Help:Improving your community

Once over the hurdles that have led you to having a home page, you may benefit from the collective wisdom and experience of other Wikians even if you know your subject inside out and can't wait to start writing. Tips here are for:


 * 1) saving time (in the short or long term)
 * 2) helping you see what should be done next
 * 3) attracting helpers

Join the mailing lists
You are encouraged to sign up to the Central Wikia mailing list, where community and staff communicate with each other regularly. All Wikia communities are also entitled to their own individual mailing list, created on request. You may sign up for mailing list(s) for any wikis you are interested in.

Modify and/or rename your home page

 * ''See Help:Main page

The default location of your home page is at "Main Page", or a translation of this for wikis where the default language is not English. You can move this page once the wiki is created. For example, the home page of Wikianswers is at "Wikianswers", not at "Main Page". For best results in search engine rankings, we suggest moving your main page to the name "Keyword Wiki", where Keyword is the most likely search term for your wiki's topic.

You should also change MediaWiki:Mainpage and MediaWiki:Sidebar on your wiki to point to the new title.

To get an instant main page template, just type on your wiki's home page and press "save page", then begin customizing the template to suit your community.

Of course you don't need to use the template; you can also design your own original main page, or copy and customize a design from another Wikia.

Mission statement
On the "About" page of your new wiki, add a mission statement. (You can use the description you prepared when applying for the Wikia as a starting place.)

This is your vision of what the wiki will be, and should explain to people what they can expect to find on the wiki. You should list the aims and goals of the wiki on this page, and explain who your target audience is. Explain to people how they can become part of the wiki.

Creating content
You will need to start the content creation on your wiki by "seed posting". Be prepared to devote a lot of time to this in the early days before a community develops on your wiki; you may create a hundred or more articles yourself before you begin to attract other editors.

You may copy or import material from other GFDL wikis such as Wikipedia, Wikiquote, and more; please be sure to properly credit the source of the material using or similar template.

Strive to stay on topic to your wiki rather than adding irrelevant content. Having a clear mission statement can help with this.

Change the logo

 * See Help:Logo

There are two logos for each wiki: a rectangular one for the default Monaco skin, and a nearly square one for older skins. You can create custom logos for your wiki to replace the default "Wikia" logos.
 * Upload the rectangular logo (266 x 75 pixels) to Image:Wiki_wide.png
 * Upload the square logo (135 x 155 pixels) to Image:Wiki.png
 * To prevent vandalism, logos are protected so that only sysops can upload a new version.

Other interface changes

 * Change the favicon
 * A favicon or favorites icon, can be uploaded to Wikia to give a personalized icon associated with your Wikia. These will be shown in the browser's address bar, next to the site's name in lists of bookmarks, and, in tabbed browsers, next to the page's title. Just upload a .ico file to "Image:Favicon.ico" to add one to your Wikia.


 * Edit the interface
 * The interface can be edited using the MediaWiki namespace. See navigation and the MediaWiki namespace help category for help with various MediaWiki namespace templates. You need admin level rights to edit the interface.


 * Change the style sheet
 * The overall look of the site can be changed by admins, who can choose a color scheme in their preferences. Even further customizations can be created by editing MediaWiki:Common.css for the wiki.  See Help:Examples of customized Quartz skins for examples of Wikia that have made these changes.

Essential pages on your wiki

 * Main Page
 * Project:About: There is a link to the "about" page at the end of every content page. This should include the mission statement of the wiki.
 * Project:Community Portal
 * Project:Contact us: Include links to the admin's talk pages, and forums and other community pages.
 * Help:Contents: Review the help pages in your wiki. Each page will eventually contain a box which holds transcluded text stored on Help Wikia, but if your wiki has additional guidelines or policies relevant to the help topic, you can add them below the box. You may also add categories to the Help pages if you wish to include them in your local category scheme.
 * Project:Copyrights: Your copyrights page can just be a link to the one on the Central Wikia by adding "See Wikia copyrights.".
 * Project:General disclaimer: See Help:Disclaimer.

Promoting your wiki
If you want to develop a community, you will need to tell people about your wiki. Explain to people who may be interested in the topic area that the wiki is a common effort. Be welcoming to visitors and encourage them to become part of the wiki.

You may want to advertise for new users on relevant mailing lists, and through your own contacts. However, be careful that your messages do not come across as spam.

For wikis about local areas, you can make a press release, or send a notice about the wiki, to your local newspapers and residents groups.

To promote your wiki within Wikia, advertise it in the Wikia news box, and propose it for a Featured Wikia or Collaboration of the month.

There is more information on this topic at the Help:Attracting Contributors page.

Developing your community
One of the first steps in developing your community is to encourage new visitors to the wiki to get involved. The following suggestions may help:
 * Create a recent visitors page or guestbook so new people can participate even before they have content to add.
 * Encourage new users to add some content to their user page.
 * Give a personal greeting to newcomers. (templates are usefull, but a written one is better)
 * Add to the pages created by newcomers, either with content, links or category tags.
 * Create a page which explains how new users can contribute to the wiki.
 * Link to unfinished or requested pages from your wiki's home page so people can easily see what needs working on.
 * Point people to the IRC channel, mailing list or community page, such as your Project:Community Portal to help build a community. You can link to these in the MediaWiki:Sitenotice, as is done on Wikinews.
 * Organize and participate in events like a logo contest. You can also advertise these outside of the wiki to bring in new users.

See WikiCommunityBuilding and A Tale of Two Wikis for more ideas.

Setting boundaries
At some point, you will need rules for your wiki. Keep these simple at first, and expand as you need them. For example, there is little point trying to create rules against a certain number of reverts years before anyone gets in an edit war. The rules should grow with the wiki, and be developed by the community over time. Applying too many policies is a common mistake.

Your mission statement should make it clear what the limitations are.

Some boundaries are set by the central Wikia community, but others will be specific to individual Wikia. See Wikia policies for the global boundaries.

Administering your wiki
Every founder of a Wikia has administrator and bureaucrat rights on the wiki they founded. Other users may also be granted this access, by the founder, or by another bureaucrat. Please read the administrators' how-to guide before using your admin privileges.