Help talk:Building a community/Wikis that need editors archive

Thoughts for improvement
Hey everyone. I'm looking into what sorts of things we could be doing to improve this page. The big issue that we've seen is that someone posts on this page saying their wiki needs editors, and then a whole lot of nothing happens as a follow up. It's unfortunate, but it's also understandable. Getting help in attracting editors is hard, and hoping that someone decides to join a wiki based on a list of 100 wikis that need editors is unrealistic (at least to me).

So, I’d like to turn to you all to see if you have any thoughts about ways this page could be improved. Do you think this is a worthwhile page to have? Is its topic and focus right, or should it shift to something a little more general or maybe a different wiki help topic altogether? Is a page like this the right format, or is it better served with a forum or some other type of space? Is there any structure that you think we could bring to it in order to make sure people’s requests for editors and/or help don’t go unanswered?

I have some thoughts on this, but first I’d like to see what you all think. I’d appreciate any thoughts you may have. Thanks! - Brandon Rhea (talk) 21:23, March 8, 2012 (UTC)


 * It seems to be a good page to have to have a place to point towards for people asking for ways to try to attract editors, but looking at it I can see why it's hard to pay any attention to the wikis that are on the list simply because of how long it is. It could possibly be helped by dividing it up into various smaller pages such as by topic and amount of pages. A page of wikis that have similar focuses, such as anime, video games, and book series, might be better in a way to trim the page down to help keep potential editors looking at the page interested by the time they get to the bottom of the list. It could also be helpful if the page was advertised more to newer editors, because typically those people are the ones who don't know what or where to edit. But this page in its current state is not helpful to the wikis who are on it. 21:45, March 8, 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree that breaking it up into multiple pages by topic is a good idea (with one main page that describes the purpose and links to all of the different topics). Requests older than say 60 days (or some time limit) should be eligible for removal to keep things current and tidy. Also, is there any way to advertise this page more so that more people know about its existence? Organizationally, I would recommend that requests be placed in alphabetical, rather than chronological order if possible. Mathmagician 01:41, March 9, 2012 (UTC)

Great suggestions so far. I agree that it can be advertised better, and I like the idea of having pages with more specific focus areas (perhaps Entertainment, Video Games, and Lifestyle as a start). I’m apprehensive about removing old requests, but only if they’ve never been answered, since that seems to be like a way of caving to the fact that there’s a problem with the page and just getting rid of the problems after a certain amount of time. Do you all think there are more ways that we could help wikis that post here find editors, beyond just advertising it better? - Brandon Rhea (talk)  20:55, March 12, 2012 (UTC)


 * Ummm, is there a plan to implement any of the suggestions above. It can be very discouraging when someone asks for feedback and then basically does nothing with it. This thread sadly mirrors what is happening in the need editors page. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 4 Apr 2012 3:35 PM Pacific
 * Yes. We're currently working on a new way of helping wikis grow here on Community Central. This page will remain in some form, and we're also looking at ways to provide more in-depth help. - Brandon Rhea (talk)  21:53, April 9, 2012 (UTC)

Revisiting
Having this page pop up in the recent changes, I checked it and it's messy. Perhaps we could make an archive, and, as said above, perhaps separate it by topic. I'd be completely willing to help.


 * Hi. Per my comment above, we're currently in the process of working on a revamp for this page. - Brandon Rhea (talk)  21:53, April 9, 2012 (UTC)

Proposal
I had proposed an idea to Trella a bit ago on a way to clean up this page a bit. It'd be a main page which should probably be moved to "Admin Central:Wikis that need editors" and then it'd have a subpage that'd suit for all the wikis like "/Lifestyle Wikis" "/Video Game Wikis" and "/Entertainment Wikis". The main page would look like the image on the right. It'd showcase a button for each subpage, with the colors of the new sections. You can also view the actual page over at my test wiki.

Changes are very welcome and will be greatly accepted. Any additional input would be great. Jazzi 15:17, May 27, 2012 (UTC)


 * I like the alphabetical list of the subpages, so that the wikis can be easily located if you're looking for something specific. Maybe do a "spotlight" wiki that needs editors and present it on the main wikis that need editors page for a week or so and then go to another one. I guess they could possibly also do a global message advertising the page, but they'd have to be careful with the wording. 18:40, May 27, 2012 (UTC)
 * Been down here trying to see what all wikis needed help, and the one long list is a killer. I am in favor of splitting it up among hubs. I for one don't have much interest in video game wikis or lifestyles. Devilmanozzy  (Talk Page)  19:12, May 27, 2012 (UTC)

Ordering of the page
I don't quite seem to get how the ordering is handled here. Looking at the TOC you can see that it started out with an alphabet manner and then it started getting messy. As you click the create button, it directly sends your "request" of new editors directly to the button. Yet you see so many Wikias that are submitted at different dates.

So, since the Wikia I have submitted start with T and has been submitted on the 28th May 2012, where should I exactly place it? The bottom, the top, or between S and U? -- Zikkun (talk)  14:02, May 28, 2012 (UTC)

Suggestion
There should be #some# sort of division into categories.

Looking at the sequence so far:


 * 1) Entertainment (ie describing films/videos/games/books etc)
 * 2) Fiction and role play (cross linked to the above)
 * 3) History/geography/economics/politics/travel
 * 4) Sport
 * 5) Transport
 * 6) Humour
 * 7) Science, technology and the natural world

and 'everything else' here until there are sufficient in a category to create lists.

The 'orphan and abandoned wikis' I mention elsewhere could be placed here as well. Jackiespeel 12:45, June 26, 2012 (UTC)

Suggestion 2
Have two threads - 'TV, film, games and suchlike' and 'everything else' (and then divide up the latter). Jackiespeel 22:02, June 28, 2012 (UTC)

This list is getting very long - but who will check the Archived lists? Jackiespeel (talk) 14:56, July 25, 2012 (UTC)

CPTB Wiki
Cna anyone join CPTB Wiki? It needs editors! --WiiWare, 3:13PM, August 18, 2012 (UTC)

need help
need help with my wikis because they suck ;-(

Littlemushrooms (talk) 15:50, August 26, 2012 (UTC)littlemushroomsLittlemushrooms (talk) 15:50, August 26, 2012 (UTC)

Separating the lists
I brought this up above, but it never really got far. Basically, I'm suggesting that the Wikis that need editors page have three subpages for each category of wiki. The way this would work is that the user would place their wiki in one of the pages according to the category that appears at the bottom of a wiki. I've added buttons that would take you to the new page, which could also take you to adding a section on that new page. Although the idle thing is for it to be alphabetized, but that would stick. So the main thing is to just have it be separated into lists and that should work.

The buttons are colors from the Wikia main page, while each subpage would have the button that is on the page now, the dark blue. What this would do is make this list neater. That's the main priority of this proposal.

There'd be a generic response somewhat like "Hi, you listed your wiki as being in need of editors. Is there anything else we can help with? Themes for the different wiki skins? Perhaps page formatting and styling? If you could give us more details, that'd be great." And there'd be some more details in there. Each message would be different for each wiki, of course, depending on what the user included in the request and what the wiki looks like.

My goal for this is to have the lists look neater and although alphabetical might not work, it'll at least add some neatness to the lists.

Comments and the like are appreciated. Any suggestions to the current page can be changed on my test wiki. – Jazzi  ( talk ) 12:18, October 14, 2012 (UTC)
 * Hey, that seems really cool! But there is one problem, I don't think anyone will want to go through all the wikis now and categorize them into three sections. I could do that, but I would need a lot of help from many different users. Also, this would be hard to moderate because somebody new could post there wiki in the wrong section. But besides those two problems, this seems like a good idea!Joletole (talk) 14:03, October 14, 2012 (UTC)
 * It's not really a problem, since someone could easily go through the new ones as they'll be fresh and with less on the main page than there are on the sub-pages. And I mentioned in skype that I'd be willing to separate them and any help would be great. – Jazzi  ( talk ) 14:25, October 14, 2012 (UTC)

How do these request for editors get advertised?
It seems more like a request black hole than something that actually helps build communities. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 10 Dec 2012 11:17 AM Pacific
 * Try using the promote feature. Go to Special:Promote or spotlight. Batreeqah
 * The problem is - entries are made in a random pattern as people decide to ask. There are no obvious solutions - unless 'the proverbial someones' create several themed pages/lists (to which people can add 'other appropriate wikis found when exploring the wikiaverse, whether active or dormant' and/or creating 'X in the Wikiverse' (ie including wikis not on Wikia) pages on active wikis. Jackiespeel (talk) 10:40, January 26, 2013 (UTC)

For request without a wiki link... warning then delete?
It seems like many requests have no link to the wiki they want editors for. This forces an interested party to google it to find it. There should be at least a minimum requirement for requests to have a link to there wiki. A pre-load template with a desired format when you make a request would be nice also.

Users who review this list should be able to add something like Warning no wiki link tag to the request. If the request doesn't get a link in a month, it should get deleted, so the requesters who do a proper job get more attention on their request.

I think the general goal of this list is good, but the list itself is really, really ineffective and seems more like a "put your wiki here and get off our backs" kind of list. Still, if you're going to have a list, make it have some standards. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 31 Jan 2013 4:54 PM Pacific