<span class="SFPTagline">
From SCIFIPEDIA
</span>
Bufo Calvin is a professional educator who has been interested in the paranormal for more than 30 years, as well as enjoying science fiction and fantasy. He began sending out his Bufo's WEIRD WORLD reports over the internet in June of 1996. He has appeared on television (including STRANGE UNIVERSE), radio (including Jeff Rense), and was a columnist for FATE Magazine. He was one of the founding members of OPUS, and serves as its Education Director.
Scifipedia has entered a warp zone. Discuss the new level at DMM.
Opportunity for Teenagers to be in a Paranormal Reality Series
Absolutely please forward. We are looking for teenagers between the ages of 14 and 19 (with their parents permission) who might want to be involved. Great, vibrant personalities and an affinity, interest or expertise in the paranormal, gadgets, technology, investigations, etc.
And thank you for the compliments on Mad Mad House. Good way to highlight individuals different choices. Created it myself and am rather proud of it. :)
Bufo Calvin wrote:
Do you mind if I forward this to some other people who may know teenagers who might be interested?
<snip> I enjoyed "Mad, Mad House", by the way. :)
Bufo Calvin
Original Message
From: santamonicaproducer <santamonicaproducer@yahoo.com>
To:
Sent: Wed, 21 May 2008 5:55 pm
Subject: Television Project
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Zig Gauthier and I am a Los Angeles based television producer currently overseeing a production company called Red Varden Studios. Previously worked for ten years as a television executive including a stint at NBC Universal's Sci Fi Channel.
I am emailing you to requesting your help on a project that we are currently developing. We are looking for teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18 who may be interested in participating in a paranormal-themed television show (cross between Ghost Hunters, Destination Truth and a real life Scooby Doo). Trying to identify teenagers who have outgoing personalities and an interest or expertise in the paranormal, technology, gadgets, investigating, etc. We are also looking to identify paranormal or investigation-type clubs for teenagers who might be interested in participating.
If you know of any teenagers who might be interested, WITH THEIR PARENTS APPROVAL, please feel free to have them email me. We would like to request a tape introducing themselves and their interest in participating. Thank you for your time and input.
Best wishes,
Zig
Red Varden Studios
3000 31st Street
Suite D
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Title Restylization
This is a major new project. In a discussion, the contributor community decided to use "Sentence case" (only the first word capitalized except for proper nouns) rather than "Title Case" (every significant word capitalized) for category and article titles. This was difficult for me as a grammarian, but I was convinced that the ease of referencing trumped the traditional punctuation. I think it's a good choice, although it requires literally tens of thousands of manual changes. To my knowledge, a category can't simply be moved to a new title the way an article can. That means that each of the movies in the Vincent Price Movies category has to be put individually into the Vincent Price movies category. Once that is completed, the Vincent Price Movies category has to be removed.
We're making real progress, and I hope to see the conversion substantially completed during the first half of 2008.
We're also making some other style changes. You'll notice that the titles have become more descriptive and less fragmentary. The format is now Movies directed by Roland Emmerich rather than Roland Emmerich Movies and Movies featuring robots rather than Robot Movies. This make for less confusing constructions. It allows us to clearly separate movies written or directed by Emmerich. Also, I've always found Vampire Screenwriters a bit misleading...did they write about vampires, or are they vampires themselves? ;)
I'm glad we made this change early: imagine doing it when we have a million articles. :)
For me, it's all part of the Doc Savage ethos of constantly striving to improve. :)
--bufocalvin 10:20, 21 February 2008 (EST)
Want to Help?
Here's the easiest thing: if you see an empty category, replace the categories in it with this code: [[Category:Redundant Categories]]. I"ve converted hundreds, but there are thousands to go. That puts them off in an area where they can be deleted by the staff.
--bufocalvin 19:59, 12 April 2008 (EDT)
"What was he thinking?"
In this section, I want to address decisions I make about what I do in Scifipedia...sort of my "scifilosophy", so to speak. :)
Consistency and Diversity
I try to be consistent in how I do things here. In fact, I keep a text file with some phrases I use so that I do reproduce elements the same way. However, I do like that there are different "flavors" here from different people. For example, I spell it "theatres" while others here spell it "theaters". Since both are considered correct, I wouldn't change one to the other, even though that means there are two spellings in Scifipedia.
Internal Linking
One thing I do to existing articles is add internal links. I link most proper names: names of people, names of cities, names of universities, and so on. If I know a production is not Sci Fi (such as a mainstream show listed as something an actor did), I don't link those. I also link dates and years. It's to give people a way to explore more deeply.
External Linking
Connecting Scifipedia to outside sites is crucial to me. These links should benefit the outside sources: being linked in Scifipedia should result in more hits for the outside sources...our information should not replace going there.
This is beneficial in a number of ways:
- There are sites out there that are very reliable sources of information, and that keep things updated. No sense in duplicating the effort
- Fansites will have their efforts recognized
- Creators, distributors, conrunners, and so on, who see the value of being listed in Scifipedia may begin to post their own information. This will increase the content on Scifipedia, and increase good will and knowledge of the site
- The "reference work" tone of the articles in Scifipedia can be maintained, while the links allow connection to more advocatory sites
Navigation
I'd like to help make Scifipedia easy to navigate, so people have less typing to do and so less computer literate people can still use it effectively. To that end, I've been adding links at the top and bottom of each date and year article. The ones at the top are separate by lines and say, "Back to " whatever year or date precedes it. This is what the code looks like:
-----
Back to [[January 1]]
-----
At the bottom, I also have a link to the current year. There is an article that just redirects people to whatever year it is now. The code for that looks like this:
-----
Ahead to [[July 2]]
-----
[[This Year|What's happening this year?]]
-----
Order in Year Articles
- At the beginning of the month (or year), I create a section for undated within that month. For example, comic books typically have a publication month, but I usually don't know on an older comic what the day of release was that month.
- I put something that has a date (but not a time, such as a television program would have) before those with a time
- Same date, same time, I do it alphabetically by the main entry...a Lost in Space episode would come before a Stargate SG-1 episode if they were both on at 9:00 on the first
In with the In Crowd
The issue of what should be included in Scifipedia is a tricky one. Leaving paranormal aside for now, what else qualifies? First, for me, is anything with a fantasy element: that is, something that could not happen in the world as generally understood today. That sweepingly includes science fiction and fantasy (and although some people don't, I consider science fiction a sub-set of fantasy). Second, I include things presented to the audience as fantasy, even if they are later revealed in the work to be a hoax. For example, if Scooby Doo and company see what appears to be a ghost to them (and to us), and Velma later figures out some way it was all a hoax, I'd still count it. I also don't care about tone or intended audience; a children's book or a commercial is fine with me. The area where I am more exclusive is horror. This is for me personally, but I would not include Psycho or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They both portray extreme human behaviour, but there are no ghosts or levitation or death rays. While it is a genre, it isn't fantasy. Westerns and noir are genres, also, and there is certainly some overlap in the fan set with horror and fantasy. There are also a lot of horror movies which are fantasy, and I would, of course, include those. I don't mind that other people do want to include psychological horror: I think that's fine. I just won't do it myself. :)
It's also a little trickier for me when a character sometimes appears in Sci Fi plots and sometimes doesn't. For example, there was an episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody that was clearly Sci Fi. Does that make the entire series Sci Fi? Should just that one episode by entered? Or do all the episodes now belong in Scifipedia? Haven't quite decided...
"Capital, Simply Capital"
I find one of the hardest parts about the wiki software used by Scifipedia is that it is case dependent. For non-geeks, that means it won't recognize something if it isn't capitalized the same way, except (in this case) for the first letter of a title. That means it knows that fantasy is the same Fantasy, but not that Science Fiction is the same as science fiction. A couple of us have settled into some conventions pretty well. We don't capitalize the generic word (if there is one) in an article title. For example, it would be Throne for a Loss (Farscape episode) rather than Throne for a Loss (Farscape Episode). It would be Spock, Messiah (Star Trek novel) rather than Spock, Messiah (Star Trek Novel). However, we didn't settle on that right away, so there are redirects to do. Conversely, in categories, we do capitalize generic words. So, the category would be Star Trek Novels, not Star Trek novels, which makes sense to me. I'm fine with having lots of redirects: Alien Abduction, alien abduction, alien abductions, an Alien Abductions could all point to the same article. That does take some doing, though. :) Redirects are pretty easy to set up. The code looks like this:
#Redirect [[Alien Abduction]]
The gotcha here is not to put a space after the #...if you do that, it thinks you are creating a numbered list.
First In, Wins
This is a big one for me. Whoever creates the article first has precedence. That doesn't mean other people can't add to it and edit it, but if someone says something differently than I would have (but not incorrectly), I tend to leave it their way. I do change some things for consistency's sake, but I try to respect the original content. Most of what I change has to do with formatting and additions.
Movies, Films, and Flicks
Just a minor one for me...I prefer the term "movie" to the term "film", although I don't change it when somebody uses it. The term "movie" is timeless (as long as the pictures move), but film refers to the physical medium as well as the work. An increasing number of movies are not made on film. It's not a biggie: some people still say they "dial" a phone number, and as I write this, many people refer to "taping" something on Tivo. Similarly, movies no longer flicker the way they did in the silent days (which is why they were called "flicks"), but that's still colloquial. :)
Frozen in Time!
I try to avoid using time-contextual terms, like "recently", or "will soon". If someone checks something in Scifipedia and it is obsolete, that can challenge SFP's credibility. It's the same kind of thing with quantities on "living series". I'm happy to say something is the "fifth" book, but I'm wary of saying something is the "final" book in the series...you never know. :) The one exception to this is that I do like having an Upcoming Movies category. That's an area that has always interested me, but for some reason, I don't feel the same way about having an Upcoming Books category.
Naming a Version
Remakes, tie-in novels, video games...one property can have lots of versions. I haven't been consistent in naming these, and that can cause duplication and broken references. I've decided I like year and medium: Iron Man (2008 movie), for example. For a TV series, I'd go with the debut year of regular broadcast: The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series), for example. Why not just Iron Man (2008)? Well, it's likely there will be a video game based on the movie that same year, and maybe a tie-in novel. Would I name the article Star Wars (1977 movie)? Yes...even though you may argue that there is no ambiguity, since there is only one movie called Star Wars...that Star Wars (movie) would cover it. I doubt they thought there would be multiple versions of King Kong or Rollerball, for that matter. It's just proactive and standardizing to use both. Of course, that does mean the creation of more disambiguation articles, so that Star Wars can find the theoretical Star Wars (1977 movie) article. Just my thoughts on it...
Tips and Tricks
I'm learning a lot of little things that you can do in Scifipedia that can make the articles more interesting and/or friendly. I'll list them in this section.
Alphabetization
This was one of the first tricks. When you put something into a category, you can tell Scifipedia (SFP) how to alphabetize (for example, last name first on names, or by number in a book series).
You follow the category with a pipe (|) and then how it should treat the entry. If you were putting in an entry for Harrison Ford, you could do this:
[[Category:Actors|Ford, Harrison]]
One kind of quirky thing that I recently realized. Some people's names don't follow the expected pattern of having the first letter of each name capitalized and the rest of them in small. For example, Clea DuVall. I don't want to change the spelling of her name in the title of the article about her. However, I also don't want to see her listed in the Actors category before David Duchovny. DuVall comes before Duchovny, but Duvall comes after, which is where I think people would expect to find it. In that case, I indicate the capitalization like this:
[[Category:Actors|Duvall, Clea]]
Display Text for Links
When you link to an article (or a category...see below), you can choose what the link says. For example, you may want to say, "He also appeared on the original show" and have the words "original show" be the link to an article. The display follows a pipe in the link. This would be the code to link to the Kirk/Spock Star Trek TV series, while referring to it simply as "the original show":
Ricardo Montalban was repeating his role from [[Star Trek: The Original Series|the original show]]
Linking to a Category
An internal link to a category (rather than to an individual article) can be created. The link starts with a colon...that threw me for awhile. :) Here is sample code for that:
[[:Category:Actors|Actors]]
Note that I put the display name following a pipe (|) following the category name. I want the link to just say Actors, and this allows that.
ISBNs
A great option that we have is to list the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for a book. This creates a link that someone can use to find places to order it, and price comparisions. I recommend clicking on the link, and then clicking on AddAll. They started as a nine digit number in 1966, and became a 13 digit number in 2007. You can find them on the book itself (sometimes on the back near the SKU), or copy and paste them from Amazon.com. The code is easy, but a little counter-intuitive to me. There is no colon or anything, just ISBN followed by the number. It looks like this:
ISBN 978-0486230948
This really fits the philosophy to me of making Scifipedia a jumping off spot, a first place to go. I put the ISBNs in release dates for books in the date and year articles, and I put them into articles about the books. That's one of my retrofit projects, to go back and get them into existing book articles. When I do that, I usually format it this way:
==ISBNs==
''Click to find sources to order this book.''
* ISBN 978-1416521020
I may list multiple ISBNs for multiple editions. Thanks, Lorekeeper, for recommending this tip!
Linking to Users
You may be on a talk page, and want to reference something another contributor to Scifipedia has said or done. For example, you may want to give credit for a great effort someone has done while you are leaving a message for one of the Scifipedia staff. This one is easy, you just put User: in front of the person's screen name and make it a link:
[[User:bufocalvin]]
The only gotcha here is capitalization.
Linking an E-mail Address
In some articles, one of the external links might be an e-mail address. You can create a link that will, with some very popular e-mail programs (Outlook, Lotus Notes), create an e-mail to that address when clicked. It's a good idea to put the e-mail address after a pipe (|), so if someone does not have a program that will do it automatically, then can copy and paste it into their e-mail program. The only trick is to add mailto: before the e-mail. The code would look like this:
[mailto:mycroftbro@scotlandyard.gov|mycroftbro@scotlandyard.gov]
Linking to a Subsection in an Article
One of the early articles I started was the Paranormal Terminology one. I've subsequently started to think that each one of those terms should simply be an entry in the :Category:Paranormal Terminology|Paranormal Terminology category. However, there may be other times you want to link to a section...like a bio section for an author, for example. You can do that...it looks like this:
[[Paranormal Terminology#MIB|MIB]]
The "#" is what tells it to go to a section. It's a good idea to add display text after the pipe (|): otherwise, the # sign syntax looks a bit strange. :)
Sign and Date
When you are working in a Discussion page, you may want to sign and date your comment. This allows someone to click on your name to leave you a message. I wouldn't do this in the articles themselves, which should stay more third-person.
You can put this after your comment:
--~~~~
Click to Select
It can be a little tricky to select what you want when you are creating internal links. If you double-click a word, that will select it. It will ignore parentheses outside the word, so when someone does this (2007), I can double-click the 2007 to select it for the link.
Triple-clicking will select a paragraph. This is most useful for me when I am categorizing an article. I'll type several categories, each on a separate line. Triple-click the =bottom= one first. That will select that line, which is its own paragraph. Then I create the link with the "Ab underline" button. I'll triple-click the next one up, and repeat. If you don't do the bottom one first, it kind of meshes the categories into one paragraph, so when you triple-click you get the one you want, plus the one(s) you've already done.
Automation
I've been creating some software things to make creating articles easier. I'll share when I can.
Episode Guides
I'm pretty happy that I just put together a spreadsheet that helps me create episode guide articles. I can't really share it, just because it's not a bit clunky and takes some manipulation. Still, it's a lot better than hand-entering the dates and times. :)
Macros
These aren't very elegant if you know programming, but I find them useful. I've created some Microsoft Word macros: they help me put categories into articles, and I thought others might find them useful as well. You copy and paste linked names from the article into Word, and then run the macro. It works well when the article has one of the boxes, like the movie box.
To create the macro, you can go to Tools-Macro-Macros. Type the name you want for it, and then click create. A new window will open. Paste the below above where it says "End Sub" (that's where your cursor should be anyway).
After the macro is run, you'll probably notice that the Category links have been created, and that the area is selected. It has also been copied: you can just go back into the article, and paste the categories at the bottom of it.
The macros aren't perfect: you should review the results after you run it, and wipe out anything that is outside of the square brackets [[ ]].
Categorize a Movie Article Macro
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Text = "|"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "* "
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "Director ="
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "Screenwriter ="
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "*"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = " Stars ="
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " Studio ="
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "[["
.Replacement.Text = "[[Category:"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "]]"
.Replacement.Text = " Movies]]"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "<br>"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Copy
Date Linker (converts unlinked dates to internal links)
Sub LinkDates()
'
' LinkDates Macro
' Macro created 9/19/2007 by Bufo Calvin
'
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "January"
.Replacement.Text = "[[January"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "February"
.Replacement.Text = "[[February"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "March"
.Replacement.Text = "[[March"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "April"
.Replacement.Text = "[[April"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "May"
.Replacement.Text = "[[May"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "June"
.Replacement.Text = "[[June"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "July"
.Replacement.Text = "[[July"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "August"
.Replacement.Text = "[[August"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "September"
.Replacement.Text = "[[September"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "October"
.Replacement.Text = "[[October"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "November"
.Replacement.Text = "[[November"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "December"
.Replacement.Text = "[[December"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = " 1,"
.Replacement.Text = " 1]],"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = " 2,"
.Replacement.Text = " 2]],"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = " 3,"
.Replacement.Text = " 3]],"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = " 4,"
.Replacement.Text = " 4]],"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
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End Sub
"My unconventional conventionists..."
Here are some conventions: things we've (implicitly) decided to do a particular way, although they could probably have been done more than one way. Everything may not have been standardized to these yet, but it's probably on the way. :)
One space after a colon
For awhile, some of us were putting a space after a colon, some of us weren't. It's pretty much settled into Xena: Warrior Princess, rather than Xena:Warrior Princess.
Capital TV
We capitalize TV, so that they are TV series rather than tv series. I had to get that set in my head, since it isn't TeleVision, it's just television, but it's fine with me.
Junior, No Comma
This probably needs standardizing, but we were sometimes doing a comma before Jr. (and Sr.), sometimes not. We've settled on not doing the comma, so Lon Chaney Jr. rather than Lon Chaney, Jr.
Literature Made Unique by Author
This is is something MarshAngel did, and it makes the most sense to me. When you are looking to create an unambiguous reference, it can be tricky. I usually refer to a movie by the date and year: unlikely there will be two movies with the same name in the same year. I did that sometimes with novels or short stories, but that actually does happen more often. MarshAngel put the author's name in parentheses which works better: authors generally don't use the same title twice for two different works. So, for example, Lost (Maguire) works better than Lost (2001 novel).
You Tell Me
This section will contain requests for opinions. I may kick things back and forth in my head for awhile (one might therefore assume there is a lot of room in there ;) ), and not be satisfied that I've found a best way to go. You can use my Discussion Page to weigh in (or to leave me unrelated messages).
Cyborgs, Demons, Apes and Vampires
The Characters category needs some more organization. Quite a bit of it is good, I think, but there are two more groups that just need good names. One is about the type of character something is, such as a cyborg, demon, ape, or vampire. I thought about Character by Type, but that seems too inclusive, since professions could fall under there, and that's not really the same thing. I thought about Characters by Nature, but vampires and cyborgs (for example) may not have been born that way (although that's what they are now). This is a case of the character being something, regardless of their actions. Gamers would understand Characters by Class, but I'm not sure that's clear to everybody.
The other one is relationships: I'd like to group Father Characters, Mother Characters, and so on together. I've considered Characters by Relationship...that's probably the best bet, but it seems too ambiguous, like you might find nemeses in there.
What do you think?
Retrofit Projects
Actors
This has been an on-going project. It's mainly categorizing and adding external links, particularly to the Upcoming TV Schedule at IMDB.
Dates
I may actually finish this by the end of the year 2007. One piece is navigation: forward and back links. I also link to the current year. The other thing is working on the categories at the end of each entry. Since I've learned how to do a category link, I've been converting them all to that. So, it links to the category for actors ([[:Category:Actors|Actors]]) rather than to the article on Actors. Also, I find quite a few where the link is to the singular, rather than to a plural (categorizing William Shatner in the "Actor" category rather than the Actors category). This seems to be a philosophical difference: I consider the event being in the Actors category, someone else may consider it to be a definition of what William Shatner is. I only hope that someone else is undoing what I'm doing. :)
Movies
I'm adding links to the discussion page, and external links for IMDB and MRQE.
Actors
"Watch the skies!"
This section will list things I am anticipating. Unlike the sense of foreboding in the original context of that quote (The Thing from Another World), these are things I like. Perhaps I should have said, "I see you shiver with antici...pation." (from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), but this way I get to use both. ;)
- Two million hits on the home page (as I write this at 4:54 AM Pacific time on July 4, 2007, we have 1,892,488. You can track that under Special Pages-Popular Pages
- Scifipediia to hit its first 10,000 articles. The pace of contribution certainly seems to have accelerated lately!
"That's the way (uh-huh, uh-huh) I like it"
This is where I'm going to list what I like to see in articles of various types. That doesn't mean they should look like this, of course. In some cases, I do go back and retrofit, but not where it changes significantly what someone else has said.
Actors (and other Filmmakers)
- I like the birthdate and birth location. I usually put them in parantheses after the name, and leave a dash after the birthdate to indicate still living, if appropriate. For example, Vincent Price (May 27, 1911 St. Louis, Missouri – October 25, 1993)
- When I read the narrative part of the article, I like getting a sense of the person's career arc (or whatever other shape its taken ;) ). If a particular role was a break-out, I like to get that insight
- What awards have they won? It makes a difference to me if someone is an Oscar winner, for example. I don't need them all listed, personally. I'm just looking for how they are perceived
- I do avoid subjective physical descriptions, though
- It's interesting to me to see connections to other people (like offspring and significant others), so I sometimes do a connections section
- As to external links, I like one to go to IMDB (since that is generally accurate and gets updated), and one to the IMDB TV schedule, so people can watch their favorites' work. I do code like this:
==External Links==
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1378320/ Aaron Abrams] at [[Internet Movie Database]]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1378320/nowshowing Upcoming TV Schedule] by [[IMDB.com]]
I also like to have more sites, especially the person's official site and fansites
- In terms of categories, I like to see: the general category (Actors), Directors, and so on); the country; the city; the decades 1940s Actors); the universes (:Category:Batman Actors|Batman Actors, and so on); awards; abilities, such as languages spoken; background (model, wrestler, politician); and anything else. :)
- I create a special subcategory for each person as well. For example, Jay Acovone would be in the Jay Acovone category. Within that category, I would have subcategories for Jay Acovone movies, TV series, characters and so on. When I'm retrofitting, I use the What Links Here tool to find those. I'm not categorizing articles which have yet to be created. :) So, here's that process (I'll use an actor as an example, but it could be other filmmaker categories):
- In the article for the actor, I create their category. I alphabetize them within it by using just an asterisk. That will put the article about the person at the top of the category and make it stand out. That looks like this: [[Category:Jay Acovone|*]]
- I also paste in a comment to let people know to click on that category link. I keep this text in a notepad file, and just replace it with the appropriate name: '''''To see specific information, such as individual movies, please click the Jay Acovone category link at the bottom of this article. To see other articles that reference Jay Acovone, please click the What Links Here tool in the toolbox at the bottom of this page.'''''
- When I save the page, that will be a red link for the actor's category, unless it has already been created. I click on it, and put it into the appropriate subcategory, alphabetized for the actor like this: [[Category:Actor Subcategories|Acovone, Jay]]
- I go back to the actor article and click What Links Here
- I start clicking on each listed article and creating (or copying) a category for that actor. For example, ''[[Jay Acovone Episodes]]''. As I zip through them, one hard thing is to get the alphabetization correct. For example, if the episode or movie title starts with "The", it might look like this: [[Jay Acovone Epsiodes|Enemy Within, The]]
- The first time I use a category like Jay Acovone Episodes, I probably have to create it. I can tell by the red link. I click on it, and place it into the appropriate two categories (one for the actor, one for the production type), with appropriate alphabetization. For example, the content for the Jay Acovone Episodes category would look like this: [[Category:Jay Acovone]] [[Category:Episodes by Actor|Acovone, Jay]].
- I like to create categories for all of the names special to that episode at the same time, by the way. A subcategory for the director, screenwriter, and each of the =guest= actors. Saves me time later.
- One big tip on this that I find many people don't know. If you are using Internet Explorer, there is a drop down arrow (upside-down pyramid) next to the Back button. You can use this to select a page you've been on recently, so you don't have to click Back several times. I use that to keep going back to the What Links Here page.
As new articles are created, I should just have to drop the categories into them at the bottom.
I'm working on retrofitting all of the existing actor articles...I'm into the B's. :) If I can keep up with the new ones, I'll be fine.
This is just the way I like it, not something anybody else should think they need to do.
Milestones
- I completed retrofitting the Actors category...through the letter "B" :)
Bufocalvin 13:18, 15 July 2007 (EDT)
- Finished retrofitting the Actors through the letter C...let's see, call it six months a letter. I should be done in about 2019. ;)
--Bufocalvin 23:21, 5 November 2007 (EST)
- The 2007 article passed the 2006 article in hits! --Bufocalvin 22:24, 4 August 2007 (EDT)
- 7000 total articles
--Bufocalvin 14:59, 17 September 2007 (EDT)
- Averaging 10K frontpage hits a day
--Bufocalvin 14:59, 17 September 2007 (EDT)
"There's a great, big beautiful tomorrow..."
This section has things that I hope will happen in the future.
- More literary focus: we are, perhaps not surprisingly, primarily covering the visual media (Movies, TV) at this point. While we are getting some very nice articles on comics, I'd love to see more things on books
- More international perspective: we tend to be heavily American-centric, again not surprisingly. I'd like to see more coverage on Sci Fi in other countries
- More creator involvement: there is a big benefit to both the creators and Scifipedia if they more directly post things. For example, I'm hoping book publishers will start posting new releases to the current year article
- More fandom involvement: conrunners, club organizations, oh, my...I'd like to see them do more posting here as well
- More use of the discussion pages: I think that lively discussions and subjective opinions would be a benefit. Not in the articles themselves, but on the Talk pages
Temporalism
Bufo, you read my mind. Just yesterday I was noting the difference in the distribution of information in the categories. The disparity is the reason I've been trying to add more older movies but as it turns out, the effort to keep up with what has been extremely popular and current really leads to more representation in the 2000s category.
--MarshAngel 14:52, 8 September 2007 (EDT)
Welcome
Bufocalvin thank you for your welcome, and your advice. On the copyright issue I think we might have a very long discussion, but understand we have a different legal system to begin with. In the end we all want what's good for everybody, so let's stick to that, en take it slow.
Ok - thanks again and I will try to give Hall some backstory.
--Hall 15:14, 8 September 2007 (EDT)
2008, SCI FI. All rights reserved.
