Talk:Pearls Before Swine (comic strip)
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[edit] Removal
I have removed the recurring characters section as at least part of it seems to come directly from [1]. I don't know about the rest, and it may be that this can be restored. I don't know enough about the strip to rewrite the offending portions. Basil Fawlty 14:02, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
The characters should include when they first appeared in the strip. (I know rat and pig started it, goat and sheep not much later, but when did wee bear, guard duck and fraternity of crocs joins. Most specifiaclly JoJo. I when thw first crocodile apperaerd but not the frat house.
[edit] Major cutting
I removed the long list of minor characters. I noticed that this was being updated almost daily, every time someone (something?) new appeared in the strip. The list had the potential to get really massive. It's one thing to mention a few sentences about minor characters who make multiple appearances, but I don't see a reason to list every single one-off appearance. The article isn't intended to summarize the entire fictional world of Pearls Before Swine. Joyous | Talk 19:16, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
Why? The fact that it is updated so often means that a lot of people are invested in it. Not everything that happens is included, but what's wrong with listing each of the characters? It's still a relatively young strip and today's minor characters become tomorrow's recurring characters (e.g. Pig's sister - she has a back story that's relevant to the strip or the seals and whale who recur regularly and are an interesting counterpoint to Zebra and the Crocodiles.) But more to the point - So it's a long entry? Who does that hurt? We're not talking about Star Wars or Star Trek length issues here. aww 15:02, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
The point is that it was becoming less like an encyclopedia entry, and more like something that you would see on a fan website. An article shouldn't be a strip-by-strip summary in near-real-time. It wouldn't take long before the article becomes bloated with trivia, and essentially a list of lists. (list of minor characters, list of characters from other strips who have appeared here, list of other strips that have made reference to Pearls Before Swine, list of objects from other strips that have been left behind...). Eventually, it would have to be trimmed down, as was done painfully at Homer Simpson. Joyous | Talk 21:03, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
Well, for the record, I think you went too far. The "minor characters" were important, and more of a reference to cross-comic interaction was actually useful and relevant (there is a small cadre of these young/new comic strip authors that work off each other in contrast with and poking at the old style and subject matter of Keane, Hart, etc.). But I'm not going to be the one to battle over it. aww 23:48, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
I agree with aww, I was actually searching for information on the April fool's joke this year and could only find it in Google's cache. I think the cut was far too deep. Sure, we can maybe get rid of the "guest stars" like Cathy, but this is an encyclopedia unrestricted by space concerns, so why not be encyclopedic? I think the previous list of major and minor (appearing more than once) characters is entirely appropriate and should be restored. --Tedzzzz 22:48, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
- I didn't see the article before ir got cut, but there are several recurring charectars that arn't mentioned, the only one I can think of now is Rat's boss. Rat's boss has appeared much more than one strip, and there is nothing that suggests he will stop appearing, so I think charectars like that should stay in.
Rat's boss will disappear eventually. Rat has gotten so many jobs and has had so many bosses, that it would make this article encreadibly and unnessicarally long if we listed them all.
I'm concerned about article quality. (in general, and this article specifically) I fear that a lot of articles degrade over time into cruft; other articles so effusively praise the topic that they simply can't be neutral. I'm not sure what the ideal article on a comic strip (even a great one like Pearls) should look like, but I fear that some articles start to become too long if we add too many minor details. MKoltnow 20:08, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
Something definitely ought to be done about the "minor characters" section. Recently "Timmy the Owl" was added, a character that appeared in a single strip as a one off joke. Many characters mentioned there were in the comic for no more than a single strip or series. Admittedly, there is about a years worth of PBS strips I've never read, but I'm willing to bet that Angry Bob has appeared, and is more important a character, than Staci Pastis. Please consider moving or deleting several of the characters in these sections. (I'm writing all this in the discussion because everything I change always seems to get reverted back. At least I'm learning...) 121.45.248.70
[edit] Disney acquiring PBS
That info comes from this "press release"
Note the language at the bottom of the page: "This site is not endorsed, approved, reviewed, or acknowledged by the Walt Disney Corporation. All information on this site is, to the best of our knowledge, false, and any resemblance to real insider information is purely coincidental. If any significant true information slips through, we apologize for that."
Oops...I didn't see that. --Wack'd About Wiki 15:47, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
- Why do you say the Walt Disney Corporation? There's no such thing as Walt Disney Corporation, just the Walt Disney Company. [User: Nate Speed]
[edit] Rat (Pearls Before Swine)
Did anybody notice the Rat page I wrote? --Wack'd About Wiki 19:32, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
Yes, and I actually added most of Rat's former jobs on that page to fill it out more.
[edit] Characters
I split the "minor characters" section between "recurring" and "minor." Here's my reasoning:
- The recurring characters are the characters who appear more frequently, and seem to have had a larger affect on the strip. Farina and the Sea Anenomes have popped up frequently over the few years PBS has been around, and the Guard Duck has appeared many times since his first appearence.
- The minor characters have appeared frequently enough to play a small role in the strip, but appear not as frequently as the recurring characters or only appeared for a limited time in a large series of strips. Lesser characters who do not fit these qualifications; in my opinion, do not warrent mention.
If you don't like my way, fine, but at least read this to see my reasoning. --Wack'd About Wiki
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- In the case of another character -- I re-added "Danny Donkey", because the character does appear occasionally and isn't a one-off character. (The drunken Danny Donkey doll might never appear again, but the illustrated one (drawn by Rat) has appeared since and probably will again.) Amnewsboy 16:37, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
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- In another case of characters, I'm glad to see this page is spurring alot of character pages. --Wack'd About Wiki 11:10, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] September 26 Substitution
Do we want to mention this within the article because of the Jimella Tunstall case? It was still in this morning's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel so it was a paper-to-paper basis that the strip was subbed with the 2004 strip. Nate 22:54, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
Pastis often sends in a past strip to papers as an alternate for today's strip when he feels papers might not want to run the one that was supposed to be for that day. This is nothing new, but if you want to mention that he does this, it could fit in the article one way or another. --Wack'd About Wiki 10:04, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] The Guard Duck?
It's November and he's still in it a fair amount. Is he at the level of the Killer Whale yet?--T. Anthony 15:38, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
He's in the "recurring characters" section. He's higher level than the Killer Whale, who (may I point out) is offically deceased. I sort of find that odd, though - no major character who dies never stays that way for long. --Wack'd About Wiki 21:27, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
I think, at this point, Jason has become a main character. See his section for reasoning. --Wack'd About Wiki 17:08, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
Since his online character description only calls him "Duck," as well as the fact that he's NEVER been called Jason, the page has been changed to fix that error.
[edit] Crocodile speech style
I'm not sure the Zebras speek in a phonetic style, as the article says. They seem to speak some sort of Caribbean pidgin. Their speech is also uniquely lowercase, like the bully in Calvin and Hobbes. I'd like to rewrite the description and will happily do so barring objections. MKoltnow 08:10, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
What the heck? The Crocidiles speak in that type of vioce, not the Zebra!
- Heh. I forgot one of the commandmants--thou shalt not edit when sleepy. :-) Still stick by my statement that the ZZE members' speech is not phonetic. MKoltnow 18:33, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Turkish Additions
Has the incident about the Turkish president achieved enough notoriety to add a mention to it somewhere in the page? While I don't think it warrants a link to that quack's YouTube video (which isn't a reputable source anyway), if mainstream publications are picking up on it, it seems like it should be integrated into the controversies section. Anyone else with thoughts on this? SGreenwell 11:56, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Crocodile Speech
Isn't it just the male crocs who speek in the dumbed down, phonetic style? The female crocodiles always seem to be perfectly articulate, from what I can tell.
The adult males, yes. The croc son who we've seen several times in 2007 seems to also speak articulate English. MissFiat (talk) 16:31, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Characters
Something seriously has to be done about the recurring/minor characters sections. Honestly, barely any of them should be there. Many were just one-strip gags, and some characters where there only for a brief storyline. A great example, Wilhelm the Aquatic Lamb. Wilhelm was in a single strip and I'm willing to bet he won't reappear. A single random joke. Connie the Judgemental Cow, pretty much a prop for jokes for about four days. Even Staci Pastis has barely been there. I reckon the recurring and minor characters section can be merged and include only the following characters:
- Stephan Pastis
- Farina
- Pigita
- Alphonse, the Needy Porcupine
- Angry Bob
- Danny Donkey
- Chuckie, the Non-Anthropomorphic Sheep
- Leonard
- The Lions
- Pepito
- Toby the Agoraphobic Turtle
- Wee Bear
All other characters are insanely unimportant to the point where they're not even "Pearls Before Swine characters". The section's starting to look like a fan site made by an die-hard Pearls fan instead of an encyclopaedia.
[edit] Removed External Link
I removed an external link link from the article. The one linking to "Pearlswine: LiveJournal Daily Feed of Pearls Before Swine".
Although it does service the reader, the publication of strips there is probably unauthorized. It therefore is restricted without without exception as per Wikipedia:External links. - Apartmento (talk) 08:28, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Crocodiles
It seems as though the crocs are appearing more and more in the recent comics. It also seems that Rat is making less isolation devices for himself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.92.103.248 (talk) 21:51, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Crocodile Accent
"When spoken aloud this strongly resembles a thick Hispanic accent."
I think I read in comic collection that Pastis didn't intend for the crocodiles' speech to resemble any particular accent. I'm not going to go track that citation down, but I don't think the above quote has any place in the article. Ueli-PLS (talk) 08:05, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
- Removed. --Lambiam 10:11, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Merge List of Pearls Before Swine characters to here
The article List of Pearls Before Swine characters largely duplicates content found here, and for most characters this article (Pearls Before Swine) is actually the more comprehensive and informative one. The length of the article is not a prohibitive factor. --Lambiam 10:06, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
- I agree. The main article is much more detailed. In addition, the "Main Articles" for several of the major characters here simply redirect back to the same section that they're linked from (for example, the main article for Pig simply redirects to the section of this article about Pig). Oldiesmann (talk) 17:59, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Pearls Before Swine excerpt.png
Image:Pearls Before Swine excerpt.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
BetacommandBot (talk) 15:01, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Pearlsmain.jpg
Image:Pearlsmain.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.
BetacommandBot (talk) 15:07, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
