Forum:Rules for Chapter Notes

I think the time has come for us to make a clear set of rules for chapter notes. Much like we have One Piece Encyclopedia:Guidebook/Trivia Guidelines, we should have rules for the chapter notes that people can read somewhere on the wiki.

I think there should be general discussion, as well as subsections for each specific rule we come up with, so we can lessen the amount of total arguing in a large discussion. We can write them up as each rule is approved and not be slowed by a 2 month old discussion.

Do you guys agree we should have this? And do you have any suggestions? 17:21, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

General Discussion
Post your thoughts on the forum in general here. Make a new section for new rule ideas. 17:21, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

Should there be an order for how to do notes? So, first we say things revealed in the chapter, then implications of things, SBS trivia if relevant, etc? Or is that too much like hard work?

17:26, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

I think it should be by relevant page order, which seems to be the way we do things now. 18:00, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

Frankly, I think having Short Summary, Long Summary and Chapter Notes are too redundant, we can just read any one of them to get the grasp of the entire chapter as it is. 21:30, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

Yata gave me a thought here. Should we change the names of the sections? At the moment, we have a short summary and a long summary. Now, a summary is usually by nature short, and the long summary is literally everything that happens, so it isn't actually a summary at all. Why don't we go with something like Summary and Synopsis? I'm not suggesting we change how these sections work, at least not right now, just change the naming scheme.

20:34, February 23, 2016 (UTC)

Cover Page in Chapter Notes
So I noticed that it's common for the cover page to be summarised in the chapter notes, rather than in the Cover Page section of the page. Now, unless I'm horribly misreading most of the cover stories, they don't actually relate to the events of the chapter. Surely the chapter notes is a place for notes that relate to the chapter, not to the nice shiny cover page.

Our templates say to put a description of the cover page in the Cover Page section itself, so that's what I think we should be doing.

I realise this is a fair amount of work to do if we do decide it's the correct decision, but I'm struggling to see how, for example, the fact that Sakura Kingdom has changed their helmets to have antlers has any bearing on the rest of the chapter.

20:57, February 10, 2016 (UTC)

As somehow who is very skeptical about every small detail being added to the chapter notes, I agree. It's much easier to find information this way. 22:33, February 12, 2016 (UTC)

If a major event occurs in the cover story, like Jinbe finding a poneglyph per se, it should go in the notes. Otherwise it shouldn't. 23:02, February 12, 2016 (UTC)

The information regarding the cover page should always be in the cover page section, 100% of the time. If it's plot-related, or there's some other trivia with it (like a tribute to Dragon Ball or Naruto), then it can go in both sections. 04:07, February 13, 2016 (UTC)

The cover story is still part of the chapter, albeit a side story, so it should be mentioned in the notes. I feel like the cover page section is there more for posterity than anything, and should be left as is. If it's not part of the story, then don't put it in the notes. There's nothing noteworthy about Oda drawing a scene where the Straw Hats are playing with dolphins. It's part of the story, and should be accounted for in the notes. 05:00, February 13, 2016 (UTC)

I wish this was a wider discussion about chapter notes in general. I'd say if it doesn't have wide-reaching effects outside this one chapter, it's not noteworthy. 05:46, February 13, 2016 (UTC)

Cover story section is only supposed to contain a short description and the title. If it's part of a cover story arc then it goes in notes. SeaTerror (talk) 09:44, February 13, 2016 (UTC)

Chapter Notes = "Brief bullets with key points or noteworthy events." Same standards should apply to both cover page and main story events. The Cover Page section has the official description of the cover and/or a general summary of it. 11:06, February 13, 2016 (UTC)

Should we be noting, for example, that Carue has apparently taken up scrapbooking in the chapter notes? No. It's not important to the story in any way. I think Nada has the right idea = we should always put the description in the Cover Page section, and only if it's relevant to the plot should we expand on it in the Chapter Notes.

16:53, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

I think it's awesome to have things like Chapter 668 have the cover page in the chapter notes. But not every chapter should get it. 17:21, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

Cover pages stay in the cover page sections 100% of the times. If it's relevant to the plot, i.e. Jinbe finding a Poneglyph, then it can go in the notes section as well. But as Nova said, if it's just Carue taking up scrapbooking, then no, it really shouldn't be in the notes section at all. 21:47, February 23, 2016 (UTC)

Clear majority here. 18:21, March 24, 2016 (UTC)

I don't see a clear majority. Most people said if it was part of a story arc then it should be included. http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_814?curid=282098&diff=1333101&oldid=1325508 This is a clear example of something that shouldn't be removed since the actions of the page are completely different from the title. SeaTerror (talk) 18:31, March 24, 2016 (UTC)

How about doing it like this? It's not worth keeping in the notes, but this way it is still in the article. This is what the cover page section is for per our layout: describing and summarizing the cover page. Somewhere along the way I think people got confused when out of laziness many people left only the title/caption in that section. 18:38, March 24, 2016 (UTC)

That's fine as long as we do it for everything. We need all the information we can get on chapter articles. SeaTerror (talk) 18:40, March 24, 2016 (UTC)

I fully support JSD's proposal. 18:45, March 24, 2016 (UTC)

Cool, let's close this section then. 18:46, March 24, 2016 (UTC)

No Spoilers in Chapter Notes
We should try very hard to not reveal future details in chapter notes. We should at least hide behind a pipe link when we need to have the note. 17:21, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, this is a good idea. We can't say "Dragon saved Luffy from Smoker, marking the first time in the series father and son have interacted" or some such nonsense.

17:24, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

Good idea. We shouldn't go out of our way to spoil people who are just reading summaries of the chapters they finish. 21:20, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, a pipe link to hide the notes sounds good. We can also get rid of the likes of "marking the first time in the series father and son have interacted". I mean, that comes in many chapters later than when "Dragon saved Luffy from Smoker", long before we knew who Dragon truly is. 21:30, February 22, 2016 (UTC)

I agree, this should apply to summaries as well though it doesn't happen as much there. 16:40, February 23, 2016 (UTC)

Definitely pipe link all possible spoilers in the notes. It's just not fair to suddenly spring massive or small spoilers on unaware readers. And as Kaido said, pipe linking all possible spoilers should be applied to summaries as well. 21:50, February 23, 2016 (UTC)

A good rule of thumb here, for the notes as well as the summaries, is "treat the info as if it's the latest chapter." In other words, when doing the summary for chapter 99, when Dragon saved Luffy, pretend you have no knowledge beyond what transpired in that chapter and the ones that came previously. We had no idea Dragon was Luffy's dad back then and had no reason to think so, so write the notes and summaries with that retroactive mindset. 23:12, February 23, 2016 (UTC)

This seems unanimous, closing so other topics can get discussed.

13:02, February 25, 2016 (UTC)