User blog:Cooksey.michael/NEW: Featured Wikias Blog Series

Hello, hello, everybody! It's time for another dispatch from the Community Development corner. Today I have something very special in store for you! It's a new blog series I'm rolling out called "Featured Wikias."

My Featured Wikias series is going to be similar to my Featured Wikian series, except this time, I'm selecting members of the Wikia community to share their favorite wikias with you and explain why they think these communities are special. Members who are selected to participate may choose to feature communities that they themselves work on, or, communities that they simply enjoy visiting. The goal of my new series is to introduce you to new communities you might not have seen before, and also introduce you to fellow wikians who have interesting perspectives to share! Who knows? Maybe you'll meet some new wikians who have similar interests -- or maybe you'll find your next favorite community. With so many experts and fans out there in the Wikia universe, I thought this would be a great way to bring you all just a little bit closer.

This week, I am so very happy to introduce you to Tupka217, a long time Wikia member from the Netherlands. Tupka217 is helpful, communicative, and such a huge power user in the Wikia community, so I think you all will really enjoy his entry here. I would personally like to thank Tupka217 for being willing to go first in this new blog series -- I absolutely loved reading his answers and visiting his communities! If you feel the same way, why not head over to his message wall and thank him, too?

Read all about Tupka217's Featured Wikias, in his own words, below!



"When Michael asked me to write up my favorite wiki communities, there were things I knew right away and things that took longer. Writing an introduction, for example. Never my strongest suit. Especially since it's a new feature, there isn't really anything to compare it to.

I'm a fairly experienced wikian. I joined in November 2008, after editing unregistered for a while. Before that, I was already an admin on a non-wikia wiki. I don't recall when I started editing there - it was a long, long time ago. As for myself, I'm a 27 year old Dutchman (from Groningen – my avatar is the province flag). I graduated uni close to two years ago now, and bouncing in and out of jobs since.

I've had a lot of different nerdisms –
 * Star Wars: a long long time ago. Before I became active on the Internet, because well, my parents liked to use the phone every now and then.
 * Star Trek Voyager: back when it first aired, and only because the kids I hung out with at school watched it. I liked it, but can't watch it now
 * Tolkien: I have about three and a half meters of books, periodicals, DVDs and games...
 * Transformers: I have to display cases full of them. In the ned, to prevent me from buying to many, I focused on collecting Transformers motorcycles
 * DC Comics: I was introduced to comics years before, but didn't really get into the weekly buy until around Blackest Night began. I'm not the biggest fan of the New 52. It's got good things and bad things, but it wasn't really necessary.

Other things I enjoyed were Firefly and much of the nineties and naughties animation. Even some of the eighties animation. My favorite superhero is... Wonder Woman. I'm tired of Batman and never really liked Superman. Wonder Woman can kick Batman's butt and go toe-to-toe against Superman. Her problem is just that DC never really knew how to handle her.

The DC Database is my main haunt. I'm a fairly big DC nut, though I have to admit the only two titles I follow at the moment are Marvel. The community over at DC is great, though perhaps somewhat small. We have a small core of prolific editors, plus a bunch of amazing people who come by every so often to add stuff on their specialized subject. We're a big wiki about a big franchise, but you don't need to know everything to edit. And you don't need to know everything to enjoy comics. There's no such thing as a true fan – everyone can be a fan in their own way.

The very first Wikia wiki I edited on: the DC Animated Universe, a wikia about the shared universe of several animated series, direct-to-dvd movies and webseries from the nineties and naughties. The wikia hasn't got much edits lately – the core franchise is finished, after all. We got some extra editors recently, but I'm afraid I don't do much except patrol - my dvds are boxed up.

Young Justice is new for me. I hadn't edited a wiki about an ongoing franchise before, and with a largely teenage user base. Reverting all the speculation, shipping and leaked material proved quite a challenge. Especially since the airing history of the series was... eventful. Still, we pride ourselves on our quality, and series showsrunner Greg Weisman has edited to clarify things – and referred people to us. The wiki is pretty dead now, as the series ended. There's still some articles that need information added, and I try to get at least one per week done.

My problems with wikis is I completely drown in them, and immediately become so prolific people keep giving me admin powers. When I needed a break from DC for a while and didn't want to get another potential wiki to admin, I headed to Community Central – no chance of promotion there. I'm no good at coding, but it's nice to help people on community problems and policy advice. I also joined the Wikia Language Brigade. Though I haven't translated much yet, I think it's a great project and should get some more recognition."

'Are you a power user who enjoys being active in the Wikia community and who would like to take part in this new blog series? Please leave me a message on my message wall and let me know (in a few words) why you would like to participate and what communities you'd like to feature.'