Forum:SH Archive/Wookieepedia and Wikia; or "Into the Den of Darkness"

So, as many of you no doubt know, earlier in May, and I were invited to Wikia's offices. That's right; we went to the den of darkness. The reasons why we were chosen are quite varied, and I can at least say that my nomination is due to my Community Council status. As for other reasons, it would be best for Wikia to answer those questions, as I cannot. We each had different expectations going in, and while I cannot speak for Riff, I can at least speak of mine. Prior to this, my view on Wikia was mixed, to say the least. I admit that at times, Wikia did downright irritate me. However, that bit was smoothed over somewhat during CVI when and I met with Eric Moro, head of Wikia's media department. CVI afforded me a new insight into Wikia, so my opinion had softened and after that&mdash;and after learning what a force we can be&mdash;I strove to improve our image with not only Wikia, but within the eye of the general public and in communities outside of the Wook.

When the opportunity to visit Wikia's offices was presented, I immediately accepted. This, I saw, was a chance for me to further gain new insight, and to further promote the professional entity that I envision Wookieepedia to be. I was still nervous, as there were still many bumps that needed to be smoothed over, along with other bumps cropping up as a result of this trip, the main ones being why Wikia chose Riff and I. As I mentioned already, I cannot answer that. I can only offer you my best guess as to at the very least why I was chosen; that again being my Community Council status.

San Francisco is an intimidating locale for a small-towner such as myself, so I was even more nervous in having to walk through the streets to the offices. The headquarters are rather nondescript, compared to a building that resembled the Senate Rotunda not more than a block away. The office itself is an open environment. And... it's dog-friendly. I know that this really is beside the point, but seeing Falkor, the huge Great Pyrenees, roaming the office for snuggles, was certainly surprising. The atmosphere was casual and relaxed&mdash;I was nervous that I hadn't packed any proper office wear, but jeans and a t-shirt were just fine. Everyone was very friendly, and I learned of another surprising thing:

Wookieepedia is the most well-known and well-respected wiki. Not only are we a force to be reckoned with, but we are a huge commodity. And Wikia sincerely has our interests in mind. They do know why we use Monobook, which I will discuss later. However, they told us some things about ourselves that we, as a userbase and administration, are probably not as well-aware (at least not to my knowledge).

Now, onto the focus of this discussion...

Readers and Mobile Users

We are a very user-focused wiki. Our templates show it, our editing shows it, and honestly, our attitude shows it. We focus on the user, the active editor. However, the majority of traffic Wookieepedia receives are from readers. And, when we need to look something up, we become those readers. Wookieepedia is a resource for researching other sources. Friday night trivia? Wookieepedia is up and ready to go for a quick source-check. Scavenger hunt at CVI? Wookieepedia was the go-to source. Need to confirm something with another person? You have Wookieepedia right there. Wookieepedia is an encyclopedia, and the majority of our traffic uses us for just that.

So, why do I bring this up? This ties into another thing that Wikia had brought to our attention; the percentage of mobile users. Riff and I were asked what percentage we thought were mobile users, and we both answered around ten percent. Since we ourselves are not mobile users (usually. I am, occasionally, on my brick of a phone), then we haven't a very good idea on that percentage and were shocked to find out that a solid quarter of our userbase are mobile users.

Quickly, I opened Wookieepedia on my phone and went to a popular article, in order to view it as a mobile user. On a small screen, I was immediately able to recognize a problem that may confuse our mobile readers: maintenance templates.

Our templates, as I mentioned, are editor-minded. And on a small screen, they are not dynamic with screen resolution. On an article with five maintenance templates, you find yourself paging down several times before you even get to the article content! And most of these templates pertain to editors more so than the casual reader, who, as I said before, is of our largest traffic segment.

I'm not saying to remove the templates; absolutely not. They are important. But, on a small screen, they are daunting. Perhaps some coding changes could be made so that the templates are dynamic to screen resolution?

Another option was suggested by Riff while we were there: Some templates, such as the spoiler template, are necessary for readers. However, maintenance and editor-specific templates really are not the reader's focus. What we discussed was perhaps putting those editor templates on the talk page, and inserting an icon in the Eras field that alerted the user to that article's templates. Perhaps an exclamation point (!) with a mouse-over message that says that "This article has maintenance templates. See the talk page to view them" or something like that. I'll bring this up again, later.

Another thing that we were made aware is relatively minor and doesn't necessarily require a huge undertaking, but many have claimed that our MoS is difficult to understand. To us editors and seasoned veterans, it's fine. But, to a new editor, it's confusing. All I'm suggesting here is to perhaps review it and give it a thorough copy-edit. Nothing more. Hell, I could do that myself and I had volunteered myself for that very task while at Wikia. It's minor, as I said, but something that we should at the very least consider looking into.

Videos

At Wikia, Riff and I were bounced from one meeting to another. It wasn't all fun and games, we were there to work. And work we did. In one of the meetings, the dreaded video proposal came up. Oh yes, remember that thing? It's back. Like the stray cat&mdash;you feed it once, and now it stays.

Well, that will be something that I would tackle separately, but here's the long and short of it: In order for us to get exclusive content, we must first show a willingness to use videos, period. Now, before you cry foul, hear me out. There are many situations in which a very short video clip would come in handy to better convey a subject. An article is describing a difficult lightsaber combat move, and all you have is an image. If a very brief movie clip of that move were used, it would demonstrate the move far better than an illustration. I'm talking, of course, of only canon videos. Another example would be the seismic charge. To have the full effect of the explosion, sound vacuum, and then the sound, a short clip of the seismic charge would benefit greatly.

Wikia had talked about a clipping tool, which would allow us to isolate only the pertinent bits of a video, and Riff and I were more supportive of that. Also, when discussed with the examples I mentioned, using a very short clip made sense. So, at a later date, I'll resurrect the video proposal and go into further detail.

Onto another thing that I touched upon earlier: our love of Monobook. There are no plans to get rid of Monobook. None. We love it, and Wikia knows we love it. Sannse's dog, Daisy loves it, too. Monobook is here to stay. However, in terms of layout design, Wikia are taking some cues from Monobook and have asked us why exactly we love Monobook. What will that discussion lead to? I cannot say. We had to sign an NDA. :P

Wikia and You

So, why Wikia? Why did Wikia suddenly show so much personal interest in us? Well, this was an ongoing thing. Wikia is establishing ties with licensed properties in order to gain access to exclusive content. They had already invited a few people from Memory Alpha, and that meeting led to a meeting with the Roddenberry estate. Our meeting led to going behind closed doors at Lucasfilm... where we also had to sign NDAs. :P Though, while meeting with some department heads at Lucasfilm, I was asked a very intriguing question. I'll get into that later, should the discussion allow.

After that week, I had a new perception of Wikia. They seriously have our interests in mind. They are not an evil corporation bent on our destruction. We are very, very important to Wikia, and they want us to be happy. That's why they reached out to some of the users, and will continue to reach out. They want to get to know us better. They want to help us succeed even more. They also want to make us more aware of the segments of the user population that we commonly overlook; the readers and the mobile users. And I agree, we need to remember our roots&mdash;we were readers before, and we continue to be readers. I'm not saying that we should change how we operate. I'm just saying that we should at the very least consider broadening our focus.  Trak Nar  Ramble on 07:46, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

Discussion
Let me have it, but do remain civil. Thank you. :)  Trak Nar  Ramble on 07:46, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

Readers
Readers are our largest segment of traffic. Should we cater to that segment, or remained focused on the editor? As always, remain civil during discussion.  Trak Nar  Ramble on 07:46, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

Mobile users
An entire quarter of our userbase are mobile users! Perhaps we should look into that Wookieepedia app... As usual, remain civil during discussion.  Trak Nar  Ramble on 07:46, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

Editor-specific templates
When viewed through a mobile browser, those can be daunting, particularly on a large article. Are these pertinent to the casual reader who is only looking for an answer to a question? Discuss, but do remain civil.  Trak Nar  Ramble on 07:46, May 31, 2013 (UTC)

Video clip usage
Civility. But, yes. Videos. Discuss.  Trak Nar  Ramble on 07:46, May 31, 2013 (UTC)