This reference page aims to provide answers to frequently asked questions about articles within the scope of WikiProject Television, and to provide editors with the resources they need to edit effectively.
Resources edit
General edit
- Wikipedia's Manual of Style for Television (Shortcut: MOS:TV)
- Infobox template and documentation: Template:Infobox television
Critical response edit
The following are suitable for critical overviews:
Reliable sources edit
The following resources are generally considered reliable. It is suggested that editors look at a variety of sources to get a complete picture. Episode airdates, for example, sometimes differ from site to site. These resources typically provide news and critical information about financial figures, series pickups, cancellations, ratings, castings, etc.
- The A.V. Club
- BARB – viewership ratings (United Kingdom)
- BBM – viewership ratings (Canada)
- Broadcasting & Cable
- Deadline Hollywood
- Entertainment Tonight
- Entertainment Weekly
- Mediaweek - television news (Australia)
- MSN.com (news aggregator)
- The Futon Critic
- The Hollywood Reporter
- IGN
- TV by the Numbers – daily viewership ratings (United States) (Note: No longer reporting as of January 31, 2020)
- TV Guide
- TV Line
- TV Tonight - television news and daily ratings (Australia)
- Variety
Unreliable sources edit
Typically, resources are considered unreliable if they rely on user contributions, if they have no clear editorial policy, if they exist only to promote a product, and if they have a history of unreliable content. The following is a list of sources that are not considered reliable by the WikiProject Television community. Using these sources will likely result in your edit being reverted.
| Source | Rationale | Discussions | Guidelines | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disqus forums | User-contributed | 1 | WP:SPS | |
| IMDb | User-contributed | — | WP:USERG, WP:RS/IMDb | Can be used as an external link – see WP:ELPEREN |
| nickandmore.com | Blog with no clear editorial policy. | 1, 2 | — | |
| pifeedback.com | — | 1 | — | |
| toonzone.net forums | — | 1 | — | |
| travisyanan.blogspot.com | — | 1 | — | |
| TV Grapevine | self-published source, user generated with no clear editorial policy. | 1 | WP:SPS | |
| Wikia | Sites hosted by Wikia.com are user-contributed | 1, 2 | WP:USERG | |
| TV.com | User generated per site's About page | — | WP:USERG | Site is no longer supported and is moribund; is deprecated by WP:TV as any kind of reference or external link as per this discussion |
| Spoiler TV | Fan-operated per site's About page | — | WP:USERG | |
| TVmaze | User-contributed per site's at the bottom of the page with no editorial staff | — | WP:USERG | |
| What's on Netflix | Fan-operated | 1 | WP:USERG | |
| What's On Disney Plus | Fan-operated | WP:USERG |
No consensus on reliability edit
As of February 24, 2014[update] The WikiProject Television community had not yet established consensus about the suitability of these resources:
| Source | Use | Argument pro | Argument con | Discussions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Son of the Bronx | Typically used for scarce ratings information, general information, airdates, cancellations etc. | Site has a history of accuracy (see Impact) | A Blogger-hosted website with no clear editorial policy | 1, 2, 3 | Significant discussion may not have occurred yet at WP:RSN to properly establish consensus. |
General editing guidelines edit
Content edit
- Episode synopses should not be copy/pasted from sources, including official sources, unless it can be verified that the content is in the public domain, or the license is compatible with Wikipedia. All written content is considered copyrighted unless expressly released. For an episode that has not aired yet, it is acceptable to submit a one-line synopsis provided by an official source, as long as the source is clearly referenced, and wrapped in quotation marks. The synopsis must be re-written when the episode airs, so editors should not copy/paste unless they can commit to re-writing the synopsis later. For more information, see WP:COPYVIO.
- Episode synopses should be written in your own words and in proper encyclopedic tone. Please avoid exclamations, rhetorical questions and other promotional-style writing. (Examples: "Will the team make it out alive?!" "Josie turns around and comes face-to-face with...DEATH!)
Verifiability edit
- Events that occur in the future (airdates, series finales, guest roles, etc.) must be sourced, per WP:CRYSTAL.
- When a future airdate is referenced, the reference should remain even after the episode airs. Date vandalism is rampant, so being able to quickly verify an airdate makes the article more valuable and is helpful to editors who combat vandalism. For aesthetic reasons, references can be condensed, for example if one source is used for all airdates, editors can insert one general reference at the top of the airdate column in a table, instead of on every line, like so (see "Original air date"):
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | ... | Original air date [1] |
|---|
Misc edit
- When adding categories, it should be obvious from information in the article why that category was added. For this reason, the mass addition of categories is discouraged and can be removed if there is no clear reason for the addition. Editors may also use the {{Category unsourced}} template if they find an article in a category that is not shown by sources to be appropriate of if the article gives no clear indication for inclusion in a category. See also: WP:CAT
- Usage: Place the following template at the top of the article: {{Category unsourced|Name of category|date=April 2024}}
- The last_aired parameter of Template:Infobox television should contain {{End date|present}} unless a reliable announcement of a series' cancellation, or a planned ending has been made. If a series has been cancelled, the end_date parameter should include a date in this format: {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD}}. Series end dates must either be supported by reliably sourced prose in the article body, or directly sourced in the infobox. In some cases the fate of a program might be uncertain, for example if there are no announcements that a show has been renewed. If such a program has not aired a new episode in 12 months, "present" can be changed to the date the last episode aired, using {{End date}}. This does not imply the series has been cancelled, rather that the program "last aired" on that date. This is to prevent programs from being listed as "present" in perpetuity. Some programs (ex: the well-publicized Curb Your Enthusiasm) may have regular gaps between seasons of a year or more. In such cases, common sense should prevail, and the series should be listed as "present" once a trend has been established. However, this approach will likely not be appropriate for series that are lesser-known and/or poorly publicized. (For background see: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Television#Bold edit at Template:Infobox television/doc re: last aired parameter)
- The genre parameter of the Infobox should contain genres that are directly sourced or supported by documented prose in the article. Unsupported genres, and genres reliant on personal interpretation, will be removed. Genre describes the overall attitude a series takes, so the use of various storytelling elements does not immediately warrant a change of genre. For example, if a character dies in Tom & Jerry, the series doesn't automatically become a black comedy. If a character tells a joke in a police procedural, that does not make the series a dramedy.