User blog:Saunt3D/Getting the most out of Special:Community

I've always been a big fan of Special:Community, a page available under the EXPLORE tab of the top navigation in all non-Gamepedia wikis. While the main page of each wiki acts as a hub for the wiki readers, the community page was designed to be the hub for the editors. By default, the page offers several features useful specifically for editors, such as links to the most active admins' user pages, lists of editors, and cards with editing suggestions such as pages to proofread.

While a great starting point, the default qualities of this page don't account for the specific needs of individual wikis and the page is hard to find, resulting in rare utilization of the page. I'm going to go over what can be done about this, using Rebel Moon Wiki as an example. This is currently a small wiki about an upcoming franchise.

Basic aesthetics and structure
File:Community-Page-Header.jpg can be uploaded to replace the gray background of the page header. The header image works best at 1200 x 250 pixels and should be dark enough for white text to be legibly displayed on it, as, by default, white welcome text will be displayed over the image. If you'd like to change the color of this text, you can use this code in MediaWiki:Common.css to change it to black (or replace "black" with any valid color name or hex code): .page-Special_Community .community-page-header-welcome-message, .page-Special_Community .community-page-subheader-welcome-message {color:black} You can also edit MediaWiki:Communitypage-tasks-header-welcome and MediaWiki:Communitypage-subheader-welcome to change the wording of the text.
 * Community header image

The task cards are a great starting point, but if you're willing to set this page up as a customized, wiki-specific editor hub, you may want to remove them. I would recommend keeping them until you've prepared a custom alternative that works better for the wiki. At that point, you can hide them with CSS by adding the following line to MediaWiki:Common.css: .community-page-cards-module {display: none;} This will remove the module, bringing the From the community section up to the top.
 * Community page cards

The community policy linked at the bottom of the Help Links module can be set on MediaWiki:Communitypage-policy-module-link-page-name to better reflect the local wiki, linking to the wiki policies instead.

From the community
The most important thing when upgrading the community page is MediaWiki:Community-to-do-list, which can be edited at the bottom of Special:Community and will fill the "From the community" section. Editing goals and other community initiatives can be added here, common examples being maintenance categories such as Category:Stubs, other maintenance pages like Special:WantedPages, and any current projects the wiki may be working on such as licensing images or unifying present and past-tense usage in articles. I also like to include links to wiki rules and descriptions of wiki roles to provide a complete editor hub.

The more complete it is, the more useful it is to find something to edit. Providing multiple areas of focus leading to lists of pages that need work allows users to look at what they're comfortable working on and provides them with the pages that are in need of their efforts in those fields. Creating new maintenance categories is always an option, such as "Category:Articles in need of proofreading" or "Category:Articles without infoboxes" to help generate lists of pages that need specific types of work, which can then be offered to editors here. Each wiki will have different needs, and this can be set up to account for those needs.

Graphic design isn't a particular interest of mine, but for my community page purposes, I created a series of images that I could use as buttons to link to various rules and maintenance pages in an attempt to make the page more visually interesting than a block of text or lists of links. The broad points of focus are represented by these buttons, while some of the more commonly-used maintenance categories are sprinkled into the text. The Rebel Moon Wiki has an unusual quirk, which is that the cast and crew who worked on the franchise are covered on a related wiki, so I made sure to note this to prevent accidental page duplicates between sister wikis. This is something to consider if there are any unexpected wiki rules that may need to be presented more visibly than within a rules page. I wrapped it up with a link to the description of wiki roles so new users can easily find out how they work, which includes a pathway to adminship for users interested in gaining extended tools to help the wiki.

Using Special:Community
When you have a community page you're happy with, the issue will be whether or not users can find it. The top navigation works great for those who use it, but many don't, so only the topmost options are likely to be seen. For this reason, I like to include a COMMUNITY tab, which leads to the community page. Offering the page to new users in welcome messages and in maintenance-related social posts can also be a great way to standardize the page's usage.

Example community pages

 * User:LucyKuranSKYDOME created a unique community page for Disney Speedstorm Wiki.
 * A simple community page can be found on the Quantum Leap Wiki.