Hello, everyone, and welcome to what I hope is the first of many reports from me as Wiki Tribune. I'd like to thank Sarin and Mav for the chance to guide the wiki in the days and months ahead. This report, much like Evant's first go as Voice, will be more about about introductions and policy/project directions than it will be about the day to day nitty gritty of the wiki which should return in july.

Introduction

Personally, I've always found the wiki to be only of my favorite places in the Brotherhood. Fleshing out our lore is what the wiki is all about, like a great campaign setting for an RPG. I first got my start on the wiki staff back in 2008 when RevengeX gave me a shot to be on staff and I've spent two months shy of four years on the staff in the time since. In the past I've focused on templates (having originally created the current version of the Character templates used throughout the wiki that have since been adapted to just about everything) and article content (I've quarterbacked a few wiki article teams in my day). Moving forward, however, I think the wiki is at a bit of a crossroads. With the new reality of The Force Awakens staring us down, I think one of the biggest challenges is going to be accommodating that new reality within the pages of our wiki. Balancing those changes with policies implemented to better our wiki overall is going to be my primary goal in the months ahead.

Wiki Policy Changes

Moving forward, I'm going to continue much of the work that my predecessors, especially Shad, have been doing to bring our wiki more in line other wikis out there such as Wikipedia and Wookieepedia in terms of policies and style guides. I'd like to work up a specific manual of style for our wiki as opposed to simply reference off-site content. Many of our policies on that regard are based on Wookieepedia policies, but I see a number of places that I think we might diverge. I plan to have discussions with the staff and Powers That Be about these issues (things like article tense, delineations between character and member, etc.) and hammer out new policies based on those talks.

One of the policies I'm looking to be implementing very soon is a move away from trivia sections, often labeled on our wiki as "Trivia" or "DJB facts". Wikipedia and Wookieepedia both have had policies in place discouraging the use of trivia sections since 2007, so I think it's high time we joined the party on this one. Much of the information in these sections ends up being either duplications from dossier pages (such as a list of positions held), information about a member and their accomplishments (like lists of DJB projects they've worked on), or facts about the character's inception (such as origins of names). All of this sort of information is better presented in other settings as well as in formatted prose providing context and smooth transitions. Positions held should be listed (if at all, since the wiki already bars duplication of dossier based information) within the content of the character's history or bio section and within the succession box template. Out of character information in a character article that is about the member as opposed to the character, such as what the person has worked on for the club, should probably be found on a user page. (This one of the issues relating to the division between character and member as outlined above.) Out of character information about the article subject can make an appearance in articles, but we should strive to present it in the best format possible as opposed to an unordered, jumbled list of random facts. Behind the scenes sections should be used for this moving forward, and examples of how this can be done can be found both in Shad's Aidan Kincad article as well as the article for the planet Nfolgai. At present, given that there isn't an official policy in place and the wiki guides/tutorials haven't been updated, this will not be enforced for approvals of quality wiki articles for journeyman promotions and will remain a strong suggestion. That will likely change once a full and official stance is hammered out on this, however. Additionally, this will be immediately implemented when it comes to the selection of featured articles. It is my goal to ensure that those articles highlighted moving forward represent the best of what our wiki has to offer so as to serve as guides for newer users.

Projects

• Accessibility: One of the things that I have noticed recently is that there are a number of our members that can have trouble finding specific information they're looking for on the wiki. When I first started hearing this feedback from people, I was somewhat confused. Our wiki has a built in search function, all articles are categorized, and there is a link to Clan categories on the front page. As I heard it more often from people, I began to realize that I wasn't seeing it from the perspective of somebody unfamiliar with wiki organization. If you don't know the name of whatever it is you're seeking, the search function can often times be less than helpful. Our categorization system, while simple and logical, is not the easiest to navigate for the member that isn't familiar with wiki organization in general. Add to that our use of terms that might be new to a person or used in a different context than what they are used to (Order of Battle or OOB as an example of the former, our use of Prospectus as an example of the latter) and it gets easier to understand why the inexperienced DJB wiki user could find our system a confusing, Byzantine catacomb. I'm going to work on this by trying to step back and redesign our front page and clan category pages to better serve as maps to the content contained therein. For the clan categorey pages, my instinct is to replace the current event templates that are rarely if ever updated with something that serves as an ordered, annotated table of contents for the clan's information, much like a magazine's table of contents. The staff and I will likely be working to include the clan leadership to help shape these in order to implement a standardized type that works for everyone.
• Archivist: There is still a lot of information out there as part of the in character history of the Dark Crusade/Fading Light/Great Jedi War that has yet to be included on our wiki. While our universe might see major changes in the coming months to the point where this history might not quite be part of our story moving forward (who knows what JJ has in store), I think it's important to archive these stories for the sake of all the people that took part and help shape them. This one will probably be a long term project moving forward involving both the Voice office and the Clan's.
• Preparing for the Storm: Like I said above, we have no idea right now how much the new movie canon might impact us. Depending on the content, as well as what decisions we as the Brotherhood make as to what's in and what isn't for us, the wiki needs to have a plan in place that we can implement quickly and with as few bumps as possible. It could be as sweeping as old content being shifted to a Legends area on the wiki or something more of a middle ground, but the wiki staff will be sure to have an action plan in place before the movie hits us in December. There will probably be a lot of work with the DC on this one.

I know there are also a number of projects that Sarin and Mav have in store for the wiki as well as well as other things that members might suggest that could spark something, so I would expect this list to grow as time goes on. I'll try to include updates on these projects in future reports, if for no other reason than to keep my feet to the fire to make sure they get done.

Staff Openings

As you might gather from the list of projects above, I'm going to be looking to expand the staff with a few more interested hands. In the past, the staff has muchly had a free hand to patrol the wiki and work on their own projects. I want to bring a more focused work ethic to the wiki, and that means using the wiki staffers more like magistrates or Shadow Academy professors. How this will work is that specific staff members will have specific task areas or projects to focus on (such as patrolling recent edits or working on a new Clan table of content system) so that progress and activity can be tracked and staff members will have specific milestones to be held accountable to. That isn't to say that you won't be able to work outside of your assigned project, as I want the wiki staff to be more of a team (especially with additional communication), but at the end of the day you'll be responsible for making sure that your own specific tasks are getting done.

If you feel like joining the wiki staff is something you'd be interested in, applications will be open until Thursday, June 25th. Please send an email to me with the subject "Wiki Staff Application" and outline your experience and any examples of your work (either on our wiki or elsewhere). I would prefer that applicants have passed at least the Wiki Basics course if not Wiki Editing as well, but exceptions to that can be made for the right candidate.

Competitions

Given the low participation on the most recent wiki article competition (where Howie as the only participant continued to DO ALL THE THINGS!), I'm going to put the article ceration competitions on hiatus for right now. I'd like to bring them back in the not-too-distant future, perhaps as team based affairs to better spread out the workload and increase desire to participate. If you have any other ideas for suggestions for wiki competitions, feel free to send them my way.

Wiki Tip of the Month

Continuing forward with Halc's tradition, this month's tip focuses on submitting your character article for Wiki Staff approval. First, and this isn't so much a wiki tip as it is an email one, make sure to include the URL of your wiki page in the email you send asking for the review. Your name and pin will eventually get me or another staffer to the page (probably), but a URL to the page is best. Second, and this is the wiki related tip, make sure that your article contains all of the elements listed on the Character Wiki Checklist. This is the same checklist that I (or another staffer) will be going down to evaluate the page. Yes, there are other things we look for, such as if the article is written as fiction or an encyclopedia entry, but you can save yourself some hassle by making sure you've got all of those items before you send it off to the staff.

Final Words

This report got a little longer than I'd originally expected, so expect to see a bit more brevity in later ones. As I said at the beginning, the day to day grit of the wiki will be back in the next report, including a new Featured Article as well as the Wikipedian of the Month award. June's report will also be out on or about the first of the month, and should also announce the new wiki staffers. So, until then, keep wiki'ing forward.