Talk:Main Page
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Usage: main discussion page for Herocopia. Please periodically remove older discussions when possible, moving resolved issues to the FAQ.
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Unresolved Issues
Usage: discussion of pending issues. Suggestions Welcome!
- Editing Timeline Issues
Kurt mentions in the one of the letter's pages somewhere that current issue is real time for "present day" story lines. I built and Kurt has a copy of my apperances database (which is in desperate need of updating, and once I get more firmly moved into my new home, I will get to work on that). But I built the dates for current story events based on that.
I'll be glad to send both of you a copy of the quick and dirty html file that I currently generate from that. Head to Bruiser's and send me a PM with email info if you want a copy. It still hasn't gotten past volume two. Sorry! *frowns and kicks himself so JG doesn't have to do it*
My plan is to use the database as a feeder for some nicely formatted appearances lists here. But given how slow I have been to get to that project (more programming, and I do that all day for a living), don't let it stop you from doing whatever you want to do for the appearances.
jb the ib
But the Confession arc took place in the summer of the 1997. The book came out(well cover dated, I know there were some delays ) Dec 96 to Apr 97. And off hand I can't tell you if there were any concrete datings during those issues, but it could have been summer of 96 or 97. It was Junkman's story that put it concretely in 1997.
Overall unless there is something later contradictory, its right.
Astrozac
OK, more details... 'cause early one (gads way back in 2004 now!), when I decided to do a very detailed anotating of Astro City, I hit a brick wall. Unlike early Marvel silver age comics, Astro City conituity didn't unroll sequentially. It was based heavily on the initial notions of time being real, but it had flashbacks, tons of back history to reveal, lots of backstory, and multiple events.
So to organize this I designed an Astro City database loaded with tables. The character info table, and the issue info table were easy, but for the appearance list, more info was needed that just link a character to an issue and calling that an appearance.
So I added another table, and instead of using an issue as the granularity, I focused on definable events occurring within the stories. Containing fields like event-title, event-date, event-type and event-details, that table and the linkage fields within became the crux for constructing an very detailed timeline for Astro City.
For story arcs and/or the main flow of material within a given issue, I tried to find any mention I could of dates (and for most of the Confessor I did), and link the events accordingly. For the most, things worked pretty well, and a specific date was attainable. I adjust for publishing delays (don't remember Confessor having any - but Steeljack's opus did and I compensated for it as best I could), and aligned to release date of the comic where it made sense.
I don't remember the specifics of a particular issue or arc, but at the time of annotation I linked it whenever I could. But I would love to have others review, collaborate or correct. Based on this discussion I may add a level of confidence field so we don't keep revisited the same material, and to give others a notion where to challenge my "guesses/" Once I push to get that information instantiated here in Herocopia, we can use the discussion sections to document and note places where there is doubt or confusion.
A couple things I do remember, for the very first Astro City Comic, I gave the overall story a event-entry, and it was dated to the release-date of the comic whenever that was (August 95?). Within that story there were all kinds of events, most set in the past, but one set in a future that will never happen. I did something clever to tag that so it would sort properly for Samaritan's time line, since for him, that event happens before all the other stuff in the story, even though it happens in the future, hasn't happened yet, and now won't happen.
The mainline action Confessor Arc transpired over several months, but again without looking at my "notes" I don't remember the exact particulars.
Thank the gods that computers became commodities or I wouldn't even begin to attempt to do all that.
jb the ib
What is the approved way to edit the Timelines, so that changes can be propagated back into the underlying database? (So far, I'm just calling out each change very explicitly in the subject field when I submit my change.) Thanks.
tom
Herocopia Admin Requests
Usage: put configuration or image requests here. Gives JG a todo List! ;-)
Either the email confirmation button isn't working properly or its messages are being filtered out by Google mail's spam filter... I can't get it to work to a Google mail address.
tom
After I moved the Villain Team discussion into the FAQ and deleted it, there is now an empty Talk stub page for the Villains entry. Can you configure empty Talk pages to be automatically deleted, so that active discussion links point to real discussions, not stubs? Thanks!
tom
I accidentally created an empty Villains page while trying to format a link to a category. I went to the dead-end page list (under Special Pages) to delete it, but was unable to do so. I see a fair number of such dead-end pages. Can you configure dead-end pages to be deleted by users?
tom
Recent Changes, possibly needing Discussion
Usage: notify people of changes you've made, such as new categories or adding templates, that may raise discussion or issues. Add links to active discussion on other Talk pages. Questions, kudos or other comments are fine here, too!
I created a couple new categories, [[<Category: Other>]] and [[<Category: Events>]] for the navigation page. Or maybe they're sub-categories....
Zack
I think adding Events to the navigation page would be a good thing, once we sort out how Events interact with the Timeline...
tom
I updated the Publications page to give every issue at least a stub and place it in the article list. Some cover images are missing! Also, looking at more recent issue entries, they have more elaborate entries, with detailed credits, etc. Maybe, we need an issue template?
tom
Are there more than 500 images to work from? If so, how does one display images not in the last 500? Similarly, how does one display changes beyond the last 500?
tom
Zack and I noted some issues surrounding the Villain and Heroes categories in Talk:Wrestla. The line between heroes and villains starts getting pretty blurred in the Dark Age. Should we add a Vigilante category? An Independent category? Or double-list a bunch of heroes?
tom
RE: This and that I know I mentioned something similar once to JG. I think the double listing works. My thoughts if we start adding a few more categories we'll just be double booking them there as well... I know we have Kaspian and Madame Majestrix under both headings. Plus I think thats sort of the beauty of Kurt showing the murkiness of the story and times in Astro City during this storyline...
Villain Teams/Villain Groups.
I saw you write something about this somewhere on the recent changes. I just created the Villain Groups as a sub-set for the groups/teams. I was just using it to if someone wanted to look at teams, they're all listed there and on the Villains page as well. I would have done the same with "hero" teams, but they have their own full category.
As for Non-Astro City Based Villains, again I just did it as a fun sub-category. Hmmm...? That might be a good idea for the vigilantes/darker 70's types. Put them as heroes and under a subset. Maybe not... But go ahead and create one for Villains as well. Kinda hard on some to tell if they're are really from there or just temporarily operating there. Like the Unholy Alliance attacking various places. I just did it for the heroes, because they were usually name-dropped being from there or seen there.
If you mean making putting it a sub category, just put what category you want it under on the sub-cat page.
Zack
Hey JG!
Think I'm gonna need some nifty admin power. We've just created pages for Pyramid and the Beast-Men. I've seen a few different ways of writing them, can you get PYRAMID to redirect to Pyramid and Animal-Men, Beast-Peoples to go to Beast-Men whenever someone uses them.
Zack
What do you all think about the idea of the individual heroes receiving a "cases and adventures" section, not just the teams?
Yiding
I think it's a fine idea for some heroes, but not all. Many heroes have only one adventure or just references to being active at some point. For them, it would be a stub or an almost empty section that could be handled by a timeline entry instead. But, for someone with lots of adventures, sure!
tom
Yeah, I think for the frequently seen heroes is best. I kinda of started that just messing around with the team template. And so I'd have some way of organizing the Honor Guards exploits. I know on the villains we changed it around to (Mis)Deeds or Adventures like that. Like tom mentioned on name dropped or just seen once, just put it in the appearances section. I think the Devil's Own might be one JG did like that. EDIT- If you're doing one for Samaritan. It might be interesting to use 1:1 in the Events category since it was a feature issue(and is a lot of stuff!) for a "Day in the Life."
And along with cases and adventures I started thinking about adding a foes or recurring foes section for some heroes. Kinda hard to some degree that it seems like everybody messes with every villain at one time or nother. But like Jack in the Box has the Brass Monkey and the Human Weasel. Something else to maybe think about...
Zack
Hey JG Part II! ;) Yiding noticed some contradictory information. On the Rocket website you have the Eliot Mills shark article from 1:2 with the date of April 4, 1959. But in the story itself there is a mention that April Fools Day was months ago and no real concrete info other than it likely takes place sometime before early September.
I know KB has said before events and stuff in the story take precedence over anything else. Didn't know if the date needed to be fixed or not...The Clothing and weather seem to ambiguous and the Annotations site says the same thing...
Zack
