Trivia Submission

Our intention with television trivia is to make it as interesting and informative as possible. We want to be able to provide our users with information about how a series was made, and what happened while it was in production. We want fascinating facts about a TV series. We want in-jokes and obscure references to be explained.

Before we invest any effort in checking that an item is accurate, we first decide whether it's relevant and interesting. Interesting is difficult to define, but it can help to think of it like this: If you met someone at a party and wanted to impress them, would this trivia item do the trick? Would they hang on your every word in rapt awe, or would they suddenly remember that there was something really important that they had to do in the kitchen? Or how about this: If you were writing a trivia column for a newspaper or magazine, would this be the sort of information you'd be desperately looking for? If your item fails both tests, it might be that it's not really the sort of thing we're after and it may well not be published. Obviously there are exceptions, and we already list much that would fail the test, but it's a useful starting point.

What we want:

Relevant information about casting decisions and interesting tidbits about other actors who auditioned for roles (be careful with "...was considered for the role" if it was just wishful thinking on the part of the writers or producers).
Information about pre-production, including scriptwriting and other preparations.
Stories about the production itself - interesting or amusing things that happened on set, or while the series was being made.
Interesting technical details about the production, including explanations of cool filming techniques and special effects.
In-jokes and obscure references, especially those ephemeral topical references that no one will remember in 20 years' time. If it's really obvious (a reference to a line from Shakespeare, or a shot or line copied from an incredibly famous and popular series, for instance) it might not be worth mentioning, but references to little known series, "current" events, and other stories from the real world might be valuable.
Things from the series that might crop up in trivia quizzes in years to come. This sort of thing is difficult to predict in advance and should ideally be restricted to older series where we already know the sort of things that people want to look up/remember about a series without having to watch it again (phone numbers, details of vehicles, etc). Please be extremely selective here.
Cameos, directors' cameos and other intriguing appearances. Be careful to take a look at the cast list first - many cameos and un-credited appearances are already listed and may be more appropriate for that list.
Director's trademarks - many directors always include certain elements in their films and this is the place to point them out. Like cameos, they are not stored in the same way that they are displayed.

What we're not looking for:

Your opinions. Any opinions should be submitted through User Comments.
Most rumors, although some early casting rumors can be interesting.
Anything that is defamatory.
Gutter press scandal and gossip.
The fact that this is not the first time that certain actors have worked together (this information is available elsewhere in Telebisyon.net) .
Location information. We have a different section for this one.
That this series is a remake. Submit this information in the TV Connection list.
Filming dates and schedules, budgets, etc. All these things have their own sections so please have a look first to make sure that trivia is the only place it can go.
Banal connections to other series or movie (an actor playing a similar role, or series being on a similar theme, for example).
"This shot looks a little bit like a shot in that other series" - unless you know for certain that it's a deliberate homage/pastiche/parody, and even then the reference should probably go in the TV Connection list.
Details of most events that happened after the series' pilot. The rule used to be that we took nothing from after the series was released, but there are certain trivial tidbits that continue to be relevant and may be listed.
Information about bands taking their names from series or writing songs inspired by them.
"forward references", that is, the fact that something from this series appears in or inspires something that happens in a subsequent series (we put that information in the later series' trivia).
Anything that crosses the line from series trivia into series analysis - helping out with obscure references is fine, but be wary of simply trying to explain the series (themes, repeated use of the color green, character motivation, etc).
Information about specific people. Submit this as trivia on the person's biography page.
We will accept items along the lines of "This series was voted #3 in Such-and-Such's Top 1000 TV Series poll", but we limit it to the polls/lists of major publications/shows and will note only those titles in the Top 23 (so "Was voted number 83..." won't be listed).

Series Trivia vs. Episode Trivia

There are different trivia for a TV series as a whole and an episode. If the trivia appears on a series on a recurring pattern, you may submit this item as part of a series trivia. Any trivia that pertains only to an instance of an episode should be submitted to that particular episode.

Hints

The following general hints will improve the chances of your trivia being accepted:

When writing trivia, keep them short, snappy and easy to read.
Do not copy entries from other publications (online or offline) - we cannot republish copyrighted text.
If you are talking about a character, use the character name not the actor's name.
Do not include personal opinions and try not to use subjective descriptions ("in this great TV series...", "AiAi's superbly comic performance...", etc).
Remember that, whatever your English teacher told you, it's okay to use "says" and "said" to describe the act of speaking. By all means use "utters", "proclaims", "exclaims" or whatever else you can find in your thesaurus, but we'll probably change it to "says" anyway, so you might want to save yourself the bother.

If you want to provide additional information to explain the item, or wish to cite your source (book, magazine article, website, etc), please do so in the submission notes. The notes will not be published but will they help us to check the submission which may, in turn, help to get the item accepted.

Once we've decided to list an item, we edit, where necessary, for spelling, grammar and style. Because the volume of traffic on this list is so high, we are unable to invest massive amounts of time in re-writing submissions and this means, regrettably, that certain other things will cause your item to be rejected:

Any single submission that actually consists of multiple separate items that would have to be split up before publishing (although the first item is sometimes accepted).
Any item which uses chat-speak or text-speak will be rejected on principle - we cannot b xpectd 2 translt it in2 English 4 u.
Similarly any item which uses ampersands (&). Type the word "and" - it's only one more keystroke.
Any item where spelling, punctuation or styling/layout (ALL CAPS, missing spaces after punctuation, proper names in lower case, etc.) is so bad that the item would have had to be extensively edited before publishing.
Anything that is sufficiently obliquely written that we don't understand it the first time we read it, even if we subsequently figure it out.

Categories

Cast and Crew - some trivial information about the cast and crew of this series or of the character being played by the actor or actress.
Composition - props and other things used in the production of this series.
Costume - information regarding the costumes worn by the actors or actresses in the series.
Crazy Credit - unusual things shown during a production's credits. Sometimes these are extra scenes, more usually they are funny messages hidden in the credits themselves.
Episodic - trivia that falls under several range of episodes.
Etymology - how did the producers come up with the title for this series? It can also include information regarding the alternative titles for a series.
Location - if a location information is too short to create a new section for a series, put it in this trivia section and select this category. Location may include on-set location or actual location base on the story of the series.
Merchandise - items for merchandise may include DVDs, books, toys, etc. This does not necessarily mean to include all items for sale but to list trivia regarding these items (as long as it follows the guidelines above).
Music - theme song trivia especially if the song or music composition is not linked to another resource.
Online - any trivia that is connected to an online resource (the world wide web, e-mails, online hacking, etc.)
Production - information behind the camera, a behind-the-scene trivia about the series.
Reference - trivia that are referenced in other series, movies, books, etc. as long as the reference follows the guideline (should not be in TV Connection).
Rivalry - trivia regarding the rivalry between a series and its rival (same theme or same timeslot).
Schedule - information regarding the schedule of this series that does not fall under TV Tuning nor under the Situationer of the TV station.
Timeline - some historical references about the series such as; how long the series was produced? Trivia on a per season basis, and so on.
TV Rating - should be base on the series not on a per episode basis. We have a different section for TV ratings.
TV Station - trivia that is connected to a TV station.
Uniqueness - how can this series be unique? The first? The last? The most? The least?
General - any trivia not fitted in any of the categories mentioned above. However, if the category falls under a possible broad category, submit the category for inclusion.

Language

If the trivia is in English, we use standard US punctuation and spelling. As of this time, we will only accept trivia in English, Tagalog, and Spanish.

Spoiler

We allow spoilers to be included in the series trivia as long as you include the season for that trivia.

Order

Order of listing for trivia items under a TV series. This is just in case a trivia should appear in a certain order but always try to make a trivia stand on its own.