Wiki 24 talk:Episode guide

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On the episode guides that I've done, I've been putting the character names at the beginning of the Memorable Quotes instead of at the end, which allows me to leave out the quotation marks. I think that it's easier to read the quotes (especially if there's a dialogue between two people) if the names are in the front. I've also been putting the date as DD MM YYYY (1 January 2000) instead of MM/DD/YYYY (1/1/2000) because I think it's a more standard date format. Everyone who posts in the Community Portal and talk pages seems to date their posts that way, so I thought it would be more appropriate for the episode guides as well. --Kapoli 6 April 2006 04:39 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the standard should be for formatting the quotations, but as for dates, the MediaWiki software includes the ability to adjust dates to your personal preference. Check out this article for more information, and set your own personal preference. --Proudhug 05:01, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

I have put what I think is pretty much the standard for quoting characters in the memorable quotes section. It includes putting the character name first, and not including links to the character pages. I have put it there because

1. It seems to be the standard formula for the episode guides that are up and have memorable quotes
2. It's hard on the eyes to have all that blue up there, I think not having links makes it easier to read, and it's easier to follow who is saying what.

As for dates, I generally have been putting airdates in the same way that I do actor pages. MM DD, YYYY, as in February 33, 2120. I guess I just dislike using only numbers, but that's just me.

I also wanted to bring up another concern I have with the way we are doing episode guides. We seem to be putting A LOT of pictures up. Now, I think some pictures are great and help you follow along with the episode. However, we have been putting so many up that it becomes hard to read the article. It becomes more like, an episode guide and a big list of pictures on the right hand of the page. Does anyone agree with me? I say we narrow the amount of pictures down to memorable scenes, and put some on the left side, and some on the right. But if anyone has any ideas on any of these issues, post them here. - Xtreme680 00:41, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

With the episode guides I've done, I have included a lot of pictures because I think it looks good that way. I don't like the inconsistency of the photos on some of the guides. The series premiere for example, has a really random collection of photos. There are a couple of character pictures and a few action pictures from the events of the hour, but the action shots don't show any interesting events of the episode. Jack playing chess? A squished picture of the briefing with Walsh? Yawn. What about the plane explosion? Jack shooting Mason in the leg? Some of the guides have the screen shots of the clock after the commercial break, some don't. I've been trying to do it the same way with each guide I've created.

I like having more images to look at. And by keeping them all on the right, it's easier to read because there's a block of text and corresponding action pictures lined up beside the guide. I think having images staggered is a little, well, tacky. I don't like having them all zig-zagged across the page. For one, the staggering isn't uniform. Sometimes there's a huge gap, sometimes there's some semblance of even-spacing.

And I've compressed all the photos I've uploaded, so they shouldn't be taking up too much space. They're usually in the 30-80KB range. Is there a limit on the space we have for photos?

I guess I'm partial to more photos because that's the way I've been doing it. I just think that a guide like Day 4 6:00am-7:00am looks a little more professional. I'm not saying the writing is better than any of the other guides, and I'm not saying that the Day 1 12:00am-1:00am guide looks bad. I'd like to get some more feedback about the photos. And again, I'll go with the majority vote on this issue. --Kapoli 01:26, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

And I just thought of something else. I like the idea of using the photos from the episode lists on the season pages as the main photo for the guides. Like, instead of using the black screen with "The following takes place between 1:00pm and 2:00pm", we'd use the corresponding photo from the table on the Day 1 page. I think that would look better. We all know when the episode takes place, we don't need the screen shot telling us. Thoughts? --Kapoli 01:36, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

I guess I'm not too concerned with the amount of photos as I am the style in which they're put. I guess I prefer the style and amount of the photos from Day 1 12:00am-1:00am, although the content could be better. The other pages just look as though we're pushing a whole bunch of photos onto a page. How about instead, we just pick some interesting moments every few paragraphs, and put them all on the right side of the page? That way, the eye focuses on the interesting things, rather than having a whole bunch of pictures that makes it hard to distinguish between the different ones. There are so many pictures on Day 4 6:00am-7:00am that I can't tell which ones are interesting and which ones aren't. But I guess we have totally opposite views on the issue, so hopefully someone else would like to contribute.

As for the other issues, I guess I'll assume you agreed with me, but please speak up if that isn't the case.

As for using photos from the episode lists, I completely agree. I think that most of the photos from the episode lists look cool and are usually some of the coolest moments from that episode. Putting the following takes place between is just repetitive and uninteresting. The only place where I would like to to say "The following takes place between" is on Day 1 12:00am-1:00am, because that one looks cool. - Xtreme680 03:11, 23 April 2006 (UTC)