User blog:Penguin-Pal/History Tips for Articles

Hello everyone,

As you may or may not know, a recent template, Needs History, has been created recently and is used for marking articles that need a decent history section.

The problem that i see is that it is added too frequently to articles, but there isn't always any attempt of trying to figure out when an items was available- just adding the template.

What i want to do is to encourage people to try and look for realease dates. Therefore, i posted this list of tips that can help you to do so.

Tip #1: Using an item's ID as a chronological tool
This is in particular a good way for finding out when a clothing item that has been released after August 2008 was first available, or when a furniture item was first available. As many of you probably know, every item has its own ID number. The ID of furniture items are given by an order of the item's release. Samer about clothing items that were released sence September 2008. Older items keep a lower ID, and newer items have a higher number as their ID.

Tip #2: Comparing IDs
If you know the first release date of an item (lets call ite "Item X"), which has a similar ID to another item. That other item may has been released on the same month as Item X, or very near its release date. This is very important for finding a starting point for items that don't have any history information at all.

Tip #3: Match an item's theme
Some items are released especially for certain events or seasons. For instance, here are some examples:
 * Coats, Gloves and Ear Muffs are usually released in the winter- in November or December.
 * Sunglases, flipflops, swimsuits and shorts are usually released around July, in the summer.
 * Furniture items like sleds, christmas trees, gifts, light decoration and lamps are commonly released in teh winter- on November or December.
 * Furniture trees, plants and other gardning decoration are commonly released when the spring starts, on April or sometiems March.
 * Some items match a party, like:
 * St. Patrick's Day- March.
 * Halloween- October.

Tip #4: Use clues

 * Use clues on the page. A sentence like "this item was released for 'the __ party'". Even if it wasn't part of a party, it may give you a clue for the month and year on which it was released.
 * Use What Links Here to look for other pages that link to thsi article. A common sentance like "It goes with Item X, Item Y and Item Z" may lead you to a page that already has a detailed history section, that can provide information about when teh items that you want was available once (or mroe).
 * Also search in the wiki or in Google for the item's name. See if you can find any match.

Tip #5: Checking your research
Go through swf archive or screenshots for checking items' history after researching. Check Club Penguin Archives for swf archives that you can use, and Club Penguin Memories for screenshots of catalogs.

Finally
For a quick history table adding, press the H button on the top of the page editor buttons bar. If you also want to find out how to add Treasure Book and Party history bar, check out the instructions i gave here.

So, i hope you enjoyed this peice of information ;) Have you got any more tips for history handling, editing, or more, or just want to comment? Please leave your messages below ;)

Penguin-Pal  (talk)  06:44, June 26, 2013 (UTC)