Forum:Volume a week club

The idea
As most of you are undoubtedly aware, the majority of the chapter summaries are missing. In fact, everything between volume 2 and volume 39 are missing chapter summaries. So this is what I propose. We form a volume a week club! Basically I am looking for eight other people to help me in the quest to make sure all volumes have completed chapter summaries. I mean, it's a daunting task if anyone tries to do it alone but if we do it as a group I am sure it'll be done in no time!

So here is the plan, since I completed volume 2, we'll start with volume 3. Below is a list of chapters. If you want to participate in this "club" just claim a chapter (like I have with chapter 25) and list the status as incomplete. When you have finished adding the summary for the chapter, just change the status to complete. Once all the chapters are done, we can move on to the next volume. The goal would be to get one volume done per week. But of course if it is done sooner then we'll move on to the next volume sooner. Of course, if you are done with your chapter and want to do another one (that hasn't been claimed yet) then you can do so. But remember! This is suppose to be fun and not stressful! So if you claim a chapter but find that the week has become busy, just unclaim it and don't worry about it.

So, what do you guys think? Anyone wants to join me in the Volume a week club? Feel free to tell me this is a terrible idea that will never work :D Tinni 03:32, October 25, 2009 (UTC)

Access to online Chapters
Mostly for the "anime only" fans who might want to help us out but not know where to read the chapters to summarise. Here are the links to places you can read Bleach online.


 * One Manga
 * Bleach Exile
 * Read Bleach

Current Volume of the Week
Volume 3: memories in the rain

3.1 017. 6/17

3.2 018. 6/17 op.2 "Can't Smile Don't Blame"

3.3 019. 6/17 op.3 "memories in the rain" - Tinni *complete*

3.4 020. 6/17 op.4 "face again"

3.5 021. 6/17 op.5 戦う少年

3.6 022. 6/17 op.6 "BATTLE ON GRAVEYARD"

3.7 023. 6/17 op.7 "意志は鋭し、刃は鈍し" - Twocents *complete*

3.8 024. 6/17 op.8 "All One Way Sympathies" - Twocents *incomplete*

3.9 025. 6/17 op.9 "戦う少年2 [The Cigar Blues Mix]" - Tinni *complete*

Targeted completion date for the volume - 1-11-2009

Suggested Guidelines
These are some friendly suggestions to keep in mind when writing summaries and they are also things that might be helpful if you writing a chapter summary for the very first time. They are also designed to comply with wiki best practice.

This section is a work in progress. Please feel free to add your own suggestions, tips and tricks.

1. Please keep in mind that this is a wiki and so please do not speculate when writing the chapter summary. Just describe things as they unfold, and when in doubt, go for neutral tone and wording.

2. The chapter summary is not suppose to be a substitute for actually reading the chapter. As such, there is no need to give minute details of everything that's happening. Remember, it is a summary only.

3. Links - please consider providing one where you think that the reader of the summary might want more information on either a character or a term.

Discussion/Comments
I'm willing to assist! *claims a chapter* I've been looking at working on chapter summaries myself, but the idea of doing well over 300 alone is, as you said, daunting. Twocents 04:02, October 25, 2009 (UTC)

Ok, everything is finally working. so we are now open for business! Please consider signing up and claiming a chapter. It's not really hard and we'll help each other improve, so that we can write really good summaries, really quickly! Thanks in advance! Tinni 08:03, October 25, 2009 (UTC)

After reading some edits to chapters pages recently, I've been thinking: there are things we didn't know when we first read the chapter that we know now. For example, we know now that Aizen betrayed everyone, but that wasn't always clear. With that in mind, I've noticed that some are writing chapters with information that we currently know now. Personally, I'd prefer that we write the summaries as if we're reading it for the first time. However, if other people are more interested in writing summaries with a slant that they garnered with current information, then I'd entertain an argument on that front. But I think it's something to keep in mind.

Also, I know it's easy to be wordy, but I was thinking - the point of reading these summaries, presumably, is to get general information in a smaller amount of time than it'd take to read the actual chapters. Do you think, then, that we should aim to stay underneath a particular word count? Twocents 01:38, October 26, 2009 (UTC)

Well when I was writing the chapter summaries of volume 2 I made a point of referring to Kon in the summaries as "the mod soul" because he wasn't named at the time. But he turned up as "Kon" in the character list so that kind of defeated the purpose. I don't think I was consistent though, because I pretty much referred to Shibata as Shibata from the start while his name wasn't known for a bit and he should have been referred to as the "parakeet" initially. Tinni 01:42, October 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, what I meant more specifically is that some contain references to big twists, rather than just a name thing. Because you're right - the character list would give away their names anyway. I think I just want to have a level of objectivity rather than people taking liberties with things they know now that they didn't know at the time or writing in an opinionated fashion. Does that make sense? I'd rather that the articles remain "here's what happened" rather than creating an opinion for readers. Twocents 01:46, October 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * I totally agree with you. The summary is just suppose to be a description of what happened, speculation and the editor's opinion doesn't come into it. It's just the bare facts with no hinting of what comes after. I.e. we should pretend that when we wrote this summary this was the latest chapter. Tinni 02:03, October 26, 2009 (UTC)

Great! I'm glad we're in agreement on that aspect. What is your opinion on length? Twocents 02:05, October 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * That's a tough one. I would say that keep things to the bare bones and not pad it out with excessive description. I seem to recall having this issue while I was describing the chapter 9. It could have been padded out easily because I could have gone into excessive detail on what Ichigo said about Karin not crying and not to mention the fight. But the way I see it, the summary is suppose to give the essence of what happened. It is not suppose to describe every minute detail, it is not suppose to be a replacement for actually reading the chapter. However, if there is a lot happening in the chapter, the summary can be longish. So I guess my stance is, no fluff or excessive details and we are all good! Tinni 02:23, October 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * Definitely makes sense. Because in some chapters, a lot really does happen so those require more detail. But I think it'd be best if, like you said, if we aimed to be as concise as possible. In my mind, that means summarizing quotes, rather than copying them exactly, particularly if they're long. And also, no need to provide exact play-by-plays of every single panel. I think we're on the same page - that someone could read a summary and get the gist of what happened, but that if they wanted to catch every minute detail, they should read the actual chapter. (As a side note, I hope you don't mind me making the discussion into a subhead - those handy edit buttons on subheads make it easy for me to edit the exact section I want to edit.)

Great. ^_^ Since we have clearer guidelines, I'll go work on my chapter now. (And do you think we should provide a brief summary of these guidelines at the top?) Twocents 02:29, October 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * Good idea! I'll do my section within the next few hours. Tinni 03:11, October 26, 2009 (UTC)

I finished Chapter 23 if you want to take a look at the summary. Otherwise, I'll claim chapter 24, too, and work on that later. :) I think the guidelines look good and should provide direction for those who want to help. Twocents 03:14, October 26, 2009 (UTC)

Well I just finished 25 and claimed 19. I'll do it either later today or tomorrow. Hopefully a few other editors will join-up and help us out. Tinni 05:53, October 26, 2009 (UTC)

With this in mind, should we apply the same ruling to episode summaries re length? I appreciate that episodes contain more info than chapters and may warrant a bit more depth, but I've seen a wide variety of different styles to the writing of the summaries. TomServo101 11:21, October 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * I think the rule for "fluff" applies to all things. Not just summaries but also when content is added to articles and such. Everybody has their own style and there isn't really a right or wrong style unless we are talking about a style that is 1) inherently opinionated/full of speculation and foreshadowing from chapters/episodes that come after, 2) difficult for readers to follow, 3) weighed down by unnecessary detail/fluff. Just because if a summary is like that, someone has to go back and do a lot of clean-up, maybe even redo the whole thing. So it's always good to get things in a state that only requires minor corrections afterwards (if at all). So yeah, wide variety of different styles isn't a problem. The problem lies else where. If that makes sense. Tinni 11:36, October 26, 2009 (UTC)

Ok I just finished chapter 19. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to do any more chapters this week so we really do need some other people to jump in and help us complete the volume. Just go have a crack at it! You might just be a natural at it! My suggestion for first timers is to open up the chapter and write the summary as you read the chapters. Remember it's not blow by blow but the sum of the pertinent facts on the page before you. Just have a go!Tinni 13:47, October 30, 2009 (UTC)

Volume Layout
So, I know this is partially my bad, but I thought I'd bring it up. Some time ago, someone (I'm not sure who) modified the volume pages to what we see now. They left, so I took over changing the rest of the volume pages to match the new style. The thing is I, um, never finished that undertaking. ^_^; It's quite time consuming and boring, to be honest, and I've spent several hours to get as many done as I have.

I was wondering, then, if maybe instead of me updating all the rest of the volume pages by myself, we could do the same thing that we're doing with the chapter summaries and each undertake updating one? I figured it might be a lot easier on all of us if we don't force that load onto any one individual.

The volumes that still need to be updated to the new style are:
 * King of The Kill - Tinni *complete*
 * Higher Than The Moon - Tinni *complete*
 * Turn Back The Pendulum - Tinni *complete*
 * Beauty is so Solitary - Tinni *complete*

If it helps my case any, I did at least redirect all the chapters to the correct volume page already. Forgive me for neglecting to update these four? ^_^; Twocents 19:46, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

Sure thing. No problems. Tinni 23:38, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

It's all setup except for the "Characters in order of appearance" bit which can be done when the summary is done. Tinni 14:31, October 28, 2009 (UTC)

You're insane Tinni! ^_^ Thank you so much for getting them all done in such a quick period of time! (Although, I totally would have helped, you know.) Twocents 04:43, October 29, 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry about it, I was having difficulty sleeping. So something to do :) Tinni 08:57, October 29, 2009 (UTC)

Issue Complete

I'll Join!!! ^_^
Hey!!! I'm fed up with the same problem too! So I'll gladly join your volume a week club! I've already completed the first two chapter summaries in Volume 30 if you want to go and check them out. As you will notice, they are Very detailed and I ABSOLUTELY PRIDE Myself with how detailed I make the chapter Summaries I work on. I do this because the one thing I ABSOLUTELY HATE is Chapter Summaries that are Half-Assed ,with little or effort into making them grammatically correct or informational at all, merely putting information there to fill up space. I ask that you invite me to join your club and I Know that we will get a lot of work done together. ^_^

--Saru Lunarjack333 03:36, October 25, 2009 (UTC)

Thank You Very Much for letting me participate!!! For now, Please leave volume 30 to me!! I'll try to have it finished by the end of this upcoming week. (I would finish it in a matter of days, but I am a Senior, and have other work to do......) :(

I hope you don't mind.....

--Saru Lunarjack333 04:28, October 25, 2009 (UTC)

I appreciate the friendly reminder, I'll admit that I got carried away there, which is not what one should do mere days after joining. I must also admit that my actions stem from a fear that endless hours of hard work would be deleted & undone in mere moments by some ignorant troll member. (I hope that doesn't happen, it would bring me to tears) :(

I also hope that despite this, we can all continue to work together.

--Saru Lunarjack333 02:15, October 26, 2009 (UTC)

Bleach All Star consistency
sob I just realised that the Bleach All Star table in most of the volumes is in shambles. I propose that as we go through the volumes we also try and bring the Bleach All Star tables to something that doesn't look crap. I personally like how the Bleach All Stars table look in Turn Back The Pendulum and I am not just saying that because I fixed it to suit my style of aesthetics :-) Anyway, we need more people! Come one folks! Help us out! We won't bite! Tinni 14:13, October 28, 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that one looks good. I remember seeing All Star tables with a black background, and really didn't like that. It looked out of place. This one is a good size and clear & easy to read. No problems with it. Just so you know, I do intend to take on some of these chapters sooner or later, but I'll only be a semi-regular contributor, as I'm caught up in other stuff right now. You guys are doing a fantastic job though. Good work. --Yyp 14:43, October 28, 2009 (UTC)


 * I am glad you like it and any contribution would be helpful but I totally understand about having other things to do. :) Tinni 14:51, October 28, 2009 (UTC)

FYI, as I had finished writing the summaries for volume 2, I went ahead and changed the Bleach All Star Table. It was originally the black background one (see Yyp's comment) but now it has the white background and doesn't flow into the infobox Goodbye Parakeet, Goodnite My Sista. By the way, the All Star Table flowing into the infobox is my pet peeve! Just thought I would share ^.^ Tinni 14:51, October 28, 2009 (UTC)

I think it was squished because the amount of white space between the header for Bleach All Stars and where the all stars actually appear is kind of obnoxious. I'm not really sure what to do about it. I hate the ridiculous amount of white space, but I prefer the larger All Star box. I'll ponder on it and see if I can think of something. Twocents 04:43, October 29, 2009 (UTC)

I came up with an idea of stacking the boxes. It's not the greatest, but Yyp and I felt it was the best out of the options we came up with. I made the line between the top and bottom box thick to serve as a dividing border, but if you don't think that's enough of a division, my back-up plan is to make the bottom boxes a light grey to set them off from the top ones. Twocents 01:54, October 30, 2009 (UTC)


 * There is one big problem with it. That box as it was laid out was a reflection of how the box is displayed in the manga volume. That is why it was the way it was. I don't actually see what the problem with the old white background box was. Why couldn't we just stick with it? It laid out the pictures the way it is in the volume and it doesn't look ugly and bloated like the current one does and what's with this obsession with centring? Centring only works when you don't have anything to the right or left. Now you have ugly white space on the left and all stars box is squished against the info box on the right. In short, I hate the new all star boxes. Tinni 02:07, October 30, 2009 (UTC)

We already brought that up as a possible problem, but felt that it was a minor issue compared to the problems of the other alternatives - and every option, including keeping the old box, had issues; none of them are perfect. And the centering is because I don't really get how the table thing works, so I modified the code that was previously used for the all stars box. The problem with the bloated boxes has to do with the different sizes in pictures, which was a problem with the previous all star versions as well. Short of making a list of all the characters used as all stars and getting nearly identical picture sizes to use specifically for the all star box, that's just the way it's going to work. If you think it's too close to the infobox, we can shrink the size of the entire box down from 70 percent, but it doesn't overlap the infobox like the previous all star box did, so I don't really think it's a problem. Sorry you dislike it, but I dislike the other one more and the problems with that one were, in my opinion, worse than the problems with this one. Twocents 02:17, October 30, 2009 (UTC)


 * It's not really a big issue with me. I am sure I'll get used to it. But the box does overlap in volumes like Higher Than The Moon. But my big thing is consistency. As long as it is consistently fat and ugly. I am satisfied. I did try and modify the template to removing the centring but it didn't really work out. But I think if the table is right aligned, then it'll solve the overlap problem for good. Tinni 02:57, October 30, 2009 (UTC)


 * Consistency is key - whether it is consistently good or bad. I feel that while it may have problems, it is less problematic than the previous version. I'd love to be able to keep the all-stars in one row, but shrinking that old version down to fit in there made it look even worse. (btw, I don't have an overlap on the Higher than the Moon page.) --Yyp 11:44, October 30, 2009 (UTC)

Yyp helped with the fatness a bit, by finding some of the larger pictures and cropping. Could you take a screenshot of what's on your computer maybe? I've gone through all the volumes, and none of the all star boxes appear to overlap the infobox for me anymore (they did with the previous all star version). I'm not sure how to right align the entire table (I know how to align to contents in the table), but we can try and figure that out. Or another option is to shrink the percentage down from 70 percent to maybe 65 percent or so. I think, right now, the all stars and the infobox percentages add up to 100 percent or close to, so that may be part of the problem. Twocents 01:36, October 31, 2009 (UTC)