Wikipedia

[Digifiend]

Someone's been deleting comics related articles on Wikipedia! I've just restored the article for Super School, but someone else needs to do some of the others, which are artist articles: James Crighton (original Korky artist, designed original Beano/Dandy logos); Karl Dixon (former Beryl the Peril artist, also Ollie Fliptrik); Bill Holroyd, and Joe McCaffrey. The articles for The Sparky Book, and the annuals of Black Bob and Beryl the Peril have also gone.

These need redoing ASAP, as they appear in the DC Thomson Comics category box. I'm sure someone here must have the knowledge and sources to restore those articles.

[Lew Stringer]

Thanks for adding the entry for Super School. Reasons for deletion can vary from moderators wrongly believing info is false / unverified, or down to spite from people with a grudge.

There's a way to check who's vandalising Wiki entries though. By clicking on "history" you can see when entries were edited, and who by. Of course if the post is deleted altogether this won't be possible.

Lew

[Digifiend]

Unfortunately, it had been completely deleted. That's why I had to redo it.

View the Super School article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_School

By the way, most of the Dandy strips are red linked, i.e. either deleted or never created, in The Dandy category box as well. No other Beano stuff deleted to my knowledge, all the category box items are blue links now.

[tolworthy]

Is this related to the recent deleting of old game info?

A lot of people at Wikipedia seem to think that "old" equals "not notable." So down the memory hole it goes.

[Digifiend]

Bah! I hope not, but it sounds like it could be. Read the article you linked to, sounds like the gamers beat them so they turned on the comic fans, i.e. people like myself, instead. How do I check? My opinion: It's the people who delete noteworthy articles who should be banned, not those who object to said deletions!

This has to stop now folks. We need to gather every source of info and make sure every one of the comics related articles is complete, with start date, finish date, and even a picture - please DC Thomson, Rebellion, Egmont, etc, cooperate on this! And I would hope the gaming community would do likewise - funny thing is, they have no trouble getting images (boxarts, screenshots, etc) whereas if a comic related pic gets uploaded, 90% get deleted. Pity the other comics don't really have a reliable source like The History of The Beano: The Story So Far (which is probably why most Beano articles weren't touched). dandy.com and beanotown.com could do with much bigger history sections as that would be a first party source, and to Wikipedia, 100% legit. OK rant over...

[Jonny Whizz]

Yes, but you have to watch out when referencing the History of the Beano book. Most of the information is reliable (and correct as far as I know) but when I was looking through I found a couple of mistakes. For example, why was Steve Horrocks credited for drawing Billy Whizz (he only ghosted a few strips), but not for Minnie the Minx (which he did draw for much of 2006).

There was an even more shocking error for Minnie - it says that she has been drawn by Jim Petrie, Tom Paterson and Ken Harrison since 1962. These are the right artists, and 1962 is the right date, but the book suggests there has been a rotation cycle like Nigel Parkinson and Jimmy Hansen with Dennis in recent years. Wrong! Surely an artist who worked on the same strip for nearly 40 years, and 2000 strips (Petrie), should get sole credit for that era. Tom drew Minnie between 2001 and 2008, with Ken's 'retro' style strips starting last March. It's not ambigious!

[Digifiend]

True - that book also omitted all of Dennis's artists bar Davy Law from the Beano Index. Here's some other bits I noticed: 2008 - no mention of Biffo the Bear or Billy the Cat, which are both from the same issue (2/8/08) as the Fred's Bed pages used just before the Beano Index pages start! Nigel Parkinson credited for Tony O'Donnell's work on Ivy the Terrible. He didn't take over her until after the book was published. Text story Acorns From the Wishing Tree was referred too as Acorns from the Wishing Well. Several erroneous dates, including one story ending in issue 5050, instead of 505! And that's just scratching the surface. About 95% of the book is accurate though. That last goof was most likely just a typo.

[kevf]

I've just been looking at Wikipedia's terms for references and it recommends peer-reviewed journals and academic papers. Has there ever been such a publication that even mentions comics? I think if we can find one such publication, or major reference book, that lists any of our titles or even better our names in the indexes, we can link to those and begin anchoring ourselves in Wikipedia.

I think I'm in the index of a book by Dez Skinn and one by Chris Donald (both mentioning UT comic), and I think I'm in a Gerry Anderson book (mentioning Blunderbirds) but don't know where to find them.

Would listing the ISBN numbers of books, even Beano annuals, count as official? (Genuine question).

[Lew Stringer]

I've just been looking at Wikipedia's terms for references and it recommends peer-reviewed journals and academic papers. Has there ever been such a publication that even mentions comics?

I wouldn't worry about it Kev. There are loads of entries on Wiki for comics that don't have academic verification. If someone's deleting info it's out of spite or ignorance. It's the internet, where trolls roam free. Wiki are usually on the ball if a troll does too much damage and they find themselves blocked from contributing, so the best thing to do is be vigilant and report any such online vandalism.

Lew

[kevf]

Inspired by this thread I just went through my Wiki articles and added web references, ie mentions on bbc websites and in local papers. I found that the article for the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre had been removed entirely.

[Digifiend]

Yeah I noticed you're a Wikipedian - the edit page for your article states that user kevfsutherland had been editing it, a name which is too closely linked to the subject - because of course, another of Wikipedia's rules is that you can't edit articles about yourself. So keep an eye on those edits to make sure nothing gets deleted on those grounds. In fact, when I originally created the Laura Howell article, someone marked it as looking like an advert - I think they thought I was her! Soon cleared it up though, and someone has since rephrased the whole thing anyway. I don't mind that kind of thing, at least I was warned that time. This time, you and Lew weren't so lucky in that articles about your work were deleted. We'd best be vigilant, as Lew said.

[LauraH]

Oh, so it was you who made that, Digi? I've often wondered! I didn't know the rule about not editing articles about yourself (seriously??), although I've never actually tried it, so I might need to ask someone else to make some amendments to mine. It's weeeeeird having a Wikipedia entry

(Oh yeah, next time someone edits the Beano strips page, BTW, it's worth adding Barrie Appleby as the current Billy the Cat artist, as I think it's the only uncredited strip at the moment.)

[Digifiend]

You're obviously not familiar with wikis: you only had to check the history tab Laura. The oldest entry is at the bottom.

13:25, 31 July 2008 Digifiend (talk | contribs) (360 bytes) (← Created page with 'The only female artist in the history of The Beano comic, she's responsible for Johnny Bean from Happy Bunny Green...

You could've checked that out months ago. Oh well.

Good point about Billy the Cat. I'll do that. The Billy and Katie article could do with a proper infobox actually... changed Ratz to indicate that you now draw it instead of Hunt Emerson (who I've reworded as being the original artist for that strip). Have also updated and corrected the Fred's Bed entry, which was labelled as Ken Harrison reprints! (Wrong, it was David Parkins)

BTW, Lew, the Super School article has been flagged as unsourced, even though I've stated The History of the Beano as a source (I mentioned the Ultras title in the article). Seems neither that book or the comic itself are good enough. In that case, what the hell is!?! I've posted a message on the discussion page citing your blog, as a first party source seems to be the only other reliable info. It's too new for third parties to be easily available. Don't think Wiki likes blogs though - but then, what was wrong with the published sources I originally mentioned?

[Old Freddy]

I've found several mistakes on Wikipedia, most of them to do with the 1990's:

*Bill Ritchie was credited as the Desperate Dan artist during the early 1990's, but it was David Parkins. (I've changed it)

*John Geering is said to have started drawing DD in 1995, not 1994 (I've changed it)

*P5 wasn't mentioned as a replacement to First Class, which I've changed.

*Vic volcano's article was a stub.

*Oliver Twister, The Yeti, the Sort Out Squad, Carrot, Tik & Tak, Cowrin' Wolf and Fibba aren't even mentioned.

*Hyde and Shriek, until I fixed it, was said to have started in 2008 instead of the correct year, which is 1992.

*Molly and Smitten were said to be from 1991 instead of 1992.

[steelclaw]

Some people believe everything they read on Wikipedia.
A big percentage of what's on it should be taken with a pinch of salt.