A comment after having spent a concentrated two hours working with the wiki: it is really, really hard to understand.
The categories are hard to understand and there are a LOT of DO NOTS around them, making their use pretty scary. They aren't tags, but it's hard not to think of them as tags, because that's what I'm used to. I don't think I'm very unusual in this regard.
The way things tie together is hard to understand. Presumably it happens through categories. I found that there was no article on Simon Tam, so I wrote one using the Character template, but there are no categories in the template; the way an article like that gets tied back to the source fandom is hard to understand.
The difference between the content of fandom and fandom itself is a little slippery, too. Perhaps a better definition of "fannish enough" is in order.
The difference between a user and a person is hard to understand. I came away with the certainty that I'm the one and not the other.
The article-writing code, I get. I mean, I get how to learn it. But the structure of Fanlore and its intentions--both of which seemed pretty clear to me when I dug in--got murkier the more I tried to to contribute.
I'm afraid I don't have any brilliant suggestions for you, but I did think you ought to know that as a dedicated fan, a supporter-in-principle of what Fanlore is trying to do, and a professional in information technology, I found the experience pretty scary. I believe Fanlore really does value my little mite of fandom, but there's a real barrier to my making the contribution.
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A comment after having spent a concentrated two hours working with the wiki: it is really, really hard to understand.
The categories are hard to understand and there are a LOT of DO NOTS around them, making their use pretty scary. They aren't tags, but it's hard not to think of them as tags, because that's what I'm used to. I don't think I'm very unusual in this regard.
The way things tie together is hard to understand. Presumably it happens through categories. I found that there was no article on Simon Tam, so I wrote one using the Character template, but there are no categories in the template; the way an article like that gets tied back to the source fandom is hard to understand.
The difference between the content of fandom and fandom itself is a little slippery, too. Perhaps a better definition of "fannish enough" is in order.
The difference between a user and a person is hard to understand. I came away with the certainty that I'm the one and not the other.
The article-writing code, I get. I mean, I get how to learn it. But the structure of Fanlore and its intentions--both of which seemed pretty clear to me when I dug in--got murkier the more I tried to to contribute.
I'm afraid I don't have any brilliant suggestions for you, but I did think you ought to know that as a dedicated fan, a supporter-in-principle of what Fanlore is trying to do, and a professional in information technology, I found the experience pretty scary. I believe Fanlore really does value my little mite of fandom, but there's a real barrier to my making the contribution.