Wikipedia:WikiProject The Simpsons/Proposal for managing song lists on Simpsons episodes

This is a proposal to better manage the list of songs features in each episode of The Simpsons and the complete list at List of songs featured in The Simpsons.

In short, I propose that they are managed by categories - add each song to a category corresponding to the episode it's on, then each episode page gets a link to a list of its songs. The current system is 'adhoc' in that there's no guarantee that a link on the 'list of songs' page will be also on the episode page or mentioned on the song page - this system ensures they're synchronised so a link on one is a link on all.

The Method

 * 1) To any song featured in an episode, we'd add it into a category relating to the episode - for instance, on the page for Rock the Casbah we would add the category
 * 2) To any song known to be on an episode but we're not sure which, we would add  until that's corrected to the right episode
 * 3) All these categories, such as , would be added to the category
 * 4) Each episode page would have added a line such as "For a list of songs used in this episode, see Category:Songs on the Simpsons episode 'Natural Born Kissers' " (the first colon causing generation of a link to the categories page)
 * 5) The page List of songs featured in The Simpsons would be replaced by some introductory paragraphs and the line "For a list of songs, please see Category:Songs on episodes of The Simpsons ". I suspect we'd have to keep the 'original songs' section and not sure about the 'parody songs' section

The Pro's

 * 1) When a new song is added by putting it into the right category, it will be added to the episode page and List of songs featured in The Simpsons automatically
 * 2) The list will get a consistent format, automatic alphabetic ordering etc, and will be listed alphabetically or grouped by episode, depending on which category page is viewed
 * 3) The songs pages will gain annotation that they're used in Simpsons episodes, which is mostly not present now

The Con's

 * 1) I'm not sure if this is 'misusing' categories, for a purpose for which they were not intended
 * 2) Not sure what we do about songs that have no page, although that's less than 10% of the ones listed on List of songs featured in The Simpsons
 * 3) It would reduce, but not remove, the list on List of songs featured in The Simpsons
 * 4) For non-wikipedia-regulars, the category page is a little less aesthetic than a customised list of pages
 * 5) Some of the songs on the page currently have comments such as who sings them, not sure we'd be able to retain those - I'd have to check on the mechanism for annotating comments on category entries, if that's an appropriate mechanism

Comments please --Mortice 22:00, 19 November 2006 (UTC)