Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Arena Football League/Archive 1

Template enhancements
I have enhanced some templates. Template:AFL team now has the color1 and color2 parameters to put the team name in the team colors; I did the best job I could getting those colors right, but some may need tweaking. Since the new AFL playoff format is for all practical purposes identical to the NFL's, I adapted Template:NFLBracket so that it can be used by both leagues, and installed it in 2006 Arena Football League season. I did a lot of work on that template after a bunch of people got confused about 're-seeding'. The template automatically explains the tentative nature of the bracket in each conference before the 3/6 game is final, and the location of the conference championship until the 1 seed wins their second-round game or both games are final.The Monster 03:06, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I will add tweaking the colors on the task list. But all in all Good Job-- ROASTY TOAST  03:19, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

I've created a template for af2 based on the one used for the league. The template can be found on my sandbox page with an example use of the template. Comments are, of course, greatly appreciated. I could tweak it for the AFL, too, if desired. I've also done things such as a roster template (can be found on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers page, if anyone else would like to comment on them. WeatherManNX01 00:06, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I've gone ahead and added the template at Template:Af2 team and put it to use on the Pioneers page.WeatherManNX01 (talk) 03:27, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Color Changes
The Los Angeles Avengers infobox colors look a little weird, any changes let me know. -- ROASTY TOAST  21:17, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

The New Orleans VooDoo also looks a little weird but I wouldn't know their colors.-- ROASTY TOAST  21:40, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Someone changed it -- ROASTY TOAST  22:24, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I changed it. I know black isn't really one of their colors, but sometimes, you have to put readability/eyestrain issues over exact color schemes. Nolesrule 05:08, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Conference Titles
What is the definition being used for conference titles? There were no conference championship games prior to 2005, so only the Colorado Crush (2005), Georgia Force (2005), Chicago Rush (2006) and Orlando Predators (2006) should have them. Before 2005, there was just a best record in conference. Nolesrule 13:14, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to say that if the team won a conference championship game the won conference title. Some ArenaBowls had teams from the same division playing each other.-- ROASTY TOAST  21:33, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, if no one else is going to comment, then we need to remove all conference titles from before 2005. Nolesrule 16:27, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

ArenaFootballNetwork external links
The guy has redesigned his site (foir about the sixth time this year) and every single team link he set up is now broken and goes to a generic file not found page on his site. I think they need to be removed. Nolesrule 16:25, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Agreed. It also looks like a blog. I don't think blogs are acceptable sources. -- ROASTY TOAST  15:42, 13 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I took care of as many of the dead links as I could find. There might be a couple more that I missed.Nolesrule 05:07, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

arenafootball2
How much of this should also be incorporated into the af2 team pages? I'd like to see some improvement there in addition to the AFL. Full rosters, template modification and/or change, etc...? WeatherManNX01 22:42, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Most of it, I guess. -- ROASTY TOAST  14:54, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Coaches template box
Big Phoenix created an AFL Head Coaches template and has added it to every active coach page. What should we do about it? It seems pretty clunky and wasn't part of the current task list. Nolesrule 04:44, 12 June 2007 (UTC)


 * If he or someone else wants to write their articles go ahead and do it, remember that you can add tasks to the lists. -- ROASTY TOAST  00:00, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

He also added a coach parameter to the team infobox, which is fine, although I have asked him to participate in the Project and discussion if he is going to make major changes to AFL content. Nolesrule 04:54, 12 June 2007 (UTC)


 * That seems okay.-- ROASTY TOAST  00:00, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I see there's a heading titled "Coaches" on the individual season articles, but what exactly goes there? Does that have anything to do with a template? Tampabay721 (talk) 05:19, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Season by season playoff results
What exactly is our policy for playoff results? A user has added "Bye Week 1" to the 2003 playoff results for the Los Angeles Avengers. I was under the impression that we were only listing whether a team won the ArenaBowl or how they were eliminated, not listing the result of every single week of the playoffs. Thoughts? Opinions?

If we're going to allow people coming in and making random formatting changes to one or two pages without regard for causing inconsistency on standardized structures used on 18 other  team pages on this project, what's the point? Nolesrule 13:52, 13 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, telling how the team progressed through the playoffs makes it easier to tally up final standings. I have no preference either way, but we have to stay consistent.  If there is no consencus, see how other projects do it. -- ROASTY  TOAST  17:28, 13 June 2007 (UTC)


 * It does make it easier to tally final standings, although I use ArenaFan to get my totals since those numbers are database generated and I know they are correct. Really, I think the single line just looks better because it is consistent for years that teams make the playoffs and when they don't make the playoffs. Ands since we're going to be adding all those single season pages for each team, it's just a matter of linking the year to those for someone to find out what happened in each individual playoff game. Just my 2 cents. Nolesrule 18:59, 14 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I did not know arenafan did that. Keep it to one line. -- ROASTY TOAST  19:36, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

I think that we should list the results for all playoff rounds. When I went to Los Angeles Avengers the day I added the "Bye week" in the table, I saw that it only said "Week 2." I was wondering who they beat in the first round to advance to the second round. I thought that they beat another team in the first round. Because it didn't say anything at all, I didn't know if they had played a team in the first round of the playoffs or not. I think it's necessary to list the results of all rounds so other people won't be confused like I was. -- Ksy92003  (talk) 00:21, 20 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Part of the project is to add season summary pages for every team (see 2007 Tampa Bay Storm season as an example), plus there is already the seaon summary page for the league as a whole which contains the playoff brackets. All the information you are looking for is already available on those pages, so the years in the season-by-season list on the team's main pages just need to be wikified to point to either the team or league season summary page. And since the information is available on Wikipedia, it's redundant and creates formatting issues. Nolesrule 21:01, 21 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I am not at all against the season pages or playoff brackets or anything like that. But in my opinion, it would also be helpful to include each round's results in the season articles.  The main reason for this is because, if a team (theoretically) won 7 consecutive ArenaBowls, under the current format it will only say who they won in the ArenaBowl.  I also think it will be helpful to show who they beat in the 1st round, the 2nd round, and conference finals.  In my opinion, it would be too much of a hassle if it only listed their final playoff game in their own articles.  In my case, if the Avengers had made it to the third round of every season, I would want to be able to look at that article to see who they beat, not only who they lost to.  In addition, in the case of the 7 consecutive victories, I wouldn't want to go to 2007 Arena Football League season, 2006 Arena Football League season, 2005 Arena Football League season, 2004 Arena Football League season, 2003 Arena Football League season, 2002 Arena Football League season, and 2001 Arena Football League season, seven separate articles, to see which teams they beat in all seven seasons.  I believe that it would be a heck of a lot more convenient to see it all on one page, in one table, rather than on seven pages in seven separate brackets of 12 teams.  -- Ksy92003   (talk)  00:01, 22 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Could somebody please reply back to this comment? I would apprecitate it to know that this comment was read.  -- Ksy92003   (talk)  22:27, 26 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes,I agree The NFL Wikiproject lists all of the playoff results. -- ROASTY TOAST  00:46, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Just a reminder....tag the talk pages
You guys are doing a great job getting the new pages created for team, AFL and af2 individual seasons. Please remember to tag the talk pages as part of the Project as you create the pages. And remember to do the same as you edit players and coaches or any other new pages you create. Nolesrule 14:32, 14 June 2007 (UTC)


 * This goes for templates too. Please don't forget or we're going to lose pages. Nolesrule 21:01, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Offseason coaching updates
So far, it has been announced that Sparky McEwen (Grand Rapids) and Danton Barto (Las Vegas) will not be returning as head coaches in 2008. Since their seasons are done, we need to update the teams and the coaches list template to reflect this. Nolesrule 05:01, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Have the teams announced replacements? ROASTY  TOAST  00:47, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
 * No. Neither team has a coach at present. And, of course, we need to wait and see what happens to Austin.Nolesrule 19:39, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

consistency
I was looking at the league season pages and realized that some seasons had both regular season conference champions highlighted in gray, while some only had one highlighted in gray. How should we fix this? -- ROASTY TOAST  21:43, 26 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I have looked at all the season pages. Note that in some, like 1992 Arena Football League season, there is only one conference and three divisions.  That might be one factor for the differences.  But then, like 1996 Arena Football League season, that's one of the articles that have only the American Conference champion highlited in grey.


 * In my opinion, for articles like 2007 Arena Football League season, both conference champions should be highlited grey because it doesn't matter whether the American or National Conference team has the better record because the championship game, the Arena Bowl, is played at a neutral site. Therefore, it doesn't matter which team has the better record because the game is being played at a neutral site.  In my opinion, both conferences should have their best-record team highlited grey mainly because the Arena Bowl is at a neutral site; that isn't the only reason, but that is one of the main ones I can give in this case.  -- Ksy92003   (talk)  22:36, 26 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Then we should change the legends. -- ROASTY TOAST  00:46, 27 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Agreed. Any team that clinches home-field advantage for the entire playoffs should be highlited.  In AFL, since the neutral championship game, neither team has homefield advantage for it.  Both #1 seeds have home-field advantage for conference playoffs (should they survive those rounds).  -- Ksy92003   (talk)  01:36, 27 June 2007 (UTC)


 * 2005-present have a neutral championship and so best record in each conference has homefield advantage throughout. 2004 and earlier, it should just be top seed in the playoffs.Nolesrule 19:38, 2 July 2007 (UTC)


 * As far as the non-neutral championship games in the past, I remember there was at least one season that had one conference and three divisions, so I know that there wasn't like a conference championship game; that would've been the Arena Bowl. To remain consistent over the years, I think it should just be whichever teams win enough games to play all of their games at home (or at best none of their playoff games on the road) should have their row highlighted by whichever color it is.  If a team has won so many games that they don't have to play a single road playoff game, save for the neutral championship game, which is in another venue, then they should be highlighted because home-field advantage throughout the playoffs is what the best record gives to the team, and in AFL, home-field advantage means being able to play all their playoff games in either their own venue or a neutral venue with a designated-home and -away team.  Sorry if that explanation is too long :)  -- Ksy92003   (talk)  20:05, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

As long as there's already a header for it, I might as well say it here. There is no uniformity for the invididual 2008 season articles for each team. There should be an agreed upon guideline to update the article week by week. I'm seeing different styles of roster sections and game summaries, particularly how so many wikilinks are used for the same players more than once, and that there is a equal amount of red links and blue links. I think that the links should be used in the rosters, and opposing players in the game summaries only to reduce repetitiveness. Does anyone reading this agree with me? Tampabay721 (talk) 02:36, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

af2 Category
A lot of the af2 stuff is categorized under Category: Arena Football League. Should we create a new category for the af2 and place that under the Arena Football League Category?

Jdubman 21:04, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Championship games section on main AFL article
It is only telling about the last two arenabowls and not the entire span of the championship game. It should be rewritten or there should be a "see more" link to the main Arenabowl article -- ROASTY TOAST  16:07, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Proposed football player, coach, etc. biography work group
There is now a proposal at WikiProject Council/Proposals for a group which would work specifically on articles relating to biographies of individual players, coaches, and other related individuals. Any parties interested in working with such a group are encouraged to add their names there, so we can see if there is enough interest to start the group in earnest. Thank you. John Carter 13:30, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

2008 Season Standings Templates
Just to let everyone know, here they are. I made them earlier today. I see they're already being updated by people other than me, so that's great.


 * Template:2008 Arena Football League Central Division standings‎
 * Template:2008 Arena Football League Eastern Division standings‎
 * Template:2008 Arena Football League Southern Division standings‎
 * Template:2008 Arena Football League Western Division standings‎ - Tampabay721 (talk) 05:15, 2 March 2008 (UTC)