Editing notes for the timeline article

ArticleEditing notes

Note: To talk about the article, its style, or these rules, please use the article's talkpage, thanks.

The timeline article is a highly frequented and edited page of this wiki. It has grown big and will grow further as more seasons are released.
Please note the following points when editing this article:

General

Use the source editor

This page should be edited in source editor mode only.
The visual editor tends to mess things up, sometimes removes html-comments (which are used for good reason in this article), or may be messing with some formatting.

Timeline-row template

Starting with April 2024, the timeline article got a new tabular layout.

Timeline entries are now made with the timeline-row template {{tlr}}.

The template is pretty simple, generally, but you should still have a look at its documentation before using it the first time.

Basic syntax: {{tlr|<date>|<text>}}

Keep it short & keep it simple

Keep entries in the timeline as short as possible. Details belong into the corresponding article(s), not into the timeline entry.

This should be a list of dates & events that is easy, clear, and accessible to browse through, with only the most important information for each entry, not another summary of the event(s).

References & citations

Everything should have a citation

Please always refer to the episode (and the timestamp if applicable) and cite external sources. This is especially important for any dates and locations that are mentioned in a blink&miss moment. You can also use links to screenshots if applicable.

Use our reference templates

→ Note the already predefined references for all episodes and bonus videos listed in the next point below!

Whenever possible, our reference templates should be used.

The following templates can be used for referencing:

{{TVref}} - References to episodes

Syntax: <ref>{{TVref|<Sno>|<EPno>|<timestamp or comment>|sh=1}}</ref>

{{BVref}} - References to bonus videos

Syntax: <ref>{{BVref|<year>}}</ref>

This is used for referencing the bonus videos that bridge the seasons. It just needs the video's year as the only parameter.

{{TVref-s}} - Episode references with screenshot

Syntax: <ref>{{TVref-s|<filename>|<filename-2>|<filename-3>}}</ref>

This is an alternative to TVref which can be used if screenshots should be attached (up to 3). The season/episode data is extracted from the filename of the first file. All files must be from the same episode.

Example: {{TVref-s|FAM 203 02.09 357 Bravo.png}} → For All Mankind, 2x03, "Rules of Engagement" → Screenshot

Predefined references

Every episode already has a predefined reference using the {{TVref}} template in the format <ref name=":xxx">{{TVref|<s>|<e>}}</ref>, where xxx is the 3-digit episode code (note the colon before the number for technical reason).

These are located inside the reference section at the bottom of the article.

So for general references to episodes, something like <ref name=":302"/> can be used in the article.

Note: For new episodes, the episode's ref-code in the reference section may have to be uncommented first if it's not used already.

Every bonus video already has a predefined reference using the {{BVref}} template in the format <ref name="s<#>-bonus-<year>">{{BVref|<year>}}</ref>, where # is the season number and <year> is the bonus episode's year.

These are also located inside the reference section at the botom, below the episode references.

For references to bonus videos, something like <ref name="s2-bonus-1980"/> can be used in the article.

Note: Same as for the predefined episode references, the bonus video reference may have to be uncommented when it's first used.

Move reusable references to the reference section

Every other reference that is (or may later be) used more than once should be noted in the reference section at the end of the article, below the predefined episode & bonus video references.

Give them a meaningful name and then use the short format <ref name="xxx"/> in the article.

This helps keeping the page's source code clean.

Notes section

Discrepancies, background infos, or other notes should go into the "Notes" section.

There is a "Notes" section at the end of the article, which is used for references using a "note" group. The "Notes" section is subdivided into notes for each season.

There are predefined group-names to be used in the ref-tags, following this pattern: S#-note

Examples:

<ref group="S1-note" name="foo">lorem ipsum</ref>; <ref group="S4-note" name="bar">lorem ipsum</ref>
Note: Any text longer than just a few words should be noted in that section and then referred to using <ref group="S#-note" name="something"/> in the article, to keep the article's code as clear as possible.

Linking rules

Internal links

Many articles link to the timeline (almost every article, actually). Each year and each decade has a redirect page that leads visitors directly to that year's or decade's section in the article. Therefore, people may jump into any section of the article.

For that reason, the usual wiki rule of only setting links on the first occurrence is not in effect for this article.

Instead, everything should be linked once per section (i.e. year).

Wikipedia links

Links to wikipedia always must use the {{wpl}} template:

`{{wpl\|Apollo program}}`	→	Apollo program
`{{wpl\|Joel Kinnaman\|Joel}}`	→	Joel

General structure

Every decade has a main headingh2 / ==
Every year gets a sub-headingh3 / === (Exception: Early years before the PoD)
No further subheaders are and should be used.
The TOC is set up to only show the main (decade) sections.

Thank you all for contributing to this article!

Oot42 • Hi Bob! • 💬 14:45, 31 October 2023 (UTC) • Last updated: 2025-03-02 12:39 (UTC)