Wikia:Press: Volunteers
Wikia - creating communities
(Redirected from Press/Volunteers)
- This page is to help volunteers and staff when they're dealing with the press.
Some points to remember if you're talking to the press about Wikia or Wikia, Inc. are below. See also Wikimedia's Dealing With Media page.
- Be aware of What Wikia is not
- Make it clear what your role is (are you officially speaking for Wikia or not?)
- If you know (or suspect) that you will be speaking to the press, try to prepare a few topics to talk about beforehand.
- Many journalists will have a particular story in mind, and they may try to push you towards that by questions starting "would you say that . . .". Consider carefully whether you agree before saying "yes" - you may wish to give a qualified answer instead.
- Try to stay on topic - which, for community users, may mean staying off the topic of your specific wiki, or at least giving it minority time.
- Have three points you want to communicate about Wikia and repeat them. If you get asked an aggressive question, figure out a way to answer with one or all of your three points.
- Journalists will always pick the most embarrassing quote and use it, even if you didn't quite mean it in the way that it came out or if it made more sense in context which they removed. Learn to live with it, and (if appropriate) try to avoid saying that in the future. :-)
- If you need time to come up with an answer, repeat the journalist's question back to him. e.g. "Why I started the sandbox wiki is a good question, Sam."
- Although we are getting some good press coverage, journalists repeatedly forget to include links to Wikia sites in the online versions of a story. Often, they apologize but cannot alter the story once it goes out on the wire. A friendly reminder to the reporter about including a link is a good idea. If you forget, you can send an email afterwards.
- please add more tips here
[edit] Volunteer
Are you happy to talk to the press about your wiki? Please sign up below and send your contact details (phone number, email address) to Angela.
Please give the following information so we can match up volunteers with press in different countries if they request interviews:
- Username, wikis you edit, country you live in, languages you speak.
- ExampleUser. Founder of xyz.wikia.com, editor on abc.wikia.com. I live in Wales and speak English and Welsh.
- Douglas Muth. Admin on WikiFur, admin on PhiladelphiaWiki. I live in Philadelphia, PA, United States and speak English.
- Laurence "GreenReaper" Parry: Founder of WikiFur and GalCiv Wiki, co-founder of Creatures Wiki. I'm from the UK but am curently based in Michigan, USA. I speak English.
- iFaqeer (Sabahat Ashraf). Founder of Genealogy Wiki, WikiPakistan and admin at WikiIndia. Live in Silicon Valley (SF Bay Area, California, USA), speak English, Urdu, Hindi, some Hausa and a smattering of German.
- DCLXVI: Founder of Ancient world wikia. I am from and I live in Bulgaria. I speak Bulgarian, English, French and some other languages.
- BillK: Founder of World Wikia. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA and speak English.
- Tedjuh10: I'm active on several Wiki's, including Dutch Central, Dutch Help, Dutch Answers, and many gaming Wiki's. I fluently speak Dutch and English, and a bit of German and French.
