more ideas about how to attract more fans to edit

[ratcreature]

I commented in that discussion linked here earlier with some thoughts I had about what would make contributing more attractive: I think that maybe a "focus on" feature would be nice. I think it is more fun to contribute when others are working on related articles at the same time (for example "focus on fandom X" or a genre or a fanactivity, like "focus on conventions" or costuming, even recurring popular kerfuffles that could be tracked through fandoms or whatever), because then there is more opportunity for discussion and feedback, talk about what article structure would best, and you learn interesting stuff from other fans in the process or can reminiscence about how kerfuffle such and so was on mailing list X, so then there is less of that feeling of toiling in the wilderness full of frustration. Also newbies wouldn't have such a steep learning curve because they'd co-edit with more familiar people, so they wouldn't have to know or find the code for templates or advanced formatting on their own, but would just have to say "it would be cool to have this as a table/have a gallery here/get an infobox/..." And even if you didn't know anyone personally you'd be still in a group. It would be easier for people familiar with the fanlore to remember to talk to newbies too, because there'd be a common topic.

Comments

[sophinisba]

I like that idea. That discussion made me feel like going back to it after many months away, but I don't want to work on something all by myself, and the edits on the Recent Changes page these days are all about things I've never heard of. I think it would be nice to pick a theme for a week and have a parallel discussion going on here at the comm, so it's a format that's more accessible for more people to comment, whether they're getting involved with the wiki directly or not.

[kass]

I like this idea very much.

[cesperanza]

I'd totally play on a theme week!--hm, if I knew anything about the subject! I suppose it could be run like flashfiction challenges, with like, a fanlore mod coming up with related stuff on a topic and people going in and trying to do those things...

[ratcreature]

I think it would be good to plan the list of topics a bit in advance, so that there is a certain variety. Like for example I think that focus on particular fandoms should be followed by multifandom topics. Like a concerted effort to expand the Star Wars related stuff, shouldn't be followed by another single fandom right away, but by something that reaches across fandoms like holiday exchanges or whatever. At the start we could collect possible topics people would like to see featured, and then a good mix is planned. I don't think a mod should just come up with things, it should be more transparent.

[cesperanza]

Well, flashfic works by asking for suggestions from people and then alternating them; as mod, I don't invent the challenges myself, I slicit them. In fact, my role is just what you say--like, you don't want a challenge thatlends itself more toward slash followed by another and another; you want gen-friendly challenges in there, etc.

But anyway; tl: dr: yes, I totally agree!

[ratcreature]

Yeah, but in the flashfic comm you never see the selection process and don't know in advance, it's just announced from one challenge to the next, and people suggest stuff whereever (comments to the mod? I never bothered to suggest anything as I don't write, so I don't know where people drop off suggestions). And that makes sense for a fic challenge where you maybe don't want people writing or planning for the topic that will come in two months, but I think for a wiki having a loose "schedule" of upcoming things would be better.

Like I imagine if we were to organize that here, there could be first a brainstorming post to collect possible topics and discuss what would work, and then if there are really a lot there could even be a poll to rank topics (or just check whether you'd want to join editing in that field) to gauge which would evoke the most interest in the community as it is now, and then with that data a mod would make a somewhat schedule the next ten topics or whatever seems a sensible number to plan in advance, that hopefully reflects the interest of people.

[cesperanza]

OIC--yes, agreed!

[sophinisba]

I like that idea of coming up with a schedule that goes for at least a few weeks, which would give us some more time to spread the word around different comms and forums, as people are discussing below.

[elf]

I like this idea. It'd definitely be more fun to work as part of a group, even a loosely-defined one like "people who saw the post at fanlore and decided to play along."

And a "focus on [X]" theme could contain suggestions, either in a post or comments--if "X" is "conventions," suggestions could include a short list of cities known to have major conventions, worldcon bid histories, average sizes of conventions, single-topic conventions, authors who refuse to attend conventions, impact of conventions on local economies--all as "topics that it'd be nice to have more info about, which could work its way into Fanlore somehow."

Part of the problem with getting people to create/edit pages at Fanlore, is sorting out what info would be useful or interesting. That sorting is easier done in a group than alone; the back-and-forth conversations could help people figure out what random fannish info goes where.

[(Anonymous)]

I think actively trying to recruit people who are already invested in the focus topic but perhaps haven't heard of/have already given up on Fanlore is necessary. There's only 250 people watching this journal (if that's what subscribers are, I haven't really got the hang of dw), and it's not like it's been widely advertised. Or advertised at all. And given how few comments the few posts get, possibly the majority aren't that interested anyway.

Maybe places like ship-manifesto and idol-reflection might be good places to advertise a focus feature? There are whole communities of fans out there, passionately dedicated to talking about fandom, in detail and at length. And honestly, I think the fact that Fanlore has attracted so few of them is really telling.

poilass@lj cannot be bothered figuring out open id, sorry.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I imagined that these focus topics would be more widely advertised to generate interest. I mean, maybe a first trial how such an event works should be tried with this small group first (at least it is still many more people than regular editors), before it is expanded, but it should be used to lure new people to expand on whatever pet topic or favoirte fandom appeals to them, just with a support structure in place. And then maybe some of them will stick around for longer.

[aethel]

excellent plan!

and fandom- or pairing-specific comms as well?
and comms focused on a particular activity (vidding, art, etc.)
and meta/discussion comms...
what about fanthropology?

and not just advertising, but seeking input about if/what they'd be interested in working on, etc.

[sky]

I think this could be fun, as long as a very wide cross-section of fandoms and fandom activities were represented. The majority of activity at Fanlore tends to be for the Western media fandoms, and as someone who's there editing for anime, manga, and Japanese media pages (I don't know the first thing about most Western fandoms) I already tend to feel a bit left out in the first place; if all the "focus ons" were just for things happening in Western fandoms, it would turn into yet another aspect of the site that made me feel excluded.

idea in focus

[aethel]

I was looking at the popular pages feature on Fanlore just now: in the future, we might want to select fandoms/topics to focus on that get accessed a lot, but don't have a lot of content. Although we can probably ignore any pages with "porn" in the title; I'm guessing those are the result of naughty google searches.

[meri_oddities]

This is a really good idea. I like the concept of a different theme every couple of weeks. How would you implement it, though.

I just took over as chair a month or two ago and I'm looking for ways to bring people into the wiki and get them started.

[ratcreature]

Maybe a post asking which article cluster is bugging people most right now with some lack of content or structure, that would gauge the interest of the people who are currently somewhat invested in fanlore, but mostly not editing or intimidated to tackle something (the Star Trek articles bothers me to no end for example, but it seems too hard to just overhaul the thing on my own, especially since I disagree with the whole subpage structure), because those people we have right now have to be the starting point. Then when maybe a sort of short list of current interests emerges that show promise that enough of the currently somewhat active people would be around for a certain topic to work as focus, and there could be recruiting in relevant communities.

Once the base of involved people gets larger, there probably should be some kind of method to make the focus things balanced rather than a random thing.

Another useful thing might be to ask around whether there are any fans who have editorial skills around who could help organize what is already there in some of the longer articles into a better structure. This idea that a comprhensible structure somehow emerges organically is just not working very well, and IMO some more top-down intereference in article organization might be welcome.

[meri_oddities]

I agree that a more top-down structure is needed. And oddly enough, I find myself at the top without a lot wiki experience. However, I'm a project manager in RL, so I'm hoping the skills will translate.

I said somewhere in this comm that I need to get the new policy for fandom as a major category out. But truthfully with the holiday upon us, it's not going to be before mid-January.

I'd think about your ideas for Star Trek and figure out how you might rework things when it becomes it's own category with sub-categories for each of the different incarnations.

I really like the idea of themes and a new post every few weeks that engages people. Right now, we have a lot of posts out there with good ideas that all need to be implemented.

I know you spend a lot of time working on the wiki, and we really appreciate your effort.

As for posting to the people who are invested, that's a good idea.