Wiki 24:The Situation Room

Here, you can talk about the Wiki and ways you want to improve it, policy changes or anything Wiki 24 related. Please remember that the Community Portal is not for discussion of the show or any other off topic discussion.


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Extraneous article information
I don't mean to be a dick here, but we really need to limit the amount of non-24-related information that is included in our articles. This is "Wiki 24", not Wikipedia. Any information that doesn't directly come from 24 or a 24-related source isn't relevant to Wiki 24. The effort to include lots of information is appreciated, but we just can't assume that what's true in real life is true on 24. If need be, a italic footnote or an external link can be provided to give more information about an article's real-life counterpart. Thank you. --Proudhug 18:11, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Images
When adding an image, could everyone please upload it and then put it in a fram by using the following code: So for instance:. You will need to register to upload images but that only takes a couple of seconds. This whole process will make the Wiki look neater. Thanks, User:24 Administration

I have a question about images. Erm, is there a limit to what we should be uploading? I've been thinking about doing three 15-25kb screencaps per episode, to go on the episode page (one of which can also be used as the image on the season summary page). Is that too much? Not enough? Thoughts? --StBacchus 8 April 2006

Article of the Month
Please enter any nominations you have for the next Article of the Month below.

Well Tony won! I've created an actual page for featured articles which is pretty similar to other Wikis. Nominating and voting should be done at Wiki 24: Article of the Month now.

Policy

 * We've been around a while now and we've got quite a few contributers. I was wondering if it would be time for some sort of policy on style. So far its been "every man for himself" but maybe we need to start setting up a policy. For instance, are we going to just adopt some of the style policies from places such as Memory Alpha or what? Suggestions anyone? --24 Administration 20:22, 30 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * I think that we should have a basic policy for the episode guides and character pages, beyond the info boxes. Here is the basic template I use for Episode Guides. Wiki 24:Episode Guide. - Willo

Just another thought, but televisionwithoutpity.com has a summary of every episode, and imdb has added pages for individual episodes of tv shows. Should we add those as external links for the episode guides?

Logoboy
Someone familiar with what should and shouldn't be on this wiki should review the contributions of Logoboy95 here, who has been going around to several wikis adding logos and articles straight from Wikipedia, usually without copyright information. I'm hesitant to do it myself because I'm not sure exactly what is relevant to 24 and what isn't. Thanks, Mindspillage (spill yours?) 17:48, 14 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I've cleared these, I think only the Fox page was directly related to 24 -- sannse (talk) 09:43, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Favicon
Hi, I've uploaded a [[Media:Favicon.ico|favicon]] for this wiki. If you don't like it, one of your admins can remove or replace it - or let me know and I'll get rid of it. For people using Firefox it's rather useful to have tabs identified, so I hope you approve -- sannse (talk) 11:01, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Policy/Style
I've taken the liberty of creating a style page and policy page similar to the one for the LOST Wiki. If you haven't seen that Wiki, check it out, it's a good example of the type of organization that I think we want this site to eventually be. However, we're better, because we have a superior show and more dedicated contributors, but they definetely have a very uniform look. Anyway, I added some links in there that we can edit so we have basic templates for character pages, actor pages, etc. This way we can have a set policy for what we already have. Cool. Xtreme680


 * It's fine, but not 100% true. There are pages for two future episodes up now, which contain little if any spoiler info, just what you'd find in a TV Guide. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Plus, there is not a set style for a lot of things yet, and I think these things need to be discussed before we go any further. - Willo


 * I for one agree with Xtreme680's stated policy about not creating pages until after an episode has aired. The rule about spoilers needs to be strict.  Even including "TV Guide" descriptions is spoiling.  The only non-spoiler stuff that could be on a page for an unaired episode is the template and maybe some of the crew (but none of the cast). --Proudhug 04:34, 6 April 2006 (UTC)


 * While I understand where you are coming from, I think that you must look at a couple facts here: 1. This information is not hard to access anywhere else. 2. One must actively choose to go to one of these pages. 3. You're not adding information to pages that someone who chose not to watch the preview would see (like the character pages) but rather to it's own page where a viewer could choose to avoid it. While I do not think we should activly posting spoilers (even for our UK friends) on the front page, or posting what happens in future episodes on character pages, I see NO harm in posting seperate pages for upcoming episodes that includes basic plot discriptions and information. - Willo


 * I agree with Willo about the descriptions of future episodes... I think that listing a summary from TV Guide should be allowed. The descriptions are always very basic and general, they never reveal a true "spoiler" for an episode.  I mean, if you think about it... TV Guide, Fox's website, Fox's TV commercials, USA Today, etc. all "spoil" the next episode.  The preview alone gives away several main plot points.  I agree about not listing the cast, because there are often some characters who are listed (because they're part of the regular cast), but don't appear in the episode.  Those are my thoughts, but I'll go along with the majority.  I also have a few questions about the episode and character guides, but I'll post those questions on the discussion pages of those items. --Kapoli 04:50, 6 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, what's the point of an unaired episode article existing if not to provide spoilers? Yes, clearly information from unaired episodes should never be included in regular articles for characters, but don't see why unaired episode articles even need to exist, except to contain an empty template.  While it's true that the plot outlines are easily available to everyone, I don't think that means that we should include them on this site.  This isn't a news site, it's a chronicle of established facts about 24 that have already aired. --Proudhug 22:16, 5 April 2006 (PDT)

Indeed. If you look at the Spoiler Policy that was last edited in October, near the beginning of the site, it states "In general, information from unaired episodes is not included on Wiki 24. There may be exceptions to this under certain articles that specifically pertain to the future of the show. In these cases, spoiler warnings will be provided." I can't think of a place where we would need to put up pages for episodes that haven't aired, especially when we have so much work to do on previous episode guides, characters, actors, companies, other multimedia, and other things from the first four seasons of the show and the part of season 5 that has already aired.

Anyway, the point of editing our policies and style is that we can have a uniform way that a character, actor, etc. page should look, and that we can use so that our wiki looks well organized. I was hoping we could get some more templates like the one we have for episodes and actors. Xtreme680

Hey, if we can swipe the style of the Lost wiki, can we swipe their episode list pages (like http://lost.wikia.com/wiki/Season_1)? 'Cause those are things of beauty. I would put in the time to reformat ours if you all think it could/should be done. In any case, just about anything is better than having them all listed under "D" for "Day." --StBacchus 7 April 2006

I don't see why not. Their episode pages look amazing. And hey, it's all wiki family, right? Xtreme680

Haha, I'm smrt. What I really wanted was to change the way the episodes were listed under the category, but I'm not sure that can be done. But I redid the list on the Season 1 page anyway, so we could all take a look at it. I could also redo the episode listings on the season pages with a simple table a la Memory Alpha. I like having the number and date there with the "title." What do you think, sirs? --StBacchus 8 April 2006


 * When I saw your suggestion last night, I thought I'd play around with the page for Season 4 and see how it looked. I really like the new episode layout for Season 1 and Season 4... it's nice to have a brief recap.  Instead of putting the production code, which really doesn't mean anything to me, I put the episode number.  I guess that doesn't mean anything either!  We can change it to the production code.  And I put the director's name.  I don't know if anyone wants to keep that or not.  I'm getting pictures together for the rest of Season 4 also, and I have those sized at 150px instead of 125px.  Which size do we want to use?  --Kapoli 8 April 2006 9:08 UTC


 * StBacchus, what would you prefer they be listed under, if not "D"? I don't understand how you'd want them to be ordered. --Proudhug 09:10, 8 April 2006 (UTC)


 * It's just that, since the episodes don't have real "titles," there will eventually be 120 of them all listed under "D." Plus like four not under D. And then they're only in alpha-numeric order, so the first one listed under Day 1 isn't the actual first episode of that season...what I was picturing was basically what we've got going on the season pages, a list of the episodes in the correct order. But that's going to be on the season pages, so I guess it doesn't matter. StBacchus 8 April 2006

I'm too tired to think of a style right now for the episode pages. They book look amazing, especially Season 4. I'll do one for Season 2 tomorrow, because I have it on my computer and can make the images. I'll try and think of a style later, but I definetely prefer the style of the Lost wiki to the Memory alpha one. - Xtreme680

OK, sudden realization edit. I like the style of the Season 4 page better than the Season 1. Time is better than Time Covered, 150px looks better than 125px, there's no reason for a production code, and Hour can be converted to Episode Number. I think StBacchus will agree. I plan on writing Season 2 in the same style as Season 4, and after that, I will start getting images up and changing Season 1 to fit that style. Great work guys, this has gone a long way into making Wiki 24 look freaking fantastic. - Xtreme680


 * Yeah, you guys are right. The season 4 page is beauteous! Great choice of pictures, Kapoli - love 'em. I like the addition of the director and total episode number, too. The bigger size of the pictures is fine. I would like to keep the hour number in there, though. Otherwise, by the time you get to 19 or so, you kinda lose track of where you are. Or at least I do, LOL. Also, did you guys want to keep the gray bars between episodes? I like them for clarity. --StBacchus 8 April 2006


 * Wow, I can't decide which of the two I like more. I think I'd go with a combination of the two.  I'd keep the grey bars and use the headings:

Picture | Episode number | Time | Original airdate | Production code


 * I don't think Director needs to be listed there, and including the Prod Code will help keep track of the hour number as StBacchus said (with some minor mental adjustment for S1). What does everyone think? --Proudhug 11:02, 8 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I like the grey bars too, I'll add them to Season 4... and I'm on board for changing the headings and removing the directors, but how about:


 * Picture | Time | Original airdate | Episode Number | Production code


 * I personally care the most about the time the episode takes place, so maybe that should go in the front? I'm down with whatever you guys want to do! --Kapoli 11:15, 8 April 2006 UTC


 * I think that the Episode Number looks silly anywhere other than first (after the picture, of course), or possibly last. It's a small column so your eye is still going to go to the blue Time column first anyway (after the picture, of course). --Proudhug 11:20, 8 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Proudhug, you're right that the smaller column draws the eye. How about Picture | Time | Episode Number | Production Code | Airdate ? That way, the two most important pieces of information - title and picture - are sort of sectioned off by the smaller column. --StBacchus 8 April 2006


 * Anything we do is fine with me, I mean, pretty much any way we do it is going to look AWESOME. I'll go with whatever idea you guys want, and I'll swap the appropriate columns as I finish removing the director's names.  --Kapoli 11:29, 8 April 2006 UTC

I'm feeling a little out of my league concerning some of the editing, I've mainly just been going off of what was originally put there and changing the details to fit Season 2. If someone could help me out, it would be great. I'll continue to put in episode summaries and pictures, but I'll need some help with the new style. Everything on my page is correct except for the directors, but it looks like we're not going to use those anyways. I have no idea where to find the production codes, but I'll put those in too if someone can point me in the right direction. Summary: I need help editing to reflect the current style, but my information is correct except for production codes and director. I will have pictures and summaries very soon. - Xtreme680


 * I know what you mean, I couldn't figure out the background colors, etc. to make a table, but as soon as StBaccus posted Season 1, I just copied and pasted the info at the top. One thing I forgot to do with Season 4 (which I just corrected), is put those grey bars between the episodes.  I didn't know how to, but now I see what StBacchus did.  If you want to go ahead and do the same for Season 2, then just copy and paste:


 *  |colspan="5" style="background: #999999;"| 


 * over the top of


 *  |colspan="5" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| 


 * and you'll have grey bars. I'm going to wait to see what everyone wants to do for the order of the columns before switching anything else for Season 4.  BTW, Season 2 is looking pretty good so far!!  -- Kapoli 11:51 8 April 2006, UTC


 * Yeah, I agree that Season 2 looks good so far. Looks like you're doing fine, it's only that we haven't all agreed on quite everything. What do you think about the headings? BTW, there's a list of production codes and airdates at TV.com. That's the easiest way to get them, I think. --StBacchus 8 April 2006


 * I like your suggestion, StBacchus. I've been swapping the titles and previewing the different layouts, and I think that Picture | Time | Episode Number | Production Code | Airdate looks the best.  I say let's go for it.  And should we list the original airdate in italic font, or just leave it regular.  I've looked at it both ways and I can't decide which looks better. --Kapoli 12:00 8 April 2006, UTC


 * I like it a little better without italics, personally. But agreed it's close. --StBacchus 8 April 2006

I'm on top of everything, thanks for the help. I don't care about the title layout, but I do want consensus, and since we already have people wanting to do Picture | Time | Episode Number | Production Code | Airdate, I am ok with changing it to that. Xtreme680

Research files
I was just wondering, is it necessary to have all of the research files from the FOX website listed word for word on the Wiki? If we do it, we should at least have those pages linked as much as we can. it just seems odd to me that we have so many pages that don't link anywhere else. Should we provide a context to the show in them? I don't know, maybe someone should explain it to me, because I'm lost. Xtreme680


 * I don't think it's necessary to have any of these articles copied from fox.com. Most of them include "real life" information which doesn't necessarily apply to the show at all.  I suggest keeping the actual main Research Files page, but rather than linking to individual articles on Wiki 24, just link to fox.com and delete all of the irrelevant information in the other articles. --Proudhug 15:20, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

I guess the task then is to seperate the things we know from the show from the stuff that is just true in real life. In that case, we should go through, take what we know from the show, and delete the information the FOX has provided for "real life". This way, we still have weapons and technology from the show, but only use it in the context of 24. - Xtreme680

Changes to styles
Red links don't seem to appear right. I suggest that they are lightened, and the form boxes to correspond with the page Sceptre 12:22, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Templates
Right now, we're using the style of Memory Alpha in order to provide information about characters. I think the information that we have is good. However, I think that it could look better. The 24 characters page at Wikipedia look really nice. However, I have no idea how to make the templates that they have. Does anyone think a change would be good, and if so, does anyone know how to make them look nicer? - Xtreme680 8:20 April 8, 2006