion about guestimating ages, etc. I completely agree. My general rule is that, unless it’s given in the show, don’t use it. If a character doesn’t have a last name, don’t make on up—even if they are married. What’s the point of being an encyclopedia if we’re not going to be accurate? We can call her Gloria Jailbird all we want to—until it’s stated as such in an episode (or one of The Simpsons: A Complete Guide books), the character is still officially just known as “Gloria”. Take Herbert Powell. If his last name had never been revealed, we’d have countless editors saying it’s “Simpson”. If a character’s age or birthdate is not given, don’t guess one. Just leave it blank. Only if a character says they’re in their 50s, or such, should we be putting that down.

Next, prose. Past or present, in–universe or out –of–universe is the question. Although, as I had expressed at one point, past sounds more professional, what I don’t like is how often, are articles come off as sounding like historical accounts: “once”, “at one point”, etc. Past tense is fine for out–of–universe, but in–universe and past tense don’t mix (Wikipedia has a list of the problems with this, by the way - see "The problem with in-universe perspective"), which is why I had suggested switching to out–of–universe. But, as Brian McClure once said, no sense trying to compete with Wikipedia, so I agree we should stay with in–universe. I will just suggest that our articles be written in present tense. Again, I use Wikipedia’s reasoning as to why.

Brian also suggested using in–paragraph citations like Lostpedia does, which I think is a great idea as you would have the reference right there and, again, it’s just one more thing we can do so we don’t look like your average, bland wiki encyclopedia, with a list of references at the bottom of every article.

Well, that’s it for me, for now. Again, feel free to express your concerns or ideas. TheUnderfaker 16:55, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

The Poll idea could be a good way to get people more involved, though its quite hard to make us look different to others wikis as we use MediaWiki like them. I presumed Behind the Laughter was capitalized as thats the episode name. Agree with the presumptions. They should all be removed when spotted. ----- A Kind of Madness - CJC / Blackadder 17:03, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

I like the idea. Not sure if the poll should go underneath the infobox though, maybe a link could be added inside the infobox which links to the poll? I think that would work better. Also, it would be more convenient to do this since a Transcript link will also be probably added to the template soon. Not fussed on changing how we do the referencing though... Effluvium 17:14, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

I like the poll under the infobox however. It could be integrated into the template somehow. The whole tense thing is awkward though. I feel that it should be in past tense as these events have already happened. Episodes should be in present tense though. If you guys want, we could try out the new referencing, maybe even make a template for this, making the ref. smaller and up, like the actual reference numbers. The articles should not be put out of in-universe style as we have often spent so long putting them like this in the first place. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 17:27, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Let me be clear: I think we should continue to use in-universe, and that episode plots should be written in past tense. It's just that I think all other articles, characters, locations, would be better served written in present tense.

And, Blackadder, there's always things we can do to make the wiki look better. For example, do our infoboxes have to look so...lame. TheUnderfaker 17:38, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

LAME? I love the new infoboxes! I'm not fussed on the EpisodePrevNext template since it was redesigned however, but the infoboxes are awesome! I don't think we should change the infoboxes, before anyone goes there! Effluvium 17:42, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Mhhh... I don't like the poll inside the infobox. Nor inside the article (like pictures). It'd be the same problem as ads. Big squares taking space. Oh, wait, I have an idea. The poll inside the infobox, but hidden, using the show/hide function, like the Wikisimpsons at Wikia. — ^TheHomer ^{(Talk • Contributions)} 17:48, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, that could work! Effluvium 17:51, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

I wasn'tsuggesting the poll be in the infobox, just under it. TheUnderfaker 17:55, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

But under the infobox, it takes too much space. — ^TheHomer ^{(Talk • Contributions)} 18:00, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

The poll integrated into it might be good with a show/hide feature. This would take up less space too. That is a good idea. Under it without the show/hide feature would take up too much space. Effluvium, we could remove the border on the EpisodePrevnext box as that was actually an accident and I never got round to removing it before another user changed the coding for the rest of them. Also, just thought you should know that I am in talks to get the Portuguese Wikisimpsons moved here. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 18:03, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

My thinking was that we would just format the width of the poll to match the infobox if we put it underneath, but show/hide inside the infobox is fine. TheUnderfaker 18:06, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, show/hide is better, IMO. And OK, Solar, we'll get round to that sometime :) Effluvium 18:07, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

But... I don't know how to implement that feature. We could call Smiley, or ask at Spanish Wikisimpsons. They use a template or something with a parameter to hide the box. We have a different style that does not work here. Either copying their javascript code, or, I don't know, asking them to help us. — ^TheHomer ^{(Talk • Contributions)} 18:09, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm sure that either me or ShoutWiki's staff could figure it out. I'm guessing that they use the same show/hide code as us and it is just a matter of implementing it into the infobox. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 18:15, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Main Page [[File:{{{image}}}|250px]]

Episode Information Poll What is your favorite character? You are not entitled to vote. You are not entitled to view results of this poll. Lenny Carl There were 5 votes since the poll was created on 14:27, January 24, 2014. poll-id 8CDAB4682078185E4E975A294D0F0771

I could implement the poll! See this example. The problem is that the poll is too big. — ^TheHomer ^{(Talk • Contributions)} 18:35, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

It looks really good. Shame about the poll being too big. Is there a way to format the code to make it the same size as the infobox? Effluvium 17:30, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Hm, the poll appears to be working now. So I guess we can implement it, then. TheUnderfaker 15:48, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

I know. I'll add it in once I find out why Transcript appears in the yellow area. I have also sorted out another major problem of the real world icon overlapping the other icons. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 17:49, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

A Few Ideas

I have a few ideas on how to improve this wiki. Please comment.

1. Instead of projects why don't we have a project-portal thing. If you're wondering what portals are here's an example. It's a good way to add some colour to this wiki.

2. As well as having a general Featured Article why can't we have seperate articles for different subjects e.g. Featured Character, Featured Location etc. (In the project page)

3. Always put suitable names for images.

Again, please comment. Doh5678 ^{(Any Notices) • (My Edits) • (Wikipedia Page)}

1. A portal for projects is a bit silly. Just a list of them will do.

2. The main page is already full enough. We couldn't possibly fit anything else on to it.

3. This is something I have been doing a lot and making sure all images are under good names. They are normally uploaded under good names now too. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 14:16, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

I know it's an old topic but i think the portal idea is good. A portal for characters, comics and so on. FatHomer^Talk 04:22, 5 August 2011 (EDT)

I know this is even older now, but it would be a great idea, I think. I was going to suggest this as well. Randomno 11:02, 26 January 2012 (EST)

We have links in the sidebar. That's more than enough. ^{(Talk - Contribs.)} 11:07, 26 January 2012 (EST)

We hade Comics before on sidebar but, when we create the "other" wiki, we removed it. Should we not move it back now? /AleWi 11:40, 26 January 2012 (EST)

Wiki Stats

I think the sidebar should have ** Special:Statistics|{{NUMBEROFUSERS}} users. FatHomer^Talk 04:02, 28 January 2012 (EST)

Done. The Solar Dragon 04:34, 28 January 2012 (EST)

April's Fools

Whoever came up with the Family Guy idea is a genius. But I think Moe should be Quagmire!Dolph 19:17, 31 March 2012 (EDT)Dolph

Damn - who did I put as Quagmire?--Cook879 17:44, 7 April 2012 (EDT)

Oh yeah, Lenny.--Cook879 17:46, 7 April 2012 (EDT)

Featured comic article

I think we should have a featured comic article, whether it's a story or a comic. We don't have that many, but still a few complete comic stories. What do you think? | | Talk | Contributions | Edit count | 19:45, 4 May 2012 (EDT)

I think this is a good idea! However, the majority of comic articles are incomplete (I'm hoping to complete a handful this summer) and I don't know if Solar really wants to go through another main page redesign. :P --Nick97 ^{(talk ~ contribs)} 20:35, 4 May 2012 (EDT)

I'll complete as many as I can from the Annual 2012. | | Talk | Contributions | Edit count | 20:36, 4 May 2012 (EDT)

How many comics are in the annual? And where did you buy it? --Nick97 ^{(talk ~ contribs)} 20:50, 4 May 2012 (EDT)

I got it for Christmas, so I don't know where it came from. The stories are here. | | Talk | Contributions | Edit count | 20:54, 4 May 2012 (EDT)

Ah, I see. Well good luck with those! --Nick97 ^{(talk ~ contribs)} 21:01, 4 May 2012 (EDT)

Our comic articles are among our worst articles on the wiki. I don't think we will get enough good quality articles to make them featured. Plus, the main page is full enough as it is. ☆The Solar Dragon ^{(Talk - Contribs.)}☆ 05:11, 5 May 2012 (EDT)

Hmm... I suppose... But can we do anything for articles like A Simpleton Plan? It is complete, and it just needs an image, which I asked AleWi if he could do because I have the annual 2012 which is hardcover. | | Talk | Contributions | Edit count | 06:05, 5 May 2012 (EDT)

Featured article. The Solar Dragon ^{(Talk - Contribs.)} 06:26, 5 May 2012 (EDT)

Okay, I suppose. | | Talk | Contributions | Edit count | 06:30, 5 May 2012 (EDT)

I think it would be good to publicize our comics a bit more, but we can't add anything else to main page and there aren't enough complete, non-Engrish ones to fulfil this right now.--Cook879 06:59, 5 May 2012 (EDT)

Yeah. It's a shame you can get all the episode online, but not all the comics. | | Talk | Contributions | Edit count | 07:08, 5 May 2012 (EDT)

I bet every comic is online, you just gotta find it. --Cook879 07:12, 5 May 2012 (EDT)