Darth Prefect

Hmmmm. I disagree, but I see how it could be read that way. I'll noodle it for a bit.

Internal (within the wiki), external or both?

If I follow you correctly both, since I get the pop-up when I leave the wiki for another site.

But if you're just going to another page on the wiki, do you get the message? Also, have you tried a different browser? I'm not having the problem you are.

So, right after I wrote that, it happened to me. But it's only on Internet Explorer. I think it's something on Wikia/Fandom's end, since it's happening with IE on all of the wikis I tried.

I think "Stub" should only refer to articles that need more information. Lack of photos shouldn't enter into it.

Speaking of photos, are you checking the "unused photos" to see if any that are in there could be used under those circumstances? I'm trying to get that cleaned out.

I had not been. I'll keep that in mind.

I do think that any article that doesn't contain at least one photo should be considered a Stub, though.

Done. Please remember not to upload high resolution images like that. Fair use assumes a lower quality. I tend to keep to a width of no more than 900 pixels.

Ah, good, thanks.  Apologies for not finding out about the resolution thing.

No problem. It's not readily obvious.

Yes, we are. We can always fix it later if proven wrong.

I was intending at some point to make a page for Astral Factor, since we do have some kind of record of its performance, thanks to the bootleg.

I think it's fine to mention that it was uploaded (since it's a matter of record), but I say let's not link to it. Commercials, clips, bumpers...those are fine. Links to official uploads are too, of course. But full-blown bootleg material, like unauthorized episodes, etc. are best avoided.

Fair enough. I made a page for it on the CT Wiki with some screen grabs.

I mistakenly thought the change was to the article text (it was appearing due to the redlink) rather than the linkage, apologies for that in the summary. 

Thank you for pointing out the error. I have been cleaning up redirects across the Site and had mistakenly used a "\" when I meant to pipe the link ("|"). It is best to avoid redirects when possible, so every now and then I do a bit of "spring cleaning".

This is an MST3K focused wiki. If an actor/director/writer/producer hasn't been featured on MST3K or been mentioned regularly (like, say, Keanu Reeves), they shouldn't have a page here. This is particularly true of the large number of stunt actors, etc. that were cluttering the wiki unnecessarily. Darth Prefect (talk) 10:54, July 6, 2017 (UTC)

OK, well, I'm noticing it's primarily a bias towards MST3k spin-offs which are still arguably keeping with the primary nature of the riffing business.

It's a bias against anyone who didn't actually appear on / get mentioned on / have a connection to MST3K. If they haven't appeared in a spin-off, they *really* have no business having a page here.

For instance, Neil Patrick Harris would have been a candidate for deletion, since his only connection was talking in a documentary about the show and work with RiffTrax. But, I try not to be too strict, so I decided that was good enough and left him. And, lo and behold, he's been on the show. No problem now.

George Lucas is one I constantly flip flop on whether he should go. Lucas himself is not referenced very often on the show and *none* of his work has appeared there. A page for Star Wars would make sense, though. One of the earliest riffs of all (from the pilot) was a Star Wars riff, after all. For now (being lenient again), he stays.

This is not meant as a knock on RiffTrax or Cinematic Titanic, or any other project. It's an attempt to avoid mission creep.

If, in the future, you spot someone who's been deleted that you think has a valid reason for being here, just let me know. Darth Prefect (talk) 05:22, July 7, 2017 (UTC)

Hello gentlemen. Not to insert myself into the discussion, but I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to include links or re-directs to the separate RiffTrax Wiki in some of the cases like this?

For example, I just made the page for Sylvester Stallone on the Rifftrax Wiki, so perhaps it would be effectively to eliminate his page here and change any existing links to that page?

http://rifftrax.wikia.com/wiki/Sylvester_Stallone

There IS also a separate existing Wiki for Cinematic Titanic, but it's really sparse. Cleaning it up might be a worthwhile project for someone here.

http://cinematictitanic.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Employing re-directs would tidy up some things and help avoid mission creep, as per DarthPrefect's goal. Thoughts?

I would say we yank all the info from the CT wiki. Near as I can tell, all the actors over there appeared on MST (or have some other legitimate connection) and most of the rest is episode pages, which we could use.

And, yes, I think cross-referencing to the RiffTrax wiki for non-MST people is a much better way to go.

I just adopted the CT Wiki, and I've made a point so far of only making pages for actors that appeared in multiple CT projects (there's only 2). I was panning to yank info from HERE to copy over THERE, such as for Alien Factor/Don Dohler actors.

As for Rifftrax, I'd suggest starting to remove the Star Trek and Star Wars actors, except perhaps for William Shatner due to his cultural significance (and the sketch in Crawling Hand).

Yeah, Shatner is referenced *way* too often to remove.

There are tons of Star Wars actors though who appear in MST3k or CT episodes outside of RiffTrax. I consider them all as just one entity, even though some here don't because of the references and how they are later noted later on in either MST3k type interviews or in CT/RiffTrax.

Any actor who has appeared on MST3K in *any* form is okay to have a page. I'd *prefer* not to have pages for a bunch of stuntmen, though. Actual actors playing actual parts. But I won't delete minor performer pages if they are already created. I'd just rather see any effort to create new pages go to people *of note* who were actually on the show in a significant way.

Done. Thanks for the reminder.

I'll need you to explain a bit more. What do we gain from what you propose to do?

Wikia/Fandom has noticed a trend toward people accessing their content through their mobile devices. I think the number is over 50% now. The old style infoboxes do not render well on mobile devices and it is recommended that they be converted to the new "portable" style that works across nearly all devices. I have converted all the infoboxes on my wiki and a couple others, so I have some experience in the process, and I'm enough of a geek to actually find it fun. :)

I won't change anything the public will see until you approve it. As a matter of fact, you can push the button if you'd like. :D

I'm sure your wiki is getting more traffic now that season 11 has been released on Netflix, so I'd like those who are coming into this site from mobile devices to have the best possible experience.

What do you think, sirs? —Moviesign (talk) 00:35, May 2, 2017 (UTC)

Okay, so if you make these changes, will it be easier, harder or no change for someone like me (who doesn't do CSS easily) to make changes in the future?

I think it will be somewhere between no change and easier, once you see it. It might seem daunting at first because there are a few more things to tweak, but they are broken down into pieces that are pretty logical and have somewhat meaningful CSS names. I will start with what you have and make an "mst3k" theme that will apply to all the infoboxes. In the future, you will only have to make a change in one place instead of making the same change in every template. —Moviesign (talk) 01:16, May 2, 2017 (UTC)

Okay, I'm willing to give it a shot, since I assume I can always revert if it doesn't work for me. I'll make you a "Content Moderator", which should give you the access you need. Keep me informed, so I can see what you are doing as you progress.

Yes, you can always revert the changes, but hopefully it will look nearly identical to what you have now (unless you want me to make changes, of course). Do you use the Monobook skin at all?

Hmm, I don't think a Content Moderator is allowed to edit the Special:CSS. Nope, it tells me I don't have permission. I don't know if you can lower the protection on it, but give it a try. —Moviesign (talk) 01:38, May 2, 2017 (UTC)

Okay.  I've made you an admin.  Let me know if that gives you access.

Yes, that worked. Thanks!

I'll work on this over the next few days as I get time, but it shouldn't take too long. Is there anything about the infoboxes you wanted to change? Do you have access to the font that was used to create the "About this Wiki" button on the Home page? It would be cool to use that for titles or something. Just a thought. —Moviesign (talk) 03:16, May 3, 2017 (UTC)

Okay, I have a first draft of the {{Infobox Film}} template. See {{Infobox Film/Draft}} and compare the example there with Reptilicus (film). You'll notice that images always fill the width of the infobox, so they will probably be a bit bigger in the new Portable Infoboxes, but I made the overall box the same width as the current one. I also added an optional caption just because it was easy. If you want to adjust anything or change the look, let me know. Feel free to play with it yourself.

What do you think, sirs? —Moviesign (talk) 01:13, May 5, 2017 (UTC)

So, if I understand this correctly, I can just add or remove data from an infobox by adding or removing one of the " <data source="year"><label>Year</label></data>" lines?

If so, this doesn't seem that different than the old format, so I say go for it.

Correct. And there are more options for formatting. You can add section headings and navigation boxes like this. You can arrange things horizontally like this. You can add tabbers like this. And, with additional templates, you can display tabular data like this. You may not need any of that, but it might give you some ideas.

Another thing that you can do with infoboxes is automatically generate categories. The simplest example would be to add Category:Films to every page that used the {{Infobox Film}} template. A more complex example would be taking the director field (say it was set to Kevin Murphy) and generating Category:Episodes directed by Kevin Murphy. Lots of possibilities here too.

Yeah, I knew about a lot of those things, but don't tend to use them. The SpoilerSign template adds those pages to a Spoilers category, for instance.

Next we have the {{Char infobox}} update. Compare {{Char infobox/Draft}} with Torgo and see what you think. —Moviesign (talk) 01:10, May 10, 2017 (UTC)

Sorry. Been busy with other things. It looks good.

Okay, the last one was the biggest one. Compare {{Ep infobox/Draft}} with this page and see what you think.

I turned off the Europa infobox theme because it was interfering with the style that I was trying to replicate between the old infoboxes and the new ones. Let me know if anything doesn't look right to you.

BTW, this infobox presents many opportunities for automatic categorization, if you are interested. "Year" and the two Director fields are possible, and we could add a Season field for example. Let me know. —Moviesign (talk) 01:46, May 20, 2017 (UTC)

Can you get "Director" not to split the way it seems to?

I don't see any split in "MST3K Director" or "Movie Director". Make sure you have cleared your cache, just in case. How wide is your screen? Does the problem go away or get worse as you shrink and expand your window? What if you use a different browser? Maybe take a screen shot and show me what you are seeing. I can probably fix it if I could see it. —Moviesign (talk) 05:48, May 28, 2017 (UTC)

It's the word "Direc-tor".  It didn't split like that before.

Ah, you are using the Monobook skin. In Oasis it looks fine. Let me update the CSS that Monobook uses and see if that fixes it.

Okay, the CSS has be sync'd for Monobook users. Go to that page and clear your cache and it should reload the CSS. It looks good on my screen now.

Thank you. Yes, that fixes it. (Sorry, I've been pre-occupied elsewhere.)

I appreciate the work you've been doing.

Great! I have put the new infobox into use, let me know if you find any more weirdness.