- Many assertions made in this article are supported by incomplete references. For example, ref 66 reads, "Father Knows (Her) Best". Soap Opera Digest. Late 2003." Also, refs 31-15 are all quotes by Todd to different characters in specific episodes, which strike me as dependent upon the memory of the editor who added it.
- Of course, we need to discuss what is "reliable" for a soap article. In my experience, the criteria for reliability is much lower for these types of articles, which by necessity depends upon nontraditional sources. These sources include, but aren't limited to: trade publications like Soap Opera Digest; self-published sources--websites such as ABC.com, soap opera sites like SoapCentral, and blogs. They could also include user-generated sites like About.com. Unlike many types of articles, I also think that we could use YouTube clips, if they exist. (See below for more about this.) That being said, I'm sure that we'd be able to find more reliable and scholarly articles and books. (I ordered the Hayward book, which is unfortunately the only strictly reliable source here.) One of the first things I want to do is to do a literature review, which I can do easily since I have access to a university library.
- I recommend that we not depend so heavily upon episodes, unless they either appear on YouTube or if they've been transcribed somewhere. (This is probably where we'd depend upon the expertise of editors like User:Flyer22, who are more familiar with OLTL.) One of the biggest dangers with TV shows is that editors want to depend upon their memory; now, although soap fans have the best memories of any fanbase, this is too close to WP:OR, and should be avoided.
- I think it's crucial that for web-based sources, they need to be accessible. That means that if we refer to a specific episode, we need to be able to include it.
- We should do our best to follow WP policies and guidelines regarding reliability, as per WP:PROVEIT, which states that if we can't find a source that supports any and all assertions made in this article, we should remove them.
I strongly believe that what makes a good article are good sources, even for topics like soap operas. I also believe that it's possible to discuss topics like soaps in a scholarly manner, within the limitations that this topic provides us. Others have done it, and I'd like this article to be as scholarly as possible. Should be fun, right? Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 21:26, 14 March 2014 (UTC)
:Hello again, Figureskatingfan. Okay, let's discuss sources: Soap Opera Digest and American Broadcasting Company.com (ABC.com) are not unreliable sources. ABC.com is not a self-published source; it is a WP:Primary source. SoapCentral.com, via various discussions about that site, including at WP:SOAPS, one or two times at the WP:Reliable sources noticeboard, and at various American soap opera character articles, has only been deemed reliable for actor biography (not character biography), news and exclusive interview information (an interview that the soap opera actor specifically did with the site). SoapCentral.com is one of the main soap opera sources for American soap operas, if not the main one...but, per the past discussions I mentioned, I agree that we generally should not rely on that source. Soap opera magazine sources, such as Soap Opera Digest, however, are the sources that cover most of the character information about soap opera characters; those are the sources where most of the WP:Real word information -- casting information, development, etc. are going to come from for American soap operas. Not only do I know this from having searched Google Books and Google Scholar for sources for different soap opera characters, including for Todd Manning, this has been expressed on Wikipedia in countless discussions about soap opera sources. Generally, there are not a lot of non-WP:Primary sources for American soap opera characters; this is because American soap opera characters are generally not covered to the same mainstream degree as non-American soap opera characters, such as British soap operas EastEnders and Hollyoaks, which British soap opera editors such as Raintheone would tell you. Generally, an American soap opera character has to be a character such as Erica Kane, Victor Newman or Todd Manning to get mainstream (wider) coverage or significant mainstream (wider) coverage. Take a look at the WP:Good article Victor Newman; even with all the mainstream attention he has received, you can see that a significant number of sources in that article are soap opera sources, such as Soap Opera Digest, and that SoapCentral.com sources are included; there are not many scholarly sources there. There also are not many scholarly sources in the Pauline Fowler and Poppy Meadow articles, articles that you want to be our guides for the Todd Manning article; the vast majority of sources in the Pauline Fowler article, and several in the Poppy Meadow article, are from BBC News, and this is because these two soap operas are BBC soap operas and most of the information about those characters come from that site, similar to what I stated about ABC.com (including ABC News) and Soap Opera Digest with regard to American soap operas. About.com has been the subject of discussion at the WP:Reliable sources noticeboard as well, more than once, and the general sentiment is that it can be a WP:Reliable source; I've only used it in this article a few times and specifically for commentary from soap opera experts and/or critics, which is allowed.
:For a reference like "Father Knows (Her) Best". Soap Opera Digest. Late 2003.", that is a reliable source, but it is missing a few aspects; those aspects are the author, month (or full date) and the page number(s), and this is because I didn't have them. I think I got that source from Trevor St. John's [http://www.trevorstjohn.com/ official website], which included that entry but not all of the details. For other sources that are like that, it's a similar reason -- I didn't have the author name, or the page number, etc. I definitely feel that those references should be completed. But it would be a huge mistake to remove information from this article simply because the references supporting the information are not completed; there are citation tags, such as Template:Page needed, especially for such instances. And not having the complete reference for some sources is one reason I never got around to elevating this article from WP:Good article status to WP:Featured article status. Citing episodes for plot information, as I have done in some cases for this article, is perfectly acceptable, which editors at WP:TV would attest to and as is shown at Wikipedia:Citing sources#Film, TV, or video recordings. Per WP:SOURCEACCESS, web-based sources don't need to be readily accessible. But all of the web-sources in this article are readily accessible unless they are WP:Dead links, or unless you are talking about a source such as "[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Todd_Manning&diff=598494856&oldid=595835574#cite_note-www.phil-donahue.com-23 Male Soap Opera Stars". Phil Donahue Show. 1994-05-17.]"; that type of source is fine as well and there is an appropriate WP:Citation template that can be included for it. WP:Citing sources also shows different acceptable ways to cite, though, per WP:CITEVAR, citing styles should be consistent. The only blogs I included in this article are ones that pass WP:Reliable sources because they are from an expert in his or her relevant field -- a professional soap opera critic; those blogs are [http://www.mediabizbloggers.com/ed-martin/34395674.html this one] and [http://www.mediabizbloggers.com/savoring-soaps/16596826.html this one], and the sources weren't originally from mediabizbloggers.com; I had to update them back in 2012, as seen [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Todd_Manning&diff=511195662&oldid=511194388 here], because the location changed. Per WP:NEWSBLOG, news blogs can also be reliable. In the case of two sources that can be considered very poor, [http://magnifmalonian.tripod.com/id30.htm#__1 this one] (magnifmalonian.tripod.com) and [http://web.archive.org/web/20061028091811/http://www.geocities.com/~onelifer/nichtern1.html this one] (geocities.com/~onelifer/nichtern1.html), I included them because they provide very important information and are exclusive interviews, and, because they are exclusive interviews, they are not poor in that regard; keep in mind that the Internet, and the way that writers, producers, etc. gave interviews, was very different in the mid to late 1990s. For the quotes by Todd that I included, I included those only after the line is supported by a WP:Reliable source; see [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Todd_Manning&diff=598494856&oldid=595835574#cite_note-43 where those sources begin at reference 43]? I included them as WP:Primary sources to showcase Todd's sense of humor, but I've felt for years now that they should be removed...and I don't have a problem with them being removed. Just like I [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Todd_Manning&oldid=599720011 agreed with you at the Todd Manning talk page] to remove the Storylines section. I don't add article content to Wikipedia simply based on memory, unless it's the Plot section, which, per Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Writing about fiction#Contextual presentation, is fine to do.
:To sum up, with sources such as TV Guide, etc., [http://books.google.com/books?id=ykYR8nzIR0YC&pg=RA1-PA174&dq=Todd+Manning+rape&output=html the Jennifer Hayward book] is not the only "strictly reliable source" in the article; nor is it the only scholarly source in the article. You are setting an unrealistic bar if you are expecting the vast majority of sources for the Todd Manning article to come from scholarly sources, unless you are expecting to cut out the vast majority of information from this article just to have the article mostly consist of scholarly sources. But in that case, all of those sources would be about Todd Manning being a rapist and/or his 1993 rape case, considering that is what all scholarly sources (at least the ones I've come across so far) focus on with regard to Todd Manning. I think it would be good if you read over past discussions about the type of sourcing that is acceptable for soap opera articles and the issues soap opera editors often face regarding sourcing; for some of those discussions, see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Soap Operas/Archive 2#SoapCentral.com, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Soap Operas/Archive 4#Sources for soap articles and User talk:Flyer22/Archive 9#Sources for Supercouples. If you can replace some of the sources with better sources, then, by all means, feel free to do so. But a great deal of important information in this article would be lost if we settled for your sourcing standards in this case. Besides Raintheone, some other non-WP:Fancruft editors to invite to this discussion are TAnthony, Arre 9 and Livelikemusic (invited via WP:Echo). Flyer22 (talk) 00:05, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
::Again, thanks for taking all this time bringing me up to speed about how sources are used in soap opera articles. Perhaps I should've said that as an editor, I believe in using nontraditional sources to ensure that an article is comprehensive. I've found that for these articles, if you make a strong enough case for the necessary of using them at FAC, the reviewers are flexible enough to allow them. I should've also said that we need to do our best to find the best sources to support everything here. We may need to do some hunting to ensure that our sources are complete, and you're a good resource for that. In the meantime, I'll do some more research, about how soap opera articles are written and supported, and look at some of the current sources. I think we should remove the Storylines section, but wait a couple of days for others to chime in, if they choose to do so. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 21:14, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
:::Thanks. I intend to do what I can to fill out the incomplete references, if you don't somehow beat me to it first. As for looking for sources or better sources, in addition to looking on Google Books and in libraries, there are some fansites that you can look at for Todd Manning information; these sites have magazine articles, interviews, etc., sometimes scans of the magazine that visually validate that these sources exist. One such source, the best Roger Howarth fansite out there, is [http://www.therhfactor.net/ The RH Factor]. Take a look at [http://www.therhfactor.net/press1.html its press section] that has good material on Howarth as Todd (some of that is already in the Todd Manning Wikipedia article). Looking to fansites for St. John's portrayal of Todd can also be beneficial. The trevorstjohn.com (official St. John) site I mentioned above used to have [http://web.archive.org/web/20110716064443/http://www.trevorstjohn.com/interviews2.html an Interviews section that included interviews about Todd], but it doesn't seem to anymore.
:::On the topic of reference naming (WP:REFNAME), I see you changed a reference name in [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Figureskatingfan/Todd_sandbox&curid=42202602&diff=599794084&oldid=599791517 this case]. At the time that I brought this article to WP:GA status, I was using a different refname style than I do now. Now I use the author's last name when I edit Wikipedia articles, if the author is named in the source. And if I use the same author more than once for different sources, then I'll amend that by placing a 2 (as in Branco2) and moving up the number ladder if need be so that two or more different sources don't have the same refname and, for example, the second source is not therefore obscured. I'd be fine using your reference style if you prefer, though your style can make the source less easy to identify when seeing only the refname at a part of the article. Which refname style do you prefer we use? Flyer22 (talk) 01:14, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
::::You'll see that I started working on the prose and references yesterday. I figure that if I can a question about the incomplete refs, I can ask. Thanks for the websites; I'll take a look at them soon and see if we can fill anything with the news items on RH's page. Re: source format: for the articles I work on alone, I prefer to write in the sources by hand, but if I anticipate that other editors will participate, I use the citation templates. Lately, I've been using VisualEditor, which I've found to be a good tool for inserting templates. The dates need to be standardized; any format is fine, as long as it's consistent, and I've learned that the ddmmyyyy format is more accepted. If I make an error, please correct it. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 17:55, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
:::::I prefer citation templates, which is mostly evident by the Todd Manning Wikipedia article. So, yes, I would rather we stick with that and conform any reference not sticking to that style. But you still didn't answer the rename query. I would rather that we be consistent in that as well -- either going by the aforementioned style you displayed in the Todd sandbox or using the author name (if there is an author name available) or shortened title name. Also, for instances like [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Todd_Manning&diff=599814556&oldid=599814183#cite_note-Thomas-2 this], which doesn't really count as a reference by Wikipedia standards, I suggest we use Template:Note. That instance isn't needed, though, since it has a WP:Reliable source supporting it. And neither is [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Todd_Manning&diff=599814556&oldid=599814183#cite_note-93 this one], which is WP:Editorializing/WP:Synthesis; I'd meant to support that faulty editing of mine with a WP:Reliable source, but I never got around to doing that. Flyer22 (talk) 19:07, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
::::Those magazine sources are concerning. There should be a reasonable time scale in place to sort the problem. If it cannot be met - the information should be removed. Missing from most are the date of issue, page number, author, reporter and issue number. I have purchased many magazines to use as sources. I have used online magazine scans but only if the information was supplied. I would not have considered using them if not.Rain the 1 15:24, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
:::::The information should be removed because, for example, the sources are missing the author name or page number? I can't agree, per above; I reiterate that we have Template:Page needed, etc. in cases such as those. And it's very common for sources on Wikipedia to be missing the author name and/or page number or some other aspect, similar to reference styles that only give the author name and page number...as is the case with [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lesbian&diff=595978359&oldid=594336103#Notes the reference style] in the WP:Featured Lesbian article (though it does have the References section below that to sort out what is being cited). The content in the Todd Manning case is verifiable, even if not every source has all components appended to it. WP:Preserve is policy. Flyer22 (talk) 15:37, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
::::::You obviously will not agree. You added the information. WP:V is one the three core policies. It needs to be sorted. There are magazines available on eBay. This is supposed to be good article content. If it were at review in 2014 - it just would not cut. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it.Rain the 1 15:46, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
:::::::I don't always agree with keeping things because I added them, as is clear from this talk page and in many other discussions on Wikipedia; it's common for me to see the error of my ways and remove or tweak something I added to a Wikipedia article. But in this case? No, I don't "know it"; I don't because I see differently at WP:Good and WP:Featured article processes often, with various different citation styles, and these include WP:BLPs (where the strictest of reviewers are because Wikipedia takes WP:BLPs very seriously, more seriously than any other type of article). And the author name or page number, for example, is not always required, especially if the source does not show the author's name; this more so applies to WP:Good article content, however. I already noted [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Soap_Operas&diff=599772142&oldid=599732945#Todd_Manning_article_for_possible_WP:Featured_article_status here] that sourcing for WP:Featured article content is taken much more seriously, generally anyway. And I already noted above: "I intend to do what I can to fill out the incomplete references." Flyer22 (talk) 16:00, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
::::::::The other sources used appear good. It is just the incomplete ones I take issue with. You said that you will sort it. That is good enough for me. Sorry if I sound harsh though. I do not intend to. But you know I want soap opera articles to amongst the best and most reliable on Wikipedia.Rain the 1 16:18, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
:::::::::I suggest that we go meticulously go through this article and come to a consensus about the sources. I have no problem with using off-line sources; for some articles, you have to in order to be comprehensive. But yes, they have to be complete. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 17:55, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
::::::::::Some of the sources, such [http://web.archive.org/web/20090628134329/http://soapoperadigest.com/soapstarstats/rogerhowarthbio/ this] and [http://web.archive.org/web/20080131155120/http://soapoperadigest.com/soapstarstats/trevorstjohnbio/index1.html this] online Soap Opera Digest source which are reporting excerpts from a magazine issue, don't provide an author. As seen in that first diff-link, sometimes they don't provide the title of the piece in the magazine. Does that mean that these sources should be discarded? I don't think so. I feel the same about print sources in the article; it's not as though these references don't exist, and WP:SOURCEACCESS makes clear that we should not reject sources simply because they are not easily accessible. There is enough detail for most of the print magazine references in this article...that the references are accessible; often, all it takes is the name of the issue and/or title of the article piece in the magazine for me to access a source. But accessing soap opera magazine sources is a lot harder, and this may especially be the case for American soap operas. I reiterate that I will do what I can to remedy the incomplete references, but it should not be surprising if I object to valuable information being removed from this article because the author's name or the date (partial or full) is missing, or in the case of some other "missing one or two aspects" instance. At least for the online sources there is visual accessible/assessable proof, unless it's a WP:Dead link that is forever lost and cannot be accessed via Internet Archive. Flyer22 (talk) 19:07, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
Noting here for documentation of this talk page: [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Figureskatingfan/Todd_sandbox&diff=600375161&oldid=600373708 I removed] the quotes that were used as sources (rather as notes), but yeah. I removed the Starr daydream bit, as shown [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Figureskatingfan/Todd_sandbox&diff=600378072&oldid=600375161 here], with [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Figureskatingfan/Todd_sandbox&diff=600379424&oldid=600378072 a related move and tweak afterward]; like I stated, "I can source that Starr's daydreams were animated, and I can source that Howarth's eyes are not blue, but are actually hazel/look blue on occasions, but I can't source this passage. Also added additional source/text." The additional text I added, as shown, concerns the uproar that ensued from recasting Todd. I also made [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Figureskatingfan/Todd_sandbox&diff=600379660&oldid=600379424 this fix].
I'll tweak sources from time to time, and I might trade out different sources from time to time, sometimes adding a bit of text to go along with it. Flyer22 (talk) 23:47, 19 March 2014 (UTC)