User:Noreplyz/faq

Frequently asked questions about Community Central.


 * Why are unused files not cleaned up?

UnusedFiles is a minefield. Files that get uploaded on Community Central are used in many ways, and a lot of them are uploaded by Staff or by admins who place them on global templates. Files are 'unused' when they are hotlinked/linked inline using the full address. Community Central shares an image repository with other wikis. There are also issues in the unused files listing when a file is placed in a  tag. Therefore, it takes a lot of effort clearing these files, and traditional Dev scripts will always cause problems and result in false positives.

Wikis are for everyone to help and contribute! This means that you can help users out and make tweaks to pages. We don't restrict pages from editing except for excessive vandalism, spam or edit warring.
 * Why aren't all pages protected?

Some pages are company pages and don't need to be changed by all users. For example, Choosing Fandom and What is a wiki are key company pages that are not considered part of the user help manual. Most of the other pages are there for archive purposes, or redirect to Help pages.
 * Why are there some pages on the Main namespace, rather than Help?

Generally no. We want to keep Community Central as close as possible to the vanilla experience of creating a wiki - this is the most familiar for all users (and our audience is from all wikis), and we want to keep it that way.
 * Can you install this sitewide script/style?


 * How can I become an admin?

Fandom Staff are the ones who promote admins on Community Central. To increase your chances at becoming an admin, help out other users on Community Central in our Discussions and blogs, and report bad posts/comments! You can also help improve our Help pages. It's usually additional points if you're an admin on another wiki too, since it means you've got some experience on hand.

The process is less complicated than people put it - admins and/or Staff make a list of potential candidates (from recommendations, Zendesk tickets, Special:ListUsers, /d/m/insights). Admins and Staff filter look through these users as a group. Staff usually do a final look at their activity across Fandom, before reaching out.
 * What is the process in becoming an admin?

Our admins and mods are shown on the Admins page. If there's a user not in this list but has admin or moderator rights on this wiki, it's very likely an error, a Staff test account or a bot account.
 * Why is ____ an admin/moderator?

Moderation is not black and white, but very often depends on the context (for instance, the surrounding replies, content, or the user's edits), character (how a user behaves and treats others) and other information not necessarily visible to others (alternate accounts, cross-wiki edits). Sometimes removing a disruptive reply makes other replies confusing. Sometimes users are truly asking a question in good faith, even if they sound angry.
 * I reported a post, but the admin chose not to delete it. Why? (alt - Why is moderation at Community Central not transparent?)

For something like a staff blog post, we keep what others might seem useless, because it can add weight to the overall community's perspective. For example, we allow posts like "I don't care" under technical posts, because some people truly don't care and don't want to be notified - and we want to know about that, and it is valid feedback.

There's always quite a lot of thought that has to go into figuring out whether something should be deleted.