Wikipedia:WikiProject Thomas

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Some Wikipedians have formed a project to better organise information in articles related to Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, and The Railway Series. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians. If you have a passion for things "Thomas-related" and wish to make Wikipedia a reliable reference on the series (both TV and book publications), like the rest of our participants, then please add your name to the list below.

For more information on WikiProjects, please see Wikipedia:WikiProjects and Wikipedia:WikiProject best practices.

Please see the new FAQ section if you have a question to which you cannot immediately find an answer.

 WikiProject Thomas  (edit)
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Contents

[edit] Scope

The scope of this project includes any articles related to:

This includes:

  • main pages relating to each of the above
  • articles relating to characters within each series
  • story and/or episode summaries (including video releases)
  • articles relating to the locations in each series
  • any other pages relating that fall under the umbrella of one or all of the series.

[edit] Aims

  • One of the most important aims of the project is to clearly differentiate between the above topics. As many participants in this project will understand, there are very clear differences between The Railway Series, the television series, and the movies. It is, therefore, to be made clear which perspective is being viewed, either within common articles wherever practicable, or in articles specific to one angle or another where the differences are quite large.

[edit] Articles

The articles covered by the project fall into these five main sections:

[edit] Guidelines for contribution

Please read WP:THOMAS/FAQ for more information.

[edit] Make sure the article is clear

Remember that not everyone who looks at Wikipedia is a Thomas fan. Therefore, make sure that your article would be clear to someone who is a newcomer to Thomas and Friends. The opening of any article should begin by stating that the character or location appears in the television series, the books or the movie (with links to the relevant articles). The opening paragraph should be a brief introduction to the subject. Following paragraphs can go into more detail.

As an example of bad information, the following piece of information was recently deleted from an article:

"It was well received by young children at whom it was aimed and made $16 million at the box office; however, no reference to the film has ever been made in the television series, except for the new faces."

The latter part, "except for the new faces", would mean nothing to the average reader.

[edit] Style

Badly-written articles are difficult to read and look unprofessional. Make sure that your writing is properly spelt and punctuated, and that the grammar is correct. Common errors encountered in these articles are:

  • relly bad speling & pnuctution posibley becos the writr is tryin to rite in a hury or mayb has just not bothred to check bfor thay put it up
  • Putting Capital Letters At The Beginning Of Every Word.
  • Incredibly long sentences that just meander on, touching on several different subjects, seemingly never ending, which could easily be broken up into separate sentences, this would make it far easier to read, and would make the points expressed far clearer. When you have finished writing or contributing to an article, read through it again, preferably out loud. If it sounds wrong, it probably is wrong.

You should not speak directly to the readers or to other contributors in the article itself. Use user talk or discussion pages for this.

The general style should be readable, but not too informal. Do not use unnecessary slang or abbreviations. At the same time, do not use unnecessarily complicated language, particularly if you are unfamiliar with its correct use and/or spelling. Language that is too formal can be as bad as language that is too informal, with the added disadvantage that fewer people understand it. For example, do not say "kinetic motivation" where "movement" will do.

[edit] Section titles

To allow for consistent practises, and so as not to interfere with anchored links, the following conventions are in place for naming sections within an article:

  • Character pages - Character's name only. ie. "Thomas"', not "Thomas the Tank Engine, No. 1"
  • Episode and book overviews - Title of the episode or book only. Where applicable (for TV Series), US title is to be in parentheses, and marked as such. ie. "Thomas and Gordon (Thomas Gets Tricked - US)", or "Tank Engine Thomas Again"

[edit] Should I create an article, or not?

While this project was created with the intention of building a comprehensive source of information on Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and the Railway Series, it is not necessary to create a new article for every single place, person and concept in the stories. For instance, the Sodor Soft-Side Truck appears in the television series, but it is not necessary to write an article about it because there is very little to say. Do not create an article unless there is enough information available to write a decent amount.

If there is not enough information, but you feel the item does warrant discussion, see if it would fit into any other article. For example, Elsie the brake van is a character in the Thomas "universe", but there is very little to say about her. As she is Toby's brake van, she can be mentioned in the article on Toby the Tram Engine. Most characters can be included in the list articles mentioned above.

[edit] Unnecessary information

Do not add information for the sake of it. For instance, in a description of an episode, the information "This is the third time Percy has been seen with the red coaches" is superfluous and frankly boring. Think, if you were reading this article in an encyclopaedia, is this information you would genuinely want to know?

In character articles, it is not necessary to list everything that has ever happened to that character, unless that event has had a significant impact upon him or her. Henry's accident in The Flying Kipper is worth including, because it resulted in his rebuild. His accident in Something in the Air is not, because it had no permanent or significant effect on him.

Likewise, there is no need to list items such as characters who do not appear in a series or movie. Most articles list characters and locations that are used, and therefore such non-information is redundant.

[edit] False information, rumours and bad sources

These should not appear in any Wikipedia article. Do not post information unless it is from an official source - and note that someone simply telling you that they have some information from an official source is not the same thing. Official sources include the Railway Series and Awdry-authored spin-offs, the television series and the movies. Magazines, emails from the production company, merchandise, computer games, word of mouth, websites, television spin-off books and fan fiction are not considered canon.

It is worth mentioning at this point that simply stating that information is from "sources" is insufficient. You could technically define your own imagination as a source. Unless you identify your source, you run the risk of your information being considered false.

Rumours are unhelpful unless there is very strong evidence to back them up. Writing "it has been rumoured that Duck will return in Season 10, but nothing has been confirmed yet" does not help anyone, as there is absolutely no evidence to back it up. Similarly, something along the lines of "the Mountain Engines might appear in Season 10" is pointless. A lot of things may happen in Season 10, but unless you have a strong reason to believe them, there is no point in mentioning them.

Information that is definitely made up is completely unacceptable. An example of this is the repeated claim that a character named "Endock" will be appearing in an upcoming season, and another is the false episode lists that have appeared in the article on Season 10. Invented information is usually very obvious, and will be speedily deleted. Additionally, you risk being banned from Wikipedia.

"Fanon" is information commonly accepted by fans, but which is unofficial. As one example of this, a large crane at Brendam Docks is known as "Big Mickey", because it uses the model of a character of that name from the series 'Tugs'. While this label is undoubtedly convenient, it is misleading to claim it as truth.

Similarly, fans have dubbed certain characters with unofficial titles, e.g. "Emily the Beautiful Engine" and "Spencer the Silver Bullet Engine". These titles should not be used on Wikipedia. If you are creating a character article, a more acceptable title would be Emily (Thomas the Tank Engine), i.e. the character's official name with the clarification in parenthesis. Obviously this does not apply to official titles such as Percy the Small Engine, Henry the Green Engine etc.

[edit] Current mini-projects

Mini-projects which are currently underway are listed below. As each stage is completed, please strike through the text (by surrounding it with <s>...</s>).

[edit] Character page rationalisation

Overview: There is a need to better organise the pages for characters of both the Railway Series and the TV Series. This will involve the merging of less significant characters into existing pages, thus removing the need for individual pages for less significant characters.

This is nearing completion, redirects constantly need checking. For the complete list of character pages (individual or rationalised) see Wikipedia:WikiProject Thomas/WPThomas Links#Characters

MODEL PAGE (target for quality): Railway engines (Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends).

  • 'Individual page' characters need editing to a common format, incorporating useful information and excluding superfluous content.
  • Each 'railway' was going to have specific information on related engines and rolling stock. In order to separate The Railway Series and TV series perspectives, most were reorganised in specific collated articles (for example Minor characters in The Railway Series. This still needs clarification and standardisation. If the descriptions are to be found on specific 'railway' pages, a brief link and description should exist from the Major/Minor character pages for the specific genre.

With regard to The Railway Series this is nearly complete:

[edit] Video page rationalisation

Overview: Having an individual page for each TV Series video release is quite inconvenient, even messy. As such, all videos will be listed on the one page.

  • Creation of "Thomas and Friends - Video Releases" page
  • Using the Category page, identify pages of individual videos. The content of these pages is to be transferred to "Thomas and Friends - Video releases", with a common format being used within this page
  • After content has been transferred from individual videos' pages to "Thomas and Friends - Video releases", the content of individual pages can be replaced with a redirect link to Thomas and Friends - Video releases#<insert video title here>.
  • Tidy up, finalise format, and create links (to applicable Season pages, for example) on "Thomas and Friends - Video releases".
  • When formatting has been completed, create a link to "Thomas and Friends - Video releases" on the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends page, and add the category to the bottom of the "Thomas and Friends - Video releases" (by adding [[Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends]] to the bottom).

[edit] Proposed mini-projects

Generally, it is expected that participants who discover any minor issues which can easily be resolved will do so themselves. "If you see something wrong, fix it!" However, any propositions for restructure which either require the participation of a number of people, take many steps to complete, or affect quite a number of pages, should be put forward here.

[edit] Categorisation

A check on the various categories should be undertaken regularly, some overhaul should be taken as not every article is in its correct pigeon-hole with a suitable hierarchy.

[edit] List of Railway Series Books

The List of Railway Series Books exists in a good format, containing sections on all the Railway Series books and related literature. Links to and from it are present, but lots more can be made. Proof-reading of the 'list' is also important. A progress chart/table has also been suggested, possibly with copyable links to speed up the process.

  • for example: [[List of Railway Series Books#Oliver the Western Engine|''Oliver the Western Engine'']]

See also User:EdJogg/List of The Railway Series articles for copyable links for characters, redirects and 'name pages'.

[edit] Merchandise

The pages on various items of Thomas merchandise could do with some serious work and overhaul:

  • Many of the articles read like adverts rather than encyclopaedia articles
  • Several of them are little more than lists
  • They often tend to be quite badly written generally
  • There is very little on the subject of, for example, the histories of the various ranges
  • There is a lot of crystal ball-gazing concerning future releases, much of it unsubstantiated in any way

Merchandise should be collated, detailed yet not superfluous. It may be possible to move everything onto one page, if it gets to large it could then be split in a more constructive way. One option may be to remove all the lists, replacing them with external links to manufacturers' websites (although this may be advertising), or to merge all the toy ranges into a single article with encyclopaedic information about each range in suitable sections.

[edit] Participants

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Thomas/Participants for participants of the project. Feel free to add yourself to the list.

[edit] Templates

[edit] Link template

This navibox is to be placed at the bottom of every article, above any categories. (Note: This eliminates the need for many "See also" sections)

Code: {{Thomas}}

Result:

The world of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
view • talk • edit
Book series: The Railway Series
TV Series: Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
Series particulars
List of Railway Series Books
TV Series Seasons: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10
Movie and spin-off releases: Thomas and the Magic Railroad • Calling All Engines • On Site with Thomas
Characters
Thomas • Edward • Henry • Gordon • James • Percy • Toby • Duck • Donald and Douglas • Emily
The Fat Controller • Bertie • Terence • Trevor • Harold

The Railway Series: Major characters • Minor characters • Unfeatured characters
TV Series: Major characters • Minor Characters • Rolling Stock • Non-rail vehicles • People & animals
Movies: Movie-only characters
Locations
Island of Sodor
Railways: North Western • Skarloey • Arlesdale • Culdee Fell • Mid Sodor • Sodor & Mainland • "Other"

Other locations - The Railway Series • TV Series
Significant people and organisations
Rev. W.V. Awdry (series creator) • Christopher Awdry
Britt Allcroft • Gullane Entertainment • HIT Entertainment
Other relevant pages
WikiProject Thomas
The Railway Stories (audiobooks) • Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends merchandise • Video releases
Shining Time Station • TUGS

[edit] Project notice

This is the project notice, designed to be placed in the talk page of any article that has been edited as part of this WikiProject.

Code: {{Thomas-project-page}}

Result:

This page has been flagged as being within the scope of WikiProject Thomas. WikiProject Thomas aims to develop and expand Wikipedia's content relating to the TV Series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, as well as the original book series The Railway Series.
  Planning and discussion for this project can be found on the Project page. Wikipedians are quite welcome to join us in improving the quality of this article, and others.

[edit] User pages

This is to be placed on the User pages of participants, after addition to Participants list. (Note: This is not a Userbox, so will not fit alongside other userboxes in a standard wikitable)

Code: {{Thomas-project-member}}

Result:

This user is a member of WikiProject Thomas, a WikiProject which aims to develop and expand Wikipedia's content relating to the TV Series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, as well as the original book series The Railway Series.
Please feel free to join us.

[edit] Resources

[edit] Article categories

The following hierarchy shows the categories appropriate for articles that come under the banner of Wikiproject Thomas:

[edit] Project categories

[edit] Related links

The founders of this WikiProject (User:HonestTom, User:Gonzerelli, and User:Thehalford) are all members of the Sodor Island Forums, where this project was unofficially initiated in January 2006.

An exemplary fansite, which can be used as a great information resource, can be found here.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/i/k/Wikipedia%7EWikiProject_Thomas_4128.html"