This document is not current, and is kept only for archival purposes. Please refer to Everything2 Help for all up-do-date help documents.
TOPICS:
- Q: What is an episode guide?
- Q: How shall I determine whether an episode guide is needed?
- Q: What are the naming conventions for episode guides?
- Q: Are episode guide metanodes okay?
- Q: Are cut-and-paste episode guides okay?
- Q: How should spoilers be handled?
- Q: How long should an episode guide be?
- Q: Are there any good examples of episode guides on E2?
Q: An episode guide? What's that?
A: An episode guide is a summary designed to provide information about each individual episode of a television series. It usually includes the title of the episode, the names of the director and writers, the air date, guest stars, a plot summary, sample quotes, and other interesting trivia. An episode guide can also be used to node things like movie serials and comic books.
Q: Hey, that sounds nifty! I can finally node my vast, encyclopedic knowledge of "The Golden Girls"!
A: Well, first, do some research on E2 and make sure no one else has created a Golden Girls episode guide. Make sure you look around for several different possible titles, both namespaced and non-namespaced. There's no reason to create two completely separate episode guides for the same series or for you to waste time duplicating someone else's work.
Q: Okay, I'll start with "The Golden Girls: The Pilot Episode"--or "The Golden Girls: Episode #GG0001A" or--hey, what exactly should I name these things?!?
A: That's a very good question. For the most part, you should title your nodes according to how the episodes are best known by the general public. If they're known by the episode title, call 'em that. Unless they are very well known by a number (like comic books), it's probably best if you avoid titling them numerically. While E2 normally frowns upon namespacing your nodes, we feel that this is one of the very few exceptions to that rule, since it reduces confusion for the casual surfers. For example, instead of wondering what on earth "The One with DVDA" is supposed to mean, "Friends: The One with DVDA" at least makes it clear that it's supposed to be an episode of "Friends".
Q: Is it okay if I create a metanode for my episode guide?
A: Absolutely. For a shorter series, please use the regular node for the program, like "The Prisoner". If you have an extremely long series, make a separate node, called something like "The Waltons Episode Guide", and make sure your episode guide is prominently softlinked to the node for "The Waltons".
Q: I've found an episode guide on the Internet that I'd like to use. Is that okay?
A: No way. The rules against cutting and pasting apply for episode guides, too. If you cut-and-paste someone else's episode guide, it will get deleted with penalty. Create it yourself, or don't waste our time.
Q: Hey, should I give away any of the secrets or surprises from the show? I don't want to give away the surprises, but I also want the guide to be as complete as possible...
A: It's okay to include spoilers in your episode guide, as long as you include a very prominent, very large Spoiler Warning at the top of your writeup. That way, if anyone doesn't want the surprises spoiled for them, they will know right away not to read the writeup.
Q: Are there any requirements about how long an episode guide should be?
A: Not really. Just make it long enough to be useful and interesting. Just make sure you're in this for the long haul--you need to plan on noding every episode for the guide. There's nothing more irritating than discovering that the episode guide creator got bored after noding Season Two and just quit. Dude, that is so weak.
Q: Any good examples out there for me to check out?
A: Try Queequeg's episode guide for The X-Files and the JLA Issue Guide. Both have most, if not all, of the recommended elements.
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