User:Philralph/sandbox

Re possible redesign for Society Gardens:

November 21 2006
As it looks like we may have a fairly prominent link from the main page wondered if anyone might be up for collaborating on redesigning the Society Gardens pages - in particular the main one? Possibly something less wordy - some moved? - more colourful page - some boxes to break it up, etc?



Welcome to Society Gardens!
This page
 * promotes and celebrates Wikia focused on the more serious side of life
 * values longevity
 * explores the potential of interwiki cooperation, collaboration, and mutual and nurturing self-help

Wikia more than 2 years old

 * (none so far!)

Wikia more than 9 months old
Mutual help towards really robust, self-sustaining wikis - may take till around 2 years
 * Sustainable Community Action started Dec 6 2004 - sca21:project:WikiNode, sca21:project:Collaborations
 * Genealogy started Dec 31 2004
 * Fishery Management started Jan 7 2005
 * Beyond Voting started Jan 11 2005
 * Computing Knowledgebase started January 28th 2005
 * Future started Jan 28 2005
 * Education started January 28, 2005
 * Towns, Villages and Cities started 10 March 2005
 * Protoscience started April 6, 2005
 * Academia started July 1, 2005
 * Engineering started Jul 4 2005
 * Meta Collab - a collaboration on all things collaboration. Started 3 October, 2005!
 * Renewable Energy Design Started Jan 9, 2006
 * Psychology Started Jan 21 2006,

Wikia 3 - 9 months old
Benefit from mutual encouragement when 1st enthusiasm of founder at risk of burn-out OR just need injection of skills and lateral thinking to go with the continued enthusiasm.
 * Permaculture wiki Started initailly October 2005, re-started Feb 2006
 * CounterCulture Wikia After a shaky start, finally born April Fools' Day, 2006. We're on a roll -- like a stone!
 * Pen Pal Wiki - founded June 24 2006. A multilingual pen pal directory, particularly aimed at people learning a language. It's slowly improving, and every now and then someone tries using it, always listing themselves in the wrong place or forgetting to list contact details. Needs people to use it, and people to translate, so if you want a pen pal, now's the time and here's the place.
 * Campaigns - founded July 4 2006, by Jimmy Wales and advertised to bloggers as the central political campaign wiki on Wikia.
 * Silicon Valley Commons - founded July 19 2006 by Leo Romero. A portal for charities and other service-oriented organizations engaged in good works for the Silicon Valley.

New Wikia less than 3 months old
Share your new found enthusiasm for Wikia and help nurture fellow Civil society type 'newbies'


 * Projects or Open Project Development (note: it's not a software development wiki). Founded August 18, 2006. It's a wiki where everyone can start a project and develop it.
 * Basilicus is a massive free content worldbuilding studio for games, fiction, and media.
 * Special FX Makeup, propwork, animatronics, and all other special techniques used in film, theatre, and screen.

Invitation
Please feel free to add 'your' Wikia to the above listings if you are open to the ideas suggested above.

Collaboration proposals and requests
Please see separate page - Society Gardens collaboration proposals

Happy first birthday!
In the '9 months plus' category see which wikciites have a first birthday coming up. Then send them a sort of 'birthday card' type message, for example to their founder, active contributors or to their Community Portal talk page. Can you give them some sort of 'birthday present' by adding a little to their content? (And, of course, later on wish them happy 2nd birthday! etc.)

Rewarding collaboration
Every 3 months or so (and from when there's enough participating Wikia), propose and vote on / support proposals for the Wikia engaging in the best inter Wikia collaboration of mutual self help (over that period). (Yes, it's individuals who help rather than wikicities but this could perhaps be got round by Featuring the Wikia of choice of the individual commended).

Pay it forward
As well as 'paying back' any Wikia that helps 'your' Wikia (and of course reciprocating help is good) 'Pay it forward' and every so often try and add something of value to a Wikia of your choice from the above listings.

More specific examples

 * WikiNodes, example at sca21:Sustainable_Community_Action:WikiNode - to show how wiki relate to each other and for developing possible delegations and collaborations.
 * What's new, or similar - if 'your' wiki has anything like a What's New page, below the stuff for your wiki you can include a bit from 'sister wikia' or anything which might seem especially relevant to the topic of 'your' wiki. Example sometimes at sca21:What's New e.g. headed 'Wikisphere' under the main boxes.
 * Consider proposing or voting for one of the above wiki in Wikia's Collaboration of the month

More general examples

 * tips on publicising Wikia
 * tips on networking opportunities
 * tips on making improvements to Help pages

Success of this page
If you note that your wikia got some help because you added it in this page, write it here. This will increase the awareness of the success of this page.
 * Just getting wished happy first birthday is nice and encouraging - also this page not just about what you can get, but also about what you can give Philralph 17:02, 25 August 2006 (UTC).
 * Also suspect, though I haven't kept any sort of record of it, that sca21 got more edits/contributions from founders, admins and other people who contribute mainly to other Wikia as a result of this list. Which in turn leads to finding further relevant content and better interwiki links. Philralph 17:20, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

More about this page
The top 20 Wikia (listed on Wikia Main page) are dominated by popular entertainment, gaming and computer topics. Wikia that grow easily involve topics for which there is a large existing community of computer-savvy users. It makes sense to have a support system for Wikia that are devoted to topics that do not have a large existing community of computer-savvy users. Otherwise It is all too easy for people to look at the top active Wikia and conclude that Wikia is some sort of computer nerd and gaming site.

When introducing Wikia to people without a computer background, a common reaction is "this is too complicated for me". We need a simple and exciting way of getting such people past their fears and into a new frame of mind where they see wiki as a tool that they can use to express their own interests. This page can help us share ideas for how to "get the word out" that Wikia devoted to "slightly more serious" topics exist and to help users past their internet passivity and into being wiki editors. Original proposal and associated discussion at Proposal for a Civil Society Quarter page