Forum:How to increase visibility of wikia guidelines and important discussions?

A global problem of this wikia is that our guidelines and happening important discussions are not so visible and accessible as it is desirable. We should think to improve the situation. For example, Angel complains that it seems that nobody reads Image Guidelines or Trivia Guidelines, but what from will a new user know that they even exist? I recently added a link to Image Guidelines to the Main Page, but that is all. (Well, why people do not follow them after a message at a Talk page is another question).

Here are some suggestions and notes:

1) First, we should compile a list of current, up-to-date guidelines and rules. Now, they are: Image Guidelines, Trivia Guidelines, ... (please continue this list). Contrary example is Layout Guide - it is not relevant to our wikia. (Now all project pages are in Category:One Piece Encyclopedia and its subcategories, select from them).

2) We can put links to them at Main Page. But that is not enough. In fact, Main Page is what unregistered users see most often. For registered users, the starting page is, by default, Special:MyHome with list of recent changes. In the lower right corner there is "Community Corner", which can be changed by admin (MediaWiki:Community-corner). There again links to main guidelines could be put, and, if it were updated rather frequently, some messages about currently happening events in wikia could be placed.

3) I don't know if it is possible to add link to Image Guidelines to the image upload page (Special:Upload), but it would be good I think.

4) To change welcoming messages for users: to invite them to read guidelines (providing links, of course) there.

Ruxax 17:29, August 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * Some of the guidelines are really out of date, but I can ensure you, aside from the word "anime" missing from one spot on the image guidelines, the two pages are pretty up to date. That much I know. Aside from that,"Mythbusters" is also a form of "guideline" but only to informat users of what isn't fact that they presume is. :-/ One-Winged Hawk 20:02, August 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * Spoiler rules are also a "guideline" since they exist to prevent mishaps. One-Winged Hawk 20:03, August 15, 2010 (UTC)

There above are my proposals, but concrete plans of realisations are needed, at least some response from community. Ruxax 20:45, August 15, 2010 (UTC)

How about we put the main points next to the "latest activity" box or the "search this wiki" box or something? That way, the instructions of not to violate this and that will be with us at all times. Yatanogarasu 21:06, August 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * Putting links to the guidelines in the left box, the one below the search the wiki, is a good idea. I can put them there as soon as possible, however I would like a list of guidelines so I'll know what to put up or not.


 * The community-corner is a good idea also. If there is something that needs community attention, a note on my talk page would suffice.Mugiwara Franky 06:49, August 16, 2010 (UTC)

Well, this is my sorting of project pages:

Guidelines and rules, important, more or less up-to-date: Image Guidelines, Trivia Guidelines, Spoiler Rules, Speculations

Other pages, important, up-to-date: Mythbusters, Editing Advice,

Guidelines and rules, up-to-date but not very important: Poll Guidelines,

Outdated, unfinished, or not relevant to this wikia pages: Layout Guide (not relevant), Main Editors (very outdated), Page Creating Guideline (just a stub), FAQ (unfinished), Community Portal (outdated; unused now)

Needs some reworking (I think): Treatment of Vandalism, Copyrights, Concerning the Fandom, Overview,

Help pages, up-to-date: Toggling Help, Referencing Information, Help:Contents

Other pages, up-to-date, but not very important: Quick Index, Sandbox, Links

I can't say: Welcome Newcomers, Why this Wikia is created, Canon, Filler, Japanese Vs English names, Name Spellings, Regarding Other Languages, Privacy policy, Regarding other sites, What One Piece Wikia is and not, Discussions, pages in Category:Layouts

Mugiwara Franky, right now you can add links to the pages in the first 2 groups, and link to the char box discussion in community corner. Maybe something else. Ruxax 18:42, August 18, 2010 (UTC)

Am I the only one who cares? No, really, why do people complain then? Ruxax 14:24, August 19, 2010 (UTC)


 * Concerning the guidelines, I think that changing the welcoming message should be done. The easiest would be to add the Template:Guidebook to it. Maybe a quick resume of the major guidelines (like spoiler rules, images update, edit war prevention...) would help too.
 * Concerning the community corner, that's a nice idea except that I never go to my Home page, I don't know about others. I really think the only good option is to have something on the left bar like the current Active talk page. Isn't it possible to configure it so that it appears there. Also the fact that only Mugiwara Franky can change it is a bit problematic. Maybe we could use a dedicated page so that it updates automatically like the forum part in your example below.
 * Also like I said somewhere, I find the Active talk page feature very practical, the only thing is that it does not show the pages which contains a : (template, file, forum...) if that could be configured that would be great.
 * Finally if something is done, we need to advertise it with a global message to the community, I suppose it is possible to do it. Also I don't expect much of it. Most of the forum pages are not read, and when I tried to make a global call like for the Forum:Chapter_Pages, almost nobody cares. And as you can see yourself, this page is far from being in the Hot Spots Kdom 09:03, August 22, 2010 (UTC)


 * 1) Regarding Home page: on the contrary, I personally visit it pretty often (along with my Special:Watchlist). But it is really important to find out what page most editors visit most often.
 * 2) Forums are indeed seldomly read. Probably, because it is easy to miss a new topic. That's why I want to place automatically updated list of recent topics somewhere. Ruxax 10:12, August 22, 2010 (UTC)


 * 1) I rather go the Special:RecentChanges or the Special:NewFiles to be aware of the new things on the wiki. They have advanced feature like the filters that help seing what's going on on the wiki. But the fact that Buh6173 missed the picture box discussion shows that event advanced editors don't used them as much as they can be.
 * 2) Active talk page.jpg is the menu that is just below the main one on the left column. It provides a menu wich contains the list of the last discussions.
 * Kdom 10:50, August 22, 2010 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately, one cannot change Special pages.
 * Unfortunately again, but it seems that Active talk page can't be configured as you say unless wikia staff makes some changes to it
 * Regarding "something like a community corner but on the left side bar" - see below. Ruxax 12:53, August 22, 2010 (UTC)

Community Corner
Well, I worked up a variant for Community Corner:

Site news A bit easier way to make references Discuss wikia improvement suggestions! Images in character box New forum topics Forum:Site Problems Forum:Wikia Appearance Candidates for Deletion

The first two sections should be updated manually, the last three update automatically. How do you like it? Ruxax 19:54, August 20, 2010 (UTC)

Widgetwikipage
In discussion above it clarified that some editors don't visit Special:MyHome, and therefore will not see the community corner. An alternative that can, imho, solve this problem:

Custom widget - i.e. a thing that will appear on the left side panel - can be created and put on the sidebar (see Special:Widgets-->"Wiki page in widget" or w:Help:Widgets). To apply it site-wide admin needs to edit MediaWiki:Widgetwikipage, see w:Help:Widgets for further information. We can add list of recent forum topics there, and other things which w wish. Like this:



Ruxax 12:38, August 22, 2010 (UTC)

If the admin makes a site-wide widget, does it mean that everyone will have it one the left sidebar by default or only that there will be an added widget available in the Special:Widget page ? In the second case it won't be that much help. Kdom 21:32, August 25, 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't know. Ruxax 10:34, August 26, 2010 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Sitenotice
I'm wondering if you guys knew about the MediaWiki:Sitenotice If you were to look at the Naruto Wiki's Sitenotice it appears at the top of everypage, except for User-pages and the My Home, but it is seen all across the Wiki. You could write the important forum and annoucements there. Also, only Admins can edit that page though.

 &lt;|Munchable901|&gt; &lt;Contact&gt;  19:47, August 27, 2010 (UTC)

Welcoming message
Since it can be lost to view in the above discussion, I make a separate section for it. Welcoming message should be changed. It should contain links for guidelines and rules, easiest - Template:Guidebook. Possibly resume of main guidelines. Ruxax 20:01, August 27, 2010 (UTC)