Talk:Billy Mitchell (EastEnders)

Occupation
Does being unemployed even count as an occupation? I'd have thought it was more the absence thereof. Frickative 21:52, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, Billie Jackson is listed on his page as "occupation: unemployed" :) --5 albert square (talk) 21:57, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
 * WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS. Umm, well, I don't see why not since Billy is often unemployed. That's what I've put in the infobox, as it's meant to represent the whole time, not just "now". Anemone  Projectors  23:08, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm aware the ibox shouldn't be recentist, I just don't see how unemployment is actually an occupation. Being a lawyer or a teacher is an occupation, being unemployed or retired isn't, imo. Frickative  23:26, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, people do say "I'm a retired teacher", don't they? But maybe you have a point. I think it's good to say that Billy has been unemployed though so people don't think he's always doing those jobs. Anemone  Projectors  23:38, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
 * The best solution is probably to use dates for each occupation, but that's a general observation for going forward, I don't expect anyone to have perfect recall of the past 11 years of Billy's storylines, haha. Frickative  13:38, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Hmm, I've been going through some other articles and have removed dates, such as for Max Branning (not many of them have past occupations and even fewer with years, though). Should I go back and revert myself? Anemone  Projectors  15:25, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Ooh, I'm not sure now. My first inclination was that it would be helpful to have them in the ibox, but now I'm wondering if it's maybe a level of detail that should just be in the plot section instead. I know I've just talked myself round in a circle, but yeah, no real need to revert yourself. Frickative  15:35, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Dates is a good idea, but part of me does wonder whether we should scrap occupation from the infobox as this could get a little silly for some of them. Imagine Sam Mitchell for example: Student, model, holiday rep, barmaid, lapdancer, fish and chip shop worker, manageress, at times unemployed etc etc.  GunGagdin Moan 15:41, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
 * That's why we need to select the most defining or most important ones. Perhaps, in Sam's case, none of them are defining or important. We shouldn't scrap the section, but I think we could scrap "home" because that can't represent the character's entire life in most cases. But that's a different discussion. Anemone  Projectors  16:11, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah let's scrap home. It's not important for anything. I do agree with Frickative on the unemployed being removed though. It isn't an occupation and the absence of the parameter in an unemployed character's infobox suggests they dont have a career at present anyway.  GunGagdin Moan 18:03, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Unemployed can also be misleading. Mo Harris was listed as unemployed because Stacey lost her stall, but she's since got it back, but Mo makes money selling stolen goods, but wouldn't she be receiving a pension anyway? I don't think we should remove the home parameter from the actual template as it's not just for EastEnders now and the other soap character infobox uses it, but I can use AWB to remove it from EastEnders articles. But I think it's more important to sort out the occupations, making sure they're not just "present" ones. Carol Jackson and Robbie Jackson are others with lots of jobs listed. Anemone  Projectors  18:42, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

2 November 1998
Does someone have a reliable source for this date as the BBC website says 2 August 1999, which is why I changed it, but people continue to change it back, saying he appeared in 1998. Anemone Projectors  22:09, 20 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Yup, I've now added it to the article. He first appeared in 1998 as a guest character and then moved to regular status in 1999.  Maybe the BBC are taking it from when he first appeared as a regular?  Then again maybe they've just made a mistake!  --5 albert square (talk) 22:50, 20 May 2010 (UTC)


 * They do make mistakes. I guess I should have looked at the creation section, but I think I spotted it when I was updating the external links for all the characters. Thanks :) Anemone  Projectors  22:54, 20 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I always forget, punctuation THEN reference not the other way around! --5 albert square (talk) 23:00, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Date of birth
We have 1 May for his birthday, but this year his birthday was in the episode broadcast on 3 May, and there was an episode on 1 May. I know not every episode is set on the day of broadcast, but should we change it? – Anemone Projectors – 13:40, 29 May 2012 (UTC)