User blog:HammerOfThor/Fighting for Change with Spookywilloww

''Welcome back everyone to our next Fandom Star interview. Today, I am honoured to be joined by Warriors Wiki and Wookieepedia admin Spookywilloww as we discuss her efforts fighting against sexism and misogny on Wookieepedia, why cats make the best editing companions, and reveal the mystery behind her username.''

Read on and enjoy!

HammerOfThor: To begin, can you give a brief introduction of yourself and the wikis you are active on

Spookywilloww: Hello, I'm spookywilloww! I'm an administrator of Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki, and the Warriors Wiki, based on a book series by Erin Hunter. I've been editing Fandom since 2015 and have around 70k edits platform-wide. I'm an avid lover of books and deep lore, which has drawn me to the communities I'm in.

'''H: How did you first get into Star Wars and eventually Wookieepedia and Fandom?

S: Curiously, both happened around the same time! My parents are both casual Star Wars fans, but as the rebellious child I was, that was reason enough for me not to watch them. Around 2018, a few friends of mine were involved in Wookieepedia, and after binge watching the films, I'd decided to give editing there a whirl. In particular, I respect Wookieepedia's detailed structure for status articles– a process I'm heavily involved in by writing up articles and reviewing the work of others. In the end, most of my work ended up focusing on Star Wars novels, which I've a particular fondness for.

'''H: What is it about the Star Wars novels that you are so fond of?

S: The writing styles of many of our franchise's authors allows readers to really understand characters on a deeper level. I'm particularly fond of the coming-of-age and romance sub-genres within SW novels. Nowadays, they also add quite a lot of context and depth that never makes it to the movie screen.

'''H: Wookieepedia is obviously a very big wiki. Was it daunting at first being active on there?

S: Definitely. Having had some experience on the Warriors Wiki by the time I joined, I was much more equipped to jump in and start editing, having had a good grasp on how source mode, templates, and referencing worked. I had, and still have, a lot of passion for updating content from my favorite reference books, and slowly went out and bought a full collection of canon materials to make editing easier.

At the same time, Wookieepedia in 2018 was vastly different than it is today. While I certainly enjoyed contributing there, the community was very gruff, and one had to have a tough skin to be able to deal with criticisms sent your way. Warriors Wiki is genuinely one of the nicest and friendliest wikis I've encountered, and coming to Wookieepedia afterward was a culture shock. For nearly fifteen years before setting up a Discord server, Wookieepedia maintained a set of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels that served as the primary communication method for the site. While these channels proved efficient, they were also logless, which unfortunately resulted in them being the perfect avenue to bully people in.

'''H: How do you think your initial experiences on Warriors Wiki informed your approach to being on Wookieepedia?

S: From a completionist standpoint, I enjoy working on smaller articles all related to a certain overarching topic as I research something thoroughly. By doing this, I can ensure any article I've written isn't missing anything relevant. As Warriors only has a few releases a year, we often are able to maintain most articles' updates. Star Wars has too much content to keep up with to reliably be able to update everything, but I certainly enjoy ensuring my favorite novels are documented well.

'''H: How would you say you have most grown or changed as a user since you first joined?

S: I've become more confident. At first, as someone new (and very young at the time), I never knew whether what I was doing was right, and more often than not added more mistakes than correct material. Now, one of my main focuses is ensuring that the Wook remains a quality resource for all Star Wars fans to use. As a writer, my skills have helped me both in real life and to continue writing up quality articles. Within the specific niche of content I focus on, I'm able to navigate my way easily through sources and rely on my knowledge of reference books to locate information quickly.

Wookieepedia in the past has always primarily been managed by men. As a younger teenager editing the site, I always felt nervous and unsure about anything I edited–something exacerbated by the abrasive trash talking in IRC. Felt like walking on eggshells most of the time, as back when I first started editing, there were not currently any female administrators or review board members to look up to. Now, I hope to help new editors in any way I can to ensure that they feel they're both welcomed and encouraged to stay and contribute.

'''H: That leads very nicely into my next question. You have been directly involved in efforts to combat a culture of sexism and misogyny on the wiki [links below]. Could you give some background on how that came about and what prompted you to be involved in that.

S: As a younger female editor, I had a lot of passion for editing Star Wars content, but often felt really alone, whereas most of the editors around me seemingly enjoyed interacting with the wider Wookieepedia community. Most of the reason why I'm committed to combating the culture of sexism and misogyny on the wiki is because of how it's affected marginalized editors, including myself, in the community. At one point in Wookieepedia's history, admins and other long-established users commonly made jokes with slurs, sexual humor, and heavy bigotry without qualms. Wookieepedia has had three bureaucrats globally banned by Fandom for Terms of Use violations in the last two years–indicative of a deep-rooted issue, I would say.

A wiki's growth potential is only as strong as the new editors it can recruit and retain. At one point, I felt that I couldn't emotionally continue editing Wookieepedia due to the intense amount of scrutiny and misogyny present in the community–I felt that logging back onto Discord/IRC was genuinely affecting my mental health. While by that point there were only a few very established editors still openly misogynistic, there was also a general culture of “well, whatever's said to you isn't my problem”, which felt really isolating at the time. Nowadays, I strive to actively combat instances of bullying everywhere on Wookieepedia, to ensure everyone's treated fairly.

Misogyny is a silent creeper. Often, it can be just one comment here or there; but when added up, someday, we woke up and realized thousands of disgusting comments were still present on-site and in other offsite archives. These are things that the current administration has set to redacting. Additionally, our efforts include attempting to simply–be kind–both to users, and also to the ways in which we write prose in articles.

'''H: I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through that. What have been the biggest problems you have faced in trying to address these issues?

S: We've already gotten to many changes, including listing pronouns in articles, promoting two female admins, making our template messages more welcoming, and removing objectifying language from character articles. As with anything, change will never be accepted by everyone. The vast majority of the good changes we've implemented on site passed with a near unanimous vote from our community. However, in some instances, critics on social media platforms have taken to harassing our editors. We've also unfortunately lost quite a few non-admin established editors who violated ToU and ended up with some sanctions. It's unfortunate, but we're committed to moving forward on the Wook regardless.

'''H: Why do you think tackling this issue is so important?

S: Tackling this issue is important to me for two reasons. Firstly, I'd love Wookieepedia to someday be a place where anyone can edit freely and safely. We all love Star Wars here and have a common goal! Every editor driven away is a loss for the site, honestly.

Secondly, I believe it's really important to stand up for what's right, despite the haters. For all the Wookieepedians past and present who've felt marginalized–I want them to know that the current administration is committed to including everyone. As an admin now, I owe it to the community that voted me in to serve them in this way. It's really a full-circle moment for me sometimes, but my past experiences on the Wook always remind me that it's important to ensure a similar battering doesn't happen to others.

'''H: What advice would you give to wikis that might also be suffering from similar problems?

S: Change is like a wave–there might not be any for some time, but when it does come, it comes crashing down. I encourage every community to be proactive in welcoming everyone to their community and fighting against misogyny. At the same time, not everyone will accept change, and there'll be losses along the way–whether those are editors who dislike the changes or the wider fandom who might stop using your site as a resource. To all the other Fandom wikis out there–I encourage you to do the right thing and push for change–but also to take care of yourselves, as it won't always please everyone.

'''H: I think it is definitely the case that any short term issues from addressing that toxicity are worth it for the long term benefits it brings. How do you feel about the future on the wiki now?

S: I think we're on the right path! The main thing, I think, is to remain committed to our core values. Wookieepedia in particular always has something happening--but making sure to intentionally put aside time to plan upcoming policy changes and review community improvements is just as important as article editing.

H: The commitment that yourself and the other users on the wiki have to fighting for that change is very inspiring.

What is something about yourself that readers might be interested to learn?

S: Well, if I'm not editing, I'll probably be playing Minecraft. I've also got a raging caffeine addiction, which compliments quite well for handling wiki crises– just gotta grab some Mountain Dew! I've also got three lovely cats, who sit on top of my reference books as I try to edit.

H: What are their names?

S: Cloudy (named after SnowedLightning/Jayce), Icy, and Mocha. We found them outside at around a month old in our backyard six years ago, and they've been spoiled ever since.

H: Final question: was the extra "w" at the end of your username an accident or intentional?

S: At first, it was accidental when I was renaming one of my social media accounts a few years back. However, instead of fixing it, I've opted to lovingly adopt it, and it's become my handle across multiple platforms. It's almost a gauge of how well someone knows me, as well--whether they spell it with two w's or one!

'''H: A happy accident then! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. I'm sure hearing about your experiences will be a great benefit to anyone going through similar issues, and hopefully inspire people to fight for their own change'''

S: Thanks for interviewing me! 💕

Forum links

 * Forum on tackling sexism and misogyny on Wookieepedia
 * Why it is important to call out toxic behaviour
 * Changes to the policies on pronouns