Fanlore's Journal

Fanlore Open House Chat: Tropes & Ships

2017-09-08T21:34:18Z

Posted by: fanloremod

The Fanlore Committee will be holding another open house to chat about Tropes and Ships in a few hours, on Saturday, September 9 from 5:00 to 7:00 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?). Come talk about your favorites and learn how to create or add to existing pages!

Here's the link to the chatroom. Come join us!

There will be many other events this month celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Organization for Transformative Works. Check out the others, too!

comments

Fanlore, April Showers, & Fannish History

2016-04-16T22:02:22Z

Posted by: fanloremod

We celebrate fannish history every day at Fanlore, but April is traditionally the time that we reissue our invitation to share your old fandom faves and your personal fannish history.

Though we usually hold an April Showers of Fannish History event at Fanlore and AO3, the OTW has come to the org-wide decision that it's time for the traditional event to come to an end. We are all sad to see it go, but we believe that the challenge in its current format--involving choosing thirty different fandoms to highlight on each day in April--is something that we've outgrown, and a fandom-a-day challenge no longer best serves Fanlore.

Even though there is no formal challenge this year, let us take this opportunity to encourage you to share your fannish history! If you haven't done so already, add a "Fannish History" section to your Fanlore user page (and if you don't have a Fanlore account, make one)! Go through your old bookmarks and create stubs or add additional information about you old favorite fanworks and fansites! Help us work to preserve fannish history all year round.

We would also like to announce an April Editing Party! Join us on Sunday, April 24th at 16:00 UTC (when is that in my timezone?) in the Fanlore chatroom to chat about fannish history and your current editing projects.

In other news, the Wiki Committee has a lot of overdue announcements for you! Look for one coming in the next couple of days, and we'll resume our monthly newsletters starting at the beginning of May.

comments

Fanlore editing chat

2015-12-21T00:02:56Z

Posted by: fanloremod

We would like to invite you to a Fanlore editing party in the Fanlore chat room on Saturday, 26 December at 17:00 UTC (What time is that where I live?)

Come hang out with other Fanlore editors, and help us create and edit Fanlore pages for your favorite Yuletide fandoms and stories! Fanlore staff will be present to answer any questions about Fanlore editing and will be happy to assist new users. Everyone is welcome!

We hope to see you there!

comments

What the Wiki committee did in October and November

2015-12-04T02:56:55Z

Posted by: fanloremod

The Wiki Committee has been busy the past two months! We apologize for missing the November newsletter, but we now have a number of updates for you:

Changes to the OTW Board of Directors

As some of you may have heard, the current OTW Board has resigned, effective December 15th. Despite these changes, all of the OTW's projects, including Fanlore, the Archive of Our Own, and Transformative Works and Cultures are operating normally. The Board certainly plays an important role in the management of the OTW, but their role is more focused on oversight and administration – it’s truly our volunteers who keep Fanlore going, and we’re all eternally grateful for their continued dedication and hard work!

For more information, you can read the most recent update from the 2016 Board members-elect, and the Fanlore article on the 2015 Board Election and aftermath, which provides a great background. Thank you to everyone who has been working on it! Further additions and perspectives are welcome, as always.

Fanlore technical issues

Some editors may have noticed slowdowns and error messages on Fanlore at the end of October. These were further symptoms of the site issues that affected AO3, which the OTW's hard-working Systems team were able to identify and resolve for the time being. You can read a report of the incident here at AO3 News.

There have also been issues with Fanlore's search engine recently - thank you to those who brought the problems to our attention! Unfortunately, it looks like our search index auto-updating isn't working as it should, so some search results have been out-of-date. We're still looking into the cause of the problem, but for now we've set the search index to fully update once per week. This means that you won't be able to search during the 2 minutes per week that it takes to update, but at least the index won't ever be more than a week out-of-date.

In other search engine news, we've increased the maximum number of search results returned from 1000 to 3000 results. The limit is to prevent undue strain on the servers when e.g. people search the wiki for "fan" (this gives 15,682 hits in the main namespace, if you're curious!). We believe the new limit will be more than enough for the majority of searches. For more about searching Fanlore, see Help:Searching.

Fanlore editing projects & category discussions

Earlier this month, editors started a discussion about renaming the Celebrities & Real People category. There is no consensus yet and more input is welcome.

Fanlore also has a shiny new Statistics category for Fandom Statistics and editors have been working on documenting a massive meta discussion on Tumblr about the history of fandom. In anticipation of the new Star Wars movie, editors have also been working on the Star Wars The Phantom Menace pages because back in 1999 it was the fandom that ate fandom. So if you are in the mood for a walk down memory lane, check out the pages in the Star Wars TPM Websites, Archives or Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan Fanfiction category.

What other Fanlore editing projects have you been working on?

Monthly editing chats

The Wiki Committee would like to to hold and attend more regular public editing chats, in order to increase transparency and communication between the committee and Fanlore editors. To this end, we will hold an editing chat before at least one of our twice-monthly committee meetings going forward.

The next editing party will be on on Sunday, December 13th at 17:00 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?) in the Fanlore chat room.

We know that these times might not work for everyone, so we encourage Fanlore editors to arrange their own editing parties! Anyone is welcome to choose a time for an editing party and announce it by posting to this Dreamwidth community. You can also ping fanlore_news to re-tweet editing party announcements. We hope that this way editors in all timezones can be accommodated!

What's to come?

In December, the Wiki Committee will continue to work on outstanding tasks and respond to outside queries, and hopes to finish up some other behind-the-scenes projects before the new year.

As of December 3rd, 2015, Fanlore has 36,785 articles which have undergone 635,750 edits. We hope to see you on the Recent Changes page!

comments

What the Wiki committee did in September

2015-10-03T23:59:31Z

Posted by: fanloremod

September has been a busy month for Wiki and Fanlore, as we celebrated Stub September. The month long challenge would not be as successful or productive without your contributions. We've seen great contributions to all sorts of fan communities and venues of fannish engagement. The fandoms and characters also benefited from your work with Harry Potter and Buffyverse getting a lot of attention.

We also held an editing party on September 12th, which was attended by ten editors, including some Gardeners and Wiki committee members. Below is a brief summary of some of the topics discussed, which included Stub September, other editing projects, and some new ideas:
( September 12th chat summary )

As far as changes within the Wiki Committee itself go: our co-chair Tiyire is back from hiatus, ready to get back to work. Additionally, we also said goodbye to one of our staffers, squidgie. He will remain a Fanlore editor and we hope to see him around on the Recent Changes page.

What's to come?

To provide an opportunity for new and more experienced editors to ask questions and have fun while contributing to Fanlore, we will be holding an editing party on Saturday, October 18th at 17:00 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?) in the Fanlore chat room.

As of October 3rd, 2015, Fanlore has 36,211 articles which have undergone 622,212 edits. We hope to see you on the Recent Changes page!

comments

Editing Party Reminder

2015-09-12T00:20:05Z

Posted by: fanloremod

As part of our Stub September challenge, the Wiki Committee will be holding an editing party in the Fanlore chat room on Saturday, 12 September at 17:00 UTC (What time is that where I live?).

Come hang out with other Fanlore editors, get help with your first wiki edits, or talk about your Stub September edits and plans! Fanlore staff will be present to answer any questions about Fanlore editing and will be happy to assist new users. Everyone is welcome!

We hope to see you there!

comments

21 February chat summary

2015-02-22T00:38:48Z

Posted by: jsparc

Earlier today(/yesterday) we had an editing chat in the Fanlore chat room. The chat was in part held to answer questions about volunteering for the Wiki committee; if you were unable to make it to the chat but have questions about volunteering, feel free to contact the committee.

Below is a brief summary of some of the topics we discussed:
( Read more... )

Thank you to everyone who came! :)

comments

Recruiting new committee members & chat

2015-02-17T23:36:06Z

Posted by: fanloremod

Are you interested in how Fanlore works behind the scenes? The Wiki committee is recruiting!

Wiki staff members are responsible for the day-to-day work of the Wiki committee. We respond to questions and complaints; shape Fanlore policies, categories, and tutorials; assist the gardeners; try to promote Fanlore; plan larger projects, and generally try to be as helpful as possible. No special experience is required, only the ability to work in a team and an interest in fannish history and Fanlore in particular.

If you are interested, please take a look at the volunteers page. Applications will be open until February 23rd.

If you're not interested in a staff position, but would like to be a gardener, please contact the Wiki Committee.

To answer any questions you might have about volunteering, questions about Fanlore and editing in general, or to chat with fellow editors, we invite you to the Fanlore chat room on Saturday, 21 February at 17:00 UTC (What time is that where I live?). We hope to see you there!

comments

October newsletter & editing chat

2014-11-16T10:24:06Z

Posted by: fanloremod

Better late than never, here is what the Wiki committee did in October:

From October 19 to October 26, the OTW held an amazingly successful membership drive! An incredible US$164,625.58 was raised, far outstripping the US$70,000 goal. You can read more about the drive at transformativeworks.org. Thank you to everyone who donated!

We held an editing chat on October 11, which had a great turnout! Some topics we discussed are summarized below:
( October 11th chat summary )

We also addressed our usual outside requests, including an identity protection case. In November, we will continue to work on finishing a request for Legal and are awaiting final confirmation about another exciting announcement. We are also beginning to plan some exciting projects for the new year and will continue to improve our internal documentation.

comments

Fanlore editing chat

2014-10-09T22:04:18Z

Posted by: fanloremod

You are cordially invited to an editing chat for questions, discussions, or just to talk about Fanlore editing on Saturday, October 11, 2014 from 6:30 to 8:30pm UTC (what time is that in my timezone?), in the Fanlore chat room on Campfire.

Come join Wiki staffers, gardeners and fellow editors and find out more about how you can help develop the entries on Fanlore!

comments

Chat session 14 September

2014-09-15T02:11:35Z

Posted by: espresso_addict

A chat session was held on 14 September at 19:00 UTC. Eight editors were able to make it, including several Committee members. Topics from the wide-ranging discussion included proposals for a New Articles Month, Weekly Featured Article section and an on-wiki central discussion forum, as well as discussion of Stub September, Committee communications, help pages, and more...

( New proposals )

( Other topics )

Note this is not an official committee report, so apologies if I've misunderstood or misrepresented anything. Discussion in comments is very welcome!

comments

Editing Party Reminder

2014-09-12T01:05:45Z

Posted by: fanloremod

As part of our Stub September challenge, the Wiki Committee will be holding an editing party in the Fanlore chat room on Sunday, 14 September at 19:00 UTC (What time is that where I live?).

Come hang out with other Fanlore editors, get help with your first wiki edits, or talk about your Stub September edits and plans! Fanlore staff will be present to answer any questions about Fanlore editing and will be happy to assist new users. Everyone is welcome!

We hope to see you there!

comments

Stub September 2014!

2014-08-26T20:13:01Z

Posted by: fanloremod

The Wiki Committee is pleased to announce Stub September 2014!

While fans are welcome to edit Fanlore at any time of the year, next month the Wiki Committee is organizing a special event. Stub September is a challenge for anyone, newcomers and seasoned Fanlore editors alike, to pick a stub and expand on it. A stub is an article on Fanlore that is under-developed and missing important information. Right now, there are over 1600 existing pages on Fanlore that are already identified as stubs. You're invited to use the list to find a page where you know something about the topic, and edit the page to add your new information. It's as simple as that.

In addition to the identified stubs, there two other types of articles, pages that need expansion and examples wanted, that need more information.

Pages that need expansion are pages that are too long to be considered stubs, but are still missing crucial information; e.g., there may be some empty placeholder sections that need filling in. This category was created in response to user feedback during the first Stub September.

Examples wanted are pages that are missing specific examples to define or illustrate the page topic. This category is much shorter and needs more specific information. If you know any examples, please just add them to the page!

New this year:

This year, we have chosen to focus on specific types of stubs during each week of the month. This is intended to make it easier to decide on a page to work on, but you are welcome to work on any stub (or any other article!) at any time. There will be new themes each week of September, so make sure to watch this space for more information. The first theme will be announced tomorrow!

Feel free to post links to the articles you work on and let others know about the project! If you haven't yet tried your hand at writing something for Fanlore, Stub September is a good month to add more information to existing Fanlore articles without having to start your own page from scratch. And you might also find out -- it's fun!

To help newcomers get started, the Wiki Committee will be organizing an editing party on Sunday, September 14th at 19:00 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?) in the Fanlore chat room where you can come and ask questions or just work on entries alongside other people.

If you're unable to attend the editing party but have questions about Fanlore or how to get started, you can post below, or contact us.

comments

April Showers Editing Party!

2014-04-17T04:16:35Z

Posted by: fanloremod

As part of the OTW's 2014 April Showers, the Wiki Committee invites you to a Fanlore editing chat in the Fanlore chat room on Saturday, 19 April at 20:00 UTC (What time is that where I live?).

Come hang out with other Fanlore editors, get help with your first wiki edits, or discuss new content ideas for the April Showers fandoms so far or any other Fanlore pages! Fanlore staff will be present to answer any questions about Fanlore editing and will be happy to assist new users. Everyone is welcome!

We hope to see you there!

comments

(Almost) Half a million edits!- chat

2014-02-14T23:55:33Z

Posted by: fanloremod

Take a look at Fanlore's statistics page: as I'm typing this there have been 499,897 page edits since Fanlore was set up. That means we'll soon reach half a million! Congratulations to our editors, you are all amazing.

To celebrate and/or to add the last few edits before the 500,000 mark we'll be meeting in Fanlore's public chat room (https://fanarchive.campfirenow.com/60af4) this Sunday, 8pm UTC (what time is that in my timezone?.) You are very welcome to join us! There will be cake, and possibly balloons.

comments

Fanlore editing party

2012-12-07T23:23:57Z

Posted by: tiyire

Another OTW term is ending and all of our volunteers and editors accomplished many great things this year working on Fanlore. To celebrate, the Wiki Committee is inviting you to join a Fanlore editing chat on December 16, 1300-1700 UTC in the Fanlore chat room (What time is that where I live?). Hang out and talk with other editors and volunteers while writing about your favorite new and old fandoms!

Wiki staffers will be present to answer questions about Fanlore editing and would be happy to see you there!

comments

Stub September editing chat

2012-09-20T20:11:16Z

Posted by: tiyire

You are cordially invited to a Fanlore editing chat for questions, discussions, or just to talk about Fanlore editing, on

Saturday, September 22, 5pm UTC (in your time zone), in the Fanlore chat room on Campfire.

Stub September is still ongoing - talk about what you did so far, what you still want to do, and recruit other people to help you!

comments

second April Showers Fanlore editing chat this Saturday

2012-04-10T02:00:54Z

Posted by: aethel

You are cordially invited to the second April Showers Fanlore editing chat on

Saturday, April 14 at 20:00 GMT (in your time zone)

in the Fanlore chat room.

Read more about the April Showers challenge here.

comments

Fanlore training chats on March 24 & 25

2012-04-01T23:04:38Z

Posted by: tiyire

Last weekend we held a chat training session for our new committee members and gardeners to introduce them to Fanlore and answer question. It was announced on the mailing list on very short notice, and we are sorry about that. In the future we hope to have regular chat sessions, announced publicly and in advance, for anyone who is interested in editing Fanlore and/or has questions.

Here is a compilation of questions that came up at last weekend's chat sessions. Thanks to everyone who dropped by and contributed!
( WebCite, chat transcripts, dates, minor edits, edit summaries, tips on searching the wiki, and a few motivational quotes )

comments

transcript from the June 26 Fanlore chat

2011-07-03T21:04:36Z

Posted by: aethel

Here is the transcript from the June 26 Fanlore training chat: ( chat transcript )

comments

Fanlore editing chat June 26 17:00 UTC!

2011-06-24T02:52:08Z

Posted by: aethel

The OTW's Wiki Committee will host an introductory chat to editing Fanlore. The chat is aimed at both current and new editors.

Come join us on Sunday, June 26 at 17:00 UTC in the Fanlore chatroom on Campfire. The chatroom can be accessed at https://fanarchive.campfirenow.com/60af4

Fanlore, a fandom wiki, is devoted to preserving the history of transformative fanworks and the fandoms from which they have arisen.

comments

chat transcript from the training session on May 28

2011-06-14T01:01:33Z

Posted by: aethel

( long transcript )

comments

Committee post: chat transcript

2011-06-06T12:09:32Z

Posted by: rbarenblat

Thanks to all who attended our introductory chat for those who are interested in editing the wiki!

We've been asked to share the chat transcript so that those who weren't present can learn what they missed. Before we do that, we want to make sure that everyone who was present is comfortable with public posting of the transcript -- but we don't have contact info for everyone who attended. So we're putting out a call: if you were present at that chat, please let us know if you'd be comfortable with the chat transcript becoming public?

We're working now on scheduling our next training chat. The chat will be open to the public, and this time we'll make sure everyone knows from the beginning of the chat that we'd like to share the transcript. We'll post here soon with details on the scheduling of that chat.

comments

Introductory chat to editing Fanlore

2011-05-23T20:59:59Z

Posted by: helkalantto

Do you edit Fanlore or would you like to do so? Now is the time to learn how. The OTW's Wiki-committee will host an introductory chat to editing Fanlore. The chat is aimed at both current and new editors.

The chat will be held on Saturday May 28 at 4 a.m. UTC (what time is it in my timezone?) in OTW's public chatroom on Campfire. The chatroom can be accessed at https://fanarchive.campfirenow.com/e79cc

Fanlore, a fandom wiki, is devoted to preserving the history of transformative fanworks and the fandoms from which they have arisen.

comments

Chat.

2010-09-22T14:09:29Z

Posted by: onceamy

Good news!

The Wiki committee has belatedly realised that they weren't staffing the Fanlore Campfire room, and as such, are going to work out a plan of staffing it as often as possible. In the meantime, we're staffing it as often as possible and will monitor the transcript as necessary.

Do feel free to come in, ask questions, and chat while editing!

comments