User blog:MisterWoodhouse/This Month at Fandom - February 2021

Hey gang!

The shortest month of the year has come and gone, but what it lacked in length, February made up for in intensity! I’m feeling musically minded today, so all of the segments this week are titled with songs and lyrics.

Harder, Better, Faster
While the news this week that Daft Punk has broken up after 28 years of amazing music is sad, we’ll always have their incredible electronic beats and one of the greatest live action Disney soundtracks of all time. Seriously, if you haven’t watched TRON: Legacy let, go give it a watch this weekend and see if you don’t agree on that soundtrack being absolute fire.

Anyway, there was a point to this reference, which is that we published our latest piece in our Evolving with the Web series, focused on how we can position Fandom and the wikis to best meet web standards for optimized usability and visibility. FishTank wrote a very in-depth report on how different aspects of wiki formatting affect site performance as it relates to Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics. You can see the top sheet summary here and the super in-depth report here.

You say Goodbye, while I say Hello!
This month, we also announced the reorganization of the teams which support our wiki communities. No longer the Growth organization, we are the Community organization, and have reconfigured our teams to support wiki communities based on need, rather than focus areas of content. For the first time, we now have Wiki Representatives (formerly Wiki Managers) assigned to Books, Music, and Lifestyle wikis in addition to Anime, Games, Movies, and TV.

We are excited about this change and how it positions us to provide more meaningful support and communications for our community of contributors. You can read more about this change in Brandon’s blog here.

New Rules
Last week, I introduced our new Wiki Rules and Blocking Policy. This global policy goes into effect on April 1st, 2021 and boils down to being basically: Have listed rules for your wikis and block according to them fairly. The overwhelming majority of wiki admins already abide by this policy without any need for us to codify it, but the exceptions are quite painful for communities and users affected by them.

As part of this policy, we will start allowing users to appeal blocks to staff, provided that they make a good faith attempt to discuss the block with the admins and the block is 2 weeks or longer. We do not anticipate that many such appeals will result in unblocks because, as I mentioned, most admins are doing the right thing already, but it’s important for us to provide a way to assist users who are victims of admins operating in bad faith.

To read more about the context of the policy, you can find my blog here. The policy’s help page can be found here and it has info about appeals as well as some good rules you could use if your wiki needs a rules page.

We Are Born To Play
Surprise! Fandom acquired gaming e-commerce platform Fanatical this week! Fanatical offers a fantastic catalog of over 8,000 games, software titles, ebooks, and elearning courses digitally. We are really excited to welcome them into the Fandom family and get to work expanding their global gaming reach.

Don’t Stop Me Now
One thing that you have told me you really like about these posts is when I can share data about how different communities have been affected by recent changes to their subject matter. So, without further ado, let’s look at some data.

WandaVision has captured global attention as folks devour the first Disney+ live action Marvel series. Wanda’s domestic bliss getting shattered as she becomes more and more unstable has driven a big jump in traffic to the MCU wiki, which is up 319% year over year for pageviews. Fans have been flocking to the wiki, trying to figure out what different easter eggs and possible teases mean. The aerospace engineer was a particular person of interest, with folks thinking it could be anyone from a resurrected Tony Stark to Beast himself, Dr. Hank McCoy. With one week left, no second season plans announced, and a twist nobody saw coming in the penultimate episode, we’re all ready for an explosive finale in Westview, New Jersey that sends ripple effects into Phase 4 of the MCU.

iCarly fans got excited about the news of a series reboot coming to Paramount+ and then got the opportunity to revisit the original series as it landed on Netflix. With all of that happening, the iCarly wiki jumped from 13 thousand views per day to nearly 100 thousand per day.

As of next month, The Muppet Show will have been off the air for 40 years, but it still commands a loyal following, as we saw when the series arrived on Disney+. The adventures of Kermit, his friends, and his famous guests (Superman, Wonder Woman, and Luke Skywalker appearing in consecutive episodes!) drove the Muppet wiki up 38% year over year for pageviews in February, landing at 5.7 million visits to Muppet heaven. Per the wiki, outside of DVD releases and some Time-Life collections, this is the first time that 27 episodes have been seen in the US since the 1990’s. Wild stuff. With the return to The Muppet Show, the new Fraggle Rock series on Apple TV+, Muppets Now on Disney+, and new episodes of Sesame Street on HBO Max, the Muppet Wiki is the place to be!

Hey Look Ma, I Made It! (Editors of the Month)
As we close out February, it’s time to recognize the editors who made their mark on the platform. Editor of the Month generally honors folks who make contributions year round, but may have done something extraordinary recently or had a big project conclude. We salute them!

Gamepedia:

With over 55,000 edits, K0lb3 is one of the top ranked Gamepedia editors (#180, globally). Their skill really shines on The Alchemist Code wiki where they are a major contributor (#3 overall). They're also active in the community around the game on Discord and in making bots.

Fandom Gaming: Kalina70

Kalina70 had a great journey of being a fan of the wiki and discovering the community that comes with a wiki family. They went from an avid reader to a major contributor and pillar of the Animal Crossing wiki community!

Esports:

For the past 6 months, Lukasauc has been doing fantastic work as part of the Fortnite Esports Support team. Their effort in keeping the 2021 Power Ranking up to date in Europe and North America has been so helpful.

TV and Movies: Zacatero

Zacatero has been a driving force on Hell’s Kitchen Wiki, working to completely revamp the wiki’s structure and ensure stable policies are in place for the community. He is also a devoted Councilor who has dedicated his time to help out the SOAP team by actively reverting vandalism across the platform and reporting situations where SOAP needs to intervene. His helpful attitude and overall eagerness to lend his expertise to projects makes him an extremely valued contributor across multiple TV/Movies communities.

Anime: MysticFantasy08

Being a top editor on a popular wiki is really impressive. Being a top editor on a popular wiki when that popularity is surging is even more impressive. MysticFantasy08 is just that and more: A dedicated contributor as well as a Content Moderator.

Emerging Interests: EmpyrealInvective

Empry is an incredibly dedicated community member. They go out of their way to ensure the Creepypasta community has everything it needs to thrive! Not to mention the fact that they make amazing story contributions!

That’s It
Well, with the exception of this weekend, that’s a wrap on the shortest month of the year. We’re particularly excited for some of the things we’ll have to share with you next month. Keep your eyes peeled and be sure you’re in Discord for things like Staff AMAs, SEO Office Hours, Community Checkpoints, and - now back from a 2+ year hiatus - GAME NIGHT!

As I close out this blog, I wanted to say a few words about my time here at Fandom, since today is a milestone for me. 2 years ago today, I converted from a contractor to a full-time employee with Fandom as a result of the merger with Curse. It also means that this is the longest time I’ve been in a community position with a single company. So, on this - my second Faniversary - I wanted to say thank you to all of you. You’re why I do this job. Your passion, your enthusiasm, your knowledge, and your joy. One of our core principles at Fandom is We Bring Joy, but really, it’s you who bring the joy for me. Keep it up and enjoy your weekend.

Woodhouse, out.