Project Time!

[briar_pipe]

I have a dream... a dream that we could build collaborative, shared project pages on Fanlore that would allow multiple people to share a goal (or group of goals). You know - a Wikiproject.

I've been working on pages in the general Anime & Manga category for the past few weeks. After talking with frogspace, I think what I'm looking for is a pony a page on Fanlore that could be collaboratively edited (and if a forum is set up, a topic for the project, if it's busy enough to warrant one). In my mind, the goals of such a page would be something like:

1. Make getting started easier for new editors who're interested specifically in this topic (and old hands who want somewhere to direct new editors),
   
2. Make it easier to review what's already been contributed to the topic and find places to add more material,
   
3. Facilitate discussion among editors and collect discussion links, so conversations aren't fragmented and people don't miss things they wanted to be a part of,
   
4. Provide a place to cheer other editors on, request review of your work, and generally support one another.

For content, I'm thinking an introduction to the project itself (including goals), a section for new editors so they could have an Animanga-focused introduction to Fanlore (which may encourage them to stick around), a list of resources or instructions somewhat modified from the one I posted on the wishlist, an explanation of the structure of related categories, links to relevent past conversations/decisions about the categories, etc.

For naming, I have no idea.

So, if you're interested in the Animanga side of fandom (and frankly, at this point I'll throw in the kitchen sink and say "anything on East Asia", because we can make sister projects to limit the amount of reinventing the wheel any one person has to do), please weigh in. What would you like to see on such a project page? What would you call such a page?

And if you're interested in the idea of projects, whether or not you have any Animanga background, what kinds of things would be useful on project pages in general? What kind of consistent naming scheme could we work towards?

[Note for mods: Tried adding a 'projects' tag but couldn't.]

Comments

[tiyire]

I gave you a "projects" tag.

What you're saying sounds great! I imagine a "landing page" for Animanga-content (or other projects - cosplay! Fandoms in other languages! Fanart/fancraft!) that includes the goal of the project, a list to relevant categories, a project-focused wish list, a link to the help pages, a prominent link to the discussion page/discussions on other pages, a list of editors interested in the projects who are willing to help, and maybe other stuff? Much less complicated than the WikiProjects on Wikipedia look like (though I have no experience with them.)
A forum is coming next term, so we could use that as a second platform for people who are more comfortable there.

It's a wonderful idea, and I'd definitely support it. Now the bad news: At the moment the Wiki committee does not have the resources to help build anything like this. Not with structure, general content, not with design, and definitely not things like permanently staffing an open chatroom. (A partial explanation why will be posted soon.) If nothing goes wrong, my hope is that Wiki will be able to do so in maybe half a year.

But! That doesn't mean it can't be done! I'm excited that you're brainstorming for this, the more concrete ideas there are for what people want and how to do it the easier it'll be for Wiki to help. And if editors want to start building it themselves even better :)

[briar_pipe]

Thank you for the tag!

Yes, a landing page - exactly! Something clear, cozy, and directly to the point. I like your suggestions for topics. And yes, a forum would be very helpful!

I totally understand that the Wiki committee has other things on their plate and lots of work to do keeping Fanlore running. So my question for everyone is, is it okay if non-committee editors do this ourselves to test the waters? You implied yes, but I'd like to ask explicitly. And if so, are there any requests the committee would make, or parameters they'd like to set? (I'm thinking of page naming conventions in particular, but could be anything.)

In my ideal world, the committee wouldn't have to get involved in projects at all, except as individual editors on their own time and for their own personal reasons. However, I do want to make sure that we're following the goals and standards of Fanlore in general and not causing any additional work for others or creating a sense of exclusion in any way.

[tiyire]

Just some of my thoughts (and aethel´s, thanks for brainstorming): In principle it´s definitely okay if non-committee editors do it themselves. As a guideline I´d prefer it if the committee and/or the gardeners are contacted when a new project is started so that they know about it and can help with the set-up (categories etc.) Consistent naming would be good, but we could do that by editor consensus, I don´t have any particular preference (Project:xxx, or Fanlore Project: XXX, or Fanlore: xxx Project...)

Eventually we should have a help page that explains what a project is, how to set it up, what to include, but we can do that after having one "test-run", so to say, and it doesn´t have to be done by the committee either.

I´d also prefer if the project only went "public", i.e. people are explicitly invited to join, once at least the basics are complete. Maybe it could be drafted in the sandbox or in a sandbox subpage so that other editors can discuss it?

I imagine that it would be easiest if one person involved in the project has gardener rights and can keep an eye on the relevant pages, but that won´t be a problem.

[aethel]

BTW, "Fanlore:" would be a required prefix because it marks a separate namespace. We wouldn't want to put these pages in the main namespace since they're about the project itself (Fanlore) and not documenting fannish history.