Battlestar Wiki talk:Citation Jihad

Archive 1 (September 29th, 2005 to April 9th, 2006):

Citation Consistency, Request for name change, BSG: The Magazine, Citation Format, Character Ages, Railguns, Twelve Lords of Kobol, Magazine Content, To Do, BSG Books, Sources namespace

Archive 2 (April 19th, 2006 to May 9th, 2006):

Koenigrules / Hollywood North Report, On anonymous sources, The Rumor Vote

Expunge List

Is there any central list of articles that need to be "expunged" per the new source policy? One example I found on Citation Jihad mission list:

The case of "Joyce" Hadrian

I wasn't 100% sure that the "Joyce" bit needed to be pulled, but I thought I'd note it so somebody more confident of the application of the rules might smite it. --Steelviper 12:23, 10 May 2006 (CDT)

It's been listed for months, and nobody's offered a source. We can probably smite it. --Peter Farago 12:32, 10 May 2006 (CDT)

So it sounds like this is more of one of those "shoot on sight" situations rather than the elaborate recon, paint it with a laser, and drop a laser-guided "smart bomb" on it type of operations. So there won't be a "articles with anonymous/unofficial sources" categories or anything, as (hopefully) it would quickly be rendered obsolete? --Steelviper 12:40, 10 May 2006 (CDT)

Well, as you're aware, I like to extend new contributors the benefit of the doubt. So "shoot on sight" isn't quite right - it might still be useful to keep a section of this page for tracking dubious submissions. --Peter Farago 12:45, 10 May 2006 (CDT)

Concur. While I did go through and outright delete the episode pages that contained "info" from unofficial sources, there may be things that slip through here are there. I'm not opposed to having a list kept here, or even at the Quorum for such things. -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate} 12:59, 10 May 2006 (CDT)

SkyOne Bios

In response to the canonicity of the names Evelyn Adama and Dreilide Thrace, Merv wrote on Talk:Arts and Literature of the Twelve Colonies:

I don't know if we should [include them]: A) SkyOne isn't a definative source B) most importantly, This SkyOne information was *taken down*. It no longer exists online. Maybe they took it down....because it was no longer "correct"? I've pointed out in several character bios, notably Galactica-Sharon, that information from SkyOne's old bio stuff has in fact been contradicted several times by new information.

You are right: I was unaware that that was the sole source of William Adama's mother's name (his father's name is engraved on the lighter), but if SkyOne is indeed the sole source of this info I'm going to slap a proposal for deletion on "Evelyn Adama". We really shouldn't use it if it's not from Scifi, and was actually removed. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 18:33, 21 May 2006 (CDT)

A few points:

SkyOne and SciFi were co-equal partners in funding the first season. Any information from SkyOne is going to be just as accurate or innacurate as any information from SciFi, so we shouldn't employ a double standard.
You are correct that SkyOne's bios have been contradicted from time to time, as has some of SciFi's material. Our current policy is to defer to aired information, but to permit the use of other sources where no conflict exists. Do you object to this?
Although some portions have been discredited, other parts of the SkyOne bios have been born out by laters events - particularly, Thrace's father as a musician. It seems likely that the bios originated with information from the series bible, or at least benefited from the input of the writing staff - that is to say, they may not just be corporate fan fiction, but seem to have at least some reference value.

--Peter Farago 18:58, 21 May 2006 (CDT)

Oh I don't think there are corporate fan fiction, I just think it's based on extremely early material which might not even be from the series bible (and even the series bible has been contradicted when new stories required it). We might *note* within the William Adama article that "Mother: Evelyn" (clickable reference number leading to bottom of page)--->source, SkyOne season 1 bio; not necessarily canonical. ---->But my point is, I don't think it justifies an article. And I also don't think Starbuck's father's tentative name should be used a lot, just as a trivia note on the Starbuck article. It's like the Miniseries novelization thing: we got hung up on that name the author made up for her, Natasi, as a matter of convenience, until it came to the point that it was apparent that no one else really called her that. My point being, we use a term of convenience, we just reinforce it. No, I don't think SkyOne's info is entirely accurate, as it was taken down. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 20:21, 21 May 2006 (CDT)

Sky One actually invested a lot of money into the first series of BSG, it even aired in the UK before it did in the US. I dont think you can completely rule out anyhting Sky One says as a source. --Mercifull 03:05, 22 May 2006 (CDT)

I still feel that all of this old SkyOne information, which no longer exists online, should be removed. It's not a matter of "Scifi.com was innacurrate on points just as Skyone was"--->while Scifi.com has a few problems, the SkyOne bios are filled with innacuracies. They don't match many things from the show. A few things were vaguely similar but that's not enough to validate the other information. As I said before: no one has this information anywhere else anymore, we're the only one's keeping it alive and in so doing we're effectively making BattlestarWiki a primary source, contrary to our mission. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 11:05, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

No Shane, you misunderstand: it's not that this is SkyOne or Skiffy, it's that the page was taken down: these articles no longer exist online at SkyOne. When I went to check (months ago) they weren't there, and someone told me there WERE there but were taken down. Far from a "blacklisting", it's information that's no longer extant. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 11:48, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

Just by clarity, wouldn't this be a clear "blacklist" of an official site? --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 11:43, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

As far as I can tell the SkyOne bios are gone from Skyone (I could be wrong.). I think that Merv is only talking about them. In that case, I think that the SkyOne Bios info should be deleted. The only caveat is that the same incorrect info may crop back up in the the future. If the info is somewhere and shown in error, then it may save work in the future having to make corrects. Make the section can be condensed down to just the "errors." Sorry, got to rambling. --FrankieG 11:51, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

What are the old URLs? --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 11:51, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

I don't even know: these articles are nowhere to be found on SkyOne. Someone copied them before they were removed, then posted them here later. By the time it was brought to my attention, the URL's were already gone. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 12:05, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

With that, I'm more for removing these bios, as they are now just as unsourced as the Zoic information on "other" battlestars like Galactica. With the series and its characters sufficiently matured, I find little use for these bios; we know far more about them from aired than unaired data, and this stuff can no longer be verified and sometimes conflicts. --Spencerian 12:10, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

Please refer to our previous discussion at Talk:Laura_Roslin#Source_for_SkyOne.3F, which contains a link to the best original source currently available. --Peter Farago 13:32, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

If that's the best source, let's expunge the information. --CalculatinAvatar^(C-T) 13:45, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

I recall seeing the information at Sky One, but I understand why you think personal testimony is flimsy here. --Peter Farago 15:48, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

This brings up a interesting question. What to do when an official source goes away? --FrankieG 16:25, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

I disagree with storing the information to blacklist it. Anything added without source should go, so it'd be redundant, and, more importantly, it might lead to the deletion of canon material because it was mentioned by a non-canon source before. --CalculatinAvatar^(C-T) 13:45, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

I was just playing devil's advocate that was the only reason I could come up to keep. Is a vote necessary? Seems like the existing policy covers it to me and consensus is clear. --FrankieG 14:56, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

In regards to the above comments, we could always use The Wayback Machine to see if a cached version of the pages in question still exist. -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate} 16:49, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

That's why I was wondering about the URL's --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 17:18, 20 June 2006 (CDT)

About the Jihad Badge

Very nice. What's the arabic text inside the text bubble? Is it "jihad?" Those badges really contribute to the overall look of the wiki, so kudos to those that add/augment them. --Spencerian 11:37, 22 May 2006 (CDT)

Props go to Mercifull. --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 12:18, 22 May 2006 (CDT)

Yeah its the arabic for jihad :P --Mercifull 12:31, 22 May 2006 (CDT)

(grumble) well you all know what I'd say on the subject, but compliments to Mercifull for his efforts/skillz :) --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 12:34, 22 May 2006 (CDT)

Font Size in References List

Shane write:

If you use this method, please make sure the <references/> tag is flanked like so: <div style="font-size:85%"><references/></div>

I believe that this font size can be controlled in the stylesheet, which would be a better choice than encoding the style information on a per-page basis. --Peter Farago 13:06, 3 June 2006 (CDT)

I'm creating it in my CSS sheet for the new style but until then it is not active. class = "ref" --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 13:19, 3 June 2006 (CDT)