Talk:Questionable Content/Archive 3

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

SPOILERS

This article contains spoilers from start to finish... maybe something can be done about it. Maybe a warning. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.96.203.23 (talk) 08:15, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I have removed a couple lines from the intro that contained spoilers (most notably the description of Dora as "Marten's girlfriend," since that doesn't happen until halfway through the comic) and also the long list of supporting characters in that section. Other than that, I didn't see anything outside of the Synopsis section that struck me as being a spoiler, and within the Synopsis section it is implied that there will be spoilers and readers are entering at their own risk (see WP:SW). --Politizer (talk) 12:59, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Old, but still: The entirety of Wikipedia is implied to have spoilers. There is no call for spoiler warnings and less call for removal of material based solely on it possibly being a spoiler. Of course, if something has no purpose other than being a spoiler that is another thing, but that is not the case here. Just a future FYI. --Human.v2.0 (talk) 21:54, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Yep, you're right. That message from me above (Politizer=rjanag, it's just my old username), was just in my first week or so of being a Wikipedian. Oh, how I've grown :) rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 22:05, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

No worries. I honestly think that Wikipedia should require a quiz before users are allowed to make changes more than 10kb in size. :P I decided to put the response there so that I wouldn't have to deal with it later. --Human.v2.0 (talk) 22:19, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Past Tense usage in character description

Hey,

Regarding this sentence in Marten's bio: "Marten lives with Faye, whom he is romantically interested in for many months, but is now dating Dora"...an unregistered user recent changed it to "was romantically interested," and Huntster reverted the edit in good faith because generally fiction is written in present tense. But, come to think of it, I actually like it better in the past, and here's why...

The character bios section strikes me more as a summary of where the characters are at this point in time, sort of a frozen image of right now, rather than a section recounting plot. If it were recounting plot, it would be appropriate to write it in present tense ("ie. Marten and Faye go to get ice cream. And then they talk."), but since it's a snapshot of a particular moment in the strip's history, it makes sense to put the past events in the past. Some precedents: for Pintsize it reads "was the second character introduced in the comic's first strip," for Winslow "Though Winslow was initially taunted by Pintsize," and for Natasha "she dumped both Amir and Deathmøle."

So anyway, I changed it back to past for now. Sorry about reverting you, Huntster. --Politizer (talk) 11:45, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I think technically it still should be in present. The pintsize reference refers to real-world action (publication of the strip) so it can be past tense. see WP:WAF (I could be wrong). Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^(talk) 11:52, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Hm...what if we reword it to make it more clear that it is referring to the earlier days of the strip...for example, "Marten lives with Faye, in whom he was romantically interested for much of the early part of Questionable Content" or something similar? --Politizer (talk) 12:04, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

But what's "the early part"? How about: There is sexual tension between them, until Faye announces in #500 [or thereabouts] that she is not ready for intimacy? —Tamfang (talk) 06:01, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Twitter

Anyone think there should be a section on the recent Twitter accounts given to each character? I find it definetly something worthwhile, may even influence the poplarity of Twitter itself. Anyway, I know I'm not going to add the section, so if anyone's so inclined, justa suggestion...

• Check the external links policy. Somehow I don't think that these would be relevant enough to merit inclusion. DP76764 (Talk) 20:57, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

No, this is hardly notable in and of itself, except amongst the small community that might follow these tweets. I'm not sure how this could possibly influence the popularity of Twitter, considering it is extraordinarily popular already...even NASA is using it as a community outreach device. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 23:01, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I hear elsewhere that the tweets contain canonical plot info, so I reckon they're relevant – if JJ keeps it up; it seems like the sort of experiment that might well be abandoned within a month. (Project Thingy, anyone?) —Tamfang (talk) 06:04, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

As the site explicitly states here, unless the tweet indicates otherwise, they are by default considered a separate storyline (or perhaps, not part of any real storyline). — Huntster (t • @ • c) 07:20, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

That statement falls well short of saying they're non-canonical, though; I see no justification for your "perhaps". Plenty of strips, too, are independent of any particular story arc. —Tamfang (talk) 09:38, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to see the Twitter accounts documented in their own section. Although WP:ELNO specifically prohibits external links to Twitter feeds, wouldn't it be permissible to state the Twitter name (e.g. @hanneloreEC) without making it an external link? BTW, Twitter-linked comic characters aren't unique to Questionable Content, so they may become notable; I've discovered that Kevin and Kell's Catherine Aura is officially commenting on events in the strip as @catherine_aura; see Bill Holbrook's blog entry for October 5, 2009. — Wdfarmer (talk) 08:06, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

WP:IAR. If it is agreed that the twitter accounts are worth mentioning in the article, then this would be a clear exception to the guideline. rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 16:22, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

I take it isn't acceptable to link to the recently-created list, @jephjacques/qccast? There is canonical plot, but it is independent of comic plot (eg Pintsize hacks Faye's account). --69.209.106.96 (talk) 06:27, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

space station

Some of the memorable technological creations in QC are ... human colonies on the International Space Station; ...

Is the ISS mentioned at all? Hannelore says in #665: "...daddy spends most of his time on the space station. ... No, he just has his own space station. That's actually where I grew up." [emphasis added] —Tamfang (talk) 21:40, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I think you're right. rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 21:46, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Hannelore threatens at one point to move to the moon, which may or may not imply existing settlement there. —Tamfang (talk) 07:30, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Marigold

I'm inclined to revert the addition of Marigold to the "characters" section, as she's just shown up and may be a one-off. I'm going to wait on this to see where Jeph takes her, though, and for comment by others. Mark Shaw (talk) 04:06, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Already done. She and the others added are minor characters. We have no need to list anything other than the major players. Heck, I think Winslow and Steve should be removed as well, but I won't go there without more support. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 05:52, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Okay, I agree; but I think that Marigold is a breakout character, as of late. Just wanted to stay on the bleeding edge. (sorry for the inconvenience.) --68.231.164.52 (talk) 06:25, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

It's pretty clear that Jeph intends to make her a major character, given that she has had a few strips entirely to herself and Momo recently. The rest of the characters have even gone out of their way to basically give her an initiation into their social circle, and what she is like as a person has been fleshed out. This is extremely different from a one-off character like Sarah, who was never really explored as an individual and was only used as a tool to expand on Faye and Marten. -- Stormwatch36 06:04, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I agree she is becoming a more significant presence. I would still suggest waiting a while longer before adding her to the page, just to see if the trend continues or this is some kind of short term thing. See the chart created by Tamfang below...I believe this is an excellent barometer of character notability. If she continues to move up the chart and gather more appearances, inclusion would be appropriate, but I believe it to still be a bit early for that. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 07:02, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, since the last character count, she has had four appearances, and now has more appearances than Will. No one on the list now appears between her and her roommate Angus, who already has a bio. Do we wait for her to pass Angus? Gavroche42 (talk) 11:27, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

I've just updated the character counts through comic #1505, and they agree with User:Gavroche42's observation. — Wdfarmer (talk) 07:50, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

I've just reverted Epoch321's addition of Margold Farmer to the characters list, since there doesn't yet seem to be a consensus on whether she's a sufficiently notable character. — Wdfarmer (talk) 07:06, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Marigold has a twitter account, has had several story arcs involving her, and has strips where she is the only major character. She is arguably more important than Angus. --69.209.106.96 (talk) 06:16, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Comics Maverick

I observe that Comics Maverick is a blog whose entire content is one paragraph dissing QC. —Tamfang (talk) 06:14, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

whatsername

In the last panel of #1540: is that someone we've seen before? —Tamfang (talk) 02:49, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

The chick crawling out from under the covers? She doesn't look familiar to me... — Huntster (t @ c) 03:03, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Nope. In 1541 she is named, Annette; this is her only appearance. —Tamfang (talk) 21:47, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

College Name

Not sure if it's worth bringing up or erasing all those nifty links to Smith College, but throughout QC, the college at which Marten works is named "Smiff," not Smith...for accuracy's sake, might be a good idea to change that here... Snyrt (talk) 08:13, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

It's called Smif; unless the author says its real name is not Smith, I take that to be a jocularism. —Tamfang (talk) 18:22, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Plus, in this comic (the only time, as far as I know, the name occurs in writing rather than on t-shirts and in speech), it's called Smith. rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 19:03, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm glad this important issue could be resolved so quickly. tedder (talk) 19:05, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

strip 691

Speaking of that strip:

That is possibly the nerdiest panel 4 I have ever written. To the 5% of my audience who gets all three jokes, I salute you and your English degrees.

Darn it, I only see two jokes: Tai's last balloon is a silly pun, and her next-to-last is in iambic pentameter. What's the third? —Tamfang (talk) 06:37, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

If you find out, could you let me know, please? Now i'm wondering... Jedikaiti (talk) 06:18, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

The Now Hiring sign says "Applicants Must Be Literate". If you weren't literate, you wouldn't be able to read the sign.--Scorp Stanton (talk) 07:00, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I thought that might be the third, but Jeph specifically mentioned "panel 4", so perhaps there's another one hidden in that panel... — Huntster (t @ c) 08:08, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

footnote 19

I'm puzzled by this footnote:

Jacques, Jeph. "Her Arch-Nemesis."

What is the first link for? Was it meant to go in the first archive reference? —Tamfang (talk) 05:23, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure, perhaps it was put in there before Jacques had an article. I've removed it now. rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 05:25, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't think this "Article may contain improper references to self-published sources"

There was a tag on this saying "article may contain improper references to self-published sources." I couldn't find any, so I removed the tag. Yes, Jacques' self-published work is cited, but that seems to be well within Wikipedia:RS#Self-published_and_questionable_sources_as_sources_on_themselves. Thanks, Starblueheather (talk) 04:25, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Whose strip is it anyway? (OR)

Marten is nominally the center but Faye has appeared in more strips, because she interacts with more other characters. (Marten has Tai and Steve "to himself" but Faye has Sven, Angus, Raven, Penelope and random customers.)

I got curious about when Faye caught up to Marten, so I used my existing cast log to make up a running relative count. Assuming (generously!) that I've made no errors, Marten's biggest lead over Faye was 16, in #234. Faye first caught up in #188 and first pulled ahead in #399; Marten got ahead seven more times, but has not caught up again since #916. Faye's biggest lead was 46, in #1405. —Tamfang (talk) 00:47, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I thought we all agreed that Sara has always been the central character :) rʨanaɢ (talk) 00:53, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Proposal For Updating To A More Recent Comic

I propose updating the comic used on the top right of the Wiki page to a more recent one to better represent the newer (improved) drawing style. It would not be difficult to do, and as long as it is just a snipping of one of the more recent (~ #1500+) comics it would surely remain fair use.

If significantly more people agree than disagree, I will be happy to do that. Theoboyd (talk) 09:36, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Auto-archive

Any objections to me setting this page up to auto-archive? It'll hopefully reduce necro-posts like this one. me_and (talk) 11:06, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

 Done me_and (talk) 11:15, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

character ranking

One way to rank characters is by how often they appear in strips without any higher-ranking character. Thus:

• Faye appears in more strips than anyone else.
• Whether or not we count Faye strips, Marten is runner-up (by a wide margin).
• Dora is third overall, but Hannelore has most appearances without Faye or Marten. (User:Tamfang/QC cast)
• Next we discard Hannelore strips, and — drumroll! — as of #1789, Marigold takes over fourth place from Dora!

So perhaps Marigold ought to be moved up from the bottom of the cast list? —Tamfang (talk) 05:22, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

coffee revisionism

In Sven's first appearance, Dora says, "What are you doing here? You hate coffee." But later he comes to CoD at least twice for coffee ! Clearly the Sirian mind control rays got to him. —Tamfang (talk) 16:52, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Marigold's Last Name

Is Marigold's last name really supposed to be "Farmer"? Her last name is never mentioned in the series, and while her twitter name is "marigoldfarmer", that is blatantly a pun on "gold farmer", a person (like Marigold) who spends long amounts of time acquiring money in MMORPGS like WOW ("farming" for gold). None of the comic's other characters have ridiculous puns for names, and assuming that her name follows from that of her twitter account is just silly. Tai's twitter account is "tai_fighter" (a pun on TIE fighters from Star Wars) and her name isn't listed as "Tai Fighter" for the same obvious reasons. —Preceding unsigned comment added by MASLEGOMan (talk • contribs) 17:46, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

I think it was established in the strip, before the cast joined Twitter, that "Tai Fighter" is her stage name as a DJ. —Tamfang (talk) 09:18, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Oh yeah... In comic 1022, to be specific... Well regardless, it's still a bit of a stretch to state Marigold's last name as "Farmer" without the comic or artist ever actually SAYING it is. --MASLEGOMan (talk) 18:52, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Well, so Jeph did, in comic 1992. End of Discussion, I think. Rikthoff (talk) 09:00, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

I thought for sure that Marigold's last name was established in the comic, but I guess I'm mis-remembering. The twitter feeds aren't canon, so if the comic doesn't say her name is Farmer, then we should get rid of it from the article. — Huntster (t @ c) 06:35, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Now another editor insists that the twittage is canon. Is there a source either way? —Tamfang (talk) 01:56, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

I shouldn't have mentioned the canon issue, even though "QC tweets occur independently of any particular comic or story arc" says to me that they aren't canon (unless the individual post is intended to be). It still doesn't change the fact that there is zero evidence that "Marigold Farmer" is anything other than pun. — Huntster (t @ c) 02:06, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Huntster is correct, unless it is "canon" that Tai's last name is "rannosaurus". [1] Feezo (Talk) 03:15, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

It doesn't say non-canon to me. —Tamfang (talk) 01:46, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Now it's canon. —Tamfang (talk) 22:04, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

Potentially useful image

The second panel of the following comic may be useful on this article if anyone is interested in adding it: [2] Neelix (talk) 02:11, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

And where would it go? Funny and (sort of) relevant to Wikipedia, but it wouldn't add anything to this article. Not to mention, adding it here would violate our fair-use restrictions. — Huntster (t @ c) 03:25, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

When choosing an image that illustrates a particular concept, it is preferable to use an image that is specifically relevant to Wikipedia. See the xkcd, Firefox, and Moe anthropomorphism articles for examples. The author of xkcd specifically released File:Webcomic xkcd - Wikipedian protester.png into the public domain in order for it to be used without restrictions on Wikipedia; perhaps the author of Questionable Content would be willing to do the same. If he is, I would recommend that the image go in the style section. Neelix (talk) 15:27, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Can't say I agree with that first sentence...it's preferable to use images that best illustrate the article. The xkcd image well illustrates the style of that comic while being a humourous and reasonably subtle in-joke for Wikipedia, whereas the QC panel you mention neither illustrates the style of QC very well nor is it anything but an in-your-face meta reference. I just think it would be out of place here. — Huntster (t @ c) 16:44, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

OK. Just thought I'd suggest it. Neelix (talk) 16:47, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I agree with Huntster here. Too many articles seem to be playing "spot the Wikipedia reference"; the fact that something makes a joke about Wikipedia doesn't mean that has to be included here. Keep in mind WP:Avoid self-references; we're not building a list of all the Wikipedia references in the world (how dull the encyclopedia would be if every article on a comic, internet meme, etc. used something about Wikipedia as its image). Do these images really improve the reader's understanding of the topic? (The panel you're suggesting doesn't even show any of the comic's characters.) rʨanaɢ (talk) 20:04, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

List it in Wikipedia:Wikipedia in webcomics. —Tamfang (talk) 00:49, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Padma

I saw your comment note about discussing before adding new characters. Do we not think Padma is major enough character yet? --Louiedog (talk) 14:39, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

As far as I can tell (although I admit I've only been reading sporadically) she's just involved in a current story arc. rʨanaɢ (talk) 15:12, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

The most telling thing will be if she decides to not leave the city, or leaves and quickly comes back to be with Marten. Otherwise, yeah, probably just a current arc character. (Hopefully not!) — Huntster (t @ c) 06:03, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

Suggest that Momo be given a character section

She seems to be becoming a major character. --Jtle515 (talk) 18:13, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

It's probably a good idea to wait until after the current story arc passes before trying to judge how "major" a character is, otherwise it's easy for our judgment to be clouded by recentism. rʨanaɢ (talk) 18:25, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

In #2018, Momo caught up to Winslow in total number of strips. See User:Tamfang/QC cast. I consider this a better reason to remove Winslow (or merge him into Hannelore's section) than to add Momo; her count is still not much more than half of Penelope's. —Tamfang (talk) 08:36, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Momo continues to pull ahead of Winslow, and now (as of 2203) has almost two-thirds as many appearances as Penelope. —Tamfang (talk) 17:42, 19 June 2012 (UTC)