Talk: Community Portal/Archive 8

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Qualifiers

What would people think of adding a "qualifiers" page? It would strictly be a brief description of how the qualifiers worked in each series, not a list of battles or rejected robots. I'm thinking it would be classified as "behind the scenes," the same category as the Storm 2 Controversy page. I don't have good information on Series 1 or 2, but I think I could do the other series quite nicely. What are people's thoughts? RA2; (My Talk) 07:52, November 30, 2009 (UTC)

If you can do it, please go ahead and show us. Pick an easy series as an example and we'll have a look at how you go before we look at doing others. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 07:57, November 30, 2009 (UTC)

Here's a start to what it would look like:

http://robotwars.wikia.com/wiki/User:RA2/Sandbox RA2; (My Talk) 20:17, November 30, 2009 (UTC)

It does need a section on discretionary places, as they are very important. When you get to 6/7, which feature up to 4 robots, make sure you note that any or no robots from a bout could qualify, like the entire group from Ewe 2's qualifier. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 05:57, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure there were cases of the winner not qualifying in Series 6 and 7? RA2; (My Talk) 14:59, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

I could be mistaken, but I don't think that the first three series had qualifiers. I think the teams had to show their designs to the producers and they decided which robots would take part. That's why SHARON didn't take part anyway. Christophee (talk) 15:07, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

In Series 2 and 3, the robots had to do some sort of a slalom or obstacle course. I remebmer seeing a video of Rottweiler 2 qualifying for Series 3. I'll go looking for it later, but they basically had it demonstrate its cotrollability, and there were some crates that they could smash up to demonstrate their robot's power.

However, I do suspect tha thtere were no qualifiers in Series 1, becuase they needed every robot they could get. RA2; (My Talk) 15:15, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

The Slalom sounds right, particularly since it is in one of the video games. And you're definately right about the first wars - they still didn't manage to get the full 36 needed. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 11:51, December 5, 2009 (UTC)

The one where they smashed crates could well have been called "Collateral Damage", like in Arenas of Desturction. ManUCrazy 21:35, December 18, 2009 (UTC)

A thought occurs. What if the Wild Card Warriors were actually qualifiers? Axe Awe and The Executioner received discretionary places, whilst the other three failed to qualify? We know that the Series 5 qualifiers were like that. What do you think? TG (t c) 00:50, June 22, 2010 (UTC)

New ideas

Can I have some thoughts on my new ideas? TG (t c)

Idea 4 - New line of Articles

• Gentleman's Agreement
• Seeds
• Qualifiers (being worked on)
• Youtube
• Fanboy (being worked on)
• Stock Robots (WYSIWYG, Grunt, Mouse)
• UK Championship
• US Championship/Dutch Championship
• Grudge Matches
• Tectonic Robot Wars
• German Robot Wars

It is generally not good practice to write about fandom on a show's page. Gentlemen's agreement is good though, as our current list of terminology is somewhat obscure. RA2; (My Talk) 00:15, April 11, 2010 (UTC)

I do not understand what you are talking about, I'm afraid. The three other pages would just include some basic information about how they relate to Robot Wars. For example, Youtube would list the history of Robot Wars videos uploads, significant vloggers, and perhaps the Sunset and Vine incident with GladiatorsBoy. The Fanboy page could be a small definition, and examples of "fanboy acts" - I'm aware that this would be hard, and would be difficult to keep a neutral tone. The Tectonic Robot Wars page would be a tribute to the lost website, a list of its content and whatnot, and we would link it to the TRACIE page. Those are my thoughts, and I think these pages would benefit the Wiki, but I'll leave it to a vote. TG (t c) 01:26, April 11, 2010 (UTC)

Those things would be good for a history of the Robot Wars Wiki, but contribute nothing for people looking solely for information on the Robot Wars TV series; the main purpose of the Wiki. RA2; (My Talk) 07:23, April 11, 2010 (UTC)

They don't have to look at them. Things like this are always interesting to me. There's no harm in having them, but I think we'll leave the latter three ideas off for a couple of months. TG (t c) 07:27, April 11, 2010 (UTC)

The Fanboy page shpuld probably be protected- we don't want to deal with random fanboys editing the page with flaming/vandalism. The other three are good ideas. ManUCrazy (talk) 23:18, April 24, 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. I do think these articles have merit, as other wikis have this sort of info as a sort of background thing. Helloher (Death is not my phone number) 10:36, April 25, 2010 (UTC)

I've added a few others to the list. RA2 is currently on his exams, but he still has a half completed page on Qualifiers that I'd like him to complete at some point. As for UK and US Championships, I think we should have one place to discuss the format of the championships across the Series. Eg. It started with 6 Heats, comprising of Gauntlet, Trial and Arena, with a six-way melee as the Grand Final. It was expanded to 12 heats of same format and a different final, blah blah blah. The US Championship would be similar, but shorter. We could do one for the Dutch Robot Wars, but the German Wars would probably just be added onto the same page. Volunteers please.

I've decided to write Seeding myself, and I plan to upload it upon completion. Youtube, Fanboy and Tectonic will be completed later, but I've asked RA2 to do Tectonic, because he knows it. That leaves Gentleman's Agreement, which I'd like a volunteer for. TG (t c) 04:00, April 29, 2010 (UTC)

I still don't entirely understand it, but if I could have an example, I'd be happy to write this page up. Helloher (Death is not my phone number) 19:02, May 3, 2010 (UTC)

Why not just start with UK Championship. I may do Gentlemen's Agreement later. However, if you still want a go, just mention Razer v. Pussycat, or Hypno-Disc v. Raizer Blade. TG (t c) 22:02, May 3, 2010 (UTC)

Does the UK championship article need to mention Extreme? Helloher (Death is not my phone number) 08:21, May 23, 2010 (UTC)

No, there was no UK Championship in Extreme. Shouldn't mention any side competition, either. It should, however, mention New Blood. TG (t c) 08:47, May 23, 2010 (UTC)

New Category

Can we pick a category named Robots that committed suicide? Not that phrase, but along that idea. The idea is robots that eliminated themselves - Grunt, Disconstructor, Killerhurtz and Wild Willy come to mind instantly. It doesn't count for Thermidor 2 or Disco-Inferno, both of whom were just avoiding taking further damage. It has to have been unintentional - Grunt being the exception because we know the truth, but to roboteers at the time, it was unintentional. TG (t c) 05:24, May 1, 2010 (UTC)

I like this. I presume T2 would be included as well? Helloher (Death is not my phone number) 06:51, May 1, 2010 (UTC)

No, technicalities (such as winning regardless of its being pitted) would make it invalid. According to what RA2 told me about Dutch Series 1, however, Philipper belongs in the category. TG (t c) 07:19, May 1, 2010 (UTC)

I think I understand. Last question, would Shredder or Major Tom be included? Helloher (Death is not my phone number) 08:07, May 1, 2010 (UTC)

I think so as they were unintentional. Llamaman201 (talk) 13:18, May 1, 2010 (UTC)

What about robots like Wild Thing who were unlucky enough to be standing on the pit square right as it descended? RA2; (My Talk) 13:37, May 1, 2010 (UTC)

Shredder and Major Tom, yes. As for Wild Thing....we'll just go for the majority decision. My vote is no, for the record. TG (t c) 14:55, May 1, 2010 (UTC)

Seconded. Helloher (Death is not my phone number) 15:39, May 1, 2010 (UTC)

Battle Technique

I've been noticing this more and more frequently - when two robots lock together side by side and spin around in circles, unable to drive forward. It happened in

• Big Brother vs Mace 2
• Bigger Brother vs Razer
• Kat 3 vs Pussycat (All-Stars)
• Robot the Bruce vs Wedgehog (briefly)

And about a million more times, but I can't remember them right now. I propose it is worthy of an article, called Side-locked or something, so I (since I'm probably the only one who writes proper episode expansions) can refer to it rather than having to awkwardly describe it. Does anyone agree? TG (t c) 00:19, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

This is probably something you could go ahead and do without really needing approval. I have no objection at all to the idea. Christophee (talk) 22:58, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

The Great Divide

As you can all probably tell, I've amped up my workload because I'm on holidays, and I enjoy working on the Wikia. Therefore, I'll be posting regularly on the Community Portal with ideas.

This idea has come to me over the last few days. I'm getting really sick of articles like Robot Wars: The Second Wars/Grudge Matches, Robot Wars: The Seventh Wars/Special Events, and Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1/Single Battle Events. I propose that we split them all down to individual articles, because honestly, I think to format is horrible and if we can have articles for Mjollnir, Retribution, Tornado/Pullback and the various video game robots, I think its fair enough to break these gargantuan and messy pages down to pages that are going to be about the same length as the First Wars Grand Final.

The Trial is similarly being split up.

Finally, I'd like this to apply to all the weapon types. All the current pages we have can serve as disambiguations, categories and classifications, but each weapon deserves its own page. TG (t c) 06:24, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

What I've noticed about other wikis, is that they have a lot of split up pages. They may not be long, but then reading a lot of text can be very boring, so I'll agree to this idea. Llamaman201 (talk) 14:46, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

I also dislike redirecting to different parts of a page. Please everyone pay attention to this discussion and the others on this page. TG (t c) 22:14, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

What Llamaman says is true. On most wikis you get all sorts of short pages about the most minor things, so I suppose it makes no sense to bunch everything together here. I agree to the split. Christophee (talk) 22:58, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

I agree as well, so I'll start doing the "special events" articles. Should the current pages be disambiguations for those battles too? ManUCrazy (talk) 23:39, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks a lot everyone. Since Series 7's special events were all broadcast throughout the season, and not as a single episode, then no. Series 2, however, might. TG (t c) 23:41, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

Wiki skin

Off topic, has anyone else's wiki background turned from yellow to blue? Llamaman201 (talk) 14:46, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

Yes. I won't go too far off topic, but I'll explain. Under Settings, you should be able to choose your skin for the wiki. Some wikis have customised ones, others have different ones from the Monaco options. On my second or third week, I set the background as Slate, and option which no longer exists. The settings log says that RA2 changed it to the default Sapphire and white, but I don't think he did, because he didn't do it deliberately and its not something you can do unintentionally. Therefore, to avoid the boring default, I checked through the others and picked this one. TG (t c) 22:12, June 21, 2010 (UTC)

Oke doke. Llamaman201 (talk) 16:32, June 22, 2010 (UTC)

Robot Wars- Arenas of Destruction/Extreme Destruction

I was looking through the Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction page, and I found a whole list of redlinks to the pages of Robots that don't exist in real life, but do on this game, same goes for Extreme Destruction. I want to make sure everyone agrees that these pages should be created, as I know three fake robots (Double O, Electra and Buzz already have pages. I can whip up pages of the same quality relativly quickly, but is it really a good use of time? If you guys agree, I'll get started A.S.A.P. Cheers, Matt 81.153.72.154 20:37, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

• I just checked again I missed a few, Hunchback, Sparco, Manic Volcanic and Thor all have pages

Ok, if you can make them to be of a decent quality, and remember to add the appropraite categories then go ahead. I'd also recommend you to choose a username and create an account. ManUCrazy (talk) 20:45, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

Ok, will start today, by the way, I do have an account, probably just forgot to log in Obi-Have 07:44, July 30, 2010 (UTC)

Series 3 Decline

This is mentioned briefly in a lot of the Series 3 Heats. Basically all but 3 of the Semi-Finalists from Series 2 (2 of which were Grand-Finalists) were defeated in their heat and many of those robots were to never get past the heats again. Would this be worth having an article about? Dandaman012 10:07, August 1, 2010 (UTC)

Robot Wars on Dave

It has come to my attention that UK channel Dave is showing the first Extreme Series of Robot Wars. I don't know how long this has been going on, but today I watched Hpyo-Disc's mayhem. Not sure about any long term plans, but it sure was great watching a pristine film and not slightly blurred Youtube vids :). Llamaman201 (talk) 14:41, August 3, 2010 (UTC)

Has been on since 1st of this month, great to see it back on TV, and with the rumour floating around of Dave doing a new series, I may even squeal with delight :D Matt(Talk) 16:56, August 5, 2010 (UTC)

Dave brought back Red Dwarf after a ten year absence so anything is possible. Christophee (talk) 12:03, August 9, 2010 (UTC)

Why?

I would quite like to know why the redirects I made yesterday have been deleted? I made a redirect for the UK Championship to Robot Wars and Dutch Championship to Dutch Robot Wars. The first of each pair both have an excess of redlinks and I don't think they warrant a new article when the second in each pair is already there, so why were they deleted? If it is felt that a new page for either is required, fair enough. Thanks Matt(Talk) 10:16, August 9, 2010 (UTC)

Both articles are going to be made at some point, specifically about those championships rather than the series as a whole. I don't who is going to do them or when it will be done though. Christophee (talk) 12:05, August 9, 2010 (UTC)

As you can see, US Championship already exists, but the other two were never created. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 12:16, August 9, 2010 (UTC)

OK guys, thanks for clearing this up, I might make the articles at some point Matt(Talk) 16:45, August 9, 2010 (UTC)

An idea.

I was looking over Anty B's page, and it gave me an idea. I think that every robot article should have a quote describing it in some way at the top. I know it'll be harder for the Dutch, German and American bots, but I think it'd be a good achievement if we could do it for the UK bots. Helloher (Death is not my phone number) 18:03, September 6, 2010 (UTC)

Anyone commenting? Helloher (Death is not my phone number) 17:20, September 19, 2010 (UTC)

Dutch Robot Wars

I am uploading the Dutch Robot Wars to Youtube. I will be using the username BNNRobotWarsNL. Enjoy. RA2; aka Resetti's Replicas. (My Talk) 16:41, September 19, 2010 (UTC)

Awesome. Helloher (Death is not my phone number) 17:20, September 19, 2010 (UTC)

Ex-Roboteers

Hey guys I have just made contact with Chris Kinsey (Roadblock team captain) and will probably make contact with Hender Blewett at some point. For all those who are wanted to get into contact with past or present roboteers (creepy as it may sound), facebook is a goldmine. If I'd had the time, I could've messaged Alan Gribble, Ian Watts, Mike Franklin, Robert Grimm and even Peter Redmond Just a thought for those who have made contact before, or would like to. Matt(Talk) 08:44, December 21, 2010 (UTC)

Back to work

Hi everyone. I finished my schooling and exams, and have jumped back into working on the wiki, as I'm sure was noticed on Heat B of Series 4. I'm extremely disappointed at how little has been done - all the ideas on this page are nowhere near completed - weapons pages are still crammed together, not a single Trial page has been written, and there have been no expansions. I know full well that interest comes and goes, but surely someone could have at least broken up a weapons page and marked stubs.

I've got a few ideas that I want to toss out.

• Trivia - On various episode pages, we have trivia at the start. One of the most fun parts of wiki is to learn new things, and I think that every single page on the Wiki should have a Trivia section. At the moment, anything interesting about a robot is crammed into its introduction, where it is often missed. I think we need a dedicated trivia section for every article. See X-Terminator
• Template: Battle Event - Christophee and I need a discussion set up on how to work the "Format" part of the template. All input would be welcome and appreciated.
• Episode template - is another template I want to build. Any ideas as for what it should have would be welcome.

Thanks. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 08:32, January 5, 2011 (UTC)

I'll start splitting up the Trial events into their own articles, but I'm not sure what expansions need to be added to them so it'll probably be the same information on new pages. How do we want the general Trial page to be arranged after the split? Christophee (talk) 19:27, January 9, 2011 (UTC)

House Robots

The information on the Forums we've created is useful, and I think it should be incorporated into articles. I think it'd be good if we noted which House Robots were present in each battle at the start of each battle report (just like how they are shown before each fight). Toon Ganondorf (t c) 08:12, January 13, 2011 (UTC)

Virtual House Robots Page?

Would it be useful having a page/pages showing how the house robots looked in the Robot Wars Games? Also there could be information of differences to the real house robots and advise on how to defeat/play as a house robot like on the fictional robots pages. Just a thought... Prodworthy 19:05, January 13, 2011 (UTC)

Any robot that has ever had an appearance in a video game will have a subpage called ROBOT NAME/VIDEO GAME for each video game it appeared in. This goes for House Robots as well. It'd be fantastic if you wanted to do this. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 22:35, January 13, 2011 (UTC)

Wouldn't all of a robot's video game appearances be in one article? So it should be like the merchandise subpages for the all stars pullbacks? Cheers for the idea, I wasn't to sure before that how I'd do it, I'll hopefully start them tomorrow. Prodworthy 18:00, January 14, 2011 (UTC)

It would be better if they were all seperate, just like how we've started splitting everything up for other areas. 22:21, January 15, 2011 (UTC)

Looking at it again, it definately does need splitting up. I'll get on with that. Hopefully the other pages should be quicker to create. Prodworthy 17:21, January 16, 2011 (UTC)

Sorry I haven't been able to do much, it has been a bit manic at the moment. Thanks to you guys for creating some pages. When I have chance to do some more I will include the Differences between game and real life section that you guys have added. Prodworthy 17:00, February 1, 2011 (UTC)

Great work, man. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 21:22, February 7, 2011 (UTC)

I'm back to work again, and I've just finished uploading pictures of every single real-life robot in Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox), including the House Robots, except Sir Killalot because I had already uploaded a picture of him. Phew, what a task! I'll start uploading pictures of fictional competitors when I can but I might do some of the articles first as a break! Prodworthy 20:55, February 9, 2011 (UTC)

Excellent work. It's great to see expansion on an area that has not really been developed on the wiki so far. Keep it up. Christophee (talk) 01:28, February 10, 2011 (UTC)

Upper/lower case

I've noticed that the weapons pages now use lower case instead of upper case in the titles, but should this also apply to other articles which are not proper nouns? I remember I used to do it like that in the really early days of the wiki because I imitated Wikipedia, but everyone else was using upper case so I went with it. I'll happily move any pages I come across that need moving if we are changing the format across the wiki. Christophee (talk) 20:38, February 25, 2011 (UTC)

All robot, team, trials and competitions and are products of the show and are therefore proper nouns. Those pages that should be moved are any that describe things about the show, such as Self-inflicted immobilisation, Self-righting mechanism, and only a few others. However, in the case of Thrown Out of the Arena, the A remains capitalised because the Arena is a proper noun, and the common term for the phrase is Out of the Arena, which should be capitalised as the start of a phrase. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 21:07, February 25, 2011 (UTC)

Okey doke. I'll only change the ones I'm sure about then so I don't make a mess. Christophee (talk) 21:27, February 25, 2011 (UTC)