Hey, everybody! This is Arthur Read fan, an admin of Arthur Wiki.
Sorry, no retrospective piece for this month, but there are several announcements for this month, so let's get started!
A new Arthur DVD releases this month[]
In case if you've forgotten about the announcement that was made about this in the second issue of the newsletter, here's a re-announcement of a new 3-disc Arthur DVD set releasing in the U.S. this month (on August 11, 2020, to be exact; one day after the release of this month's newsletter).
Arthur: The Ultimate Friendship Collection contains 48 11-minute episodes of Arthur that center around the subject of friendship.
Here is a list of the episodes that will be included in the DVD set, according to PBS when I contacted them more than three months ago about what episodes would be on the DVD:
- 1: "Arthur Makes the Team"
- 2: "Team Trouble"
- 3: "Poor Muffy"
- 4: "Buster and the Daredevils"
- 5: "The Big Blow-Up"
- 6: "Arthur's Faraway Friend"
- 7: "Finders Key-pers"
- 8: "Buster's Back"
- 9: "What Scared Sue Ellen?"
- 10: "The Contest"
- 11: "Prunella Gets it Twice"
- 12: "To Beat or Not to Beat"
- 13: "The World Record"
- 14: "Muffy Gets Mature"
- 15: "Sue Ellen Gets Her Goose Cooked"
- 16: "Best of the Nest"
- 17: "The Boy Who Cried Comet"
- 18: "Don't Ask Muffy"
- 19: "Waiting to Go"
- 20: "Prunella Sees the Light"
- 21: "Dear Adil"
- 22: "Fernfern and the Secret of Moose Mountain"
- 23: "Arthur's Snow Biz"
- 24: "Fernkenstein's Monster"
- 25: "Tales from the Crib"
- 26: "Castles in the Sky"
- 27: "George Blows His Top"
- 28: "Buster's Green Thumb"
- 29: "Arthur Makes Waves"
- 30: "The "A" Team"
- 31: "The Squirrels"
- 32: "Arthur Changes Gears"
- 33: "D.W., Bossy Boots"
- 34: "Arthur Sells Out"
- 35: "Hic or Treat"
- 36: "Mr. Alwaysright"
- 37: "I Owe You One"
- 38: "Ungifted"
- 39: "The Silent Treatment"
- 40: "Home Sweet Home"
- 41: "Buster's Garden of Grief"
- 42: "Best Enemies"
- 43: "Opposites Distract"
- 44: "Just the Ticket"
- 45: "The Friend Who Wasn't There"
- 46: "Besties"
- 47: "Muffy Misses Out"
- 48: "Arthur and the Whole Truth"
If you like any of these episodes, this may be something you're interested in. You can buy this DVD set on Amazon, ShopPBS, or any retailer that sells Arthur DVDs when it releases this month.
Please note that this is a Region 1 DVD release.
Season 22 episodes have recently released in the U.K.[]
Recently, from June 1-14, 2020, Season 21 episodes were released in the U.K. on BBC, which I announced in the third newsletter. Since then, several Season 22 Arthur episodes have also been released in the U.K., also on BBC. Below is a list for reference:
(Note: This announcement only applies to the U.K. region. These episodes have already been released in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.)
Good news![]
The total episode count for the current production run of Arthur has finally been announced by Oasis Animation on their website. According to them, Seasons 22-25 (which are already completed in production) consists of a total of 14 half-hour episodes and 3 56-minute long specials (of those, 7 half-hour episodes and 1 56-minute long special have been released at the time of this writing).
Also, here's a screenshot from what appears to be from an unknown upcoming episode:
This was recently posted by Oasis Animation on their Facebook page. What episode could this be from? I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.
Discussions has gotten some enhancements[]
Recently, Discussions got an update. It's now easier to sort discussion posts by subject, and you also have the option to view discussion posts in either regular look or condensed look, the latter of which has a similar look to the outgoing and soon-to-be retired forums feature.
More updates to Discussions will also be coming in the future as part of the UCP (Unified Community Platform) project for FANDOM wiki communities.
If you'd like to learn more about this and future updates to Discussions, you can read this blog post from MisterWoodhouse, a FANDOM staff member, on FANDOM Community Central.
Wiki Chat is being retired[]
Additionally, FANDOM recently announced that the Special:WikiChat feature in use on some wikis is being discontinued as a part of the move of legacy platform wikis to the UCP (Unified Community Platform). Arthur Wiki hasn't had this feature enabled since September 2, 2019, though, so it's not much of a loss.
More information about this announcement can be found here on FANDOM Community Central.
Reminder[]
(Author's note: This particular segment is pretty much a re-posting of a segment from the third issue of The Arthur Wiki Newsletter, with some minor changes and re-wording.)
FANDOM is in the process of moving wikis over to the new Unified Community Platform. When the time comes closer for Arthur Wiki to move over to the new platform (which is powered by MediaWiki 1.33), there will be a banner notification on the top of the wiki informing users of the upcoming move-over.
How will this work, you may be asking? Here's how:
- 1: On the day of the migration to the new platform, Arthur Wiki will temporarily go read-only. This means that users won't be able to edit pages or add screenshots, for example. But don't worry, it will only be temporary. When I asked MisterWoodhouse, a FANDOM staff member, about how long the process would take, he said that based on the size of Arthur Wiki, the migration process will only take about an hour long. So no need to fret.
- 2: When the wiki is temporarily read-only, a backup of all of the content and files here will be made. A copy of the backup will also be made, and will stay on the legacy platform (which is the one that we are on at the time of this writing, the one that runs on MediaWiki 1.19).
- 3: The original backup will run through an automated upgrade process, and will be set up on the new platform. During the upgrade process, a script will check the structure of Arthur Wiki's content so that it looks like it would've been a fresh UCP wiki, but with all of the content, edit history, that sort of stuff.
- 4: Several requests will be made against key pages on the wiki on the new UCP platform to check for any possible errors (i.e. Content not displaying properly, database exceptions, etc.).
- 5: Arthur Wiki's domain will then be pointed to the version on the new UCP platform, and it will no longer be read-only.
FANDOM will have alerts set for error spikes after Arthur Wiki transitions to the new platform, and in case if something goes wrong (because technology isn't 100% perfect, just like Hugo from the Arthur episode "Get Smart"), something that can't be fixed quickly, FANDOM will temporarily revert Arthur Wiki back to the legacy platform. If the transition to the UCP doesn't work correctly for some reason (like in the rare chance that either the import service fails or the content doesn't transfer accurately), or another issue comes up with the migration, FANDOM will temporarily point Arthur Wiki's URL back to the copy on the legacy platform, and will start the process over again.
For more detailed information about this process, please read this blog post by MisterWoodhouse on FANDOM Community Central.
FANDOM staff is here to help out wiki communities, including Arthur Wiki. The goal with the UCP transition is to ensure the long-term success of wiki communities on FANDOM / Wikia and Gamepedia by having them operate on a newer, better, singular platform, offering newly enhanced features, and much, much more.
For future reference, if you would like to get more up-to-date information about upcoming changes at FANDOM (including about the UCP and other technical things about FANDOM), I recommend checking out the FANDOM Staff blogs.
With that out of the way, it's time for...
Scrooge200's Review of "D.W.'s Island Bugball"[]
Released in 2017, D.W.'s Island Bugball was made to promote "D.W. and the Beastly Birthday." It's a golf game with nine holes and even a custom course creator.
I was surprised at how much variety this game has; every level introduces a new interactive object. I was disappointed that each course only uses one main object, because using multiple in one course would have been interesting. There are also three fruits that can be collected in each course, but I found these kind of pointless because there's no incentive to collect them. Each course can be played in five difficulty levels, which is a fun option, but I just stayed on the highest difficulty level because it never gets too hard.
The course creator includes every element in the game, but I wish it had a few more layouts. A way to share courses would've been cool, too. Still, I am happy with what it currently has. I also feel that the game is missing a few elements of golf, like getting a hole in one, a par for each hole, or being able to use different clubs. Still, I enjoyed playing D.W.'s Island Bugball and would give it a good rating.
Character of the month[]
And now, finally, it's time to reveal who the Arthur character of the month is!
The character of the month is completely chosen at random, so you never know who it will be month-to-month!
The character of the month for August 2020 is...
Arthur Read is the main character of Arthur itself. Without him, the show probably wouldn't be the same!
Arthur Read has had several notable events over the course of the series. I'll list some examples. In "Arthur's New Year's Eve," he tried to stay up late to see what happens on New Year's, and was initially disappointed when he overslept the change to the new year, until his Grandma Thora helped him feel better. In "The Secret Origin of Supernova," he created his own superhero, Supernova. In "Through the Looking Glasses," he had to wear a different pair of glasses, with mixed results. In "Based on a True Story," he helped Ladonna feel welcome to Elwood City, and he also helped her to be herself. And in "The Last Day," he completed the third grade along with all of his other classmates (including Binky).
Overall, Arthur Read is my favorite Arthur character. But what are your thoughts?
That's all![]
That concludes this month's newsletter. I hope you enjoyed reading it, as well as the other newsletters in the past several months if you've read them.
Unfortunately, though, all good things must come to an end, as this will be the final issue of The Arthur Wiki Newsletter. Why? Because pretty soon, I will be stepping down as an administrator of Arthur Wiki for reasons that I will explain in a separate blog post, which will be releasing on Wednesday, August 12, 2020. I was going to list the reasons why I'll be stepping down in this newsletter, but the reasons are a little lengthy and I just felt that it would be more fitting and appropriate to discuss them in a separate blog post.
But thanks for reading these newsletters anyways. It sure has been a fun ride doing these. I hope you enjoyed The Arthur Wiki Newsletter, and I also hope that you all have a wonderful kind of day!
-Arthur Read fan
Read all past issues of The Arthur Wiki Newsletter here.