Wikipedia talk:WikiProject The Simpsons

tv.com links

On a related note to the above, some episode pages have links to their tv.com page - I think these links are rather useful because tv.com has sections for things like trivia and quotes, which are generally viewed as extraneous in relation to wikipedia articles, but are very interesting nonetheless. I'm not sure what percent of articles are linked thusly, but I think it would be beneficial to go through the articles and add the links at the bottom.

A-class review

I have thought it might be beneficial for our project to have an A-class review process. A-class review can help prepare an article for FAC in a less-pressurized setting in which project members look over the article. The venue is similar to FAC in which the editor can support or oppose an article as well as offer comments to help with its improvement. See WP:HWY/ACR for an affective A-class review process that has successfully prepared articles for FAC. Our project's ACR process can be modeled after that. Dough4872 23:15, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

Honestly I don't think that would be a good idea. This project has too few active members. And it's not very often that we bring articles to WP:FAC. It's probably better to just ask other members to look over an article on this page. Theleftorium ^(talk) 23:27, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

Maybe we can revisit this idea if the project becomes more active in the future. Dough4872 16:49, 20 November 2011 (UTC)

I agree. People come and go on this project, but usually you can count the active participants on one hand. So if you want somebody to help you with your article, then you could just write a message on this page. --Maitch (talk) 09:43, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

Reference to C64 game producing hobby enthusiasts?

In the computer event hall, there is a large stand from ProtoVision. The logo is definitely stylized to play on ActiVision - but how come it says Protovision? I belong to a group of enthusiasts who still develop new games for the old Commodore 64 computer, and we are called Protovision. The spaceahip on the screen could well represent our flagship game "Metal Dust", a space shooter game with a similar space ship. And as the Simpsons/Futurama have already referenced to C64 at times, I think they might really mean us! We have taken the name "Protovision" from the film "war games", were a computer from the fictitious firm Protovision tries to take over the world. But in the movie it is a hardware producer, not a game producer. So, do you believe that ProtoVision here is actually referring to us, C64 nerds? It fits quite well, as also other retro computer things are referenced in the hall (Dig Dug, Centipede, Activision..). Our homepage: protovision-online.com Jaktrip (talk) 22:46, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

I don't know, but you can always ask Matt Selman on Twitter [1]. :) Theleftorium ^(talk) 11:07, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

Chris Ledesma

I have been thinking about starting an article about Chris Ledesma (music editor for The Simpsons). We pretty much use his blog for every new episode, so it would be nice to have an article to explain who he is. The problem is that while I could use blog for his biography, it would only be a primary source. I'm not sure if it is a good idea. What do you guys think? --Maitch (talk) 11:34, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea! There are a few reliable sources that mention his name: [2], [3], and on Newsbank. This one ([4]) could be useful in the article. He's also been nominated for two Golden Reel Awards, so that should add some notability. Theleftorium ^(talk) 17:49, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Ok. I will try and whip something together in my user space before I create the article, so it won't go straight to AFD. --Maitch (talk) 09:25, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Merge the episode guide books

I have proposed to merge The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family, The Simpsons Forever!: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family ...Continued, The Simpsons Beyond Forever!: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family ...Still Continued, The Simpsons One Step Beyond Forever!: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family ...Continued Yet Again, Simpsons World The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1–20. Have your say at Talk:The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family#Merge discussion. --Maitch (talk) 10:50, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Featured portal candidate: Animation

Portal:Animation is currently a featured portal candidate. Please feel free to leave comments. JJ98 (Talk / Contributions) 23:29, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Guest Stars

Hello all, although signing up to the Wikiproject, I haven't contributed much (that said I am a massive Simpsons fan) but I have attempted a go cleaning up the List of guest stars on The Simpsons table via. my Sandbox. Feel free to let me know if you think I should stop/have any suggestions or improvements or want to help out (currently whittling down Season 6). Ideally this should be a WP:FLC because the show is notorious for having guest star celebrities. — Lemonade51 (talk) 23:22, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Your version of the list looks really nice. The only problem is that you can't sort all the names alphabetically. You can only do it per season. Anyway, the hardest part of bringing this to FL, is to reference all the guest stars. Cheers, --Maitch (talk) 23:35, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Would it be better to sort it by season? Or you could just put the Season No. on a seperate row...? — Lemonade51 (talk) 23:45, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

The guest stars list has always bugged me. There are two ways of doing it, the way it is presently and the way you have done it. Each is equally flawed: the present one is terrible from a navigation viewpoint, your version has the downside of being unable to sort the whole show, and thus find quickly how many episodes a guest star has appeared in... You're version is certainly much clearer. As for FL (as Maitch said) every entry needs to be fully sourced and there needs to a section of background-production content. Gran² 23:51, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Regarding seasons, I've now moved it into a column which is sortable. With sources, from say Season 9 ownwards, it will be easier to find reliable websites to reference as press releases from FOX and news articles about that particular celebrity featuring on The Simpsons will be available. It'll just be the previous 8 that may prove tricky. — Lemonade51 (talk) 00:04, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

I took your version and separated the seasons with a thin coloured line (see it at User:Maitch/draft2). What do you guys think about that solution? --Maitch (talk) 00:19, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

It looks clearer, but the problem is that the table breaks up when you sort it - as in the lines all go to the top. If there's some way to skip directly to each season, while keeping a single table, that would be the best method. And Lemonade51, the first eight will be pretty easy to source, there are several books on the subject. Gran² 10:40, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Gran2: Ok, how about this version User:Maitch/draft2#Version 2. The season colours are in a column, so that they won't be in the way when you sort them and you can skip to the first episode of a season - even after you have sorted them in a different order!

Lemonade51: I don't think sourcing is impossible. Try and look at Gran2's earlier work User:Gran2/Sandbox. I think you can use Simpsons World The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1–20 for the seasons 1-20 and after that it gets really easy to find sources.--Maitch (talk) 11:45, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Cheers for the reference suggestions. Maitch, the second version looks much more neater. — Lemonade51 (talk) 12:16, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, Maitch, that's perfect, exactly the design it was needing. Gran² 12:22, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Right I've completed the first nine seasons in Maitch's format, if anyone wants to have a go doing Season 23 and working your way backwards, feel free to do so. Either way I'm sure this can be finished excluding references by Thursday. — Lemonade51 (talk) 16:15, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

(Just something I noticed) When you sort by episode number, 129 comes before 13 etc. Should it be like that? Theleftorium ^(talk) 17:05, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Nope. If you can by any chance fix it, that would be great. — Lemonade51 (talk) 18:08, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

I think if you put a 0 before them (ie 013) that might fix it. Gran² 18:20, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Does the trick, thanks. — Lemonade51 (talk) 18:35, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

There is a technical solution to that without putting "0" before the number. I don't have time to look at it right now, but you can look it up (or I can do it later). --Maitch (talk) 21:13, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, if you have the time to look it up that would be great. The layout of the table is complete, just need to add references and clean up the key. — Lemonade51 (talk) 18:05, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Great work. I have Simpsons World The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1–20 so I'll aid the sourcing when I have some time. Gran² 14:09, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Great work! I have some ideas though for improvement.

• What if we alternated the yellow colours between what we have now and a lighter (yellow) colour for the seasons that are currently not released on DVD. That way it would be clearer to distinquish season 15 from 16 for instance.
  • Done, it's Season 15-23 excluding Season 20 of course.
• Do we really need the production codes for the list? Production codes are mostly for Simpsons geeks. It would be far more useful for the readers to have the release dates on the list. --Maitch (talk) 15:55, 22 December 2011 (UTC)
  • I'm not sure. I'll be prepared to remove it if everyone can come to a consensus. — Lemonade51 (talk) 17:29, 22 December 2011 (UTC

I have figured out the numerical sorting without adding "0"'s. Check it out at User:Maitch/draft2#Hidden numerical sorting. You should just use the {{nts}} template. --Maitch (talk) 22:07, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I'll try to sort that out tomorrow and finish tagging the refs for Seasons 21-23 -- I'll leave the rest of them for Gran to complete. — Lemonade51 (talk) 23:19, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Another DVD Commentary mention

From "Large Marge"

• Someone tells a story about how that plastic surgeon guy got his name.
• Nancy Cartwright: "That's gonna be on wikipedia tomorrow."
• Everyone laughs
• Al Jean: "By the way, don't believe everything you read on wikipedia. [others laugh] Well people take these commentaries and they go 'everything in it is a fact'. And, you know, it's not. We're just recalling these things from 10 years back and, you know, we have our own prejudices and memories."

This kind of thing has been mentioned in past commentaries. My favourite is when Matt Groening says that Elizabeth Taylor didn't really say F-you to the writers. Of course, Matt himself had said this numerous times over the years.

Anyway, Jean is right, people need to be a bit more careful when it comes to commentaries, especially when it comes to discerning what is and isn't a joke. I've seen a few articles in the past (can't remember which) where they cited things from the commentaries that I'm pretty sure were just said as jokes. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 00:47, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Oh Al, such a joker. No wonder this show is still winning Emmys (or not) with a wit like you in charge... Gran² 14:05, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

That's true, and I'm sure I did that mistake with a few of my first articles. But it's nice to know that they've read some of our work. ;) Theleftorium ^(talk) 14:14, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

The only thing I got out of that quote was that 1) they read our articles :-) 2) DVDs should be released faster so that they don't have to sit and recall something they did over ten years ago. --Maitch (talk) 16:01, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

The third thing is that Al can't make up his mind. He complains that wikipedia is unreliable because vandals make up stuff. He complains that wikipedia is unreliable because people source statements to his comments. The show will never get better with Commander Cuckoo-Bananas in charge! -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 16:37, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Don't listen to Al. He is unreliable. He says so himself. ;) Maitch (talk) 23:00, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Project banners

I occasionaly get in this argument with editors, and I suppose I should seek a new consensus.

This argument is regarding the project banner placed on talk pages ({{WikiProject The Simpsons}}) that denotes that a page is part of our project. The talk page of every Simpsons mainspace article includes one of those tags. However, some editors think non-mainspace pages (templates, categories, images, portals, books, etc.) should be tagged too.

There are a few edit-hungry editors out there who are not members of WP:DOH, but seem to think that they should be able to dictate our project scope. We, as a project, had previously decided to limit our scope to just main page articles, and not tag every simple non-mainspace tag. Some projects do do this, and that's fine. We don't. Personally, I don't see the point anyway.

It's one thing to add a tag to our portal, since it is a major part of the project. It's a completely different thing to tag a redirects, images, book pages, minor categories and minor portal pages. These things do not require regular mantainance, so there's really no point in including them in our project.

What do some others think? -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 20:44, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

I agree completely. Can someone give me a good reason to tag project pages, books, categories, etc? Because I can't think of one. Theleftorium ^(talk) 21:05, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Greg Daniels

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could help me turn Greg Daniels's article into a Good article NoD'ohnuts (talk) 00:05, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

You'd want to talk to Gra2, he's the best at working on articles about the writers. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 15:27, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

OK, thanks NoD'ohnuts (talk) 01:41, 29 December 2011 (UTC)NoD'ohnuts

2011: The Review

You know the drill. Here are our charts from December 31 of previous years.

This is 2006. For those curious, the 2 Featured quality articles we had at the end of 2006 were The Simpsons and List of The Simpsons episodes, while the GA was Homer Simpson.

The Simpsons articles		Importance
		Top	High	Mid	Low	None	Total
Class
	FA	2					2
	A		1				1
	GA	1					1
	B	6	26	15	8		55
	Start	2	28	415	64	27	536
	Stub		5	22	84	53	164
	Unassessed
	Total	11	60	452	156	80	759

This is what it looked like on December 31, 2007:

For those curious, these are the GAs & featured content we had at the end of 2007.

The Simpsons articles		Importance
		Top	High	Mid	Low	None	Total
Quality
	FA	2	9	7	1		19
	A	1	1	1			3
	GA	2	6	59			67
	B	4	17	9	4		34
	Start	1	32	385	69	3	490
	Stub		1	23	108	19	151
	Assessed	10	66	484	182	22	764
	Total	10	66	484	182	22	764

And this is what it looked like on December 31, 2008:

The Simpsons articles		Importance
		Top	High	Mid	Low	None	Total
Quality
	FA	4	1	10			15
	FL	1	11	1	1		14
	A		2	3			5
	GA	4	8	121	3		136
	B		15	8	5		28
	C		7	10	2		19
	Start		19	319	59	2	399
	Stub		1	25	119	22	167
	List		1	1	2		4
	Assessed	9	65	498	191	24	787
	Total	9	65	498	191	24	787

and this is from December 31, 2009:

The Simpsons articles		Importance
		Top	High	Mid	Low	None	Total
Quality
	FA	4	3	13	1		21
	FL	1	12	1	1		15
	A		1	3			4
	GA	4	13	195	7		219
	B	1	14	13	6		34
	C		4	28	5		37
	Start		12	243	60	2	317
	Stub		1	21	120	18	160
	List		4	1	2		7
	Assessed	10	64	518	202	20	814
	Total	10	64	518	202	20	814

December 31, 2010:

The Simpsons articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
	Top	High	Mid	Low	Total
FA	4	3	13	1	21
FL	1	12	1	1	15
A		1	3		4
GA	4	13	211	11	239
B	1	15	34	9	59
C		5	41	10	56
Start		11	221	57	289
Stub		1	13	124	138
List		3	2	4	9
Assessed	10	64	539	217	830
Total	10	64	539	217	830

And, drum roll please... December 31, 2011!

The Simpsons articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
	Top	High	Mid	Low	Total
FA	4	3	14	1	22
FL	1	14	1	1	17
GA	4	17	283	11	315
B	1	12	32	24	69
C		7	64	21	92
Start		7	148	50	205
Stub			11	85	96
List		4	2	6	12
Assessed	10	64	555	199	828
Total	10	64	555	199	828

Here are our gains from the past six years.

The Simpsons articles		Year
		2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Quality
	FA	2	9 (+7)	15 (+6)	21 (+6)	21 (-)	22 (+1)
	FL	1	10 (+9)	14 (+4)	15 (+1)	15 (-)	17 (+2)
	A	1	3 (+2)	5 (+2)	4 (-1)	4 (-)	0 (-4)
	GA	1	67 (+66)	136 (+70)	219 (+83)	239 (+20)	315 (+76)
	B	55	34 (-21)	28 (-6)	34 (+6)	59 (+25)	69 (+10)
	C	-	-	19	37 (+18)	56 (+19)	92 (+36)
	Start	536	490 (-46)	399 (-91)	317 (-82)	289 (-28)	205 (-84)
	Stub	164	151 (-13)	167 (+16)	160 (-7)	138 (-22)	96 (-42)
	List	0	0	4 (+4)	7 (+3)	9 (+2)	12 (+3)
	Total	759	764 (+5)	787 (+23)	814 (+27)	830 (+16)	828 (-2)

It was another good year for WP:DOH, although our overall article count actually went down... I'm not sure why, but it could be because we merged a bunch of character pages. Still, we gained an FA, 2 FLs and 76 GAs. We also eliminated 42 stubs. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 20:54, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

We also removed the foreign voice actors from the project so that should explain why the article count has dropped. Looks like it's been a pretty good year! Nice work everyone! Theleftorium ^(talk) 20:59, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Yup, we also had the second best year in terms of GAs (after 2009), which is great. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 21:23, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Great work all! Let's keep it going for 2012! BTW, what was last years FA? CTJF83 21:31, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Must have been Stark Raving Dad. Theleftorium ^(talk) 21:36, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Ahh, ok, thanks, CTJF83 21:43, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

A very good year all around, well done everybody. Still not entirely sure why David Mirkin failed. Ah well. Do we have any targets for this year? Gran² 22:10, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Season 13 should be complete soon (Blame It on Lisa just needs to be passed), and all the season 23 episodes that have aired so far are GAs so that season has a chance at becoming a GT as well. Other than that I don't know. Theleftorium ^(talk) 22:15, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Well, I think one goal could be to improve the remaining major characters whose articles aren't yet at GA. The big ones are Mr. Burns, Moe, Grampa and Apu. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 01:06, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I can assist on those, least copy editing...plus I'm gonna get Three Gays of the Condo to GA CTJF83 06:52, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

A very good year indeed. Nice work everyone! The assessment table is looking really good now. It won't be long before half of our articles are either featured or good. One of my goals for 2012 is to work on the links on the main template {{The Simpsons}}. It is more difficult, but more readers read those articles than the episode articles. --Maitch (talk) 10:42, 2 January 2012 (UTC)