Forum:Celebrity status and its effect on wiki community building

This may seem a strange question, but I think I have a strange situation and wondered if the wikia community at large could offer some advice. I've sort of become a celebrity because of my work on PathfinderWiki. At least, among Pathfinder fans. I was one of the most active editors of the project from its very inception, and the publishers of the source material upon which the project is based have promoted the wiki usually in context of my involvement with it. In the two years since the wiki's formation, it has become known as my project despite my best efforts to bring others into the fold and involve them in he wiki. Now I've begun working professionally in the RPG industry as both a writer and editor, even contributing several canon sources to the Pathfinder universe, and in almost every case, the new products are advertised as being written by Yoda8myhead of PathfinderWiki fame.

I really want to separate myself from the project in terms of how people perceive it, because I think it's discouraging for new editors who don't want to mess with my baby or who don't realize that I don't own or really have authority on the wiki. I feel like my pseudo-celebrity status has compromised the project's growth, even as more people hear about it.

Does anyone have advice on how I can separate myself from the project better without becoming completely inactive? How do I undo what I perceive as the damage already done? Am I overreacting? Thanks for any help or advice you can offer and sorry if this is posted in the wrong place. There isn't really a forum for this specific issue.—yoda8myhead 02:55, February 26, 2010 (UTC)


 * Register a new account name, and don't tell anyone. -- LordTBT Talk! 08:09, March 1, 2010 (UTC)

What an interesting question. From what I've seen, most founders of very successful wikis get less active over time (as do most general users, of course) and the community naturally starts to take over for itself. The founder will always be considered a key personality, but as they aren't around as much the community has to start looking after itself and making decisions.

I certainly don't think that this means you need to become inactive, or have no future part in the project. But I think that if you want the community to grow away from you, then a little moving away and letting things happen is likely to go a long way. I also don't think that there is any "damage". Successful wikis need to have a dedicated and competent founder (or adopter). It's a horribly hard job to get a wiki going, and managing that task is something that you should be immensely proud of. So I would suggest you continue to enjoy the wiki and being a part of it, but also encourage the community to make decisions instead of asking you. That's not the same as trying to recruit new leaders or giving out tasks - just a matter of deferring to others and a good use of "I don't mind, you (collectively) decide."

And personally, I don't like the strategy of using a second account for anonymity. While it can work in some cases, I've seen more times when the account has been spotted and "outed". And when that happens, there can be a lot of bad feeling about the deceit.

So my advice would be keep editing, but allow some of your other projects to pull you away a bit, and keep pushing decisions back to the community. Good luck! -- sannse (talk) 01:44, March 2, 2010 (UTC)


 * Also don't discount the value of the respect you've gained. Many communities don't give credit to the founders or forget their contributions over time as others appear to take control, so enjoy it. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 2:36 AM PST 4 Mar 2010