fanlore | Recent Entries

Just a thought, but if there isn't already a February challenge in the works, could I suggest a "Fanlore Valentine" challenge? Pretty broad-based, inviting all current and former editors and new passers-by to spend an evening (or two) expanding an existing page or making a new page for something like:

* An old fandom they loved.

* A pairing or character in an old fandom they loved.

* A fandom (or character or pairing in an old or new fandom) that could use more love. (Hello, pages that don't exist or have the Stub or Needs More Fandom template...)

* A trope or term or how-to or kind of meta or kind of fan (podficcers, fanartists, vidders, reccers, meta-writers?) they love or think could use more love.

* Mining places that are also active in February (14valentines, halfamoon, ...) for meta or squee or challenge stuff that could be added to fanlore pages.

* If the page for a fanwork they love(d) doesn't have them, adding some quotes from & links to recommendations for that fanwork as expressions of love. (Or y'know, making a page for a fanwork they love.)

* Making a few pages for stuff they may have redlinked earlier while making a page in the first flush of (fanlore) love for a new fandom or trope or character or pairing or ... or ...

* ?

mrs_potatohead

The spam has become overwhelming. It's a waste of time, demoralizing, an unsightly mess on the Recent Changes page, and while we're lucky right now to have dedicated spam-whackers, this isn't always going to be the case.

What are our alternatives to simply knocking it out as it appears? Can this issue be bumped up to some tech people who can help? There's GOT to be some solution out there!

MPH

anenko

I'm not sure if this article already exists, or what it would be under if it does. Do we have a page on the sharing of deleted fanworks? (People who save copies of fics they love and are willing to share them with others vs. people who think their works should stay gone once they're deleted, etc.)

tiyire

There are a few OTW icons, but I would love to have Fanlore-specific ones. Unfortunately I have no idea what they could look like. Does anyone have ideas?

aethel

The server upgrade was successful, and Fanlore is back up! (However, Twitter is still giving me grief.)

Let us know if you encounter any new bugs.

aethel

Systems is planning to upgrade Fanlore's server so they can install Squid (for page caching) to help the site run faster. A brief downtime is scheduled for 16:00 UTC Friday November 25 2011, so Fanlore will be inaccessible during that time.

aethel

So, a while back the Wiki Committee posted drafts of additional policy bits (to use the technical term). Since then, we updated the wiki itself with item #2, the proposed addition to the Identity Protection page. (See the change to the Identity Protection page.) Still remaining to be added are the Image Policy and Editorial Procedures additions. (I don't think there were any issues with the Editorial Procedures revision, which represented only a change in phrasing, not in policy, so we will try to get that on the wiki pronto.)

See below for the second draft of the addition to the Image Policy FAQ. This will be a numbered addition following question 8. It is intended to complement the change to the Identity Protection page.

I am a fanartist, and I don't want to have my name displayed on my fanart.

If you are/were active in fandom under your legal name, but feel uncomfortable with some or all of your art being associated with this name, we can offer you two options (per our identity protection and pre-1995 name policies): we can either edit the artwork's information so that it is associated with whatever pseud you choose, or we can "orphan" the artwork. If a piece of fanart is orphaned, it can still be shown on the wiki (as it is still part of our fannish history), but no name will be attached to it, and we can also blur or remove any signature which appears in the image itself.

Questions? Concerns? Let us know what you think!

ETA November 24: Revisions are now live on the wiki. Thanks!
Editorial Procedures
Image Policy

aethel

Based on user feedback (and fail_fandomanon!), we've updated Fanlore's Contact page. Please continue to let us know if anything is broken or out-of-date on the wiki.

(Speaking of fail_fandomanon, I noticed we don't have a page for it. This is unfortunate, because I have no idea how it works and was hoping for a convenient summation. Anyone up for it?)

anenko

I noticed that the Fanlore article is a bit dry. Since we've been working on pages about various OTW projects (Server Naming Festival, 2011 Board Elections), I thought now might be a good time to spiff up the page about Fanlore.

Ideas?

( Read more... )

Right now, there's a lot of factual info about the wiki, but nothing passionate about it.

awils1

Fanlore, at long last, has a Twitter! You can find our informal news updates at

fanlore_news. Feel free to tweet at us your concerns, thoughts, and suggestions -- we'll do our best to reply!

For those of you uninterested in Twitter, fear not: all important updates will proceed through direct email and this Dreamwidth community, as well as being mentioned on the Main Page of the wiki itself. Also, we hope to embed the Twitter feed neatly on the Main Page in the future, if technically possible.

Current Mood: accomplished

espresso_addict

A recent problem has brought to my attention the fact that the fanlore wiki appears to be using flagged revisions, ie a moderator has to approve all edits before they are visible when logged out. This system (assuming I'm right that this is the explanation for my problems) seems to me profoundly unsuited for a wiki where the rate of vandalism to existing pages is almost nonexistent (nearly all vandalism appears in the form of uploading promotional images or starting promotional articles) and the pool of moderators is small/overworked. Might I suggest it be turned off?

awils1

Two new templates are up and open for comment (i.e. these templates are considered works in progress) -- I'm also gradually sorting through the CommunityProfile uses, to make sure each Community article has the right template; whether it be a mailing list, a forum, or an LJ-like community. Helpers are very welcome to dig in, also.

Mailing List Infobox Template

Forum Infobox Template

aethel

In chat the other day someone mentioned to me that the tags in this community were not consistently named or applied. We don't have any set rules on tagging, so before my power went out on Saturday, I started cleaning up the existing tags. However, apart from "wiki tools", I don't think I added any new ones. Are there other tags that you would like to see here? When I get internet access again, I can tinker with tags some more.

awils1

Hi there,

For some time now, the Wiki Committee has thought about turning off OpenID because it is a hard service to support, and many OpenID servers (such as LiveJournal) have issues with their stability. However, we have 300+ accounts that use OpenID, or who have OpenID registered on their account.

There are three types of OpenID setups:

1. people who have registered using OpenID, but who have not entered an email address or password
2. people who have registered using OpenID but who have entered an email address
3. people who have registered using the standard registration form (and thus provided a username and password), and added an OpenID later.

The first group of users (who have neither an email address nor a password) are encouraged to set an email address in this post, by logging in using OpenID and going to My Preferences and entering an email address in the "Email:" field. They are also encouraged to set a password after setting an email address by entering their username on the User Login page, and clicking "Email new password".

The second group (who have an email address) can simply log out and type in their username on the User Login page, and click the "Email new password" to receive a password. This group is advised to make sure their email address is up to date on the My Preferences page.

Both types of users can change their password after receiving the initial one.

People in the third group will not be affected when OpenID is turned off, though they are encouraged to make sure their email address is up to date on the My Preferences page.

We are not in any rush to turn off OpenID, and please feel free to ask for assistance -- moving over people may take some time, and we'll send out another email/post another post closer to the time when we are ultimately ready to turn it off.

- Amy [The Wiki Committee]

aethel

We're pleased to announce that Doro has joined the wiki committee!

morgandawn

I have a hard time typing and wiki coding makes typing even harder. However, I have been using a wiki plugin that will automatically convert rich text into wiki code. It is a plugin that can be installed on wikis (although Fanlore currently does not use it).

I access the plugin on the main Wiki site, do my editing in their sandbox and then copy and paste the converted text into Fanlore.

Process
1. Make an account on the main Wiki site. http://en.wikipedia.org/ and log in
2. Go to My Preferences and scroll down to Editing and select "wikEd, a full-featured integrated text editor for Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome."
3. Then go to the Wiki Sandbox (it can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Sandbox&action=edit )

You should see 2 rows of editing tools at the top of the sandbox - far more than the ones you see when you edit a Fanlore Page. If you do not see the 2 rows, you are not logged in.

4. Paste your text into the sandbox, Select All and click on the [W] button. It will turn your text into wiki code with (most) of the formatting. You may need to do some tweaking.
5. Copy and paste the converted wiki code into the Fanlore page and preview and then save.
6. Clear the Wiki Sandbox for the next person.

The expanded toolbox also offers handy shortcuts like creating lists with asterisks or numbers etc, doing a global search and replace, sort alphabetically.

~~I'll see if I can upload a screencap.~~
Screencap (click for larger version)

lian

!completely unofficial:

I wanted to share this StarOffice/OpenOffice export extension with y'all -- I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. (Well, because I never use it myself, I guess; I'm fluent in wikicode, so I don't need it, but I had it installed at my workplace, so I know it works.)

You write a document in OpenOffice, then use the newly added "export" option in the menu to, well, import it to the wiki (you only need to enter your Fanlore name&password in the export popup), where it'll create a page named after the document title, and convert the text to wiki-markup for you.

Mind you, pictures and tables don't get converted, and you'll have to insert templates etc; so it doesn't work for anything fancy. But maybe it's a start for the wiki-phobic who just want to get some info on there without dealing with the wiki editing window.

kylara

I've been thinking about the process of documenting doujinshi on Fanlore. Not about me personally documenting it, but the documentation process in general. Every so often the topic of outreach comes up around Fanlore and the OTW, (which I think about more often then I care to admit,) and ease of use probably factors into that. Wikicode isn't difficult, but it's more work than filling out a simple form; for instance, MangaUpdates.com's "add a series" form looks like this, which is very straight-forward.

So on Monday, I got tired of bemoaning to myself the lack of a simple process for documenting doujinshi, and I made one that works for Fanlore:

Check it out!

Basically, it takes all the information in the form and converts it into basic wikicode using the Doujinshi template. It includes a descriptive first sentence and categories. I'll write a breakdown of what happens with all the info if anyone would like to see.

This is just for doujinshi. Is there any interest in things like this?

( Updates )

aethel

At long last, a new challenge! The Total Braindump Challenge (from July) is definitely closed, and we now present....

Women Characters, Science Edition!

In celebration of Ada Lovelace Day (October 7), why not create a Fanlore article about your favorite female character who is a scientist, engineer, or mathematician? Tell us about your fannish experiences with these characters — the women themselves, the relationships they’re in (het, lesbian, canonical, fannish, etc.), the fanworks they star in — whatever you can think of! You can stub out a new page, or add a sprinkle of information on an existing page.

( editing resources )

rbarenblat

The wiki committee has been working on some additions and clarifications to our FAQ materials and policy pages. We present all three of them below, for your perusal and commentary. We look forward to your feedback; if there are no objections, we'll make these changes within the next few days.

( Proposed image policy addition: I am a fanartist, and I object to some of my work being displayed on Fanlore. What can be done about it? )

( Proposed addition to the Identity Protection page )

( Proposed changes to Editorial Procedures page )

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Fanlore's Journal

Fanlore Valentine?

SPAM

Possible article?

Fanlore icons

(no subject)

server downtime Friday

admin post: image policy addition second draft

FYI: contact page

Fanlore on Fanlore

Twitter

Flagged revisions

New templates.

community tags

(no subject)

New Committee Member!

Another automatic "convert to wiki code" tool

Useful OpenOffice extension

Forms for Wikicode

new challenge: Women Characters, Science Edition!

admin post: image policy, identity protection, editorial procedures

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January 2012

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