Forum:November 25th IRC meeting transcript

Wikia - creating communities

The next #wikia-gaming chat will take place:

Next meeting
California (PDT)	New York (EDT)	London	Moscow
July 6 1 pm	July 6 4 pm	July 6 9 pm	July 6 Midnight

The following is a semi-sanitized version of the IRC chat transcript. All times listed are based in PDT (California etc).

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• [13:02:10] <PanSola> appitezer: any issues any of the wikis' been seeing and want to discuss about?
• [13:02:14] * Jedimca0|Away is now known as Jedimca0|Busy
• [13:02:14] * GPT has kicked Chiafriend12 from #wikia-gaming ("shh!!!")
• [13:02:22] <Chiafriend12> Aww.
• [13:02:24] <Sgt_Johnson> any issues?
• [13:02:30] <PanSola> yeah
• [13:02:32] <Sgt_Johnson> like what? technical problems?
• [13:02:36] <GPT> nah
• [13:02:38] <PanSola> technical, human,
• [13:02:41] <GPT> communitial problems.
• [13:02:59] <Sgt_Johnson> some stuff has been going on at halo fanon
• [13:03:13] <PanSola> what kind of problem?
• [13:03:19] <Relentless|Away> Wait, where's appletizer?
• [13:03:26] <Relentless|Away> Wait, appletizer *where*?
• [13:03:34] * Vagstar_ is now known as Vagstar_away
• [13:03:37] <GPT> rofl... appetizer, not appletizer...
• [13:03:48] <Sgt_Johnson> some tension between the two founders
• [13:04:01] <PanSola> and spreading to the rest of the community?
• [13:04:05] <Sgt_Johnson> yeah
• [13:04:14] <Sgt_Johnson> I won't bring up names however
• [13:04:24] <PanSola> can the nature of the tention be easily and quickly summarized?
• [13:04:38] <GPT> one of the founders wants ultimate powah!!!
• [13:04:49] <GPT> (and it's not the one you'd think)
• [13:05:00] <Sgt_Johnson> But one founded it for well, founding it, and the other was listed as the co-founder for technical purposes. And well, after a while, the administration began to break down
• [13:05:14] <Sgt_Johnson> over issues of what is breaching canon and what can be accepted
• [13:05:23] * Joins: HBad
• [13:05:28] * Joins: Simonrjh
• [13:05:32] <Tesfan> http://halofanon.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Freedom_of_the_Thought & http://halofanon.wikia.com/index.php?title=Forum:Partnership_with_Star_Wars_Fanon_Over&t=20071125201735
• [13:05:38] <Simonrjh> sorry i'm late :)
• [13:05:43] <HBad> hello.
• [13:05:47] <PanSola> hi simon adn hbad
• [13:05:49] <Sgt_Johnson> http://halofanon.wikia.com/index.php?title=Forum:Freedom_of_the_Thought&t=20071125205432 - one of the main battlegrounds
• [13:05:55] <zidoh> hmm
• [13:05:59] * Joins: Relentless
• [13:06:01] <zidoh> oh, right, it's started :o
• [13:06:34] <PanSola> thanks for the links
• [13:06:52] <PanSola> I'll check them out after teh meeting
• [13:06:53] <HBad> What am I missing?
• [13:06:59] <Sgt_Johnson> and one of the co-founders is claming that he is the sole founder and is supposedly taking responsibility for stuff that isn't exactly his
• [13:07:07] <PanSola> just got started, seeing if any wikis have issues
• [13:07:29] <Relentless> Let's clarify this, Johnson.
• [13:07:36] <Relentless> I submitted the original request for Halo Fanon.
• [13:07:40] <Relentless> And Sannse made *me* bureaucrat, not H*bad.
• [13:07:41] <Sgt_Johnson> as I have seen
• [13:07:45] <HBad> I did at the same time.
• [13:07:48] <Relentless> IF Hbad was a cofounder, she would have administeated *Bad as well.
• [13:07:50] <PanSola> without knowing all the context, I'd say the COMMUNITY owns the wiki

(very unimportant chatter ensues, and is stripped from the transcript)

• [13:15:19] <PanSola> General principles that may or may not apply to this specific case (and please don't start debating if the case applies):
• [13:15:26] <PanSola> the community owns the wiki
• [13:15:39] <Whiplash> Wikia owns the wiki
• [13:15:41] <PanSola> doesn't matter who is bcrat or who founded or who adopted it
• [13:15:41] <Whiplash> >.>
• [13:15:59] <RougeAdmin> as per http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Ownership - the community owns the wiki
• [13:16:00] <GPT> Whiplash: Wikia provides a place for the wiki; they don't own it.
• [13:16:01] <Manticore> Whiplash: Wikia hosts the wiki, the community owns it
• [13:16:31] <Sgt_Johnson> but yeah, other than that issue that is like... tearing through the community, I haven't seen anything else
• [13:16:35] <Whiplash> O.o
• [13:16:43] <PanSola> if the community wants to take the entire wiki in a very different direction than its original mission, I believe it's Wikia's general principle to let them do so
• [13:16:49] <GPT> !bAH...
• [13:17:18] * Simonrjh coughs
• [13:17:20] <Sgt_Johnson> it started as a discussion over what was a breach of canon
• [13:17:26] <PanSola> Relentless adn Hbad please keep that in mind as you work on resolving the issue, *ELSEWHERE*
• [13:18:18] <GPT> okay... so, Halo Fanon: founders are in dispute over 1. who really founded it, and 2. must fan fiction follow canon in order to be acceptable?
• [13:18:20] <RougeAdmin> :-)
• [13:18:22] <Sgt_Johnson> yes
• [13:18:32] <Sgt_Johnson> GPT can explain things better than me
• [13:18:37] <Manticore> the point is mute - the community makes those decisions, not admins or founders
• [13:18:41] <GPT> *moot
• [13:18:41] <Tesfan> SWfanon droped there partnership over 2.
• [13:18:44] <GPT> the point is *moot*.
• [13:18:49] <Sgt_Johnson> ok
• [13:18:52] <Sgt_Johnson> so... its over
• [13:19:10] <GPT> yes, sir!
• [13:19:34] <Sgt_Johnson> may we continue?
• [13:19:36] <PanSola> ok, any other wikis have issues?
• [13:19:45] <uberfuzzy|game> i'd like to bring something up
• [13:19:50] <PanSola> go ahead
• [13:20:21] <uberfuzzy|game> people need to start checking their Special:ProblemReports
• [13:20:35] <RougeAdmin> mmmh
• [13:20:38] <uberfuzzy|game> i've been trolling random wiki's, checking stuff out
• [13:20:44] <PanSola> does it show up on RC?
• [13:20:51] <RougeAdmin> uberfuzzy, s/trolling/visiting :P
• [13:21:00] <RougeAdmin> I've been poking the staff to get janitors the ability to close problemreports
• [13:21:12] <RougeAdmin> nothing so far, I guess we'll have to wait
• [13:21:25] <RougeAdmin> PanSola: yah, problemreports shows up on RC - it has its own log even
• [13:21:31] <Sgt_Johnson> no problem reports on Acewiki
• [13:21:33] <uberfuzzy|game> and i keep finding wiki's with OLD stuff in the queue, like months old
• [13:22:00] <Tesfan> Awhile ago halopedia has like 50+ reports =P
• [13:22:03] <Tesfan> *had
• [13:22:04] <RougeAdmin> on that matter, I found a wiki with lots of OLD spam today - I personally would appreciate if someone poked the janitors about spam
• [13:22:20] <uberfuzzy|game> just keep an eye on it you adminy types
• [13:22:20] * Quits: Relentless|Away
• [13:22:21] <RougeAdmin> we're here to huff spam, after all
• [13:22:21] <unilinky> http://www.wikia.com/wiki/uncyclopedia:Kitten_Huffing
• [13:22:24] <uberfuzzy|game> the widget helps
• [13:22:29] <RougeAdmin> ...
• [13:22:32] <WikiaJanitor> ..
• [13:22:35] <Sgt_Johnson> ...
• [13:22:37] <RougeAdmin> failbot indeed.
• [13:22:40] <Tesfan> lol
• [13:22:48] <Simonrjh> what is it with admins and kitten huffing?
• [13:22:56] <Manticore> Tesfan: I'd been dealing with all the problem reports since the feature was installed. After the log was set up, other admins helped as well but there was still a big backlog of mainly inappropriate problems. I've dealt with all of those now though.
• [13:22:59] <GPT> RougeAdmin: regarding pokes and spam.. you're a Janitor, aren't you? halomods.wikia needs cleanup, last I checked.
• [13:23:03] <Tesfan> mhm
• [13:23:23] <RougeAdmin> GPT, will check it in a moment
• [13:23:31] <Manticore> Simonrjh: You need a sysop flag to know of kitten huffing.
• [13:23:43] <Simonrjh> i know how to huff kittnes
• [13:23:47] <Simonrjh> *kittens
• [13:23:48] <Tesfan> http://halomods.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Recentchanges - Vandalism attack =P
• [13:23:57] <RougeAdmin> yah
• [13:24:30] <Simonrjh> i've got a bowl of huffer kittens next to my laptop
• [13:25:51] <PanSola> I think we need to raise awareness of the feature adn teh widget
• [13:27:15] <Sgt_Johnson> some dudes held an attack on acewiki
• [13:27:17] <GPT> anyway, I'm GPT, an admin at Halopedia, de.Halopedia, Pfhorpedia, Wikizilla, a user at all the Bungie-related wikis and at the Gaming and Central wikis... etc.
• [13:27:28] <PanSola> oh yeah introductions
• [13:27:41] * PanSola is from GuildWiki, happens to be a sysop
• [13:27:48] <zidoh> i'm zido, admin of aocwiki :)
• [13:27:59] * Tesfan is from RuneScapewiki, and is a sysop
• [13:28:12] <Sgt_Johnson> I'm Sgt_Johnson, an admin and bcrat at Acewiki, and an editor at Halopedia, Halo fanon, and Pforpedia
• [13:28:12] <Manticore> Manticore - http://wikia.com/wiki/User:Manticore for anyone interested
• [13:28:13] <Sgt_Johnson> ...
• [13:28:52] <Simonrjh> i cant edit Kitten Huffing -.-
• [13:29:06] <Simonrjh> despite the link loop
• [13:29:13] <Sgt_Johnson> xD
• [13:29:19] <PanSola> uberfuzzy|game: are the wikis you visited and have backlog of problem reports active wikis?
• [13:29:22] <PanSola> or inactive ones?
• [13:29:57] <uberfuzzy|game> most were fairly active, dont remember them all
• [13:29:57] <Simonrjh> Manticore: the caption of the wrestler huffing a kitten has a link to Kitten Huffing, through a redirect page
• [13:30:05] <Simonrjh> but it wont let me edit
• [13:30:29] <Manticore> probably because it's autoconfirmed?
• [13:30:53] <HBad> Hello, can I say a few words of introduction?
• [13:30:54] <uberfuzzy|game> the recent fix to widgets meant my layout stayed the same across all wikia, i just noticed alot of non empty lists as i bounced from site to site
• [13:31:23] <Sgt_Johnson> go ahead HBad
• [13:31:29] <PanSola> uberfuzzy|game: you wouldn't happen to know if the problems are fixed but the report just not getting processed, or if the problems are still there would you?
• [13:31:48] <PanSola> HBad: as long as it doesn't involve the quarrel of who exactly founded Halofanon
• [13:32:10] <uberfuzzy|game> no idea, it was just something i wanted to bring up next meeting, ie now, to keep an eye on that queue, if people didnt know it existed
• [13:32:20] <PanSola> yeah
• [13:32:32] * Sgt_Johnson is now known as SJ|BBL
• [13:32:49] <HBad> Okay, I am H*bad. Bcrat at Halo Fanon, duh. :P User of Halopedia and many other wikis, even wikis I don't edit. Sorry about earlier that's not how I ususally act.
• [13:32:52] <PanSola> it could be people are fixing the problems but negelecting the queue, or maybe a lot are empty "testing" reports that didn't have a description so ppl have no clue what to fix
• [13:33:06] <HBad> *usually
• [13:34:11] <PanSola> but anwyas, so we gotta try and raise awareness of the Problem reports feature on Wikia
• [13:34:31] <RougeAdmin> good idea - it's a cool feature :)
• [13:34:46] <PanSola> it's new, it's not on WP, and it's important to the quality of the site
• [13:34:46] <RougeAdmin> just that janitors and helpers should be able to close problem reports
• [13:35:00] <PanSola> since it's the easiest ways new ppl can let us know something is wrong
• [13:35:03] <HBad> Yeah, I just noticed it. I might want to look at what problems are being reported.
• [13:35:16] * RougeAdmin is now known as NotAKitten
• [13:35:30] <PanSola> ok, any ohter issues?
• [13:36:41] <HBad> Yes, there is the issue of raising awareness of how should an admin be picked.
• [13:37:07] <Tesfan> http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fanon
• [13:37:11] * uberfuzzy|game is now known as uberfuzzy|away
• [13:37:18] <Tesfan> Ajax: "A napkin used by a celebrant during the mass; a maniple."
• [13:37:20] <Tesfan> xD
• [13:37:29] <uberfuzzy|away> i gotta run guys, but i'll leave the window open and logging, have fun
• [13:37:47] <Whiplash> Bored all asbout Halopedia which I dont edit bye
• [13:37:49] <HBad> Tesfan: :D
• [13:37:49] <PanSola> HBad: it's up to the community typically
• [13:37:51] * Parts: Whiplash
• [13:38:14] <HBad> But like what's the preferred way of doing so.
• [13:38:21] <PanSola> community recommendation?
• [13:38:33] <HBad> Like using the forum or some other means?
• [13:38:58] * SJ|BBL is now known as Sgt_Johnson
• [13:39:05] <Tesfan> Request for adminsip, I think
• [13:39:07] <PanSola> Community consensus via a medium that most of the users of that community are familiar with and actively uses
• [13:39:07] * Quits: Simonrjh
• [13:39:09] <PanSola> coudl be a talk page
• [13:39:17] <PanSola> could be a forum, depending on the nature of the community
• [13:39:56] * Joins: Simonrjh
• [13:39:56] * Quits: Relentless
• [13:39:58] <HBad> So admins shouldn't just make a user an admin?
• [13:40:03] * Simonrjh bahs
• [13:40:11] <PanSola> that's not a "should or shouldn't" thing
• [13:40:32] <HBad> I know, but it's recommended though right?
• [13:40:41] <PanSola> within some communities, it may be perfectly acceptable for an admin to jsut make other admins
• [13:40:43] <PanSola> without any process
• [13:40:49] <NotAKitten> from my experience, RfA is something that *greatly* depends on the community
• [13:40:52] <PanSola> as long as the community is fine with hit
• [13:41:32] <PanSola> if the community feels ok with an admin appointing others without any formal process, then that is fine
• [13:41:54] <PanSola> Keep in mind many communities evolve overtime too
• [13:41:56] <PanSola> and change
• [13:42:23] <HBad> Okay, just checking.
• [13:42:24] <PanSola> so what's unacceptable now may be ok in the past,
• [13:42:41] * Joins: Grey-man
• [13:42:46] <PanSola> what was out of question in the past may become the rational thing to do now
• [13:42:50] <Simonrjh> hi
• [13:42:55] <PanSola> wb greymen
• [13:42:57] <Grey-man> hey
• [13:43:00] <PanSola> any other issues?
• [13:43:25] <Sgt_Johnson> nope
• [13:43:40] <PanSola> Gaming/editcopy
• [13:43:41] <unilinky> http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Gaming/editcopy
• [13:43:44] <PanSola> new iteration
• [13:44:19] <Sgt_Johnson> cool
• [13:44:29] <PanSola> comments, suggestions
• [13:44:31] <Sgt_Johnson> yeah, ace wiki just grew
• [13:44:32] <HBad> bye
• [13:44:33] * Quits: HBad
• [13:45:11] <Sgt_Johnson> and the new gaming hub looks awesome PanSola
• [13:45:19] <Sgt_Johnson> oh yeah
• [13:45:24] <Sgt_Johnson> er...
• [13:45:26] <Sgt_Johnson> forget it
• [13:45:37] <PanSola> ?
• [13:46:08] <Sgt_Johnson> it has something to deal with the infoboxes
• [13:46:28] <PanSola> what about it?
• [13:46:53] <Sgt_Johnson> On halo-fanon, there was a problem with the character infoboxes due to the fact that they were changing the skin
• [13:47:05] <PanSola> color issues?
• [13:47:18] <Sgt_Johnson> yep
• [13:47:29] <Sgt_Johnson> I couldn't read a thing on them without highlighting it
• [13:47:33] <PanSola> if you define the color via css, then the color itself can change depending on the skin
• [13:47:41] <Sgt_Johnson> ah
• [13:48:17] <PanSola> is that idea self-explanatory to you or would you like a more detailed explaination/example?
• [13:48:39] * Joins: quikc
• [13:48:45] <PanSola> ni quikc
• [13:48:46] <PanSola> hi
• [13:48:55] <Sgt_Johnson> its ok
• [13:50:01] <Sgt_Johnson> so...
• [13:50:07] <Sgt_Johnson> I guess that there are no more issues
• [13:50:09] * Parts: Vagstar_away
• [13:50:10] <PanSola> any other comments on the hub?
• [13:50:30] <PanSola> after a few tweaks it's gonna go live later today
• [13:50:37] <Tesfan> gaming.wikia seems to be getting a bunch of advertising threads
• [13:51:04] <Sgt_Johnson> well... I'm going to go play some Ace Combat 6
• [13:51:06] <Sgt_Johnson> bye everyone!
• [13:51:15] * Quits: Sgt_Johnson
• [13:51:31] <zidoh> PanSola: the pic for aocwiki should probably be one of the logos
• [13:51:35] <Tesfan> http://gaming.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Game_Works_-_Indie_Game_Development & http://gaming.wikia.com/index.php?title=Is_online_backgammon_the_new_poker%3F
• [13:51:56] <zidoh> the one that's used in the blurb atm is just a part of the old banner..
• [13:52:13] <PanSola> hmm
• [13:52:31] <PanSola> zidoh: at the time I made it I think it didn't have a logo
• [13:52:38] <zidoh> uhm
• [13:52:41] <zidoh> there are 2 logos
• [13:52:41] <PanSola> feel free to edit it
• [13:53:00] <zidoh> the monobook one and the quartz one, maybe the quratz one would be better..
• [13:53:16] <zidoh> tho, pretty large :P
• [13:53:33] <PanSola> wait, I'm getting confused betwee "aocwiki" and "acewiki"
• [13:53:52] <zidoh> aocwiki, on the featured gaming wiki blurb
• [13:54:00] <PanSola> the one on editcopy right now uses Image:Wiki.png
• [13:54:09] <PanSola> which should be teh current monobook logo
• [13:54:14] <zidoh> yeah, which isn't used for anything :P
• [13:54:17] <zidoh> hmm
• [13:54:18] <PanSola> and that's my defualt choice
• [13:54:30] <zidoh> ah, that's right, we've changed it in the CSS since it didn't allow for gifs
• [13:54:30] <PanSola> if you want to chage which image is used, go ahead
• [13:56:50] <PanSola> ok I guess that's it for this meeting
• [13:57:12] <zidoh> but it's pretty large, i'm not sure it would fit :P
• [13:57:21] <PanSola> zidoh: images are always shrinkable
• [13:57:29] <PanSola> if you upload it locally
• [13:57:33] <zidoh> true
• [13:58:16] <NotAKitten> hm
• [13:58:28] <NotAKitten> I wonder what happened to the proposal of "commons.wikia"...
• [13:59:04] <GPT> wtf? commons.wikia!?
• [13:59:13] <PanSola> for images? the WM commons way won't really work
• [13:59:32] <PanSola> for other implementations I have yet to hear soemthing specific that might look promising
• [13:59:50] <PanSola> I just know proposals that sound like a WM commons clone gets shot down
• [14:01:03] <NotAKitten> http://requests.wikia.com/wiki/Commons - ". But we have been considering a limited version of this, with Wikia specific images only. So I think this is an idea for the future, there will be something like this, but not yet and not quite as envisioned here. Watch this space! -- Sannse 23:27, 31 May 2007 (UTC)"
• [14:01:51] <PanSola> " not quite as envisioned here"
• [14:01:59] <PanSola> Ihaven't heard of the vision
• [14:02:09] <Manticore> sure, and Wikia never creates projects that overlap with WMF
• [14:04:39] * Quits: Simonrjh
• [14:04:55] <PanSola> Wikia *tries* to avoid doing it, typically
• [14:08:03] * Manticore is now known as Manticore|Sleep
• [14:08:48] <zidoh> well, commons for Wikia wouldn't really overlap with WMF commons
• [14:09:54] <Manticore|Sleep> lol PanSola - all the science wikis are a total overlap, because all of that is relevant to en.wp - at least the way the wikis are being used
• [14:11:56] <PanSola> I'd argue it's the usage of the wikis that is the problem
• [14:12:17] <PanSola> the science wikis ought to go more indepth than WP
• [14:12:23] <PanSola> WP is *just* an encyclopedia
• [14:13:24] <PanSola> there are lots of content, even in the sciences, that are not appropriate on the encyclopedic scale
• [14:24:37] * Parts: quikc
• [14:36:17] <Tesfan> Does gaming.wikia have a policy on, er, "borrowing" stuff from wikipedia?
• [14:40:09] * Quits: WikiaJanitor
• [14:40:25] <PanSola> shouuld be the same
• [14:40:30] <PanSola> needs attribution

---

The next #wikia-gaming chat will take place:

Next meeting
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-PanSola 18:47, 10 December 2007 (UTC)