Wikipedia:WikiProject The Simpsons/Addling ListGenBot tags to episode pages

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ListGenBot is now approved and this page is 'live' for use by people updating episode pages.

Who's doing what[edit]

I'd like assistance with updating all Simpsons episode pages to include tags to enable the bot ListGenBot to auto-generate lists. Whenever you change a page, a few minutes later all the lists on Wikipedia:WikiProject The Simpsons/Example generated lists will be updated to add all the new data you've tagged.

I've you'd like to join in the project, choose a season, replace 'no-one' with your name in the list below, and make the edits (explained below) to each episode in the season:

Are there any episodes not covered by this? Any of The Tracey Ullman Show shorts that should be included? But they appear to have no individual pages.

What changes to make[edit]

This is quite a long section, because I've tried to explain what to do in detail with examples, but don't worry, it's quite straightforward and once you've done a few it will be second nature.

Best place to start is by looking at a page that's been tagged, such as The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer.

The process involves finding the following pieces of information on the page and putting a specific line before and after the information. The bits of information are as follows, although many of these are not on all pages - just tag the ones that are.

  • Writers from the infobox
  • Directors from the infobox
  • Guest stars from the infobox
  • Blackboard/chalkboard gag from the infobox
  • Couch gag from the infobox
  • Trivia section
  • Cultural references section
  • Goofs section
  • Quotes section (although these are being phased out in favour of WikiQuotes)

For each piece of information in the infobox, the first task is to get it onto a line on its own. This is an edit that won't change the appearance of the infobox.

For instance, if the infobox text is currently: 

| writer       = David Sacks
| director     = Mark Kirkland
| blackboard   = "Ralph won't 'morph' if you squeeze him hard enough"
| couch_gag    = The couch becomes a giant circus act.
| guest_star   = [[Anne Bancroft]] as Dr. Zweig<br>[[Ted Danson]] as Sam<br>[[Woody Harrelson]] as Woody<br>[[Rhea Perlman]] as Carla<br>[[John Ratzenberger]] as Cliff<br>[[George Wendt]] as Norm

...then it needs to be changed to... 

| writer       = 
David Sacks
| director     = 
Mark Kirkland
| blackboard   = 
"Ralph won't 'morph' if you squeeze him hard enough"
| couch_gag    = 
The couch becomes a giant circus act.
| guest_star   = 
[[Anne Bancroft]] as Dr. Zweig<br>[[Ted Danson]] as Sam<br>[[Woody Harrelson]] as Woody<br>[[Rhea Perlman]] as Carla<br>[[John Ratzenberger]] as Cliff<br>[[George Wendt]] as Norm

Then, each piece of information must have a line added before and after it. The line before looks like {{ListGenBot-SourceStart|SimpsonsWriters|SimpsonsWritersS06}} where SimpsonsWriters is the name of the piece of information being tagged (see later) and SimpsonsWritersS06 is that same name followed by an 'S' (for 'Season') and the two-digit number of the season the episode is in. Then after the information line, add {{ListGenBot-SourceEnd}}.

The tag names for items in the infobox are:

  • SimpsonsRunners
  • SimpsonsWriters
  • SimpsonsDirectors
  • SimpsonsGuests
  • SimpsonsBlackboard
  • SimpsonsCouchGags

So the example becomes (note that there's no 'SimpsonsRunners' in this example): 

| writer       = 
{{ListGenBot-SourceStart|SimpsonsWriters|SimpsonsWritersS06}}
David Sacks
{{ListGenBot-SourceEnd}}
| director     = 
{{ListGenBot-SourceStart|SimpsonsDirectors|SimpsonsDirectorsS06}}
Mark Kirkland
{{ListGenBot-SourceEnd}}
| blackboard   = 
{{ListGenBot-SourceStart|SimpsonsBlackboard|SimpsonsBlackboardS06}}
"Ralph won't 'morph' if you squeeze him hard enough"
{{ListGenBot-SourceEnd}}
| couch_gag    = 
{{ListGenBot-SourceStart|SimpsonsCouchGags|SimpsonsCouchGagsS06}}
The couch becomes a giant circus act.
{{ListGenBot-SourceEnd}}
| guest_star   = 
{{ListGenBot-SourceStart|SimpsonsGuests|SimpsonsGuestsS06}}
[[Anne Bancroft]] as Dr. Zweig<br>[[Ted Danson]] as Sam<br>[[Woody Harrelson]] as Woody<br>[[Rhea Perlman]] as Carla<br>[[John Ratzenberger]] as Cliff<br>[[George Wendt]] as Norm
{{ListGenBot-SourceEnd}}

Note that the S06 on the end of the SourceStart tag is because this episode (Fear of Flying) is from Season 6. Don't forget to change this for the episode you're editing.

And there are multiple lines in the guest stars list separated by <br> tags - that's not a problem, the bot will split these into independent lines so there's no need for you to change anything.

Then the final change to make in the info box is to put the following text somewhere: 

<!-- Please enter new data between the ListGenBot-SourceStart and ListGenBot-SourceEnd tags, so they can be used for automated list generation -->

The only purpose of this line is to give editors an idea what the tags are for, it serves no function for the bot. This should be put just before one of the {{ListGenBot-SourceStart}} tags - if there's a 'guest stars' section that has several lines, it would make sense to put it before the {{ListGenBot-SourceStart|SimpsonsGuests|SimpsonsGuestsSxx}} tag as that's the place people might most likely edit the page.


Next, make an edit to each of the four 'list' sections on the page - Trivia, Cultural references, Goofs and Quotes. Most pages won't have all of these sections, but just tag whichever ones are present. To tag a section, after the section heading add the comment from above (see example later), then the {{ListGenBot-SourceStart}} tag appropriate to the section, and at the end of the section put the {{ListGenBot-SourceEnd}} tag.

The start tags to use are:

...replacing S13 with 'S' followed by the two-digit number of the season the episode is in (13 in this example).

For instance, if the section looks like this: 

==Cultural references==
*"It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls is revealed as Homer's favorite song in this episode.
*Homer's line on shaking off the dust of this one-horse town comes from It's a Wonderful Life.

Then change it to this: 

==Cultural references==
<!-- Please enter new data between the ListGenBot-SourceStart and ListGenBot-SourceEnd tags, so they can be used for automated list generation -->
{{ListGenBot-SourceStart|SimpsonsCultural|SimpsonsCulturalS06}}
*"It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls is revealed as Homer's favorite song in this episode.
*Homer's line on shaking off the dust of this one-horse town comes from It's a Wonderful Life.
{{ListGenBot-SourceEnd}}


That's it for the page, just save your changes - I use the edit summary of "Added invisible templates for ListGenBot automated list generation".

Then go over to Wikipedia:WikiProject The Simpsons/Example generated lists. In a few minutes (once the bot has run) you should see your edited page appear in all the lists on that page. Check that they have appeared okay.

The most likely error is that the info box entries like writers and directors will have the equals symbol '=' or bar symbol '|' on them, if when you did the first bit (making sure the data in the info box is on a line by itself) you missed a character. If you see that, go back and fix it on the episode page, then check on the list page a few minutes later.

That's it - if you have any questions, please let me know on this page's talk page, or on my talk page if you prefer.

Discussion[edit]

I'll put here any interesting updates to the project of adding ListGenBot to Simpsons episodes - please feel free to chip in as needed.

  • I missed out the 'runners' that are listed on many episode pages, so have added SimpsonsRunners as one of the lists, although they won't appear in the current format of the season list pages (eg [[Wikipedia:WikiProject The Simpsons/Example generated lists/S07

]] as they need updating to list the SimpsonsRunners list

  • You can 'regenerate' your season's list page (or generate a new page) if you should need to, by replacing the entire season list page with: {{subst:User:Mortice/SimpsonsList|S07}} (you have to use 'subst' due to the way the bot checks the tags) but substituting S07 with 'S' then the 2-digit season number. You might want to do this because:
    • You want to update the season list page with the 'SimpsonsRunners' list
    • If a list appears to have vanished from your page (this has happened once)
  • There's currently 134 pages with bot tags on, so it takes the bot quite a while to produce the update list
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