Forum:Original airdate

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We've already discussed "original airdate" on the wiki at least twice before (1, 2) , but now I think maybe the previosu consensus is incorrect.

I think "original airdate" should refer to the airing on the original channel (The Hub and subsequently Discovery Family) and not any airings on other channels, even if episodes air earlier on other channels. This season's finale should definitely be listed as the finale despite its earlier airdate, and its original airdate should be listed as its airdate on the original channel (with its respective articles specifying that it aired early on a different channel). Throwy 12:26, October 7, 2016 (UTC)

Makes logical sense to me. With international/non-Discovery Family premieres becoming more and more inconsistent, it feels like a fool's errand trying to account for it all. Production order and U.S. airing order are one thing, but I see no reason to treat season 6 episode 25 as season 6 episode 23 just because it technically came first.

13:32, October 7, 2016 (UTC)

As for the episode order, for the longest time the unwritten definition of the episode order typically used by Bronies (and not just on wiki) was "the order by which the episodes premiered on The Hub or Discovery Channel". It's clean, not vulnerable to disagreements, and basically not worth the effort or readers' confusion to change. Naturally, this is not the order many publishers normally follow (which several times was the reason of a "leak"). As the whole world saw last month (and local fan communities abroad noticed a long time ago), some, if not most, televisions around the world use the production order (more or less) – that would be kinda more official, but again – not worth it. And finally the order of absolute first publication: also logical of course, but can be pretty difficult to track accurately (like there are reports of Belgium showing S6E19 one day before Poland, but it's the Polish release that made the news) and nobody besides us would use that (again, not worth it).

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But it's worth it to think for a while about dates. I should make clear at this point, that the episode order we use on wiki (whichever that would be) does not really need to match chronologically with the dates we list. Alas, for the ease of tracking, I would propose we still use Hub/DF premiere order on the episode list, but in the infoboxes for the episodes themselves list not just that date, but also any known earlier releases. That would mean not just television showing, but other mediums as well (like iTunes, Google Play, or even Hub's website in Wonderbolt Academy case). Optionally, add it also as a mouseover note on the list (just like we already do for season 6, but expand it for earlier).

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PS: I wonder whether Discovery Family actually use the production order when rerunning older episodes. Vengir (talk • contributions) 09:06, October 13, 2016 (UTC)

Conclusion is to basically occam's razor the original airdates. Use The Hub/Discovery Family airdate as the rule of thumb. Don't butcher episode numbering due to illogical airdates. 01:35, January 2, 2017 (UTC)