User blog:SophitzFoster/Several Announcements

This is a pretty long announcement with various things happening around here, including some pretty important ones, so I'd appreciate you reading as much as you can! The most important ones are first, but the more you can read, the better! :D

New Administrator
As Legacy approaches, we've decided it's time to welcome a new administrator, so... your newest administrator is Mint-chocolate-mallowmelt! Please give her a warm welcome!

Spoiler Ban
This one is very important! We will have a 10-day spoiler ban on the wiki from the release of Legacy so that users who want to find information on past books without fear of spoilers can, and so that users can continue to interact on here safely for the duration of that time. November 5 through November 15, posting spoilers will give you one reminder, and then a block for the duration of the spoiler ban. We can't guarantee absolute safety, though, so consider whether you want to be here without reading. Article pages should mainly be safe, but other places, especially comment sections, be careful with!

New FANDOM Platform
So, I've seen some panic over this announcement from FANDOM. Yes, FANDOM is planning on rolling out a new platform in the next few months; yes, we have no choice in the matter; yes, they are replacing chat forums, including comment sections. But FANDOM is listening to users, so you can talk to them and tell them your thoughts and worries and ask questions and get answers! Don't panic! We'll be fine! We can work with whatever.

My Activity
I am going to be a bit less active throughout November and the days leading up to it for a few reasons, including school, writing (NaNoWriMo!), reading (got a lot to read!), Confirmation preparation, and driving lessons. I'll still be on here several times a week, but you can't count on me being on every day. I'm not leaving you! Don't worry! I just thought I'd give a heads-up that you'd probably be better off bringing urgent matters to other administrators.

Quote Project
I've been talking to FANDOM, and they've explained that having quotes at the top of a page, like we do, is bad practice and can cause confusion. One example of why they shouldn't be there is that they look like fanfictions in search results. (If more reasoning doesn't interest you, scroll to the last paragraph of this section.)



Here's more information from FANDOM staff:

"Back to quotes for a moment, SEO is an issue with putting quotes in ledes, but it's not the only reason. It's an awkward journalism / documentary issue. There are some basic writing complications at play. Some of my favorite books start off chapters with quotes or excerpted dialogue that add context or tone to a chapter's contents. That's not same as an encylopedic style, or a wiki-pedic style, or a scholarly writing style (such as APA), or a news article. In fact, many style guides for journalistic articles warn against quotes at the beginning... This is one example:

'The most important reason for not starting a story with a quote is that a quote itself seldom shows the news value of your story. It is your task as a journalist to tell the reader what is news. You should tell them what is new, unusual, interesting or significant about the information you present. Only when you have told them what is news should you use a quote to support your intro.

A standard intro in reported speech is the most effective method of expressing an idea. Very few people speak well enough to say in one sentence what a good journalist can compress into a well-written intro.

Starting a news story with a quote produces awkward punctuation. By putting words inside quotation marks, you give readers an extra obstacle to overcome just at the time when you are trying to grab their attention.

Beginning with a quote also means that your readers see the quote before they know who has said it. How can they judge the importance of the quote without knowing the speaker?'"

and:

"A limited, curated set of quotes is fine and encouraged (on the base article page). A full subpage of only quotes isn't great. A single introductory pull quote, if it is highly relevant to the character, should be in an appropriate section under a header; just not in the lede."

SO, the quotes on the top of pages will need to be moved down, and future quotes should not be added at the top of pages, FYI.

Categories
Some of you have probably noticed that I've been reorganizing and fixing up the categories on the wiki. So, I have a few requests based on that:


 * 1) A category should not be in itself.
 * 2) A category shouldn't be in its subcategories; its subcategories should be in it.
 * 3) Generally, it's good to have a category in only one category. That way you have a nice, pretty category tree. There are, naturally, exceptions, like putting the "Mentors" category under both "Characters" and "Foxfire."
 * 4) The "Elvin Traditions" category often has pages put in it that really shouldn't be. A tradition is something unique about Elvin culture that they've had for a long time. Examples of traditions are the Council, Nexuses, and Cognates. An example of something that isn't a tradition is blue eyes (that's "About the Elves", not a tradition).
 * 5) A change I want to make is updating the book-character pages—such as "Flashback Characters"—so that they only list the characters introduced in those books. I think they will be much more helpful that way.

Now, I have created a category tree that lists every non-hidden (and some hidden) category on the wiki in sub-categories and everything! It'll help y'all get an idea of what a category tree looks like, and y'all can give me suggestions for rearranging if you'd like! Anyway, without further ado, this is what the wiki's category tree now looks like:


 * About the Elves
 * Ability (To be renamed "Skills")
 * History
 * Incident
 * Special Abilities
 * Telepathy
 * About the Elvin World
 * Elements
 * Fire
 * Elvin Communities
 * Black Swan
 * Collective
 * Neverseen
 * Elvin Jobs
 * Elvin Traditions
 * Foxfire
 * Species
 * Dinosaur
 * Stars
 * Travel
 * Light Leaping
 * About the Series
 * Artists
 * Books
 * Short Stories
 * Browse
 * Community
 * Blog posts
 * Policy
 * Organization
 * Disambiguation
 * Hidden categories
 * Photos
 * Photos:Blog
 * Photos:Book
 * Photos:Character
 * Photos:Comment
 * Photos:Fanart
 * Photos:Fan Edit
 * Photos:Memes
 * Photos:Message Wall
 * Photos:Miscellaneous Article
 * Photos:Pairing
 * Photos:Profile
 * Photos:User Page
 * Photos:URL Use
 * Photos:Wiki Design
 * Videos
 * Stubs
 * Templates
 * Templates:Article
 * Badges
 * Club Badge
 * Friend Badge
 * KotLC Badge
 * Other Badge
 * Pairing Badge
 * Templates:Documentation
 * Templates:Image Licensing
 * Templates:MainPage
 * Templates:Message
 * Templates:Navbox
 * Templates:Other
 * Templates:Profile
 * Characters
 * Deceased Characters
 * Elf
 * Everblaze Characters
 * Exile Characters
 * Families
 * Foster
 * Heks
 * Ruewen
 * Sencen
 * Vacker
 * Flashback Characters
 * Keeper Characters
 * Lodestar Characters
 * Main Character
 * Mentors
 * Minor Characters
 * Neverseen Characters
 * Nightfall Characters
 * Non-Elf Characters
 * Alicorns
 * Animals
 * Foxfire Level Mascot
 * Pets
 * Dinosaur
 * Dwarves
 * Gnome
 * Goblins
 * Human
 * Ogre
 * Stuffed Animal Characters
 * Trolls
 * Secondary Characters
 * Species Leader
 * The Council
 * Elvin Food
 * Elvin Beverages
 * Miscellaneous
 * Nicknames
 * Travel
 * Objects
 * Elvin Inventions
 * Elixirs
 * Slurps and Burps Products
 * Medicines
 * Slurps and Burps Products
 * Weapons
 * Pairings
 * Places
 * Black Swan Hideout
 * Cities
 * Forbidden Cities
 * Lost Cities
 * Exillium
 * Exillium Hemisphere
 * Foxfire
 * Foxfire Course
 * Neutral Territories
 * Neverseen Hideout
 * Residences
 * Rivers
 * Stargazing site
 * Plants
 * Substances
 * Ogre Microbiological Substance

And Thank You
As the days count down to the release of Legacy, I'm so grateful for my place here, and for this community. I don't deserve such an incredible position with so many wonderful people to work with. Like... me? The co-owner of a wiki with thousands of views every day? That Shannon Messenger herself knows about? I really don't deserve this, and I'm getting teary at the moment. So I just want to say thank you to all of you for the work you put into this community and its articles, even if I've never spoken with you (okay, I'll be honest, I'm not thanking you if you're only on here to break the rules, but everyone else). I'm just so glad I get to be a part of this and work with all of you.

Of course... Special shoutouts go to: First, Rayah for starting this whole thing. She was a dedicated part of this wiki for no less than four years. It wouldn't be here without her. And to Eva, for her many efforts to keep the wiki going. Her community building and other contributions have been invaluable. I've gone through periods of being practically inactive on here, and I can honestly say that the wiki would not be where it is without her. And SuldreenSong may be mostly gone now, but she spent more than a year fueling the wiki with fresh articles and being part of the community, and a few months helping as an administrator. Finally, the old administrators—I definitely appreciate all of their efforts as well! (That's InkedParchment, Kittycat8, Crazykiki379, and The Last Alicorn.)

I know you'll all do your best with everything I've thrown at you here, and I appreciate that greatly! Onward, to the future of the wiki, and to Legacy!