Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Animation/Thomas & Friends task force/Archive 2

message: The infobox found at Template:Thomas has now been completed, and is in the process of being added to articles.
To add this infobox to an article, place  below all article text (but above any categories).
Gonzerelli 15:57, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Thomas Infobox

message: Hello. The WikiProject Council is currently in the process of developing a master directory of the existing WikiProjects to replace and update the existing Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory.  These WikiProjects are of vital importance in helping wikipedia achieve its goal of becoming truly encyclopedic. Please review the following pages: 
*User:Badbilltucker/Culture Directory, 
*User:Badbilltucker/Culture Directory 2, 
*User:Badbilltucker/Philosophy and religion Directory, 
*User:Badbilltucker/Sports Directory, 
*User:Badbilltucker/Geographical Directory, 
*User:Badbilltucker/Geographical Directory/United States, (note: This page will be retitled to more accurately reflect its contents)
*User:Badbilltucker/History and society directory, and
*User:Badbilltucker/Science directory
and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory.
The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. 
It is my hope to have the existing directory replaced by the updated and corrected version of the directory above by November 1. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 22:30, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry if you tried to update it before, and the corrections were gone. I have now moved the new draft in the old directory pages, so the links should work better. My apologies for any confusion this may have caused you. B2T2 14:20, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Project Directory 

message: ::The following is with regards to the section Rolling stock (Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends)#Troublesome Trucks. This was placed on the talk page for that article, but has been copied here for the benefit of WP:THOMAS users.
Recently, I have been constantly reverting unregistered users' edits, which have been simply filling up a list of incidents.
Firstly, it is generally accepted that "the" Troublesome Trucks are only on the Standard Gauge lines, not on narrow gauge.
In addition, this list is starkly out of the series' context - quite intentionally, since this is a character page, and not an episode page (that's what pages like Thomas and Friends - Season 1, etc are for). So you can't expect the readers to know the happenings of every single episode, and therefore be able to clearly understand what is written. Keep this in mind.
Finally, all these additions have made the list incredibly long. We do not want long lists in articles - text is always better than lists. See WP:THOMAS for further information on this.
It would be preferable to edit this list so that it becomes a block of text rather than a list, however until then please do not add any further "incidents". If, however, you feel an incident is significant enough to warrant inclusion, feel free to note it below.
Gonzerelli 05:01, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Troublesome Trucks comment 

message: Beginning cross-post.
:See Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 Editorial Team#Stablepedia. If you wish to comment, please comment there. ★MESSEDROCKER★ 23:29, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Stablepedia 

message: I wrote the following in Talk:Railway engines (Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends), and decided to copy it here for your reference. It clearly outlines what is expected within that specific article, and consolidates the disjointed discussion.
===Standards for this article===
As a part of the work done by WikiProject Thomas, some standards for this article have been established. These are to ensure that this article, WikiProject Thomas articles, and Wikipedia as a whole, are of high quality and maintain their integrity. The development of these standards can be viewed at both WikiProject Thomas Talk, and this page's Archive 1.
These standards include the following:
====Character inclusion/exclusion====
The basis for characters being included in this article, is dependent upon the following:
*The character must be a railway engine from the TV Series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (AKA Thomas and Friends). This clearly rules out any characters which have only appeared in The Railway Series or films.
*The character must be able to be considered a part of the "regular fleet" of engines in the series. If not featured in recent seasons, the character must be able to feasibly return. If the character cannot be seen as a "regular" (eg. only had one appearance), then the correct article for the character is Minor characters from Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.
*This page is to be the only reference page (from a TV Series perspective) for all engines, except the following major characters:
:*Thomas
:*Edward
:*Henry
:*Gordon
:*James
:*Percy
:*Toby
:*Duck
:*Donald and Douglas
:*Emily
As such, separate articles should not be created for any engines other than those above.
====Naming conventions====
Some engines have, throughout history, have had "extended names", such as "Thomas the Tank Engine". There are only eight "extended names" which are considered appropriate, based on their consistent use throughout earlier seasons of the TV Series, as well as their origins in The Railway Series books. These are:
:*Thomas the Tank Engine
:*Edward the Blue Engine
:*Henry the Green Engine
:*Gordon the Big Engine
:*James the Red Engine
:*Percy the Small Engine
:*Toby the Tram Engine
:*Duck the Great Western Engine
Any other engines being given descriptive names (eg. "Murdoch the Mighty Engine") does not have any consistent, official basis. Please consider that using an adjective to describe an engine does not therefore make it an official naming convention.
====Character list====
The use of the character list at the head of this article bypasses the need for a Table Of Contents, and conveniently displays information, while anchor-linking within this article to each character's section. It is listed in order of first appearance within the series, which may not necessarily be the same order as they are listed within the article proper. This is intentional, as "Engines 1-11" can be placed in numerical order in the article, though Gordon (#4) appeared in the Series before Edward or Henry (#2 & #3).
====Numbers====
This has been the subject of some heated discussion in the past. Despite some engines (particularly diesel engines) carrying numbers (often similar as their prototypes upon which they were based), this often has no bearing on actual running of the railways in the Series. As such, it has been declared that ONLY the following engines' numbers will be specified in the Character List:
*1-11 Standard Gauge (Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, Duck, Donald, Douglas, Oliver)
*1-7 Narrow Gauge (Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Rusty, Duncan, Fearless Freddie)
*27 (Harvey - "the number 27, including the Narrow Gauge engines and excluding Diesel, accurately reflects him being the 27th addition to the fleet of engines working on Sodor. [Quoted direct from article])
====Images====
By the very nature of this article, one picture per section depicting each character is acceptable, and indeed enhances this article greatly. However, as we may only use one image per character, the choice of image is incredibly important. The images should be clear, and where possible show as much of the engine as possible - ideally their face, funnel, wheels, body, and tender (if applicable). As these images have been carefully selected over time, it is considered harmful to change these images without discussion, or without the "new" image being obviously more appropriate.
====Miscellaneous====
*Use of terminology:- "Engine" or "engines" is the correct terminology to use for this artcle, rather than "locomotive" or "train".
*As this TV Series is a British series, British spelling and grammar should be used, rather than American spelling or grammar.
*The section titles should not be changed, as changing them would mess with anchored links from dozens of other articles.
*As with all other articles, superfluous comments which add nothing to the article are inappropriate, and should be removed.
====Please, feel free to discuss====
While the above standards may seem restrictive and stifling, it has been necessary to reach a set of common standards after over a year of editing this page (to my knowledge). However, if you disagree with any of these standards, or wish to discuss them, then please feel free to do so. We always welcome valuable input from other users.
On behalf of WikiProject Thomas,
Gonzerelli 17:40, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clearer standards for Railway Engines - TV Series 

message: As a part of the work done by WikiProject Thomas, some standards for this article have been established. These are to ensure that this article, WikiProject Thomas articles, and Wikipedia as a whole, are of high quality and maintain their integrity. The development of these standards can be viewed at both WikiProject Thomas Talk, and this page's Archive 1.
These standards include the following:
====Character inclusion/exclusion====
The basis for characters being included in this article, is dependent upon the following:
*The character must be a railway engine from the TV Series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (AKA Thomas and Friends). This clearly rules out any characters which have only appeared in The Railway Series or films.
*The character must be able to be considered a part of the "regular fleet" of engines in the series. If not featured in recent seasons, the character must be able to feasibly return. If the character cannot be seen as a "regular" (eg. only had one appearance), then the correct article for the character is Minor characters from Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.
*This page is to be the only reference page (from a TV Series perspective) for all engines, except the following major characters:
:*Thomas
:*Edward
:*Henry
:*Gordon
:*James
:*Percy
:*Toby
:*Duck
:*Donald and Douglas
:*Emily
As such, separate articles should not be created for any engines other than those above.
====Naming conventions====
Some engines have, throughout history, have had "extended names", such as "Thomas the Tank Engine". There are only eight "extended names" which are considered appropriate, based on their consistent use throughout earlier seasons of the TV Series, as well as their origins in The Railway Series books. These are:
:*Thomas the Tank Engine
:*Edward the Blue Engine
:*Henry the Green Engine
:*Gordon the Big Engine
:*James the Red Engine
:*Percy the Small Engine
:*Toby the Tram Engine
:*Duck the Great Western Engine
Any other engines being given descriptive names (eg. "Murdoch the Mighty Engine") does not have any consistent, official basis. Please consider that using an adjective to describe an engine does not therefore make it an official naming convention.
====Character list====
The use of the character list at the head of this article bypasses the need for a Table Of Contents, and conveniently displays information, while anchor-linking within this article to each character's section. It is listed in order of first appearance within the series, which may not necessarily be the same order as they are listed within the article proper. This is intentional, as "Engines 1-11" can be placed in numerical order in the article, though Gordon (#4) appeared in the Series before Edward or Henry (#2 & #3).
====Numbers====
This has been the subject of some heated discussion in the past. Despite some engines (particularly diesel engines) carrying numbers (often similar as their prototypes upon which they were based), this often has no bearing on actual running of the railways in the Series. As such, it has been declared that ONLY the following engines' numbers will be specified in the Character List:
*1-11 Standard Gauge (Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, Duck, Donald, Douglas, Oliver)
*1-7 Narrow Gauge (Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Rusty, Duncan, Fearless Freddie)
*27 (Harvey - "the number 27, including the Narrow Gauge engines and excluding Diesel, accurately reflects him being the 27th addition to the fleet of engines working on Sodor. [Quoted direct from article])
====Images====
By the very nature of this article, one picture per section depicting each character is acceptable, and indeed enhances this article greatly. However, as we may only use one image per character, the choice of image is incredibly important. The images should be clear, and where possible show as much of the engine as possible - ideally their face, funnel, wheels, body, and tender (if applicable). As these images have been carefully selected over time, it is considered harmful to change these images without discussion, or without the "new" image being obviously more appropriate.
====Miscellaneous====
*Use of terminology:- "Engine" or "engines" is the correct terminology to use for this artcle, rather than "locomotive" or "train".
*As this TV Series is a British series, British spelling and grammar should be used, rather than American spelling or grammar.
*The section titles should not be changed, as changing them would mess with anchored links from dozens of other articles.
*As with all other articles, superfluous comments which add nothing to the article are inappropriate, and should be removed.
====Please, feel free to discuss====
While the above standards may seem restrictive and stifling, it has been necessary to reach a set of common standards after over a year of editing this page (to my knowledge). However, if you disagree with any of these standards, or wish to discuss them, then please feel free to do so. We always welcome valuable input from other users.
On behalf of WikiProject Thomas,
Gonzerelli 17:40, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Standards for this article

message: While the above standards may seem restrictive and stifling, it has been necessary to reach a set of common standards after over a year of editing this page (to my knowledge). However, if you disagree with any of these standards, or wish to discuss them, then please feel free to do so. We always welcome valuable input from other users.
On behalf of WikiProject Thomas,
Gonzerelli 17:40, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Please, feel free to discuss

message: Someone has recently added Theodore Tugboat to .  As TUGS is already present, there is a certain logic to this addition, since both came from the same (television) stable as 'Thomas'.  The same user has, quite correctly, now added the Thomas Template to the Theodore page.
However, isn't the link to 'Thomas' becoming rather tenuous?  Should either of these series really be included in the Thomas Template and, by implication, appear to be part of the 'Thomas' canon?
EdJogg 10:52, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: TUGS has a verifiable link with Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Theodore Tugboat does not. Will remove the latter now. Gonzerelli 13:56, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[TUGS]] and [[Theodore Tugboat]] 

message: This one is a bit of an issue, pretty much since the On Site With Thomas release was made, and introduced new characters.
I am considering the idea of moving all Pack characters away from Non-rail vehicles (Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends), and combining them with the contents of On Site with Thomas, to create a new page Jack and the Pack. This article would discuss all aspects, including the difference between characters appearing within the series proper, and those only seen in spin-off releases.
This would require time and effort to get done, but before anything is done, I would like it to be discussed here, and any other ideas on this put forward.
Gonzerelli 13:55, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jack and the Pack 

message: Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 16:30, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia Day Awards 

message: Recently I scanned through :Category:The Railway Series characters and thought how it might be useful to include all the major characters there, by adding their redirect page to the category ('main' redirect only, some characters have several!).
I tried this with Oliver the Western Engine, partly as this seemed an obvious choice, and partly to see how it looked.
Certain 'minor' characters should be included too, for example 'Bear', 'Toad', 'Pip&Emma' and the 'non-rail' and 'human' characters.  Obviously common sense must prevail, for example the 'Unfeatured' characters should not be included, nor most of the visiting engines (which are counted as minor characters).
I tried to find some WP guidance on this, and it is suggested that redirect pages should not normally be added to categories. However, this is to avoid having multiple links to the same page within the category, and I think that in the case of WP:THOMAS, the redirect pages to individual characters within mutiple-character pages would be a valid exception to the rule. (And you ARE allowed to break the rules where appropriate!)
I don't think that it would be undermining the rationalisation that WP:THOMAS is trying to achieve, since it merely provides an alternative navigation route to the character pages.  (Consider this: from the character category page, how would a non-fan locate Oliver's entry?  Is he a major, minor or unfeatured character?)
This approach would also work well with the locations.
Thoughts?
EdJogg 13:02, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Category Membership - Include redirected characters? 

message: Just FYI...
A (signed) copy of this book was tonight sold on eBay.UK for £103.53 !!
I think I'll treat my copy a little more carefully in future!  (My copy was bought at Covent Garden and is not only signed, by both Wilbert and George, but it also has the small strip of printed paper that was tucked into the D.J. to indicate this fact!) 
EdJogg 00:03, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "The Island of Sodor &ndash; Its People, History and Railways" 

message: Having just been testing the 'Recent Changes' function I added to the sidebar, I realised that we actually need THREE such links: one for ALL pages, one for just Railway Series pages, and one for just TV series changes.  The latter two will have a considerable overlap – all the grouped pages, main characters, categories, etc – but will allow project members to focus on one or other aspect if wished.
The current facility just makes use of the existing list page.  The new functions will require their own pages for each search, which is a minor nuisance, but probably worth it to get the functionality.
Incidentally, this functionality was copied from the DadsArmy project sidebar (see 'change' link at top of bar), which I discovered had been copied from the Black Adder project sidebar – because they had forgotten to update the link! (I corrected it for them!)
EdJogg 18:09, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Multiple Lists required

message: I have created a new category: :Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends merchandise for the 16+ merchandising pages, which should make the task a little easier.  Having now looked at all the pages, there is a certain amount of information that ought to be retained – manufacturers, form, construction, dates, etc – but the long lists are not very helpful.
I also discovered the page Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends models which is a good (if brief) summary page, although duplicated by the new Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends merchandise page.  I have added merge banners to request that these two pages be merged together, but some of the others would be appropriate to merge 'soon'.
EdJogg 01:18, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  TtTE&F Merchandising Pages - Proposed Merges 

message: Hi,
I've found while compiling the list of articles that Thomas the Tank Engine film characters contains much the same information as Thomas and the Magic Railroad as regards characters in the films. It contains the same characters but differing descriptions. I would ask anyone who is interested to check these articles.
As the Thomas infobox (at the bottom) clearly links Thomas the Tank Engine film characters as Movie only that this should be made clear, and only one set of descriptions should remain here. It is a bit unclear whether all the film characters are linked here, or just new ones not seen in Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.
A link such as For the characters that appeared in Thomas and the Magic Railroad see Thomas the Tank Engine film characters might do.
Any other suggestions? Lets try to avoid the duplication of material!
Mdcollins1984 23:42, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Movie-only characters overlap 

message: We were asked to rescue :Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends merchandise.  Those articles, in need of tidying and housekeeping with sundry template to be fettled and others to be removed are at TSW Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends merchandise.  Fiddle Faddle 00:33, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Is it just me, or does anyone else see the ironic similarity to a plot in one of the books?  Naughty children tried to close the railway down, but.....  Now, just who is the Fat Controller?  Fiddle Faddle 07:49, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Rescued articles

message: I've created a link on the sidebar for  recent changes to talk pages. These do not get picked up on the standard recent changes tool.  This link checks the talk pages that are in :Category:WikiProject Thomas articles (that have been added by using the project notice. We can now patrol these talk pages for any queries that arise. MDCollins (talk) 11:58, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Recent talk pages changes 

message: I know the convention for articles is to avoid the use of titles in article names, but does anyone else find it annoying that the article is at W.V. Awdry, but we always link to the Rev. W. Awdry?! MDCollins (talk) 13:08, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I guess you will know, more than most, how widespread this is.  However, I don't think we'll get policy changed.  (Look at the history for the article itself, and you'll see that the title 'Reverend' was removed from the lede paragraph too.  I sorted that one, pretty smartish.) But I think you're onto a loser here! EdJogg 14:36, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rev. W. Awdry 

message: Zesty Prospect and I are trying to start a WikiProject incorperating Childrens Television in the UK as a whole. It would be appriciated if you could help us get it off the ground and co-operate with us on Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends TV articles. We'd like to become sister projects once we have got 5 members. Anyone who wants to sign up go to the proposals page and it's project with the longest title. Go to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals page and click on Children's television programmes of the united kingdom and northern ireland. Thanks, Soopa hoops77 12:38, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Children's TV Project