User:MuppetArchives/Current Events 34 (2011)

Archive of Current events.

Attached videos
I've noticed that when a video is embedded,it comes with a bunch of related videos.So I was wondering,since we don't allow commercially available videos,is there a way to prevent them from being attached to videos we embed? --Fred(Hihokermitthefroghere) 18:17, March 26, 2011 (UTC)


 * No, that's just a part of the way Youtube works. There's only so much we can do. -- Danny (talk ) 03:39, March 27, 2011 (UTC)

Muppets Tonight on Youtube
Fred brought up a question on Andrew's talk page -- is it okay to post Muppets Tonight videos on the appropriate episode pages?

Right now, the entry on the Policies page says: "Due to the frequency with which videos are removed from YouTube, we try to keep links to that site at a minimum. Some exceptions include accounts owned by regular contributors who are keeping an eye on their own links or cases where wiki information is being sourced. We also never link to anything that's commercially available."

Muppets Tonight isn't commercially available, and it doesn't look like it will be in the foreseeable future; obviously, we'll all know about it when that happens. Ditto for Muppet Babies. But there are lots of full episodes up (in whole or in parts) on YouTube. I think a Muppet Wiki reader who's reading about an episode would be interested in watching those clips, and if they can find them on our site, then that person sticks around longer and likes the wiki more.

The problem, as far as I can tell, is that sometimes videos are taken down, and then we'd want to delete the video embed. Personally, that doesn't bother me very much. The same is true for external links -- websites get taken down, and we link to a lot of press releases and news articles as sources that could easily go away. We don't worry too much about those links going dead; we just remove the dead ones when we notice them. The Muppets Tonight and Muppet Babies episodes that I see on YouTube have been up for three or four years; they seem just as stable as anything else on the internet that we might link to.

What do other folks think? -- Danny (talk ) 22:18, March 14, 2011 (UTC)


 * I think we've established a track record for being one of the best sites for Muppet information on the Internet, and we've already got a ton of links to official video clips from Disney, Henson and the Workshop, as well as fan-uploaded YouTube stuff like old commercials, interviews, documentaries, and other appearances. So I think we should treat Muppets Tonight clips like we've treated other video clips (and stuff like the transcript from Mr. Hooper's death): Take it down if it ever gets officially released, someone asks us to, or the link goes dead. -- Ken (talk ) 02:12, March 15, 2011 (UTC)

Wikia Poll
Hi all :) If you have a couple minutes, please help us out by taking this poll about your experience on Wikia.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8629TLG

Thanks, I appreciate it! —Scott http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32971/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (contact) 23:38, March 8, 2011 (UTC)

Live chat test
Hi guys! I'm working on a project right now to improve communication on Wikia, and the first part is a live chat feature. We've got a prototype chat box almost ready to go, and we need a wiki to test it on... So obviously I'd like to put it here, cause if I'm going to be in a chat all day testing it out, I might as well have Muppet Wiki people to talk to. :)

So! Probably tomorrow, I'd like to put the chat prototype live on our wiki. It's a pretty basic chat box at the moment, nothing fancy. There'll be a little "Join Chat" button in the sidebar that only logged-in folks can see. (You have to be logged-in to chat. In the future, it'll be available for not-logged-in folks to read, but for this version, only logged-in can read.) Wiki admins will automatically be chat moderators, with the ability to kick someone out if they misbehave.

We're testing out the prototype on an active, friendly wiki so we can see how the chat works when real people use it. There's a long list of things that you won't be able to do yet, and part of the test is to find out what people need the most. So -- hopefully you'll see this tomorrow -- hopefully you'll dig it -- and I appreciate everybody's patience and good humor about it. Does this sound okay? -- Danny (talk ) 22:17, March 7, 2011 (UTC)


 * Sounds fine to me. -- Andrew Leal (talk ) 22:57, March 7, 2011 (UTC)


 * Would the chat box help out with some issues on the wiki? --Parstin32 23:04, March 7, 2011 (UTC)


 * What kind of issues? I'm not sure what you mean... But if there are some communication problems on the wiki, then it could make it easier for us to talk to each other and collaborate. -- Danny (talk ) 00:26, March 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * Is the chat box up yet? I've been looking all over for it, and I thought maybe it was me, since I haven't changed my settings in a while. -- Ken (talk ) 06:13, March 9, 2011 (UTC)


 * I can't see it, either. Parstin32 13:17, March 9, 2011 (UTC)


 * They'll let us know when it's up. Danny said "probably tomorrow" on the 7th, not definitely (he just wanted to make sure we were okay with it, *then* do the tech stuff to get it up, which naturally can often involve delays). -- Andrew Leal (talk ) 15:13, March 9, 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, sorry for the delay! I was hoping we'd have it ready, but there are some tech issues we're trying to work out. I'm hoping that we can put it live today, possibly tomorrow... I'll definitely let you know when it's up! -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 18:19, March 9, 2011 (UTC)


 * Chat is live! We've got the prototype up on the site right now this minute. Come join us! :) You should see the "Join Chat" button in the right sidebar, under the spotlights.


 * So -- this is a super early stripped-down prototype with no features and no design. The actual finished chat feature will look a lot different and have more bells and whistles... Right now, we just want to see how people use the basic stuff, so we can figure out which bells are important and which aren't. So go ahead and chat it up -- and I would love to see your questions and feedback, either here or on my talk page. Yay! -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 23:58, March 10, 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi guys! It's Saturday afternoon / early evening (depending on where in the US you live)... I'm in the chat, if anybody feels like joining me! -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 01:22, March 13, 2011 (UTC)
 * Yeah, last night, me and Danny had an egaging conversation about Sesamstrasse. We should talk more. -BRAINULATOR9 (TALK) 22:22, March 15, 2011 (UTC)

Hearing voices
Several times in the past week I've loaded pages on the wiki and there have been ads (all the way down at the bottom of the page) that automatically start playing sound/music/dialog. The first few times it happened it startled me and it took me a while to figure out where the audio was coming from. Is this going to be a lasting thing here? It's annoying as heck. -- <font color="Blue">Brad D. (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 02:49, March 5, 2011 (UTC)
 * It only happens when I'm browsing the wiki when not logged-in. -- <font color="Blue">Brad D. (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 06:12, March 7, 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh, ouch. That should not be happening. Wikia tries to filter out auto-play audio ads... Sometimes stuff slips through the ad system that we need to track down and eliminate. Are you still seeing (hearing) these? Has anyone else noticed them? -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 22:03, March 7, 2011 (UTC)
 * Hey Brad (or anyone else). If you see any auto-play ads again (on any wiki), could you please report them to Special:Contact? There are directions here about all the information we would like to get with the report, but if you find that confusing just let us know anything you did notice about the ad. Thanks! -- <font color="Blue">Wendy (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 18:24, March 9, 2011 (UTC)

Links in picture captions... issue fixed?
As a follow-up to this issue: the Rich Text Editor has been updated and the technical problem appears to be fixed. Is that correct, and is it OK for us to add links in picture captions again, if used wisely? — <font color="Blue">Julian (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 19:45, February 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * Oh! If that's true, then it's news to me... I'll go check it out! -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 23:58, February 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * Okay, that's really funny... It does appear to be fixed now! Nobody tells me anything! -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 00:02, February 9, 2011 (UTC)


 * Awesome! ...the fixed-issue part, not the nobody-telling-you-anything part, y'know! — <font color="Blue">Julian (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 01:35, February 9, 2011 (UTC)

Quality articles
For the last 9-months we've somewhat neglected nominating and voting on new Quality articles. I'm sure we have some quality work on the wiki that should be highlighted, recognized and showcased as an example of Muppet Wiki at its best. Please take some time to check out Muppet Wiki:Quality article nominations and nominate and vote on some of our best work. -- <font color="Blue">Brad D. (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 14:00, February 4, 2011 (UTC)

Quote template
I've noticed on some pages lately that the quote template is feeling uncomfortable with the new page width. Here's an example: Elmo's Backyard. The template doesn't wrap under photos or boxes, and with the new width, it makes for a very narrow column of text. Anybody have thoughts? -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 00:02, February 3, 2011 (UTC)
 * I tried making a wrapping quote template: Sandbox: Quotes. -- <font color="Blue">Brad D. (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 14:53, February 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * Oh! That wrapping quote template is pretty cool. What do other folks think? Should we replace the existing one? -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 17:45, February 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * I like it, personally. -- Zanimum 17:47, February 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * Absolutely. Nice work! — <font color="Blue">Julian (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 18:04, February 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * Nice! That template is super old, we were definitely overdue for an update. Nice work, Brad! —Scott 18:22, February 4, 2011 (UTC)

Awesome! I just replaced the old quote template with the new one, so now all our quotes are using the new format. I've checked some pages, and they all look good! Rock on, Brad! -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 19:17, February 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * Important: I just found a couple of pages that got formatted all funky because of the new quotes. It's fixable though... we've got to make sure that there are no line breaks anywhere in between the quote brackets! Otherwise everything that follows the quote gets pushed to the left margin in a smaller font, as had happened here for example (scroll down a bit). To avoid the issue, just use , or even    instead of line breaks within quotes! — <font color="Blue">Julian  (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 18:42, February 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * Sweet, nice catch. Thanks! -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 20:08, February 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * No problem! Phew! I can't check the remaining 230 pages anymore tonight, so if someone else volunteers to do it, that'd be great! Just start here, check the pages for the described quote issue (the affected pages say "Retrieved from [page name]" at the bottom), fix it, hit "next 50" on the list, lather, rinse, repeat! Thanks. — <font color="Blue">Julian (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 21:42, February 6, 2011 (UTC)

Photos of Muppeteers significant others
IWas wondering what the policy was on posting pictures that are publicly posted online of Muppeteers' significant others. For example, Marty Robinson's wife has her own blog, and someone over on Muppet Central recently posted a photo of Steve Whitmire's wife Melissa from the Center for Puppetry Arts' website.

Thanks! -- Melissay1 February 1, 2011


 * I think we could use them if they're relevant -- for example, if there's a picture of Whitmire and his wife at a movie premiere or something. But I don't think we should randomly post a picture of Whitmire's wife on his page. Marty Robinson's wife, Annie Evans, is a writer for Sesame Street, so she's got a page already. :) -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 17:54, February 1, 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Danny! Just wanted to know before I posted anything. Melissa Whitmire has her own page as well, doesn't she?
 * Yes. -- Zanimum 15:52, February 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * I have posted a picture of Melissa Whitmire on her own page with her Steve and Heather Henson from an event at the Center for Puppetry Arts. I provided the link in the caption information. If this photo is a problem, please feel free to take it down. Just wanted to give the heads up. Thanks!
 * I have posted a picture of Melissa Whitmire on her own page with her Steve and Heather Henson from an event at the Center for Puppetry Arts. I provided the link in the caption information. If this photo is a problem, please feel free to take it down. Just wanted to give the heads up. Thanks!

Reprinting full articles
So, are we allowed officially to copy full magazine articles to Muppet Wiki? Specifically, I'm questioning the full text of an article from BrainWorld Magazine, December 2010. I had asked the policy question on the talk page, to no reply, trying here. -- Zanimum 02:45, February 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * Hmm, good question. I don't want to completely close off the idea of reprinting articles of historical interest, especially interviews with Muppets or performers. My main problem with that BrainWorld Magazine page is that that article isn't interesting and tells us nothing new. -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 16:52, February 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah, something like Woman's Day definitely should be here, no doubt. It's the sole appearance of that Jerry Juhl script; I personally have the first three pages, always wondered the conclusion. In my mind, it's less the historical interest of the article, it's more time-related. This particular item was posted on Muppet Wiki the day after the cover month was over, it just seems a tad to quick. Plus, the article is still available on their website, now that I look. Perhaps the rule should be, "not available online, and back issues via the publisher are sold out/pulped"? -- Zanimum 19:10, February 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that makes sense to me. Being interesting helps too, though. :) -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 21:16, February 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah. "Frank Oz discusses his favorite pencil," even if it is from an out of print issue of OFFICE SUPPLIES MONTHLY, might be a little too Bert (unless, obviously, he did the interview *as* Bert). -- <font color="Blue">Andrew Leal (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 21:21, February 1, 2011 (UTC)

I'm having a problem
I just made some edits to The Ed Sullivan Show, and since I made these edits the categories and source heading no longer appear. I keep adding them back but when I hit the save button they don't come back. I don't know what's going on here. --Minor muppetz 17:18, January 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm having a problem too, and without meaning to hijack your thread I thought I'd at least mention it in case it's just another of a couple of problems surfacing as of late, possibly due to the recent (supposedly barely noticeable) changes at Wikia: For about an entire week I haven't been getting my usual E-mail reminders about the changes of pages I'm following. Has anybody else experienced the same issue? At first I thought something had changed in the settings, but it all looks the way that it should. I had hoped it was just temporary, but it's really starting to bug me. — <font color="Blue">Julian (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 23:34, January 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah, they're working on upgrading the site to the new version of MediaWiki... It's not going as smoothly as they hoped. Michael, I looked at the edit you were making -- it looks like it got fixed? In general, performance has been pretty bumpy for the last week.


 * There's also a problem with not sending out watchlist e-mails... A possibly unrelated problem that they're working on. Sorry for the problems; they're working on them... -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 00:02, January 18, 2011 (UTC)
 * I checked and it looks like it was fixed. The edit I made was always there but for some reason the "reference" heading and categories stopped appearing (I see that they are back, though). --Minor muppetz 00:34, January 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * I've encountered the category problem quite a few times over the last year or so, and for some reason it always seems to correct itself after awhile. Henrik ( talk ) 07:52, January 18, 2011 (UTC)

Rudman and Vogel performing Hunt's and Nelson's characters
In 2008, David Rudman and Matt Vogel became the permanent performers of Richard Hunt's and Jerry Nelson's minor (at the time) characters such as Scooter and Floyd Pepper. Now that Rudman and Vogel have been performing those characters for 3 years and the new Muppet movie (a very big production) is halfway through production, can we now add them in those character's performer boxes? The reason (before) why they haven't been added into those character's performer boxes was because all of the minor characters (again, at the time because of the retirement and death of the two great performers) were performed by many different people for only a few small productions. The only reason Vogel was added in Robin the Frog's performer box was because nobody else had performed him for six years after Jerry Nelson retired and Vogel had been performing him for two. Is that confusing? --MuppetHelper 07:25, January 16, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah, there's a pic of Rudman performing Scooter in the new movie, so that seems like a confirmation that he's taking over the role for real. Do we know that Vogel is playing Floyd? -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 23:48, January 17, 2011 (UTC)

Cleaning up delete
Can one (or some or all) of our admins delete what's in the Delete category? There are currently 278 items in there. I may be deleting some more things, and I didn't want it to get even bigger. I know there are a lot, so there's no rush; I just wanted to mention it in case people didn't know about it. Thanks! -- <font color="Blue">Ken (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 02:30, January 14, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah, Ken, if you've noticed the logs lately, I've been deleting a lot (but hardly anyone else is, and more has been added), and when there's this much of a backlog (it was over 300 just a couple days ago), it takes awhile. Right now my own browser is giving me fits (plus I have a writing deadline off-Wiki) but I'm tackling it a little at a time. -- <font color="Blue">Andrew Leal (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 03:40, January 14, 2011 (UTC)


 * Oh, sure, take your time. I wouldn't expect one person to do it all (unless they wanted to)!  Thanks for your help (and good luck with your writing project)! -- <font color="Blue">Ken  (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 06:13, January 14, 2011 (UTC)


 * I actually didn't know about it before, so thanks for pointing it out Ken. I wiped out a bunch today and will do more later if I have time.  -- <font color="Blue">Wendy  (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 18:24, January 14, 2011 (UTC)


 * All cleaned out. Feel free to add your stuff Ken.  -- <font color="Blue">Wendy  (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 20:24, January 15, 2011 (UTC)


 * Thank you! -- <font color="Blue">Ken (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 02:14, January 16, 2011 (UTC)

Layout builder
Introducing the Layout Builder -- Open call for community testers

Worth trying, for something like Sesame Street episodes, or something else highly formatted? I don't know if it's desperately needed for anything. -- Zanimum 03:43, January 13, 2011 (UTC)

To avoid a rumor...
This thread was posted at Muppet Central to avoid a potential rumor. It may be an overeaction, but I'm posting the thread here, to alert us as to avoid posting the rumored info at Muppet Wiki, just in case. --Minor muppetz 03:47, January 5, 2011 (UTC)


 * This is what he's most likely talking about, but I don't think anyone's taking it seriously. — scarecroe 04:20, January 5, 2011 (UTC)


 * Sadly, when stuff like this results, it's the kind of thing that needs to be nipped in the bud. I can't count the number of reversions I've done of people entering fantasy-land, pie-in-the-sky, never-will-happen-in-a-million-years wish list data (such as what makes up most of Idea Wiki) on Wikipedia as if it's fact. And most of it relates to Disney and/or the Muppets. Powers 20:34, January 6, 2011 (UTC)

Happy New Year!
You won't believe what's ahead in 2011! I'm already in the new year over here in Europe, and we have insta-grow mustaches, new old flying DeLoreans, exploding toothpaste, and brand-spankin' new Muppet movies... so come on over, everybody! Don't be shy! Ein frohes, neues Jahr! :) — <font color="Blue">Julian (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 02:06, January 1, 2011 (UTC)