Fanlore's Journal

Big news! On Monday 3rd October, Fanlore will be undergoing some maintenance to upgrade our version of MediaWiki, the software behind Fanlore. This is a significant upgrade that has been in the works for some time, and we're really excited that it's almost here!

What will this mean for Fanlore?

Beginning at 1pm UTC on Monday 3rd October (what time is that for me?), Fanlore will go into read-only mode. This will mean you can still browse the site, but you won't be able to log in or make any edits.

We're expecting this to last for about 10 hours while the upgrade completes and everything is tested, and we'll let everyone know once the new and improved Fanlore is ready to use!

What's changing about the wiki?

One of the big changes that this upgrade will bring to Fanlore is a Visual Editor mode - rather than formatting things with wiki markup, there will be lots of buttons and options that format things for you (though for the dedicated markup-lovers, don't worry - you'll still be able to use markup in the Source Editor mode!)

We'll have more information on the new mode after the upgrade completes, including lots of updated documentation! Additionally, our MediaWiki software will be running on the latest version, which will mean fewer bugs, and new features and capabilities we can introduce with wiki extensions. (We may have a few bugs as the new version settles in, and you can always write to us and report any issues!)

If you have any questions about what to expect from the upgrade - or anything related to Fanlore - just leave a comment below and we'll reply as soon as we can!

Banner by memorizingthedigitsofpi

We just reached a huge milestone on Fanlore: one million edits! And to celebrate, we're running a scavenger hunt contest all week that anyone can enter to win a very special Citrus Scale-themed sticker set and some exclusive badges!

The Citrus Scale sticker set was previously available as an OTW donor premium at the $40 level (as seen in this tweet), but has since been discontinued - now is your chance to get your hands on one! The first person to send in correct answers to all of the scavenger hunt questions below will win the sticker set (this will require you to send us your address, but we won't retain it for any purposes beyond sending you your prize! We can ship to anywhere in the world). The answers to these are found all over Fanlore, so prepare to get hunting!

Every person who sends in a fully correct set of answers will also win an exclusive badge to post to their Fanlore user page, website or profile page, as will everyone who takes part in the hunt (regardless of whether you get all the answers correct)! Do you think you're up to the challenge? Here are the scavenger hunt questions:

1) What year did Fanlore come out of beta?

2) List two tropes that are similar to "Smarm".

3) Name a piece of Anime & Manga meta with a page on Fanlore - if you want, you can create a page yourself to qualify for this answer (it can be a page of any length, as long as the subject is anime/manga meta).

4) What pairing were the first Alpha/Beta/Omega fanworks written for?

5) Which of these questions is NOT in the Fanlore FAQ?
Send in your completed answers to wiki@transformativeworks.org, and we will send you back your badge(s) – and contact you if you're the winner of the Citrus Scale sticker set! If you have any questions about the scavenger hunt, feel free to comment below.