Fanlore forums

[aethel]

Wiki editing is fun and a fannish activity like any other. Sharing and discussing what we love is part of what we do as fans, and there are many fans who might love Fanlore if they had the chance to get to know the wiki and the community surrounding it. Right now doing that on Fanlore is difficult for people new to wiki editing, and even experienced editors sometimes feel alone in what they are doing.

Therefore, there is one thing we hope to get off the ground this year, and it’s one many of you have asked for: a wiki forum.

It could be a place where people:

- introduce themselves / get to know one another / chat informally
- ask questions about wiki editing, and answer one anothers’ questions
- collaborate/brainstorm on and squee about wiki pages
- ask questions about Fanlore policies, and receive answers from Fanlore Wiki Committee members
- find previously answered questions without having to de-lurk

Since late last term, there have also been discussions within the OTW (our parent organization) about establishing public org-wide forums and how to incorporate the desired Fanlore forum into that structure. But rather than wait on org-wide forums, we thought Fanlore could more quickly and easily set up a forum hosted by a third party.

Currently, we are looking at Vanilla Forums for hosting. It has several advantages: you could sign in with other accounts (twitter, google, fb), we could have a custom domain name, and we would be able to move it to our own servers without losing content if we needed to. Most importantly, it appears to be the only viable option for accessible forum software, but if someone familiar with accessibility issues can offer alternative suggestions, please let us know.

Once we have a Fanlore forum, we might be able to add other OTW spaces (for example an AO3 forum) to the existing account at a later date.

Now we want to hear from you:

- What do you hope to see in a forum? What would make you want to use it? (What would put you off from using it?)
- Which topics and threads would you like to have?
- Some ideas: FAQ, introduction thread, compilation of talk page discussions, pages in progress, announcements, news, fannish history discussions, suggestions, gardeners, …

At present, the wiki committee doesn’t have experience setting up or running a forum, so input from anyone with forum expertise would be appreciated and fans willing to help as a moderator would be welcomed with open arms.

We’re in the early stages of planning, so really, any sort of input is appreciated!

Comments

[lian]

This blog post makes the concept clearer, I think; the "reactions" feature seems to be specific to Vanilla, while "badges" are more or less what you describe. But I'd be very interested in learning how badges can be customized to reflect off-forums data, too, which would be most relevant in Fanlore's case.

Hm, maybe time to go and lurk the help forums while I'm still stuck & bored at work :P

ETA: Actually! it makes much more sense to look at the *software* page rather than the *hosting business* siute to learn about features: http://vanillaforums.org/docs

[inkstone]

Thanks for the link! That does make it a lot clearer. Ok, I'm familiar with the reactions feature then, though it was called something else on the particular forum I'm thinking of. Actually, now that I think about it, it's sort of a combination of the reputation feature on some forums and the comment promotion on certain blogs. Interesting. I don't know if that's something pertinent to Fanlore/OTW's needs though.

I definitely agree it'd be nice if badges could be customized to reflect something like wiki edits.

(haha, good use of work time! ;) )

[extempore]

I only now followed the first link and read about the like/dislike/greying comments out aspect and I admit, I'm torn about that. I know this mechanic from gamer blogs and websites where the primary reason for the community is to get relevant information out. In that context, and considering the big group of children and teenage boys/girls in online gaming communities, greying out trolls is a welcome and often necessary thing. However, for a forum of mature people this kind of cencorship isn't needed, in my opinion, and only distracts from the flow of a thread. I'd prefer to decide for myself, if a comment is worth reading or what weight it has in the context of a discussion.

I do like the idea of awarding badges according to Fanore edits though.