User:Xanderox

Hey everybody! My name is Scott, and I'm a big fan of the SGU and an aspiring transcriptionist. I love being able to help get this project ramped up again! I'm also slowly and intermittently upgrading my regular Wikipedia skills. Here's my userpage over there.

To Do List

• help upload episode icons now that I'm an admin!!
  • add caption field to infobox template to allow captions under episode icons
• update generic formatting for comments like (laughter) (laughs) and [inaudible] (no capitalizations here)
• select all, copy, paste, find, and replace all [X]: with [X]: to bold all the Rogues' initials in the transcripts, as I have done in my first transcript, SGU Episode 762.
• use Template:voice-over to italicize all the It's time for "Science or Fiction" voice-overs in previous episodes/skeletons
• create "new noisy" subsections in all the WTN sections
• Update the QoW collection table, SGU reading list, Favorite Rogues Quotes, University entries, etc.
• merge into or create "Signoff/Announcements" sections or just delete "Announcements" sections if it's just the voice-over Outro
• add wikitionary links to the What's the Word? segments for definitions if it's not good for a wiki link
• add references next to the external links
• add vocab lists to other episodes like the list in Episode 581
• figure out how to move the entries for whole episodes to the end of category topics' lists so that segment redirects can be visible first
  • actually I just need to start removing generic category tags once I create redirects; eventually it would be good to have ALL the category lists be only redirects, with no links to full episodes but only to the relevant segments
• insert my new Episode skeleton into all the to-be-created episode pages, including the QoW, News Items, SoF Items, and links
  • update the 2020 and 2019 skeletons with the "Episode" message template
• eventually apply my newer skeleton to the older episodes (644 and earlier), ahead of getting to finishing those transcriptions
• use Template:Tooltip to put a hover note over names dear to the Rogues, like their children and spouses
  • Example: Julia
    Steve's daughter
• update colors/borders of Template:MessageBox
• create a template called "900s" where 900s|### auto generates individual date, month, and year data so it can be called by the Episode, InfoBox, and DownloadLink templates; repeat if necessary for episodes #652-742 ("600s" and "700s")

Useful links

https://web.archive.org/web/20110515184137/http://www.theskepticsguide.org/sgublog/
https://web.archive.org/web/20171121215018/http://theness.com/roguesgallery/
https://www.toddstrong.com/comedywriting/exaggeration.php a solid reference for the "How ___ is it" chuckle

Handy tips/formatting things to do

<small><span style="color:grey">(Transcriptionist’s note: ... ...)</span></small>

Use this markup format to add a small note directly into a portion of the transcript; this is different than appending a note to the end of the transcript.

As an example: (Transcriptionist’s note: July 6 was 14 weeks after March 27!) This note is in the Introduction section of SGU Episode 887.

Done List

• added "SoF with a theme" and "What's the Word?" cat. table entries into the SGU Features area of the Browse by category page
  • also mention other cat. table entries
• made an icon for the episode skeleton: "SAMPLE" superimposed on ep1 icon
• created a template called "800s" where 800s|NNN auto generates individual date, month, and year data so it can be called by the Episode, InfoBox, and DownloadLink templates; repeat if desired for episodes #652-742 ("600s" and "700s")
• create a sortable table for the SGU episode list: sort by episode number, year, status, maybe even by sof theme/interview/live recording...

Questions/Issues to consider

• Should Wikilinks be included in the list of SoF items, or only include them in the transcription?

Templates I have made/like to use

Quick Text/Formatting

SBM

• A quick-text template for the publication, "Science-Based Medicine": Template:sbm

  {{sbm}}

SOFResults

• A template for showing a colorful breakdown of the Science or Fiction results, based on a suggestion from user BShirley:

{{SOFResults}}

Template:SOFResults is a formatted entry for SoF colored results at the end of each SoF segment.

Episode Messageboxes

{{Episode|MM|DD|YYYY}}

Template:Episode is the green message box that generates the “Latest Episode”, “Recent Episode” or “Old Episode” message, depending on if the broadcast date is within one week/one year of the current date or not.

Infobox Shortcuts

• I also created shortcuts for typing in the number date, written month, and download link in the episode infobox:

{{date|##}}

Template:Date inserts the appropriate two-letter superscript text for the ordinal abbreviation of the date of the month.

{{month|MM}}

Template:Month inserts the appropriate month name text for the numerical abbreviation of the month.

{{DownloadLink|YYYY-MM-DD}}

Template:DownloadLink inserts the appropriate broadcast date into the link for the podcast episode.

10tothe

Template:10tothe inserts the appropriate superscripted number for the power of ten that is said. It makes it a little bit faster as a quick text than typing 10^number

{{10tothe|number}}

WTN

• I created two templates for streamlining links to past and future WTN segments. I'll add some examples soon.

Template:WtnHiddenAnswer inserts into a box a link to the New Noisy segment of the most recent-to-the-episode WTN, with the answer initially collapsed.

Template:WtnAnswer inserts a link to the WTN segment of the future episode that has the answer.

Quotes and cultural references

42

{{42}}

Template:42 creates an in-line link to the Wikipedia subsection about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference to the answer 42. Useful for when you don't feel like typing out/copy-and-pasting the long link.

"Mostly Dead"

{{mostly dead}}

{{mostly}}

Template:Mostly dead and Template:Mostly create an in-line link to the "mostly dead" Wikiquote from the film The Princess Bride. Useful for when you don't feel like typing out the whole wikiquote link.

"Guidelines"

{{guidelines}}

Template:Guidelines creates an in-line link to the "guidelines" Wikiquote from the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Useful for when you don't feel like typing out the whole wikiquote link.

MahnaMahna

{{Phenomen|}}

Template:Phenomen creates an in-line link to the to the Muppets song, "Mahna Mahna". Useful for when you don't feel like typing out the whole link when a Rogue jokingly says "phenomenon/phenomena". Add an 'a', 'A', 'on', or 'On' after the pipe in {{Phenomen|}} to generate (sing-song) phenomena!, (sing-song) Phenomena!, (sing-song) phenomenon!, or (sing-song) Phenomenon!, respectively.

Sand

{{sand}}

Template:Sand creates an in-line link to an article defending the cringe-worthy flirting of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, with particular attention to his monologue that begins with "I don't like sand." (← This is the article, via the template, seen in the markup.)

In each of these references above you can see in the markup to this page that I used the templates. Clicking the link to these templates will show you just how long the markup text being called is!

Sandboxing

I apologize for messing around in the main wiki with some of my recent projects. I'll try to work on them here first!