User blog:Jpearson/Welcome to FanCentral Beta!

This year has been dedicated to creating even better experiences for fans that can only be found on Fandom, including providing creator tools for optimal user experience and amplifying the voices of the community. As the work continues on those new editing and admin tools, we're equally committed to making sure that the pages and posts you're creating on your wikis are being seen and used by even more people now and in the future.

Introducing the FanCentral [Beta]
Today, we’re thrilled to present FanCentral [Beta (which you can access by clicking here!) ] - a new destination for fans to learn, explore, and engage around the fandoms they love, and to discover their next great passion. This personalized destination has wiki content recommendations, discussions posts, trends, articles - and more - at your fingertips. Currently, you can explore trending wikis in a personalized feed serving the content from top fandoms. You can also read trending articles where available and join in the conversation through curated discussions posts. This is an opportunity to share knowledge with communities that share your passion.

As logged-in users, you’ll be in the driver seat of what topics you want to follow in the FanCentral [Beta]. You’ll have the ability to follow fandoms (the sum total of wikis, discussions posts, quizzes, and more) you’re interested in and have wiki articles and discussions posts recommended to you from those communities. And if you’re a logged-out user visiting the FanCentral [Beta], you can still get a personalized experience too! We’ll recommend topics and content to you based on the wikis you’ve visited, as well as topics that are similar to the ones about the wiki you’ve visited.

This early-stage beta functionality, which will grow and change over the coming months based on user feedback, will initially roll out to our English language users, and will be for communities that are currently part of the Fandom App (more on how we’ll be expanding the number of topics later on in the blog). As we start to measure the usage of the FanCentral [Beta], the hope is that it will be successful enough to where we can support other languages as well, so we can share this experience with all fans. This beta experience is only the beginning, and we’re excited for you to jump in, explore and curate your feed as we work to create the best possible product and features for Fandom users.

FanCentral [Beta] Background
One of our goals at Fandom is to increase what we call “Time on Site,” which is the amount of time fans spend on Fandom. Obviously, as wiki editors, you have pretty high time on site because you’ve decided editing wikis is something you’re passionate about. But for about 99% of the total number of people who come to Fandom every month, they’re mainly looking for an answer to a question that they’ve Googled and then they leave once they find it. The more time people spend on Fandom, the more we’re able to build awesome new tools and resources for them and for you, so it’s an important goal.

So, when it came time late last year and early this year to begin thinking about what fans are interested in, we went right to the source and asked them! We’ve conducted surveys, held focus groups, done one on one user research and testing, and more to find out what fans are looking for and what role Fandom and FanCentral can play in recommending cool content on the platform and even finding new shows to watch, games to play, movies to go to, and more. One of the big takeaways was that they want to be able to find everything about their favorite fandoms in one, easy-to-use, familiar format like a feed, which is where the development of the FanCentral [Beta] began.

In addition to interviews with fans, we also talked to wiki editors about what they’d be looking for out of this experience. Back in May, at Community Connect, we gave attendees an early peek at some initial concepts for FanCentral. This experience is geared toward giving fans the content they’re looking for in a new and interesting way for Fandom, so we wanted to know from attendees what they wanted to see in this feature and how it could benefit their experience on Fandom too. We've taken feedback from that event, conducted multiple rounds of user research, and seen a passionate team rally behind delivering experiences for the Fans.

The central theme included delivering experiences and tools designed to empower our fans and provide engaging content, and to provide the beginnings of that “One Stop Shop” for pop culture information fans are craving. Thanks to your feedback, we were able to continue delivering on our goal to produce a personalized fan experience that continues to deliver the content you want to see.

What’s next for the FanCentral [Beta]?
This early-stage beta is just the first step in what FanCentral could become. Our goal is to grow the FanCentral [Beta] into a full-fledged experience that becomes your personal home for all things entertainment and gaming! As FanCentral grows, you can continue to personalize your feed and keep your finger on the pulse of gaming and entertainment. Additional features you can expect soon include more wiki content modules, more wikis in the feed, a Discussions opt-in for historically Gamepedia wikis, and more.

We’ll host an AMA on Discord for you to learn more about FanCentral [Beta] and how it was developed on November 10, 2022. We also have a dedicated #fan-central channel in the General section of the Fandom Discord, where we invite you to ask any questions or give your thoughts on where the FanCentral [Beta] could go next! If you're in need of support, we encourage you to check out the FanCentral help page as well.

Want to know how you can unlock this new level on Fandom? Check out FanCentral [Beta ]!

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