Infosphere:Conference Table/Old format

The Conference Table is for discussion of the Infosphere, and proposals for new ideas. For information about upcoming changes to the Infosphere, see Current events. __NEWSECTIONLINK__ Click here to start a new discussion.

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Background Jokes
I was thinking, both the simpsons and Futurama are known for their background jokes. Should there be a list for the background jokes on every episode? I think if we're to be a collective hub of Futurama info it would be important to do so.Anarchy Balsac 18:35, 7 January 2008 (PST)

do you mean a master list or for each episode dr zoidberg 14

Yeah, something like a trivia list except it says "background jokes" as its title.Anarchy Balsac 07:01, 11 January 2008 (PST)

great idea i say yes dr zoidberg 14


 * Would they need time-indices? --Buddy 18:36, 3 February 2008 (PST)
 * Wouldn't hurt, though it would make the task more tedious.Anarchy Balsac 21:21, 15 February 2008 (PST)

You could also make an article containing all the jokes from season 1, one for season 2, one for season 3, one for season 4 and one for the upcoming movies.It would be easier than going through all the episodes and adding a new section. Fryandgarfield
 * Hmm... *searches* reminds me of this group of articles List of computer science references, which aren't linked from anything except each other and are far from complete. - Quolnok 18:26, 25 March 2008 (PDT)
 * I see your point. Maybe we should merge this idea with that one (since most of the computer science references are background jokes anyway) and put it in the sidebar to draw more attention(hence more editing) to it.Anarchy Balsac 12:38, 27 March 2008 (PDT)

Background Jokes: break
Okay, I think we need to start this topic again. As I am watching Futurama now and then (often a lot), I am not paying much attention to the actual plot, but noticing parts of the screen I am supposed to stare at. As a consequence, I have begun noticing a lot of background jokes. Now here is how I think we can do this. Make a huge article (list of background jokes), and get rid of the lists I created when I first joined this place. In addition to that article, we can have noticeable mentions on each episode's page. And then of course a link to the list article. My rule for a background joke to be a background joke: Something that is in the picture but unreferenced by characters and/or unimportant to plot. --SvipTalk 18:53, 20 May 2008 (PDT)
 * Yep there should be an article. Just so long as we know the other, abandoned, ones are disappearing. Bits and pieces of these are already spread through trivia sections and commentary articles, and can be copied over. - Quolnok 06:44, 21 May 2008 (PDT)
 * Maybe in a similar format as list of deleted scenes? Well... almost similar, I was thinking listing the background jokes by appearance in a big table.  And also make a list of alien language appearances (this one deserves its own list in my opinion). --SvipTalk 07:03, 21 May 2008 (PDT)
 * There had been an attempt at an AL sightings section in episode articles... Yeah they should have a page too. Format should definitely sort by season/episode. Perhaps as subsections of episode have "Physics" "Computing" "Literature" "Television" sort of thing, if the background joke is just a fart joke or something, "other" is still an option. - Quolnok 07:15, 21 May 2008 (PDT)
 * The subsections seems a bit overkill if you ask me. Maybe keep it a list for each episode in the list, then have a bold type in brackets, e.g. (Physics).  e.g.:
 * Behind Fry at Mr. Mbutu's apartment reads the text "10 Sweet 20 Home 30 Goto Home" in a frame behind him. This is a reference to the programming language BASIC.  (Computing)
 * For episode I, Roommate, however, I still wondering how we should do this right. A list or a table?  With a table we can apply an image, but not always will an image be necessary.  Hm. :S --SvipTalk 08:22, 21 May 2008 (PDT)
 * I was thinking something similar, but make it a page like the Miscellanies sections. Both the Simpsons and Futurama have loads of freeze frames per episode. We should probably take a vote on the list or table thing.Anarchy Balsac 06:29, 22 July 2008 (CEST)

Character types
I think we can all safely agree on what is a Primary character, but when it comes to Secondary characters and Tertiary characters, it becomes a bit more debatable. According to the current definitions, it goes like this: But here is where the problem is. Some characters will be labelled as tertiary, even though they have a much larger importance than a secondary character. Example, Steve Castle, the man takes over the company, he is one of the main characters in that episode, and that is an undeniable fact. Since he dies in the same episode he appears in, he was (I edited it myself, because I didn't agree) labelled as a tertiary character. But for instance, since 21st Century girl appears in both episode Love's Labours Lost in Space and The Sting, she is labelled as a secondary character, despite the fact that she have no major importance on the plot of any episode.
 * Primary: Appears in most or all episodes, films and comics.
 * Secondary: Appearing in more than one episode, film or comic.
 * Tertiary: Only appearing in one episode, film or comic.

Instead, I think we should label our types of characters upon plot importance. I am not going to argue for the primary characters, they are set, and are interchangeable. But for secondary and tertiary, it could be like so; I'd especially like to hear Qoulnok's opinion. --SvipTalk 03:43, 25 March 2008 (PDT)
 * Secondary: Characters with some or more plot changing purpose in one or more episodes, films or comics.
 * Tertiary: Characters without any plot changing purpose in one or more episodes, films or comics.
 * Sounds more accurate, but it still leaves some characters questionable. Petunia, for instance is in a number of episodes but doesn't quite meet that definition and I think she should be secondary. - Quolnok 06:50, 25 March 2008 (PDT)
 * I agree. But perhaps add more to the definition for secondary then.  E.g. "Characters with some or more plot changing purpose in one or more episodes, films or comics and/or large reuse of character with interaction with main characters."  And thanks for not pointing out my misspelling of your nick. --SvipTalk 07:12, 25 March 2008 (PDT)

sure why not better than nothing. dr zoidberg 4
 * The only problem is that, unlike the current definition, it's much more subjective. You'd almost have to have a vote for every character to see which they are. But I agree, That Guy is a way more important character than Hattie. If we come up with a more clearly-defined division, I'd be happy to get behind this. --Buddy 11:50, 27 March 2008 (PDT)

Countdowns
On Futurama Madhouse, they have a countdown for the films (when they know the release date), I was wondering if we should have the same for unreleased/unaired films/episodes (maybe in the infobox or the navigation above). And then the next release/air on the Main Page. It can be easy peasy with some javascript and what not. --SvipTalk 17:09, 27 June 2008 (BST)

ive been wondering why we havent been doing that actullay --Dr zoidberg 14 21:11, 27 June 2008 (BST)
 * Time to play with Main Page Proposal again I guess. I really didn't like how the airings template ended up. - Quolnok 05:12, 28 June 2008 (BST)
 * I just threw something together (nonscripted, best to pick a layout first). Not very good. I went with purple (probably needs to change) thinking we could give Leela a background faded image like Fry, Bender and Hypnotoad, but the box'll be to small for that anyway and the box looked better just above Hypnotoad... If we use a box... There's a reason I'm a coder not a graphic designer. - Quolnok 05:57, 28 June 2008 (BST)

I'm thinking we should put the countdowns on the pages containing the release dates themselves. Makes more sense to me.Anarchy Balsac 20:06, 29 July 2008 (CEST)

i was thinking about that to --Dr zoidberg 14 21:27, 29 July 2008 (CEST)

Also, there are two pages that include the countdowns, and both of them are different. i.e., For the R3's BWaBB is due in 10 days on The Main Page Proposal, the Infosphere:Countdown says 11 days. Which is it? Go Bender Kid 21:04, 30 July 2008 (CEST)
 * They are identical. The Countdowns page is included on the Main Page Proposal. --SvipTalk 23:39, 30 July 2008 (CEST)

Did you check them? Cause I'm pretty sure one says 11 and one says 10. Go Bender Kid 02:12, 31 July 2008 (CEST)
 * I did check them, and they said the same on my end. Anything else would have been odd.  Though, now that you mention it, it could have been a cached version appearing.  Maybe I need to reconsider how we are going to deal with cache, or maybe MediaWiki has a way for making some pages exceptions. --SvipTalk 11:19, 31 July 2008 (CEST)
 * I'm glad you thought of that too. I was just about to mention that the caching will prevent IPs from seeing accurate countdowns. - Quolnok 11:41, 31 July 2008 (CEST)
 * I'm pretty sure there's a slight glitch in the countdown (likely due to the rounding), it should say that there's 6 days to go for R4's BwaBB but says 5, unless we're going for 0 days when it comes out the next day. - Quolnok 14:20, 31 July 2008 (CEST)

In line episode/etc. references
As you know, we have decided that a lot of our plot descriptions as well as character, places, etc. descriptions doesn't require sources. However, there are times where we through in an "in line" reference for more "obscure" things. The intend is purely for readers to figure out where the hell the Planet Express Ship was equipped with that, or where it was shown to have which. I am proposing that perhaps we should have a template for making inline references. E.g. 1ACV01, US#01 and The Game. Obviously similar to, which means I am currently focusing on creating a way where we will only have to edit one template when updating the titles, production/comic code and also support "special" episodes. --SvipTalk 17:52, 27 June 2008 (BST)

not a bad idea not bad at all. --Dr zoidberg 14 21:09, 27 June 2008 (BST)
 * There are a small number of those around, such as where we identify Nibbler's age from a DVD menu screen. If there are truely obscure factoids then we need to do it. - Quolnok 05:12, 28 June 2008 (BST)
 * Indeed for Nibbler's age as one, I was thinking of making an additional logo (which is basically a disc) to indicate it being on a DVD but not in an episode. --SvipTalk 11:04, 28 June 2008 (BST)
 * What about if/when someone references the full episodes of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad, or All My Circuits that you get in both BBS and the upcomming Bender's Game? I doubt that they would provide any information that would be neccisary to link to, but you never know... --Fatt Daddy Inc.
 * We already have for the full episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad. Regardless, it links to a section in the article about the show;
 * But regardless, it is still to inform people that they appeared in said episodes. --SvipTalk 13:09, 30 June 2008 (BST)
 * But regardless, it is still to inform people that they appeared in said episodes. --SvipTalk 13:09, 30 June 2008 (BST)

Article introductions
Several articles, especially episode articles, commentary, comics and the game articles don't have an introduction to what the article is about. It would be nice if we could have some introductions, even if it would just a bit of a repeat of what was in the infobox, e.g.;
 * Space Pilot 3000 is the first episode of season 1 and was aired 28 March, 1999.

Some articles may have longer introductions, if there is something special to mention, e.g. Futurama Returns was read aloud at Comic-Con. Indeed, that whole article only hints at it was read aloud, not really mentioned anywhere in the article. --SvipTalk 13:43, 5 July 2008 (CEST)
 * Yup, that sounds fair enough. Especially for the longer ones. - Quolnok 13:55, 5 July 2008 (CEST)

Rules on English
Yes, those of us that've been here a while know the rules: Don't edit en-uk to en-us or vice-versa, right? But I recently noticed this ("vapor" to "vapour"), and I wished to let the user know about this rule. However, it seems that this is an "unwritten" rule. I can't find it anywhere. This gives me two problems: I can't help the user out by showing him where this rule is. And I can't really get pissy about it, because how can we expect new users to know this if it isn't written down anywhere? We should definitely add it somewhere, but I'm posting here so we can decide where exactly. In Basics? Or House Rules? Or even Standards? (In fact, much of our Help could probably be overhauled&mdash;what with all the newfangled script contraptions you guys've come up with.) Any ideas? --Buddy 19:40, 15 August 2008 (CEST) I'd been holding off linking to Manual of Style because I thought it was still in progress... then kind of forgot about it. - Quolnok 04:30, 16 August 2008 (CEST)
 * Actually, it appears in Manual of Style. I have talked with Quolnok about including a link to it in the  template.  --SvipTalk 20:00, 15 August 2008 (CEST)
 * Oh, wait, I just included that myself. --SvipTalk 20:01, 15 August 2008 (CEST)
 * Sorry for the trouble, guys. I was just confused and assumed en-uk was used after reading one of your summary messages, Svip. It was about something in the BwaBB transcript, but it was displayed in US and I had it in UK when it was uploaded. If I understand correctly though, both versions are acceptable? -Mini-Me 03:03, 16 August 2008 (CEST)
 * Yep, both are acceptable and switching the page from one to the other is unacceptable if that's the only edit. Of course, we may look the other way sometimes.
 * Okay, I get it now. Still seams a little messy, but I guess it doesn't matter if the one I prefer is kosher.

Expanding our efforts
Futurama is a great show. An awesome show. No one here is going to deny that. But let's face it, it's not the only show. And I know the lot of you have other shows you love and enjoy. Despite the fact that when the Infosphere was conceived, there were other Futurama wikis, it has become the best Futurama wiki on the web. So, I am thinking, maybe we can replicate this for a different show. Since Futurama is labelled as a science-fiction show (though, technically, it is a science-fantasy show), I am think we might best get our hands on a similar genre. Personally, I am also a fan of Firefly. Which, like Futurama, also got cancelled by our favourite network, FOX. Personally, I think we should keep the name "Infosphere," but give it a subname, e.g. "Infosphere: Firefly" or something. Because, if the Infosphere contains all information, then surely it must contain all shows we know about as well.

Remember, this is only a proposal, if no one is willing to be helping at first, then maybe we won't. Anyway, it may not be Firefly, it was purely a suggestion. Cause, let's face it, we are running out of stuff to write about Futurama, if these films really are the last. --SvipTalk 12:17, 16 August 2008 (BST)
 * There'll still be the comics... Never seen Firefly. I'd suggest Stargate or Farscape if there weren't decent wikis for those around (a good wikia wiki is actually possible). Futurama isn't always classed as Sci-Fi though, so there's my reason to suggest Arrested Development a fellow comedy without a good wiki. That said, I'm not sure I have the time for more than one major wiki effort anyway. - Quolnok 13:55, 16 August 2008 (BST)
 * I'm all for, a million percent and beyond, an Arrested Development section. It's comedy, call back plots and a great show (which was also cancelled by Fox), like Futurama. -Mini-Me 23:52, 16 August 2008 (BST)
 * As a fan of Firefly/Serenity, I have all those DVD's as well and can provide plenty of screenshots. However, I think we lucked out with Futurama not having a decent wiki. I think that if we tried any other good show, there's probably already a Wiki available for it. Perhaps if we do some research and find that there aren't any good ones (say, on par with the Wikia Futurama one), then it might be worth a shot. Arrested Development is funny, but not my particular cup o' tea. If you do that, I guess I'll participate (mainly for Grammar Gripes), but I won't be a major contributor. Stargate is okay. Farscape is better. And Lexx is hilarious. I know nobody mentioned that, but it's a funny show. And highly Canadian. I personally feel more in touch with the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, so anything along those lines would float my boat quite nicely. There's already an amazing wiki for Lost, and of course Star Wars and Star Trek. Firefly is nice, because it has the underground/cult following that makes it easier to quickly become the best, just like Futurama did. They could be sister-wikis. Or something. But as for the actual doing of it, I'm totally neutral on whether or not it should be done. --Buddy 01:21, 18 August 2008 (BST)
 * I hate these filthy neutrals, Kif. With enemies you know where you stand, but neutrals?  Who knows!?  It sickens me. --SvipTalk 02:12, 18 August 2008 (BST)

Referencing other episodes.
Should we place a "References to Other Episodes" section into an episode article if it is not present (I've seen a few with "Inside References")? There are a bunch that I think would link together many episode but aren't there and I was wondering if there is a reason for it or if it's just that there were more important things to complete at the time. -Mini-Me 00:34, 23 August 2008 (BST)
 * I'd prefer "Continuity", sounds more sophisticated. And I think the reason if they are not there, is because we are slackers. --SvipTalk 01:05, 23 August 2008 (BST)
 * Sounds good, but I noticed shortly after posting this that there are a couple of notes under Trivia that should be in Continuity. Should that all be filtered around or new/unadded stuff in Continuity only? -Mini-Me 03:47, 23 August 2008 (BST)
 * Those are probably items left astray from our old standards. Something we should have fixed months ago.  But we have a lot to see to, and we are few contributors. --SvipTalk 11:27, 23 August 2008 (BST)
 * Wasn't somebody just saying that there wasn't much left to do? That's crazy talk! --Buddy 20:11, 23 August 2008 (BST)
 * I could start sorting through those, starting at 101 and working up (while doing the remaining commentaries, of course). Not particularly busy this year and that back up I did will help out a ton. -Mini-Me 01:13, 24 August 2008 (BST)
 * What of the prerequisite sections that a few (four) articles have? That's another section that fits this grouping. It also has those fancy hidden text whosits Svip came up with, see here. One of those still has the fast forward section too... - Quolnok 03:27, 24 August 2008 (BST)
 * Found that discussion: Talk:Bender's Big Score - Quolnok 03:31, 24 August 2008 (BST)
 * I'd like to stop you there, let us not use those systems until they are more or less perfected. As of right now, I am not entirely pleased with them.  And there may be too much rework to do if we began splattering all over the place.  So let's leave them where they are now, and call it that. --SvipTalk 03:53, 24 August 2008 (BST)
 * Stop me where? I was simply noting that they existed. - Quolnok 05:06, 24 August 2008 (BST)
 * No, what I meant, is that someone might pick it up and believe it needs addition, so I am just stopping them in doing it right now. Seemed like the appropriate time to mention it. --SvipTalk 12:36, 24 August 2008 (BST)

After thinking about it for a while now, I'm not very content with just having the major ones listed, especially when the show has a vast amount of little call backs and foreshadows. Perhaps a page can be put together with all episodes listing out how they link to others. I wonder how long that would be. Or something else entirely. Just an idea. -Mini-Me 17:05, 5 September 2008 (BST)
 * Foreshadowing can easily fit into a section on the relevant article for the concept or character (as well as its appearances section). Episode articles shouldn't have pages of stuff in these sections. Unless I'm mistaken, these sections were based on the ones used at hrwiki.org (considerably shorter animations) they tend to include the most relevant stuff in the article then create an extra article for pretty much any recurring concept, we don't have it quite to that extent yet. On a related note, anyone want to do a Nicknames article? - Quolnok 02:03, 6 September 2008 (BST)

"Bad news, nobody."
Has anyone noticed any dead pages around here, aside from those that don't exist? If so please make a note of it here. I've just fixed Sal, it had been failling constantly. Apparently this is due to the load put on the server by some templates.

Reviewing the code of the es template I can see that it is a long switch statement that calls another template that probably doesn't need to be there. The overall number of es, e, eni and c templates on the page are the likely cause. Don't worries though, and don't start cutting all of them out of pages either. Unless you can't get that page to load on multiple occasions despite others working, that's when you can start doing it, or tell us. - Quolnok 13:18, 24 August 2008 (BST)
 * As it turns out, the issue has resurfaced, and worse than before given that Sal is down again. Perhaps our server doesn't like peak usage periods. Unfortunately, my recommendation is the complete phasing out of es, e, eni and c templates. No new pages should make use of these. Currently it seems any page with more than one or two that isn't cached fails during the peak. es and eni can be replaced by a standard wikilink e and c are to be replaced by the elink, flink and clink templates that already exist. To edit a non-loading page add &action=edit to the end of the url, or wait for someone else to get to it. luckily, there are lists of these articles that have been assembled by the mediawiki software.
 * Replace with wikilinks :
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:es
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:eni
 * Replace with or  :
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:e
 * Replace with :
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:c
 * The only exceptions are the links to minicomics, which currently have no suitable substitute templates and those in userboxes and user pages. These will be replaced later and are considered a much lower priority. - Quolnok 08:34, 21 September 2008 (BST)

Futurama Returns doesn't work. i can't get it to work so could someone else?--My leg feels funny! 06:18, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
 * That's fixed now. There are many articles currently now working, and it's a symptom of a deeper problem that is being worked on. - Quolnok 10:08, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Acts
How do we know the act names? Unless there's information on the act names I think we should get rid of them and just put Act (1/2/3). Chris of the Futurama 19:09, 25 August 2008 (BST)
 * As I understand it, there are only act names on Anthology of Interest I and II. Namely the names of the sub episodes.  For the films, we have only used names of the sub episodes as well, and avoided labelling those acts that has no name.  As I gather it, since it was before I came here, the act names are purely fan based, often a quote from the act, to summarise it. --SvipTalk 19:59, 25 August 2008 (BST)
 * Aren't they from the inside of the cases from the DVDs? -Mini-Me 01:07, 26 August 2008 (BST)
 * Yes, act names for season 1-4 are (or possibly were) from the DVD cases, however they vary between regions in some seasons. Anthology of Interest I & II are exceptions. Most comics lack Act names, except when there's odd groupings of pages (Bender Breaks Out) and the game uses the character whose face is on the icon of the corresponding FMV. - Quolnok 12:26, 26 August 2008 (BST)
 * As Quolnok said, the act names are listed on the inside sleeves of Seasons 1-4 (Region 1). We've had some people trying to make up their own quotes, not realizing where we got the titles from, and they were wrong! Anyway, yeah. If they're diferent in other regions, I'd like to know what they are (with pictures, if we could!) --Buddy 21:59, 29 August 2008 (BST)
 * the act names are different on the Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection so could i maybe change them to those ones? unless they are the official and not fan made act names...--My leg feels funny! 22:25, 29 August 2008 (BST)

A list of quaternary characters?
Quaternary characters are, in my opinion, characters that does not deserve their own article. Because they are so insignificant, and may not even have a minor influence on the plotline. But may be of interest, due to voice acting, etc. A good example, is the man from Space Pilot 3000, who utters "Pfft, tourist" when Fry crashes into the building coming out of the tube. So I am asking if we should make such a comprehensive list? --SvipTalk 00:32, 29 August 2008 (BST)
 * How do you mean? The character's info in one article? Chris of the Futurama 03:52, 29 August 2008 (BST)
 * No, a list of characters with their information. Like List of Planets. --SvipTalk 09:15, 29 August 2008 (BST)
 * Like the now defunct Minor Characters article? I suppose that would be a definition for quaternary. Would that include Shawn or Fry's-old-neighbour-who-never-closed-her-curtains, or are they tertiary and quintinary? - Quolnok 11:50, 29 August 2008 (BST)
 * Shawn is mentioned too often to be considered quaternary. But Fry's neighbour who never closed her curtains could be one.  She is mentioned and has no impact on the plot.  Shawn, however, does have actions to what Leela does at times. --SvipTalk 14:16, 30 August 2008 (BST)

what like wikipedias list of recuring charecters --Dr zoidberg 14 18:15, 29 August 2008 (BST)

More affiliates?
So far, we got Futurama Madhouse and The Futurama Point as our affiliates, we link to them (though not enough by my standards) and they link to us.

In addition to linking to them from our Community Portal, I was hoping we could add them to the Sidebar (note: In a newer version of MediaWiki, it is possible to move the search field around in the Sidebar as well, check out Wikipedia's) and possibly get more affiliates? Unlike other fansites, we actual provide factual content, but are not a site you listen to for up to date content, even though we have that as well. So I was thinking, perhaps the people at Got Futurama might be willing. I am just throwing suggestions out there people! --SvipTalk 15:32, 6 September 2008 (BST)
 * Silence! I concur. I once tried finding how to put the little image button for their sites under the toolbox, but found nothing despite knowing it to be possible. I guess I didn't look hard enough. I'd suggest possibly adding PEEL to the list as well. - Quolnok 15:54, 6 September 2008 (BST)
 * Splice in some reaction shots of me and shove it in the sidebar. --Buddy 23:44, 7 September 2008 (BST)

Obsoletely Fabulous
Although the characters in "Obsoletely Fabulous" would only seem to exist in Benders dream, I could have sworn I saw at least one of them in the audience for the Opera on "Devils hands are idle playthings." Can anyone confirm that for me? (DVD player broke u.u) -Jamklev 18:49, 18 September 2008 (BST)
 * Bender's dream is probably based on reality, like most dreams are anyway. So the robots probably exist, but them being on the island and all that just never happened.  I am sure you've done things with people you know in your dreams that never actually happened.  So is this. --SvipTalk 00:55, 19 September 2008 (BST)
 * I was just curious if we wanted to put something in on their pages saying they do exist outside the dream (and also update the EP's they are in)Jamklev 21:57, 19 September 2008 (BST)
 * So long as the appearances list notes that the robots are separate individuals. It will be like the Robot 1-X article, more about the model of robot than an individual. - Quolnok 03:35, 20 September 2008 (BST)