User blog:ElSeiver/Talks Machina

Let's clean up Talks Machina pages to be the valuable companion pieces they are to Campaign One and Two episodes. It is vital that all this data be linked together clearly, especially because the Geek & Sundry-era TM episodes are unlisted on YouTube. User:CaptainOfTheTidesBreath‎ and I have been discussing some possibilities and this is an attempt to flesh out those ideas.

Problems
1) The TM episodes are not clearly linked to the episodes they refer to Page title: What campaign episode is Talks Machina Episode 42 referring to? Episode code: What campaign episode is TMx42 referring to? YouTube video title: What wiki page corresponds to the YouTube video entitled 'Vecna, The Ascended | Talks Machina | Campaign 1 Episode 114'? Current wiki search does not turn up the correct episode.

2) Critical Role's episode codes as used in their YouTube video titles do not match our default episode format. We use 1x55 whereas they use C1E55. This is relevant because the titles of those videos do not use episode code formats that would then clearly refer to a specific page, even though we also have redirects from C1E55 as well as 1x55 to the corresponding article.

3) Many TM pages are not fully filled out, and those that are do not necessarily follow a consistent format.

Solutions
1) Create new canonical pagenames for TM
 * Move pages and keep current page names as redirects
 * Rename pages to more closely match YouTube titles following numbering, e.g., Talks Machina 42: Vecna, the Ascended

2) Create new canonical episode codes for TM
 * We can create a new code format that also emphasizes the episode code of the discussed episode, that would be called as for Talks Machina 42 as . And of course, all of the codes numbering episodes of TM like TMx42 will stay as valid redirects and be included in the ep switcher module.
 * The display codes will use the campaign episode code. For example, could display 'Talks Machina 42: Vecna, the Ascended (1x114)' instead of repeating the '42' in the episode code, which is redundant, or displaying the TM code of 'TM1x114'.

For TM episodes that refer to multiple episodes, every campaign episode that is covered in that episode should also be a redirect to that TM episode. So if the YT episode title says 'Up to C2E109' and the one before was referring to 'C2E98', TM2x99, TM2x100, TM2x101, etc should all redirect to the same TM episode page. The canonical code as displayed in Template:Ep can be whatever the last episode is that correspond to that episode.

We may be able to implement something similar for 4-sided dive. We could make it so that 4SDC3x1 – 4SDC3x18 all redirect to the first episode of 4-sided dive.

3) Create a standard Talks Machina page format I have the ability to scrape YT comments for time codes and questions which for the mostly-blank articles should ease in their fleshing out. I'm also personally going through the VM campaign right now and I can incorporate TM watching and page editing into my process once I hit those episodes. I am better at implementing formats than designing them in the first place so I'd rather not take the lead on this one.
 * Include question, asker, time code of question as footnote, and answer as primary backbone of Q&A section
 * Can divide up sections with the existing interludes like Fan Art & Cosplay of the Week
 * Can use 4-Sided Dive current page format as inspiration

4) Scrap next and previous airdates for a field of a "related episode"
 * Make a new template so that it says the TM episode for the campaign episode and vice versa

5) I can create a table comparing current page title, current YouTube title, current episode code, proposed new episode code, and proposed new page title. As always, there are edge cases and exceptions to consider and manually work through. Not every TM episode corresponds to the latest episode, like Talks Machina Episode 95 whose video is subtitled "Discussing Campaign 2 So Far".

Additionally, is it a problem that there are Talks Machina episodes categorized as specials and not as Talks Machina, like Talks Machina: Campaign Wrap-up? I recognize that some of these took place before Episode 100 which is currently and we probably wouldn't want to undo that symmetry.