MediaWiki talk:Community Portal

This is the place for discussion of topics that affect the entire wiki. Some topics that would ordinarily be here have merited their own pages:

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Voice Actors listed on separate episodes

Why don't we have voice actors listed on separate episodes? Also does anyone know if Transformers: Portal came out yet? west james/notirishman (talk) 13:59, 7 November 2017 (EST)

I don't think there's been a specific discussion, but since it's rare for characters to have different voice actors in different episodes, it would cause a lot of clutter for not a lot of gain. If someone wants to see who voiced a particular character, they can generally just go to the character's page. --abates (talk) 15:57, 7 November 2017 (EST)

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Portal Rudimentary since there is next to no coverage in English. --Thylacine 2000 (talk) 17:55, 7 November 2017 (EST)

Yeah, that's true. And regarding Transformers: Portal, they did actually start making episodes. west james/notirishman (talk) 19:06, 7 November 2017 (EST)

Vote on "other versions of character" sections

So the "example versions" of these sections has been up for a while now with nothing being done about them, so we should probably decide one way or the other whether we're using them. I definitely feel very strongly that these sections at the bottoms of articles would be very positive for accessibility and people being able to quickly find other versions of the character that they've been reading about — after all, there's no real difference between Demolishor, Demolishor, and Demolisher, and they are inarguably the same "character" in a way that Demolishor (ROTF) isn't. There's three options for what we can do:

• Jalaguy's galleries
• My "see also" bullet-lists
• Keep things as they are and just have users rely on the disambiguation pages

I vote for the bullet lists, since they're unobtrusive and can still be used when a character has no images available. This Allspark post by M Sipher sums up my feelings pretty well. Anyone else? --Riptide (talk) 14:39, 8 November 2017 (EST)

I vote keep things as is. While the current system isn't perfect, I think this sort of disambiguation is best left to the...disambiguation pages. It is why they exist. Having a separate section for a DIFFERENT form of disambiguation at the bottom of the article opposing the regular disambiguation links at the top makes no sense to me. I think a better option would be to improve the "new user utility" of the existing disambig pages. --Xaaron (talk) 15:38, 8 November 2017 (EST)

I say keep things the way it is. For the same reason Xaaron stated above. I think those "Other versions" sections should only be for characters with different spellings. west james/notirishman (talk) 15:49, 8 November 2017 (EST)

I'd prefer to keep things as they are. If we have to go with one of those two though I prefer the bullet-lists for being less obtrusive. Omegatron (talk) 15:53, 8 November 2017 (EST)

I think I would like the bullet list version if it was slightly more eyecatching, like in a template box of some sort:

as a rough example. --abates (talk) 15:59, 8 November 2017 (EST)

Ooh, ooh, yes, I like this. It fixes the one reservation I had with the bullet list, which was eye-catching-ness.

And I maintain that disambiguation pages really don't severe the purpose that this proposal was originally intended for - helping the uninformed user find about other-continuity versions of the character they've just read about. The link to a disambiguation is very easily glossed over (who can honestly say that they read through every header note and template before beginning the intro paragraph?), and they're set up entirely for their primary purpose, which is getting you from the search box to the right article. If you want to find alt-universe versions of a character, you'd have to manually dig through the list to see which are actually the same guy and which are different guys with the same name. You could rework disambig pages, but that'd make them worse at their primary job. An end-of-article list of alt versions of the specific character hurts nobody and helps the uniformed reader sort through the morass to other content they'll be interested in. The way I see it, there's no downside. Jalaguy (talk) 16:37, 8 November 2017 (EST)

I'd also like to quickly add that I solicited feedback on the proposal from TFWiki Tumblr followers a while back (on the basis that they're reasonably likely to be in the "got-into-TFs-relatively-recently" demographic that this is intended to help), and got plenty of "yeah, this would be helpful for me" feedback. The proposal will help people, and I don't see what harm it could possibly do, so...? Jalaguy (talk) 16:55, 8 November 2017 (EST)

Ooh. Yesyesyes to this. --Riptide (talk) 19:39, 8 November 2017 (EST)

I like the idea of a shortcut it will save a little time. But it also may reduce traffic, because people won't look at other interesting pages in the disambiguation. The gallery is a little cluttered. In any case, I also made made my own version:

—The Liege Decado (talk) 16:26, 8 November 2017 (EST)

I dig this one with the double Dinobots; we only need one, and the image is very immediately clear at that small size (well we could probably crop it tighter and brighten it a bit but still). I ABSOLUTELY think we should have this given the name-reassigning/changing that this franchise is nostrils-deep in that makes Disambig pages not terribly ideal for finding these kind of doppelgangers. --M Sipher (talk) 20:00, 8 November 2017 (EST)

I like this idea of using a template. I've made my own that could be used for bigger charcters, while LiegeDecado's can be used for smaller characters. Just an idea though.

west james/notirishman (talk) 17:22, 8 November 2017 (EST)

Personally, I think that if we do this bullet point image, we should use the Crisis on Infinite Hot Rods image from RG1, as it probably best illustrates the concept we're dealing with here (maybe crop it a little bigger or something). It probably wouldn't hurt to link to the disambiguation at the bottom, either, something like this....

I strongly prefer the look of the gallery version. It's a perfect visual cap-off at the bottom of the page, it's attention-getting in a way that neither looks like clutter nor will be overwhelmed by large Notes sections, and it gives you a visual to compare all these different versions, which is information in itself. The bullet template strikes me as very strange, showing unrelated character X alongside a list of versions of character Y. The images convey the information much more strikingly. -- Repowers (talk) 01:45, 9 November 2017 (EST)

Maybe we can do both?

—The Liege Decado (talk) 10:29, 9 November 2017 (EST)

If we did it as a gallery in a template like this, the picture of the Rodimuses is unnecessary and it'd look much better without it. --abates (talk) 14:47, 9 November 2017 (EST)

I still don't see the value doing these things in addition to the disambig pages, instead of improving the disambig pages to better convey the same information. Having both doesn't feel "new reader friendly". Having two different types of disambig for a character, in two different locations, makes it MORE likely a new reader will spot one and not the other, or not understand the difference between the two disambigs without greater study...which just isn't a good set-up to help them find info quickly and easily. Why can't the disambig page just be renovated to list:

--> Here's Slag (G1)

-- --> Here's the characters based on Slag (regardless of name)

--> Here's the other uses of Slag unrelated to Slag (G1)

And as a matter of aesthetics, I think using the same basic template for this that we use for when people screw up or something is missing is a bad idea too. When I see boxes like that on a page, I automatically think "stub" article, and my instinct is to do something to remove them. --Xaaron (talk) 10:55, 9 November 2017 (EST)

The problem with that approach is that it risks making the disambigs worse at their main job. If you are looking for Slag the rando nameslap guy, that's just made it a whole lot harder on the person. And since disambigs are geared around names, not characters, you'd end up with weird situations - under your approach, Hot Rod (disambiguation) and Rodimus (disambiguation) would basically end up being the same page twice. Disambigs are primarily a functional tool, they exist to act as a signpost to get people from point A to B. I would wager that almost nobody is clicking through to disambig pages from character pages, because that's not really what they're for, and they call no attention to themselves, an easily glossed-over link at the very top of the article. The point of this proposal is to facilitate wiki-walking and exploration, to be a "you might also be interested in" section. We could change disambigs to lean more in that direction, but that's gonna make disambigs poorer signposts. I just don't see what there is to lose here. Disambigs will still exist as the same name directories they always have. The person who, for some reason, is searching for Classics Mini-Con Thunderwing will still get there. But the person who just read about G1 Thunderwing and wonders if they've been in other continuities doesn't have to manually click through a list every Thunderwing to find out which ones are nameslaps and which ones aren't.

I do agree that the template approach could do with a newer design to differentiate it from needs work templates though, that's a really good point. Jalaguy (talk) 12:16, 9 November 2017 (EST)

I see disambiguations most often when I'm searching for a character, and I usually end up clicking on a lot of links. But that's on purpose, an helps me explore. These menus would be a nice shortcut—it's sort of like narrowing down the dismbiguation to a similar set of characters. the disambigs are great, the template would just be adding on. Also, it may look like less of an error box if it has a white background. —The Liege Decado (talk) 13:49, 9 November 2017 (EST)

The more images added to this thing, the uglier and clunkier it looks. -LV (talk) 13:58, 9 November 2017 (EST)

Agreed. I think we should use the Rodimus one Repowers created. You know, the one with just text. It would take up less space, be less intrusive but create a shortcut for users trying to look for another version. west james/notirishman (talk) 15:29, 9 November 2017 (EST)

I like that version as well, though with some formatting to ensure that a longer list doesn't wrap around the image (since that looks really ugly). -- Dark T Zeratul (talk) 17:20, 9 November 2017 (EST)

Also, not everyone who'd get one of these yet HAS an image, or one good enough to use. Aligned Wreck-Gar, for example. --M Sipher (talk) 20:19, 10 November 2017 (EST)

I made a sandbox with a template, go ahead and edit it. —The Liege Decado (talk) 17:27, 10 November 2017 (EST)

Rename User

I was thinking about activating this extension since every so often it comes up that someone wants to change their username but can't. Does anyone have any objections? I'll ask in the thread on the AllSpark too, as soon as I can get the AllSpark to actually load (is it broken for anyone else?) --abates (talk) 23:52, 2 December 2017 (EST)

It’s been broken for me almost all day (Also, been wanting change my name for a while) Jcbynum1 (talk) 00:20, 3 December 2017 (EST)

I'd be all for it; been trying to consolidate my usernames across most fandom-based platforms for a while now. I can't see the harm, especially if it's admin-initiated. Doc Chloroplast (talk) 11:03, 5 December 2017 (EST)

Just to clarify in case there's any confusion: the RenameUser extension won't allow users to rename themselves directly - rather they'll need to ask an admin to rename them. --abates (talk) 22:23, 4 December 2017 (EST)

No reason not to allow this, is there? S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 47 (talk) 12:52, 7 December 2017 (EST)

I say go for it. -west james/notirishman (talk) 17:22, 7 December 2017 (EST)

I've just renamed Notirishman to test it and it looks like it worked perfectly, so thumbs up! --abates (talk) 04:14, 8 December 2017 (EST)

Allspark Forums down

PSA to all interested: Alas, the Allspark's server is currently down and our server company doesn't do standard maintenance on weekends. You can try this temporary site in the interim and check back on Monday to see if the site is back up. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 47 (talk) 00:35, 3 December 2017 (EST)

Is this the holy grail for Famicom How to Manga: Transformers Mystery of Convoy?

I have found this on TF RAW page:

Famicom How to Manga: Transformers Mystery of Convoy at TF RAW

Is this one of the items in the holy grail section?

EDDIE-X (talk) 20:29, 28 December 2017 (EST)

Samoa Joe

Hi! I'd like to start a page for Samoa Joe (Nuufolau Joel Seanoa, voice of Power of the Primes Predaking), but I don't have clearance to do so. How can I get this clearance?

--TomServo88 (talk) 16:21, 9 January 2018 (EST)

Not necessary; someone beat you to it. -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 16:28, 9 January 2018 (EST)

Pete's Robot Convention 2018

Should we consider customization class POTP Shattered Glass Swoop or Double Pretender Gears as official figures or not since Pete's Robot Convention isn't endorsed by HasTak? They are using HasTak and Funpub molds (whom the latter lost the license) so I am not so sure. So should we list them under toys or in the notes like Action Master G2 Breakdown? -west james/notirishman (talk) 17:26, 13 January 2018 (EST)

Those are no different from any other unofficial fan customs repainted from official molds that we don't cover here. --Sabrblade (talk) 08:24, 14 January 2018 (EST)

Downtime

Our web host has to do some maintenance to mitigate the recently discovered CPU vulnerabilities. The Wiki will therefore unavoidably be unavailable for a period of time at 2am and 7am UTC on the 15th. --abates (talk) 04:45, 14 January 2018 (EST)

Merging the Alpha Trion pages (or: "Grandpa Convergence")

Considering that the Hasbro position going forwards seems to be using "member of the Thirteen" as Alpha Trion's primary role, I propose that we apply the same standards to him as we do our other Thirteen articles and merge the various versions into a single page. Considering that we've already had a pre-Aligned source that claims that all Alpha Trions are basically the same, I think it's a good idea to bend our rules and consider them the same sort of "general archetype" as the Fallen, Prima, et al.

The two main issues I expect:

• "He has a Shattered Glass version, so it'd be silly to have him one one page!" - So does Unicron. I figure we'd apply the same standards.
• "He was never a multiversal singularity!" - Neither were Amalgamous, Quintus or Alchemist, and we still combine their Aligned and IDW incarnations.

I'd also like to note that, as it stands, the Alpha Trion who is most notable for being one of the Thirteen doesn't get to have the Alpha Trion Prime Master on his page. Thoughts? --Riptide (talk) 15:26, 17 January 2018 (EST)

If we need to have consistency, I think it's simpler to just apply our standard organization to the rest of the Thirteen and the gods instead of forcing G1 A3 into a format that basically ignores 30 years of his history. Optimus Prime is basically the same guy across families and sometimes one of the Thirteen, but we're not merging them all. Saix (talk) 17:56, 17 January 2018 (EST)

Optimus's sitch is different in that he doesn't seem to be part of The Official List Of Thirteen, which is twelve dudes plus whatever a given piece of fiction wants the super special Thirteenth Prime to be. I don't think it'd be ignoring his history; the opening paragraph doesn't even have to mention his Thirteeniness, it can just say that he's one of the oldest living Cybertronians. --Riptide (talk) 18:46, 17 January 2018 (EST)

Create a list of 3rd party products.

There are a lot of third party products that are better than the official products such as Alien Attack Dino or Unique toys Peru Kill Lockdown, but we don't have a list of those.If you go to Dino page in the section of toys you only find the official ones (Hasbro and Takara) but why don't we put also Alien Attack Dino. It´s just a suggestion and this will help to expand the wiki. Crosshairs (talk) 17:00, 17 January 2018 (EST)Crosshairs

TFWiki is a wiki about official Transformers products and media, and 'third party' toys aren't official. We have an article to cover the phenomenon, as we do many other TF-related fandom concepts like fan fiction or toy swapping, but TFWiki will never, ever document 'third party' toys in the way we do official ones. Jalaguy (talk) 17:01, 17 January 2018 (EST)

In fact, we have TWO articles examining the phenomenon at a broader level, but this wiki's focus always has been and always will be on official material. If you really want to look for examples, there's plenty of links on the Knockoff page. -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 17:15, 17 January 2018 (EST)

Optimus vs. Malignus cardart

I previously posted this in the holy grails talk page, but since not many people are going to check that out, I'm reposting it here. Anyways, is this what you're looking for? I found it in a TFW2005 thread about rare Transformers. If any of you have found it already, then sorry... ShootingStar7X (talk) 08:31, 23 January 2018 (EST)

Unfortunately, it's the original art that's needed - the cards themselves are too low-quality. --Riptide (talk) 11:26, 23 January 2018 (EST)

I'd still say that this is a worthwhile image to have. --Khajidha (talk) 12:25, 23 January 2018 (EST)

Sometimes a low quality image is better than nothing at all! --DrSpengler (talk) 12:36, 23 January 2018 (EST)

As for the source of the image, here it is. Unfortunately, due to Photobucket now forcing its users to pay $399 yearly for third-party hosting, the image doesn't show up anymore. However, by viewing the source code using Internet Explorer, I managed to find the URL of the image. Although the image didn't display if I tried to view it on my PC, it managed to show up when I inputted the URL into my phone's browser! ShootingStar7X (talk) 13:42, 24 January 2018 (EST)

POTP artwork

In my personal opinion, the artwork used for the Power of the Primes packaging is absolutely stunning How would you guys like it if some of them became the header images on their respective character pages? Personally, I think yes, but I would like your thoughts on it. If you agree, tell me which ones do you think should get the treatment. -west james/notirishman (talk) 16:59, 19 February 2018 (EST)

I think it's tricky because the PotP artwork, while really nice, is always a representation of that specific toy. In my opinion, a good mainpic should be a clear representation of the character that isn't tied to a particular toy or incarnation. That said, I think all five Terrorcons' mainpics would be better as the PotP images (especially Rippersnapper - why is his mainpic just his alt-mode?) and Windcharger and Tailgate's too (as his IDW incarnation has entirely overshadowed his Marvel G1 version, methinks). The Wadapan (talk) 04:31, 20 February 2018 (EST)

I agree with the whole clear representaion part of being a good mainpic. And for the Terrorcons, their art have all of them (except good ol' Rippy) only in their beast mode, so that doesn't work if you show discontent of having their at mode as their main pic (which could work cuz they are unique to the character). And how about Dreadwind, Darkwing, Firestar, and Moonracer? Their main pics seem too G1-esque in my opinion. -west james/notirishman (talk) 09:44, 20 February 2018 (EST)

"Characters often have multiple bodies, so the main image should generally be their original "real world" form, and as full-body as possible. " --Khajidha (talk) 09:50, 20 February 2018 (EST)

POTP art shows the full-body. -west james/notirishman (talk) 10:02, 20 February 2018 (EST)

But it is not of their original forms. Except for Slash. --Khajidha (talk) 10:08, 20 February 2018 (EST)

Oh. Whoops. Didn't actually re-check the PotP artwork, so if it doesn't fix the alt-mode-only problem then there's no point. On a related note, I'm going to work on cropping proper-resolution Marvel profile artwork from Classics Vol. 8 to replace the fuzzy-looking ones we already have on here in the meantime. Do we have access to clean versions of the Legends game / collector card style artwork? Seems like another thing to look into. But yes, the Powermaster/Elita 1 etc mainpics that we have are the clearest representations of their designs I've seen. Just need better resolution, maybe.The Wadapan (talk) 10:36, 20 February 2018 (EST)

Really? Dreadwind and Darkwing just have G1 boxart... that looks exactly like the G1 toy. Blocky and all. Moonracer and Firestar just have their G1 cartoon models. That doesn't really scream "a clear representation of the character that isn't tied to a particular toy or incarnation". -west james/notirishman (talk) 11:19, 20 February 2018 (EST)

Doesn't matter because those aren't the guidelines. Those are Wadapan's opinions on what the guidelines should be. What I posted was taken directly from our Help:Example character article.--Khajidha (talk) 11:26, 20 February 2018 (EST)

With permission to change Dreadwind, Darkwing, Moonracer, Firestar, Tailgate, and/or Windcharger? -west james/notirishman (talk) 11:46, 20 February 2018 (EST)

Considering that 1) there's only the three of us discussing this and 2) such replacement is against the guideline I quoted, the answer is no. --Khajidha (talk) 11:58, 20 February 2018 (EST)

How is it against the guidelines? -west james/notirishman (talk) 12:05, 20 February 2018 (EST)

Because that artwork is based on the new toys and not on the character's actual first design.--Khajidha (talk) 12:34, 20 February 2018 (EST)

My bad, didn't realise we had such specific guidelines. Sorry to co-opt this thread, but I've uploaded the Classics version of Afterburner's TFU profile art as an example for how the others would change. They all seem fuzzy and washed-out to me at the minute. My questions are:

• Do we want to include the vehicle mode? It's been done previously on some pages, but not on others.
• Do people actually prefer how the newer version looks?

--The Wadapan (talk) 14:14, 20 February 2018 (EST)

Understood Khajida. I also didn't know we had such specific guidelines. -west james/notirishman (talk) 14:47, 20 February 2018 (EST)

Wadapan, the newer version definitely looks better, as for if we need vehicle mode, I'd say its not necessary, but I could be wrong. -west james/notirishman (talk) 14:50, 20 February 2018 (EST)

Listing the Thirteen

So, this is related to my Alpha Trion suggestion above, but I figured it's big enough to warrant its own section. In short: the way we present the members of the Thirteen right now is kind of a mess. It gives the impression that the "Multiversal Thirteen" list is the "true" version and that Aligned and IDW are weird aberrations, rather than the CoP list being the "official Hasbro-approved Thirteen" and the AVP list being a bunch of names created in the knowledge that the concept was soon going to be disposed of altogether - and while that's technically the correct way to do things under the "everything is canon" principle, it's kind of unintuitive and difficult, so I think we should apply the "but some canon is more equal than others" policy. Similarly, it acts like the IDW Thirteen are different to the Aligned Thirteen, when they have the same lineup; certainly, they're less different than the IDW Pretenders to the Marvel Pretenders.

As such, I've created a mock-up of a new version of the "Members" section of the Thirteen's page. My core intent was:

• Making clear that the Covenant Thirteen were the "official Thirteen" being used by Hasbro;
• Establishing that the Thirteenth Prime varies within uses of the Covenant Thirteen, but is always "special";
• Explaining that the true identities of the Multiversal Thirteen were ambiguous;
• Removing the redundant IDW list, which would be better served just explaining how the IDW Primes differ from the Covenant in the IDW fiction section.
• Not removing any information that isn't covered elsewhere on the page.

Now, if we were to use this as the Alpha Trion pages are now, we would have to say that the "core" Thirteen contain either Alpha Trion or Alpha Trion, which is patently ridiculous... so I also created a sandbox for an overview page for Alpha Trion, which - in the name of length - would link out to separate Generation 1 and Shattered Glass sub-pages as the Unicron page does. (I'd like to point out that Ask Vector Prime did establish that, for a short time, Alpha Trion was a multiversal singularity.)

Thoughts? Feedback? Whether my proposal is used or not, I do feel very strongly that the current Thirteen page is sub-optimal, and so I'd like to hear other proposals as how to improve it. --Riptide (talk) 19:26, 20 March 2018 (EDT)

From what I'm seeing so far of what you have done, I think that this will be better than the current setup, as the TFWiki is to inform, and tghis helps readers ease into the subject matter. While, I have nothing to add on, I can say this is a good idea with good execution. On another note, on your new Alpha Trion page is also good in my book. And one question, will we change the Template:Thirteen along with this? I presume 'yes', correct, because I see no reason why not? --westjames/notirishman (talk) 20:41, 20 March 2018 (EDT)

Transformers Telephone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLnGA-s3LR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWh_ZXmFyng http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm5080655

I think I've found 3 of them: Convoy, Hound and Starscream. From what understood from these videos, they're introducing themselves. I hope this is useful