Hey everyone!,

my name is Steph, short for Stephane, and I am from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I just joined today but I've been using TV Rage for quite a while now. I used to write episode guides for back in the late nineties/early 2000's so I'm not exactly new to writing episode guides.

If you check epguides.com you'll find several episode guides for shows from that time period credited to Steph Beaulne, that's me. Although for some strange reason a few of the guides I wrote back then are no longer credited to me but to either "this TV.com Editor" or "this TVRage Editor".

I decided to join because I contacted George Fergus from epguides.com about some missing info on their guides for Lone Star and My Generation and he asked if I'd mind submitting the info to tvrage. I was more than happy to do so so I decided to join the site. I'm now waiting on 28 contributions to be accepted.

The site makes it easy to submit information on any particular show but I think there should be a way to edit information once all the information for that section has been filled in. I'm speaking specifically about production numbers. I've found that they're listed as either 101, 102, 103 etc. or 1x01, 1x02, 1x03 etc. when actual production numbers for these shows exist. Of course this could simply be because I'm not the editor of those guides and the guides in question have no editor but if that's not the case and this is a standard thing then I think there should be a way to fix that.

Anyways, glad to be here and I look forward to contributing more information and interacting with you all.

Welcome!

I imagine epguides credits whoever the editor is on tv.com (if you have the tv.com display set) or tvrage (if the tvrage display). If you're no longer the editor, you won't be credited.

Assuming you're using the new layout, go to the episode you want to edit, edit Episode Contribs, and click on Update Episode. Follow the steps and you can edit production #s. Please feel free to remove any of the (normally bogus) 101 production codes and put in the real ones.

I'm not sure what you mean by "new layout". I haven't changed anything regarding the way I view the site. I found out how to edit the production number section though. I've been trying to edit it once I'm on the page with all the information for any particular episode but for some reason that section, which also includes writer and director credit, is the only one that doesn't have a link to allow editing of the info, even if there's no info listed. I've just gone to the episode list page and clicked on the edit button to the right and that allows me to edit the episode title and production number, but I still don't have the option to add/edit the writer/director credits.

For some strange reason epguides.com links my V.I.P. episode guide to tvrage however my guide is not posted here. There's some minimal information listed but it's basically nothing. I managed to find my guide posted at tv.com but there doesn't seem to be an editor, at least I couldn't find a listing for one. The information that is posted was all supplied by me so I will go ahead and submit it to the guide here at tvrage.

Once I gain enough credits I would like to apply as editor for it. I'm 30 credits short right now but with all the information I have for that show it shouldn't take too long before I earn more than enough.

TVRage currently has two layouts, the original one with a light brown/grey-tan screen, and the new one in bluer colors. The new layout at least will let you edit multiple production codes (up to a full season, I think) at one time.

Don't know why you can't edit writers/directors. Do you mean you're not seeing an Edit Crew link below Director/Writer (which both should say (Unknown)), or that it doesn't work when you click on it. Knowing which layout you're looking at it, from the two above, would also help.

What do you mean that epguides links "your" episode guide to tvrage? All epguides has is a list of episodes, which are the same at TV.com and TVRage, and a lot of other sites.

The V.I.P. guide at epguides that I'm seeing links to tvrage. When did you submit the information to TVRage? I've spotchecked a couple of episodes, and I'm not finding any submissions that deleted (or added) information. When did you post it on TVRage?

The editor for V.I.P. at Tv.com is dmarex, whoever he or she is. I don't know how they do their point system over there, but that editor has what seems like a lot of points, so I suppose they've done a lot of work on it. They're not a member here under that name. I don't know if you mean you submitted your information over here and now it's over there (which doesn't explain how it was deleted here, as you seem to be saying). Until it's a little clearer how that transfer occurred, I'd be leery of submitting another site's summaries here. If they changed even a bit of any of the summaries to "fix" things, they're no longer entirely yours.

On Sunday, May 8th 2011 5:54 pm, Gadfly wrote:

TVRage currently has two layouts, the original one with a light brown/grey-tan screen, and the new one in bluer colors. The new layout at least will let you edit multiple production codes (up to a full season, I think) at one time.

If you're talking about the colored border/background mine is a shade of green. If that's not what you're referring to then I have no idea. I haven't seen any option to edit multiple production codes at one time though.

On Sunday, May 8th 2011 5:54 pm, Gadfly wrote:

Don't know why you can't edit writers/directors. Do you mean you're not seeing an Edit Crew link below Director/Writer (which both should say (Unknown)), or that it doesn't work when you click on it. Knowing which layout you're looking at it, from the two above, would also help.

I'm not seeing an Edit Crew link below the Director/Writer section. It's the only section where the link, or the icon to edit, doesn't show up. Although I believe I found an alternate area where I can edit it. On the right side of the screen if I click on the "Episode Contribs" tab it'll lower plenty of options and one of them is "Episode Crew". It appears to work the same way as when I want to submit guest cast but I haven't tried submitting any info for writers or directors just yet in case it wasn't the right way to do it.

On Sunday, May 8th 2011 5:54 pm, Gadfly wrote:

What do you mean that epguides links "your" episode guide to tvrage? All epguides has is a list of episodes, which are the same at TV.com and TVRage, and a lot of other sites.

What I mean is if you click on any of the episode titles for V.I.P. it'll bring you to the page for that episode here on TV Rage. However you'll find that no pertinent information is listed here for any of the episodes. If you go to tv.com though and search for V.I.P. you'll find the episode guide that I wrote complete with synopsis, cast/crew info, notes, trivia etc.

On Sunday, May 8th 2011 5:54 pm, Gadfly wrote:

The V.I.P. guide at epguides that I'm seeing links to tvrage. When did you submit the information to TVRage? I've spotchecked a couple of episodes, and I'm not finding any submissions that deleted (or added) information. When did you post it on TVRage?

I haven't submitted any information as of yet to TV Rage regarding V.I.P. I did however submit 51 show contributions (11 for Romantically Challenged, 15 for Undercovers, 5 for My Generation, 7 for The Whole Truth, 4 for The Paul Reiser Show and 9 for Breaking In) as well as 14 new people contributions this afternoon. I submitted I think another 10 today before submitting these but they were accepted pretty quickly.

On Sunday, May 8th 2011 5:54 pm, Gadfly wrote:

The editor for V.I.P. at Tv.com is dmarex, whoever he or she is. I don't know how they do their point system over there, but that editor has what seems like a lot of points, so I suppose they've done a lot of work on it. They're not a member here under that name. I don't know if you mean you submitted your information over here and now it's over there (which doesn't explain how it was deleted here, as you seem to be saying). Until it's a little clearer how that transfer occurred, I'd be leery of submitting another site's summaries here. If they changed even a bit of any of the summaries to "fix" things, they're no longer entirely yours.

What I mean is back in the mid/late nineties/early 2000's I was a frequent contributor to epguides. I was the editor for several shows and V.I.P. was one of them. I know over here anyone can submit information for a show but on epguides if a show had an editor he was the only one who could supply the information for each episode. I would personally record the show every week, I still have all 88 episodes on tape, and e-mail the episode info to Dennis Kytasaari who was/is in charge. He would then add the information to the guide for me since epguides didn't have forms for the editors to update the information themselves. I was very dedicated to that guide because I had a huge crush on Pam Anderson. I would watch the episodes several times so that I could find any goofs or interesting trivia to add. I also had a contact who was friends with one of the writers on the show and he would e-mail me a complete list of the upcoming seasons episode titles, in the original air date order, a month of two before the season would even start. He also helped out with a few trivia items as I recall as well as information on uncredited guest stars.

I've contacted George Fergus, who's another person in charge at epguides, regarding why I'm no longer credited as the editor for that, and a few other guides, and this is what he said:

George Fergus Wrote:

For ease of editing, most of our guides have been moved to TV.com or TVrage.com and their original editors have either moved with them or been replaced by new editors. Typically, your former guides now link to those new editors, who have made modifications to them and are currently in charge of making any necessary additions or corrections, and approving all the submissions from others. However, if there was already a guide in place at TV.com or TVrage.com, we may have left your original guide as it was.

I've checked about a dozen episode pages for V.I.P. and all the information that is listed for them was supplied by me when I was the editor for the show at epguides. I don't know where the current editor got his points from but it certainly doesn't appear to be from V.I.P. I can understand you not wanting to fully take my word for it but feel free to contact either Dennis or George at epguides to inquire about the validity of what I've stated. I will hold off on submitting any information for V.I.P. until I hear back from you.

Could you post a screen capture of what you're seeing when you access TVRage?

TVRage isn't affiliated with TV.com, so anything you submitted there wouldn't appear here. To the best of my knowledge, nothing that you submit to epguides would appear here, either. Someone like Sebrioth might know about data that epguides transferred from their site to TVRage. I don't know about how you become an editor for epguides, and where the information goes. As you say, you'd have to talk to George Fergus about that. My guess would be that epguides moved the information to TV.com, since as you say it isn't here.

Quote:

. I don't know where the current editor got his points from but it certainly doesn't appear to be from V.I.P.

There is no current editor for V.I.P. at TVrage, so I'm not sure what you mean. I don't know anything about the editor at TV.com, or why you think he or she didn't get the points from V.I.P. You'd have to contact that editor, dmarex, for more information on that.

In the meantime, you're welcome to submit any information you want for V.I.P., no need to wait. Summaries found on TV.com would be an exception to that. Even if the information originally transferred there was yours, it's possible that dmarex or someone else could have changed it, meaning it's no longer yours to post here.

On Sunday, May 8th 2011 10:46 pm, Gadfly wrote:

Could you post a screen capture of what you're seeing when you access TVRage?

Sure. This is what I see.

Gadfly Wrote:

TVRage isn't affiliated with TV.com, so anything you submitted there wouldn't appear here. To the best of my knowledge, nothing that you submit to epguides would appear here, either. Someone like Sebrioth might know about data that epguides transferred from their site to TVRage. I don't know about how you become an editor for epguides, and where the information goes. As you say, you'd have to talk to George Fergus about that. My guess would be that epguides moved the information to TV.com, since as you say it isn't here.

I don't think epguides creates guides anymore. From what I can see they only include episode lists and link them to either guides here on TV Rage or on tv.com But back when epguides were still posting episode guides themselves you'd have to contact Dennis and tell him that you were interested in writing the guide for a certain show. If nobody else had shown interest the guide was yours.

Gadfly Wrote:

There is no current editor for V.I.P. at TVrage, so I'm not sure what you mean. I don't know anything about the editor at TV.com, or why you think he or she didn't get the points from V.I.P. You'd have to contact that editor, dmarex, for more information on that.

I was referring to the editor at tv.com and the reason why I don't think he/she got them from V.I.P. is because as I've said I've checked a good number of episodes and all the information that is included for them was provided by me. I know you have to protect your side of things but I do know my writing style and reading those synopsis' I can tell you for certain that they were supplied by myself.

Gadfly Wrote:

In the meantime, you're welcome to submit any information you want for V.I.P., no need to wait. Summaries found on TV.com would be an exception to that. Even if the information originally transferred there was yours, it's possible that dmarex or someone else could have changed it, meaning it's no longer yours to post here.

For now I'll focus on submitting information on other shows that I wrote guides for, that I'm still credited for, but when I get to V.I.P. I'll tell you what. If I come across any synopsis that I don't remember writing or if it looks like they've been altered I won't submit them. I'll write a new one based on the synopsis given and my recollections of the episode. Would that be alright?

Right now though I'm working on submitting information for "Jenny", then I'll probably do "Pauly", "Holding The Baby", "Costello" and "Snoops". I'll have to go through the show list at epguides to help me remember which other guides I've done because it's been so long I kind of forget now.

That's the new layout.

To add writer/director, on the episode page look to the right where it says Episode Contribs. Open it up if it isn't already, and then click on Episode Crew. That will let you add writers and directors.

I don't know how TV.com ranks their submissions. However, I'm pretty sure that 800+ is considerable.

New summaries would certainly be acceptable, although we don't want to put you to the work if you don't have to. Possibly epguides may still have the original information you submitted?

On Sunday, May 8th 2011 11:22 pm, Gadfly wrote:

That's the new layout. To add writer/director, on the episode page look to the right where it says Episode Contribs. Open it up if it isn't already, and then click on Episode Crew. That will let you add writers and directors.

I figured that's where it was but thought it was odd that there wasn't a little icon in the box where the writer/director/airdate/production number info is to allow you to edit it like there is for every other box on the episode info page. I've submitted info for the first 5 episodes of "Jenny", will do the rest tomorrow, and I've included the writer/director credits for the ones I've done so far. I'll go back tomorrow and submit the writer/director info for the other shows/episodes I've submitted so far that are lacking those credits.

Gadfly Wrote:

I don't know how TV.com ranks their submissions. However, I'm pretty sure that 800+ is considerable.

I'm not discrediting the editor who now has the guide I'm just saying that he/she didn't get those points from V.I.P. It's entirely possible that he/she has been writing guides there for quite a while and may have other guides that they edit as well. I wouldn't be trying to claim credit for the guide/info contained therein if I didn't honestly write it myself.

Gadfly Wrote:

New summaries would certainly be acceptable, although we don't want to put you to the work if you don't have to. Possibly epguides may still have the original information you submitted?

Like I said if I come across a summary that I didn't write or I can't remember writing I'll write a new one based on the summary given and my recollection of the episode but I doubt any of the summaries didn't come from me. Writing summaries for episodes that may have new ones that I didn't write shouldn't be a problem. Although contacting George or Dennis at epguides is a good idea. The show's been off the air for 9 years so it might be a slim change that they still have the info but it's worth looking into.

I believe TV.com lists a person's points per show, just as we do. So if this dmarex is listed for 800 points under V.I.P., that would be the points they have for that show.

I checked his profile and he's the editor for 121 shows, the trusted editor for 2 shows and the editor for 36 people so I decided to check a few of those guides out and you're right, it does appear that they give points based on the show. He says that if we've got any questions about any of the shows he edits to send him a PM or an e-mail but he doesn't include an e-mail address. Looks like I'm going to have to join tv.com just so I can contact him to find out what he did to get those points for V.I.P. because I just can't see it.

Most people, here or there, don't list emails.

If it works like here, I've inherited guides and sometimes had to make a lot of minor changes. In fact, you want to keep the changes minor but necessary so you're not entirely tossing out what someone has done before. So the majority of what you wrote over there, could still be there. Would you know if just a few words were changed per summary?

Of course, if you had the original summaries or could get them from epguides, that would make it less likely our system would turn them up as copies, if what is at TV.com no longer precisely matches what you originally had.

I wish that I did but unfortunately I don't. I did the V.I.P. guide years before I even got a computer so I would write everything down and then go to the library on Mondays to submit them to Dennis. As soon as the info was posted I'd throw out my written copy. And I can't recall ever having printed out a copy of the guide. I'm going to contact George later and ask him if it's possible that either he or Dennis still has a copy of my original guide before it was moved over to tvtome.com which later became tv.com I highly doubt that either of them do but it's worth a shot.

As for my being able to recognize minor differences in my summaries I would say it depends on how minor they are. If it's just grammar correction then I probably wouldn't notice but if words were changed I think I might notice, especially if they're words that I wouldn't use. Although if any of my summaries have been shortened or extended I would certainly notice.

What is the process for submissions? I thought they were approved by an editor but now you mention a system?

Someone here longer than me can probably tell you more. My understanding is that if your info was moved to tvtome, there was some big sale/transferral thing that got that info to tv.com. At that point, you had to create a membership there to get "credit" for your submissions that were brought over from tvtome. Since you presumably didn't do that, you didn't become the editor for it at tv.com.

If you make submissions to a show with an editor, the editor would approve them. If you submit them to a show without, they go into a general queue. As part of the submission/approval system, editors and moderators get a display of other summaries on the web that match the one you're submitting, so we can see if they're copied or not. So there is a person approving, but the moderation system shows us matches.

I just checked tv.com to see if they had an episode guide for "Jenny" since it's another episode guide I did for epguides and they not only have a guide for it but from what I can tell from a quick look at the summaries they are stolen word for word from my guide on epguides.com

I submitted some info for the first 5 episodes last night and they were posted today when I got up. I plan on submitting the rest of the information for the remaining episodes tonight. I hope this won't be a problem as well? I am still credited as the editor of that guide on epguides.

http://www.epguides.com/jenny/

As I understand it you need 40 points in order to apply to be an editor for any given show and I currently have 58.8. If I were to apply to be editor for V.I.P. would there be any problem with my adding the summaries that I posted or would you rather wait for further verification that they were in fact written by me?

And if you don't mind my throwing this out there do you think it's possible that before my guide was removed from epguides.com that dmarex simply copied and pasted the information I supplied so that he could post it to the guide at tv.com? I just find it odd that epguides links the guide to TV Rage when the guide isn't here but on tv.com.