User talk:The Colclough

Welcome aboard! Welcome to the TARDIS Index File. We only take the best! Here are a few good links for newcomers: Internal pages Help pages Manual of Style Forums Recent changes User page policy External Wikipedia pages How to edit a page Editing, policy, conduct, and structure tutorial Picture tutorial Remember that you should always sign your comments on talk and vote pages using four tildes like this: ~~~~ , or use the button above the edit space that looks like a signature. We hope you enjoy editing here and being a member of the TARDIS crew! If you have any questions, see the Help pages, add a question to one of the Forums or ask on my talk page. -- Tangerineduel (Talk) 17:36, 23 November 2010

Hiya, thanks, and some pointers

Hello :) Thanks for choosing to spend some time with us. It's great to see another editor interested in creating and editing behind-the-scenes articles. If I may, though, I wanted to acquaint you with some things to make your articles, like Jeremy Webb, fit in a bit better around here.

1. Categorise your articles. We have an extensive array of categories for behind-the-scenes personnel, all of which ultimately lead to category:Doctor Who crew, at least insofar as Doctor Who is concerned. (There are similar cats for the other shows, but DW is the most well-developed.) Study that cat for a bit, and you'll soon see there's a category for whatever type of crew member you're writing about.
2. We generally like to create a link to the other shows that people have worked on. If they exist, we like to preference wikia wikis to make those links. In the case of Merlin, the link is made by typing

   [[w:c:Merlin:Merlin|Merlin]]

   In those cases where a wikia link is unavailable or where the wikia link provides no substantial information, we encourage links to wikipedia, done by typing

   [[wikipedia:article name|]]

   where the final pipe {|} will automatically chop off the preceding "wikipedia:". For more information about how to make links to other wikis, I encourage you to read Help:Wiki markup#Links and URLs
3. All cast and crew articles should have at least one external link — that to their imdb page. This can be placed on a page using {{imdb name}}.
4. All articles about real people should have {{NameSort}} placed on the page. This automatically alphabetises the name in categories, making "Jeremy Webb" sort under "Webb".
5. Your life would be greatly simplified when creating pages about real people if when you started an article, you pulled down the tab under "Option 1" and found the preloadable template corresponding to crew members. For help understanding how to do all this, please see preloadable formats.

Well, thanks again for spending some time with us. I hope you'll keep editing here, because we really need people dedicated to writing articles about the crew. Hit the telephone to the right of my name if you need any help!
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 13:26:19 Thu 19 May 2011 

Couple more tips

Thanks again for helping us out with crew pages! Just wanted to give a couple of pointers about Nick Hurran, which was a mostly-perfectly-formed stub.

1. Please remember that the subject of an article must be emboldened. Often, I start off articls with

   '''{{PAGENAME}}'''

   just to make sure I've got that base covered.
2. Try to future-proof articles. In other words, eliminate the use of the future tense and any phrases which indicate the future, like "the upcoming The God Complex". This is because articles using the future tense are someday going to be inaccurate. In Hurran's case, you've limited the accuracy of the article to about six days. Next Sunday, The God Comples will no longer be "upcoming".
3. If all you've done is tell us who the person is and what their credits are on Doctor Who, that's great. Articles need to start somewhere, and Nick Hurran is at that base minimum. But you should also leave behind {{TV crew stub}} to let us know that it needs work in trying to properly characterise the subject's career details.

Once again, your efforts to improve our coverage of crew pages is greatly appreciated. Keep on keepin' on!
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 14:39:16 Sun 11 Sep 2011 

Your input is needed!

You are invited to join the discussion at Forum:Can we disable visual editor please?.

czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 06:22: Wed 21 Dec 2011 

Be mindful of our definition of "spoiler"

Thanks for your efforts to improve Saul Metzstein. However, you violated our spoiler policy by indicating work on future projects that have not yet been officially released.

Even behind-the-scenes information is embargoed at our wiki until an episode is actually broadcast in its entirety. If you would like to contribute information about future stories, please limit yourself to the series page — in this case, Series 7 (Doctor Who). You'll note that that page is behind a "spoiler wall", and requires users to first confirm their desire to be spoiled before proceeding.

Please remember that some of our editors and readers do not want any information about upcoming episodes, even information about key production personnel.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  07:37: Sun 16 Sep 2012

oops...

sorry about that. won't happen again! --The Colclough ☎ 08:25, September 17, 2012 (UTC)

Christmas cheer

Happy holidays!

As this fiftieth anniversary year comes to a close, we here at Tardis just want to thank you for being a part of our community — even if you haven't edited here in a while. If you have edited with us this year, then thanks for all your hard work.

This year has seen an impressive amount of growth. We've added about 11,000 pages this year, which is frankly incredible for a wiki this big. November was predictably one of the busiest months we've ever had: over 500 unique editors pitched in. It was the highest number of editors in wiki history for a year in which only one programme in the DWU was active. And our viewing stats have been through the roof. We've averaged well over 2 million page views each week for the last two months, with some weeks seeing over 4 million views!

We've received an unprecedented level of support from Wikia Staff, resulting in all sorts of new goodies and productive new relationships. And we've recently decided to lift almost every block we've ever made so as to allow most everyone a second chance to be part of our community.

2014 promises to build on this year's foundations, especially since we've got a full, unbroken series coming up — something that hasn't happened since 2011. We hope you'll stick with us — or return to the Tardis — so that you can be a part of the fun!