Wikipedia:WikiProject Thomas/FAQ
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This page adresses the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the Wikipedia articles on The Railway Series books and the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends TV Series.
It has been created to cover editing and content issues which may be of concern to Wikipedians, with regards to WikiProject Thomas and the articles in the care of the project.
If you cannot find an answer to your question on this page, please open a discussion on the Talk page of the article that concerns you. The pages are all watched by members of Wikiproject Thomas, and someone will soon be along to try and help.
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[edit] Definitions
[edit] 'Season' or 'Series'?
In many places (outside the articles of WikiProject Thomas), the terms "season" and "series" are often used interchangeably, or inconsistently. Within WikiProject Thomas, however, we are very clear on what these terms refer to.
"Series" refers to the TV Series as a whole. It refers to all episodes and seasons, not any one specifically.
"Season" refers to a set of episodes which are grouped together, and referred to numerically (for example, Season 1, Season 2, etc). While referring to this subset of episodes, the term "season" should always be used.
An example using both terms follows:
The series used stories from The Railway Series for the first four seasons, however Season 5 consisted entirely of original stories.
For consistency of style, the word 'season' should always be capitalised when referring to a specific season (followed by the season number), for example: "Season 8", "Seasons 1-4". However, when referring to the season(s) in more general terms, the word should be all lower-case, for example: "this season", "the ninth season", "the first four seasons".
(This has not been applied rigidly before now, so please feel free to correct any inconsistencies you may find to comply with this policy.)
[edit] 'Engine', 'Locomotive' or 'Train'?
Steam locomotive and diesel locomotive characters in the Railway Series books are always referred to as 'engines', and the TV series continues this policy. Therefore, Wikipedia articles concerning the characters should always use the terms 'engine' or 'engines'. (The exception to this is where the character is first introduced, when the term 'locomotive' is appropriate to accurately define what the character is.)
The term train should NEVER be used to describe an individual character. A train comprises a locomotive and one or more trucks or coaches; a locomotive travelling by itself is called a 'light engine', not a train.
[edit] Frequently Asked Questions
[edit] Can I write about the new Railway Series book on Wikipedia?
The simple answer is, "No."
Sources trusted as reliable by the WikiProject Thomas founding members have established the following 'facts':
- The current publishers of The Railway Series books intend to re-publish ALL of the remaining books in the series – those written by Christopher Awdry – in the popular original format.
- A 41st book, written by Christopher, is expected to be published towards the end of 2007
- The title of the new book is expected to be Thomas and Victoria
- The new character Victoria is thought to be a Victorian bogie coach
The 'source' is in the form of direct communication between one of the Project members and the publishers. This is sufficient to acknowledge, within Wikipedia, that these facts are 'expected'. However, it does not count as a Reliable Source, and therefore the coverage of the above 'facts' must be kept to an absolute minimum to comply with Wikipedia guidelines.
Furthermore, speculation about the possible content of the book will not be tolerated. Articles relevant to the book's content will only be updated after the book has been released on general sale, or before then if information is available from Verifiable sources.
Therefore, to maintain the integrity of the Project articles, ANY edits relating to the above facts will be reverted (except those added to date by WP:THOMAS members, as mentioned above).
[edit] Why was my edit removed?
The most common reason for an edit being removed by a member of WikiProject Thomas is that it was regarded as a superfluous comment. This is a comment which either adds nothing of note to the article in which it was written, or else only provides unnecessary information.
Superfluous information can also include the addition of non-notable "characters" to articles, such as describing in detail every single type of coach seen in the TV Series, where one section titled "Other coaches" would suffice.
As the WikiProject Thomas Guidelines for Contribution clearly state, "Remember that not everyone who looks at Wikipedia is a Thomas fan." This means that all the content to be contained in articles needs to be relevant, in-context, and not go off on unrelated tangents. Information which you – as a Thomas & Friends / Railway Series fan – may find intriguing, may in fact be useless to someone reading the article for the first time. Please consider these other people. If you want to collect trivial facts, then by all means start your own fan site, but keep Wikipedia encyclopedic.
Other reasons for edits being reverted include:
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- unverified information (such as talk of future seasons)
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- False edits, which contain information which is simply false. (Remember that members of WikiProject Thomas are very knowledgeable on the areas covered by the Project's scope.)
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- "Cross-contamination" between Railway Series and TV Series aspects. (It is clearly stated in the Scope of this Project that coverage of the two series is to be kept separate.)
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- Structural change that does not follow the guidelines laid down by WikiProject Thomas – for example, replacing a redirect page with character information removed from a 'grouped' page.
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- Changing section titles on 'grouped' character pages – for example, replacing the heading Edward with Edward the Blue Engine. The existing titles (headings) are used for 'anchored links', sometimes from a Contents box: changing the title will break these links and prevent the Contents table from working properly. (Suggestions for changes to an existing heading title should be discussed on the article's Talk Page.)
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- Other edits which are seen to be going against the aims of WikiProject Thomas – such as altering images to ones of poorer standard, "Original Research" (eg. listing your own interpretations), and edits which compromise the integrity of articles.
In any case, if your edit has been reverted, check the edit summaries for the article (by clicking history at the top of the web page), and the Talk Page for the relevant article (by clicking discussion at the top of the web page). If you still don't understand why your edit was reverted, drop a message onto the article's Talk page. Members of WikiProject Thomas are always happy to discuss reasons behind edits, and will always act in the best interests of articles within the scope of the Project.
[edit] Why was my new picture changed back?
Each character page only permits a single picture to depict each character. Therefore, the choice of image is incredibly important. The image should be clear (in focus) and show as much of the character as possible, for example: an engine, ideally, should have visible their face, funnel, wheels, body, and tender (if applicable).
The images already present have been carefully selected over time. Hence, it is considered harmful to change these images without discussion, or without the "new" image being obviously more appropriate or of noticeably higher quality. However, it is recognised that there is room for improvement, so new images will always be considered.
Where images are considered to be appropriate, they MUST be tagged with the appropriate usage attribution. Untagged images will be removed immediately and without question – an untagged image will be automatically deleted by the Wiki software after a week, and it is inappropriate to have a broken link in an article where a picture should be.
Pictures of characters from the Railway Series books may NOT be added to Wikipedia articles. The concept of 'fair use' permits screenshots of the TV series to be included, however, more stringent copyright laws prevent copies of book pictures from being added here. The book covers are permitted under 'fair use' rules, however.
[edit] Guidelines for character descriptions
The following section was created regarding Railway engines (Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends), to outline what is expected within that specific article. The general principles apply to other WP:THOMAS articles too.
"Clearer standards for Railway Engines - TV Series"
As a part of the work done by WikiProject Thomas, some standards for character articles have been established. These are to ensure that character articles, WikiProject Thomas articles, and Wikipedia as a whole, are of high quality and maintain their integrity. The development of these standards can be viewed at WikiProject Thomas Talk.
These standards include the following:
[edit] Character inclusion/exclusion
The basis for characters being included in this article, is dependent upon the following:
- The character must be a railway engine from the TV Series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (aka Thomas and Friends). This clearly rules out any characters which have only appeared in The Railway Series or films.
- The character must be able to be considered a part of the "regular fleet" of engines in the series. If not featured in recent seasons, the character must be able to feasibly return. If the character cannot be seen as a "regular" (eg. only had one appearance), then the correct article for the character is Minor characters from Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.
- This page is to be the only reference page (from a TV Series perspective) for all engines, except the following major characters:
As such, separate articles should not be created for any engines other than those above.
[edit] Naming conventions
Some engines have, throughout history, have had "extended names", such as "Thomas the Tank Engine". There are only eight "extended names" which are considered appropriate, based on their consistent use throughout earlier seasons of the TV Series, as well as their origins in The Railway Series books. These are:
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- Thomas the Tank Engine
- Edward the Blue Engine
- Henry the Green Engine
- Gordon the Big Engine
- James the Red Engine
- Percy the Small Engine
- Toby the Tram Engine
- Duck the Great Western Engine
Any other engines being given descriptive names (eg. "Murdoch the Mighty Engine") does not have any consistent, official basis. Please consider that using an adjective to describe an engine does not therefore make it an official naming convention.
[edit] Character list
The use of the character list at the head of this article bypasses the need for a Table Of Contents, and conveniently displays information, while anchor-linking within this article to each character's section. It is listed in order of first appearance within the series, which may not necessarily be the same order as they are listed within the article proper. This is intentional, as "Engines 1-11" can be placed in numerical order in the article, though Gordon (#4) appeared in the Series before Edward or Henry (#2 & #3).
[edit] Numbers
This has been the subject of some heated discussion in the past. Despite some engines (particularly diesel engines) carrying numbers (often similar as their prototypes upon which they were based), this often has no bearing on actual running of the railways in the Series. As such, it has been declared that ONLY the following engines' numbers will be specified in the Character List:
- 1-11 Standard Gauge (Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, Duck, Donald, Douglas, Oliver)
- 1-7 Narrow Gauge (Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Rusty, Duncan, Fearless Freddie)
- 27 (Harvey - "the number 27, including the Narrow Gauge engines and excluding Diesel, accurately reflects him being the 27th addition to the fleet of engines working on Sodor. [Quoted direct from article])
[edit] Miscellaneous
- As this TV Series is a British series, British spelling and grammar should be used, rather than American spelling or grammar.
- The section titles should not be changed, as changing them would mess with anchored links from dozens of other articles.
- As with all other articles, superfluous comments which add nothing to the article are inappropriate, and should be removed.
[edit] Please, feel free to discuss
While the above standards may seem restrictive and stifling, it has been necessary to reach a set of common standards after over a year of editing this page (to my knowledge). However, if you disagree with any of these standards, or wish to discuss them, then please feel free to do so. We always welcome valuable input from other users.
On behalf of WikiProject Thomas,
Original author:Gonzerelli 17:40, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
Copied to FAQs by EdJogg 14:10, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
