Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Television episodes

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WP:EPISODE

Contents

[edit] Conclusions

A consensus was reached to accept the guidelines below. --InShaneee 05:02, 16 February 2006 (UTC)


Wikipedia contains a large number of articles on television episodes. There is some disagreement as to whether every episode of every show "deserves" an article, which leads to a large number of AFDs for such articles. The following suggestions aim to promote the creation of high-quality articles about television shows and their episodes, which should help to reduce acrimonious AfD debates.

[edit] Creating articles on television episodes

More important than having many articles on TV episodes is having good articles on those TV episodes. Therefore, it may not be a good idea to create small articles on every episode of a television show. However, it may still make sense to add information about a television episode to Wikipedia. The following process is a suggested method of doing so:

  • First, create an article on the television show.
  • Once there's enough independently verifiable information to do so, create articles on each season, or some other logical division, of the show.
  • Once there's enough independently verifiable information included about individual episodes, spin the information from episodes out into their own articles.

[edit] Content

  • Content about television episodes must conform to Wikipedia content policies, including but not limited to Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:No original research.
  • Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. Avoid excessive trivia and quotations.
  • Extensive quotation from episodes is a violation of copyright and unlikely to be fair use.
  • Here are some ideas for what information to include about a television episode, where possible:
    • The plot summary of the episode
    • The episode's relevance in ongoing story arcs, if any
    • How the episode was received by critics
    • The episode's impact on popular culture
    • Information on production and broadcasting of the episode
  • Elements which are best avoided in any episode article:
    • A scene-by-scene synopsis. An overall plot summary is much better; the article should not attempt to be a replacement for watching the show itself, it should be about the show
    • Particularly for comedies, no attempt should be made to recreate the humor of the show. This rarely works, and is contrary to the purpose of an encyclopedia.

[edit] Dealing with problem articles

  • Generally, articles on episodes of television should not be listed for AfD (unless they are completely unverifiable, original research, etc.).
  • If the articles are very short, consider merging them into another article (e.g. an article about the show itself, an article that is a list of episodes of the show, or an article that summarizes the plot for one season of the show).
  • If the same person appears to have created a large number of problematic articles, please refer them to this page.

[edit] See also