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Wikipedia:WikiProject Soap Operas

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by WaterOB (talk | contribs) at 02:30, 21 December 2007 (→‎20px Participants). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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WikiProject Soap Operas was created to guide the structure of articles related to individual soap operas and telenovelas and the characters/actors who appear on them, and to centralize the effort to improve these articles.

As of 3 December 2007, a total of 2962 articles and lists bear the Project banner!

Help is always needed!

Open tasks

  • Please add the  {{WikiProject Soap Operas | class=}}  template to the top of the talkpage of all soap opera-related articles
  • Please participate in the discussions at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Soap Operas. Currently we are discussing:
    • How many and which type of relationships to include on soap opera character articles
    • What minimum standards are required for a supercouple to have an article on Wikipedia
    • The wording for a guideline on how to handle the issue of past or present tense

Collaboration

See WikiProject Soap Operas Collaboration Archive

WP:SOAPS Collaboration seeks to identify individual articles in need of special attention by members of the Project. Add   {{Soaps Collaboration}}   to an article's talk page and list the article below by month, with the newest at the top:

  • In all honesty, since there isn't even a character profile at SoapCentral.com, I don't see it as an article that shouldn't have been deleted or at best redirected toward the GL page or put onto a list of Minor GL characters. Just doesn't seem worthy of an article with such little information available and none available at one of the best sources for character profiles. KellyAna (talk) 18:54, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Current reviews

Nominated for deletion

Ongoing tasks

Participants

To join the Project, just add your name to the list below.

There is also now a userbox available for members of this Project (see right). To use it, add   {{User WP:Soaps}}   to your user page.

Adding the userbox to your user page automatically places you into Category:WikiProject Soap Operas participants, which will help the Project in organizing and contacting its participants in the future. If you prefer, you may simply add the category itself to your user page:
[[Category:WikiProject Soap Operas participants|{{subst:PAGENAME}}]]

Technically speaking, anyone who edits or contributes to soap opera-related articles is a participant, and there are no requirements other than that. However, using the userbox and being listed as a participant helps spread the word about the project, and can help other editors see what types of articles you are interested in editing.

Participants
  1. Mike Halterman (versed in varying degrees of all soaps, but prefer Days, Y&R and AW)
  2. Zzyzx11
  3. ZanderZ as much as possible, since I'm not a US citizen and thus not 'up to date' with current storylines, casting etc.
  4. JamesB3
  5. General Eisenhower
  6. Wootking
  7. Peterwill I'm not a US citizen either. Both the decendant projects are British Soaps.
  8. Miss Burkle 04:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC) I can help with Days of our Lives and Passions.[reply]
  9. Elonka 21:55, 5 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  10. Charleenmerced - on General Hospital
  11. Flyer22
  12. TAnthony
  13. Yllianos - Town profile pages of Llanview, PA (OLTL) & Pine Valley, PA (AMC); Template of FictionalSoapOperaCities; Caretaker of GH: Night Shift
  14. Nicolete
  15. JAltman752
  16. Mosquera - I mostly focus on telenovelas, specifically those that air in the US on MyNetworkTV and Telemundo, such as Dame Chocolate, Madre Luna and Watch Over Me
  17. MysticBlue - General Hospital
  18. TheRhani: Interested primarily in ABC soaps, but happily format and clean up any article that needs it (and there are more than a few that do!)
  19. Jessie val jean A bit of maintenance on ABC soap characters
  20. jcar03 - anything and everything really but I'll focus on character bios.
  21. Liamodwyer13
  22. Glo145
  23. IrishLass0128 - all things Days of our Lives and a lot of Passions. Also Desperate Housewives
  24. AMCOneGen - Lover of ABC daytime soaps, General Hospital in particular
  25. Toropop - Loyal viewer of the American soap operas, Another World (1984 - 1999), All My Children (2000 - 2005), As the World Turns (2007 - Present), Days of our Lives (1971 - Present), Santa Barbara (1986 - 1993), the British soap opera, EastEnders (1998 - Present), and the Australian soap opera, Neighbours (2000 - Present).
  26. Evaglow — My focus is mainly on the characters and their portrayers on The Young and the Restless ; however, I also edit and format articles that are in need of clean-up... in addition to implementing the new character infobox and soap templates.
  27. WTGDMan1986 - Days of our Lives, One Tree Hill (for a friend in Wilmington), and other teen soaps. I'll work to revert vandalism.
  28. KellyAna (formerly CelticGreen) - Days of our Lives, helping with implementation of new character infobox, general clean up.
  29. Dmarex (Creates crew member pages)
  30. Alessgrimal
  31. Youngandrestless- A lot of The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful
  32. Dougie WII 05:43, 2 November 2007 (UTC) - Passions[reply]
  33. King garthur -Hollyoaks
  34. WaterOB -The X-Family

Barnstar

There is now a Barnstar to award to anyone who has made significant contributions to soap opera articles or the Project:

Image What to type Category Description
The Soap Opera Barnstar {{subst:The Soap Opera Barnstar|You have been awarded the Soap Opera Barnstar for your contributions to WP:SOAPS and soap opera-related articles on Wikipedia. ~~~~}}

(Feel free to customize the message, of course!) 		Category:Soap operas. The Soap Opera Barnstar is awarded to editors who make significant contributions to soap opera-related articles on Wikipedia.

Assessment

See WikiProject Soap Operas Assessment

The WikiProject Soap Operas banner template now automatically categorizes articles by quality based on class ratings.

Ratings are helpful in this WikiProject to identify:

As the Project grows in size, ratings will be an important part of the process to expand and improve articles.

Remember to tag all soap opera-related Talk pages with:  {{WikiProject Soap Operas | class=}} 

Useful assessment resources

From the Soap opera articles by quality categorization, WP:1.0 automatically produces the following useful resources by bot:

Templates

Tasha Roma
The Sun Also Sets character
Natalie Zea as Tasha Roma
Portrayed byNatalie Zea (1994-1999)
Kelly Monaco (2000-2005)
First appearance1994
Last appearance2005
Created byDarren Star

Kelly Monaco as Tasha Roma
In-universe information
OccupationLawyer, Monarch
ParentsJulian Crane (father)
Barbara Ryan (mother)
SiblingsBrooke Logan
Jason Morgan
SpouseHolden Snyder (1997-1998)
Cord Roberts (2000-2002)
ChildrenBree Brennan
GrandparentsAlice Horton
Aunts and unclesClaudia Carrington
First cousinsTina Lord
Luke Snyder
Other relativesHugh Hughes (nephew, deceased)
  • {{WikiProject Soap Operas}} - The WikiProject banner. Please add  {{WikiProject Soap Operas | class=}}  to the top of the talkpage on all soaps-related articles. Remember that performer articles do not fall within the scope of this Project.
    • Note a Class if you can, using the ratings scale.
    • As a shortcut for this template, you can use: {{soaps}}
  • {{Infobox soap character}} - For all character articles that fall withing the scope of this Project. The new infobox contains all Relationship information in a collapsible section, which is intended to replace unencyclopedic Relationship lists at the bottom of character articles. (See fictional sample, right)
  • {{Soap-char-stub}} - For stub articles on soap opera characters.
  • {{Infobox actor}} - For performer articles.
  • {{Plot}} - To tag overly-long plot summaries
  • {{TV-in-universe}} - To tag articles written in an inappropriate in-universe style.
  • Image templates: {{Non-free image data}} and {{Non-free image rationale}}, which are used in conjunction with each other.

Associated Wikiprojects

Parent WikiProject
Descendant WikiProjects

Style guidelines

Plot summaries

Keep summaries brief.

Plot summaries should be kept brief, only as an overview of the topic. The main purpose of Wikipedia articles is to provide encyclopedic information about a subject, such as its cultural impact, and not to provide a detailed description of story events. The Wikipedia articles can then provide links to other websites which have more detailed storyline information.

"Brief" in this context means a plot summary of approximately 500 words for a typical character article, though more may be appropriate for longrunning characters where there has been a great deal of real-world impact.

Tense

Present tense is recommended, but controversial.

There is currently controversy over whether plot summaries should be written in present-tense or past-tense. Most editors agree with the Wikipedia Manual of Style guideline that writing about fiction should be done in the present tense. The basic intent of this guideline is to stylistically differentiate between real-world and fictional events. However, many editors feel that with longterm soap operas, which can often run for decades, never have any repeats and are tied to "real-world" timelines, that it may be more appropriate to use past-tense.

The general consensus of editors at this WikiProject is to go along with Wikipedia guidelines, which means present tense, though past-tense may be appropriate in certain situations. Whichever version is used, it should be consistent throughout a single article. Also, real-world and fictional events should be clearly separated, preferably in their own sections, to avoid confusion.

For more information, see WP:TENSE, or the related conversation on this WikiProject talkpage.

Prose vs. lists

Avoid lists within articles whenever possible.

The Manual of Style specifically notes "Do not use lists if a passage reads easily using plain paragraphs" and Wikipedia:Embedded list asserts that (among other things) "Most Wikipedia articles should consist of prose, and not just a list of links. Prose allows the presentation of detail and clarification of context, while a list of links does not. Prose flows, like one person speaking to another, and is best suited to articles, because their purpose is to explain ... In an article, significant items should be mentioned naturally within the text rather than merely listed."

Trivial lists such as "Crimes committed" or "Previous occupations" are also inappropriate, as they generally fail notability requirements. If events and details are notable, they will have a natural place within the text of the article.

Program articles

A soap opera article should include:

  • The name of the series (in bold italics), network affiliation, first airdate and, if applicable, final airdate
  • A brief overview of notable historical and current storylines on the show
  • Cultural impact of the series and/or its characters
  • Notable cast members

Character articles

Notability standards

All soap-related articles, and character articles in particular, must meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for fiction. Simply stated, "A topic is presumed to be notable if it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject."

Thus, an article should be created about a soap opera character only if the character is notable within the series and and the subject of third-party discussions. Otherwise, the character should simply be listed in a "List of characters" for that particular program.

Character articles should always be written from a "real world" perspective, and should definitely not consist simply of in-universe plot summary. As such, it should include:

  • Real-world dates for when the character was created
  • Which actors have played the character, and when
  • Any awards which were won by the actor for playing that character

The article should not be used for a collection of storyline trivia about the character. As a rule of thumb, only those events which were significant enough to have been written about in third-party sources should be included.

Remember that we are here to create an encyclopedia, not to provide a comprehensive guide to soap opera storylines. Wherever possible, try to discuss the character in "real world" context: Why are they important to non-fans, how are they affecting modern culture, what have they done that is historic in a real-world context. If a detail is only interesting to those who watch the show, it is probably not worth including in the Wikipedia article. See WP:CRUFT.

See the "Examples" section lower on this page for samples of good articles.

Character article format

Articles should include:

  • The {{Infobox soap character}}, with basic information included.
  • A lead paragraph which indicates the name of the character, when it originated, current or last portrayer and a very brief summary of the other material in the article. A good lead encapsulates the entire article in a couple paragraphs.
  • Notation of all of actors that have played the character, and the dates; this is usually done in the infobox, and often summarized in the lead section.
  • A list the awards that have been won for the role
  • Storyline summary; 500-1000 words maximum
  • Sources and references. Every article must have verifiable sources such as newspaper and magazine articles that talk about the character, or at the minimum, biography links to soap sites such as soapcentral.com. If a character is not notable enough to be mentioned in outside press, then they're not notable enough to have an article on Wikipedia!
  • Appropriate categories; see Category:Soap opera characters

Character relationships

Soap opera characters tend to have complex family and romantic relationships. Obviously, notable relationships can be mentioned in the text of the article as they apply to a character's biography and storylines. To keep articles visually appealing and manageable, relationships should be "listed" only in the infobox. The {{Infobox soap character}} contains a collapsible section to accommodate this.

In order to keep these lists manageable, use judgment on which relationships to include.

  • For most characters, relatives listed should be limited to closer family and generations having some relevance to the character in question. Remember, more distant relations (step-great-grandchildren?) will be noted in the infoboxes of other characters more closely related to them. This is especially important for long-running characters, who tend to have an excessive amount of relations.
  • For miscarriages or other unsuccessful pregnancies (common in soap operas), list these only on the pages of the parents, along with the year that the event occurred. In many cases a footnote may be preferred to present this information.
  • In the case of large families with multiple members, consider making a "family" or "List of" page, which can then be linked with a "see also" from the respective character pages. For example, see General Hospital's Cassadine family.

Notable couples

In general, articles should be about individual characters, rather than about couples; however bonafide supercouples and other highly notable couples may be eligible for their own Wikipedia articles if:

  • They have won a major award as a couple
  • They have appeared on multiple "couple" lists
  • They have been cited in outside (non-soap) press as a notable couple

However, large amounts of information should not be repeated on multiple articles; consider instead interlinking individual character and couple articles in a logical way to present all pertinent information without redundancies.

Examples

If you know of any Soap-related articles that you think are of particularly good quality, please list them here.
See also: Category:Soap opera articles by quality

See also

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