User blog:ElSeiver/Specials

We're going to re-vamp special episodes so that one-shots are more clearly separated from Q&A-type panels, such as con Q & As or debriefing post-campaign.

Feedback needed: what do you think of the proposed new episode codes and names?

Open questions

 * What YouTube videos should count as specials? Should other CelebriD&D videos count as well?
 * Some potential candidates: the Most-linked videos on the wiki (from April 2022) that are not also in the YouTube URL switcher
 * One Q&A special is not linked on CR's channel. Should we have pages for special episodes if they aren't hosted by Geek & Sundry or Critical Role?
 * There are several Talks Machina live episodes in here which should count as TM episodes but they weren't and then Talks Machina celebrated their 100th episode with "Talks Machina #100: Xhorhas" (TM2x51), so changing episode codes would mess that particular one up. Could they get a special code like "TMS" for Talks Machina Special or "TML" for Live?
 * "Critical Role Q&A and Battle Royale!" (Sx08) and "Critical Role Q&A and Battle Royale: Take II" (Sx10) both have Q&A and one-shot content. Can they be in both categories?

One-shots

 * Example episode code: 1Sx01
 * Category: Category:One-shots
 * Page: One-shots
 * CampNum (for Infobox Episode): One-shots

Miscellaneous

 * Example episode code: SSx01 (to avoid collisions with existing SxNN numbers)
 * Category: Category:Bits and bobs episodes
 * Page: Bits and bobs
 * CampNum (for Infobox Episode): Misc

Steps to re-categorizing specials

 * Get consensus on new specials codes and episode names
 * Get consensus on new category names
 * Move episodes to new names, leaving redirects
 * Update CampNum and EpNum in each episode's infobox with the new values
 * Update Module:Ep/Switcher to output the new episode names and episode codes (and accept them as inputs)
 * Category:Specials will get deleted and replaced with Category:One-shots and Category:Bits and bobs episodes (both will appear in Category:Episodes and Category:Shows)
 * Replace every usage of the old specials episode codes on templates, files, and articles with the new ones
 * Have already removed many old codes from Module:Ep/Switcher and replaced them with the standard SxNN codes
 * Make sure every new episode code (e.g. 1Sx01) is a redirect to the episode page (e.g., Critical Trolls for Extra Life)

Other proposed specials maintenance

 * Add CelebriD&D with Joe Manganiello to One-shots and give an episode code for the first time
 * Replace Specials page with One-shots and Bits and bobs pages

Sometimes the page title is Geek & Sundry's original title for the episode but it has since been changed on YT to current YT title.

Resources

 * Proposed new episode names and codes for every existing special
 * New one-shots page
 * New bits and bobs page