Tutorial:How to start a celebrity page

From Harpo's Juke Joint

So you want to start a page here at Harpo's. Fantastic! What you need to know is that all pages here follow a certain uniformity. Granted, you can start the page all willy-nilly, but we prefer that you don't. When you do, people have to clean up after you and format the page properly (also known as "Wikifying" a page). Starting a page the proper way is not very hard, and saves your fellow Juke Jointers a lot of time.

Before starting a page, go to the left of your screen and type the name in the "search" box. If a page pops up, then there's no need to start a new one - you'll need to work on the page that already exists. But if you get a message saying you can create the page, then it's time to start with the instructions below.

1 The infobox
2 Front and center: the head shot
3 Everything else
- 3.1 A note on websites and fanlistings
4 Conclusion
5 Related articles

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The infobox

All celebrities listed here (actors, directors, playrights, etc) will need a celebrity infobox. Do not start a page without an infobox. Copy the information that's in the gray box and paste it into your new page:

{{Infobox celebrity |
|  Name        = 
|  Image       =
|  Born        =
|  Website     = 
|  Fanlisting  = 
|  Discuss = 
}}

For name, fill in the stage name of the person you're writing about; if the stage name is different from the birth name, you can address that in the written article. For the "born" field, you'll need to list the place of birth, then the date of birth. Seperate these using the <br> command, like so:

January 8, 1982 <br> Dallas, Texas

If a celebrity is dead, the box gets a little longer.

{{Infobox celebrity |
|  Name        = 
|  Image       =
|  Born        = 
|  Died        =
|  Death       =
|  Website     = 
|  Fanlisting  = 
|  Discuss     = 
}}

If you've done this correctly (and it's kind of hard not to), you'll get this:

{{{name}}}
[[Image:{{{Poster}}}\|200px]]
Born	{{{Born}}}
Website	{{{Website}}}
Fanlisting	{{{Fanlisting}}}

Note: there are some other celebrity pages here that have much different infoboxes; they will be corrected soon.

Now it's time to gather some information for your box. Let's start with the head shot.

STEP ONE: Click to enlarge if needed

STEP TWO: Click to enlarge if needed

STEP THREE: Click to enlarge if needed

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Front and center: the head shot

You'll need to find a good picture of your celebrity - try searching on Yahoo!, Google, etc. It's best to find a picture that is up-to-date, is from head to waist, and facing forward. Premiere pictures work best, but magazine pictures are good as well. If a celebrity is dead and was working until the time of his/her death (like Lynne Thigpen), the most recent picture is best; if a celebrity is dead but was not working at death (like Hattie McDaniel), a picture at the peak of his/her fame is the better choice.

Now you're ready to upload. Unfortunately, this software does not allow for off-site picture linking, so you'll have to upload your pictures here. Go to the left of your screen and click "upload file".

This will bring you to the upload screen. Upload the picture from your hard drive, then click "upload". (Don't worry about the third box.)

That will upload your picture to the server and give you an extension such as Image.jpg or img.gif, and that's what you will plug in on your infobox.

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Everything else

If your celebrity is alive, there are four fields that should be plugged in; if s/he is dead, there are seven. IMDb.com is the best place to go fo

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A note on websites and fanlistings

If a celebrity does not have an official website but has a high-ranking fan page (In Yahoo! or Google's top ten), or an official bio on a movie/TV station's official website, that will suffice. Interviews, IMDb.com pages and fanlistings do not take the place of websites.

To find a person's fanlisting, you'll need to search here. Some celebrities have more than one fanlisting if they have more than one profession. Janet Jackson, for example, used to have one fanlisting listed for acting and another one listed for singing. In a case like this one, use the fanlisting that is for acting.

Do not use any fanlisting that is not officially sanctioned by The Fanlistings. A lot of people will make fanlistings even though they are not approved by TFL, or will continue to cultivate a fanlisting long after it's been dismissed by TFL. A good example is the Halle Berry fanlisting. This used to be the official fanlisting, but it was taken off the list because the owner was not following the rules of fanlisting maintenance. So even though it still exists and has far more members, this is the TFL sanctioned fanlisting. Even if there is a fanlisting up and working but is not listed on TFL.org, do not link to it. It's better to use n/a instead and wait for that fanlisting to be sanctioned.

In short: Always check TFL.org first.

Note: Sometimes a person's website and fanlisting are located on the same site. Most of the time, the person has given the fanlisting a different name; 99% of the time, the link is slightly different (usually longer) than the website. For example, Nona Gaye's fanlisting and her site are located on the same site. But the website is called NonaNet and is located at http://nona-gaye.net, and the fanlisting is called Natural Motion and is located at http://nona-gaye.net/fanlisting.php. The two are not interchangable, so be careful.

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