All posts by DEmersonJMFM

I'd also add that you should know how your content owners react in regards to copyright protection. Some wikis are much more strict in regards to documenting content such as videos and transcripts considering the owners readily flex their ownership, which they are in their rights to do. Transcripts are arguably not fair use and can be seen as a replacement for the work, therefore I never recommend their use. Songs are similar, yet are much more difficult to document without using the lyrics whereas an episode/film can easily have a plot overview.

The topic's encyclopedia. Some topics can create name recognition that way, though others simply wouldn't work with that structure.

The source content isn't likely to be freely licensed, though you can still describe the work in many ways that could easily be distributed freely (documenting airdates, cast, describing characters, summarizing episodes, posting personal images of merchandise). Most wikis are gonna have some amount of fair use (reality). Fair use is going to really come into play based on how much of the original source material is used in regards to the whole (a few screenshots to illustrate an episode vs. 100 in a gallery or posting a comic frame vs. posting the entire comic).

To an extent, yes they could have that to cover themselves, but some wikis flat out make no effort to minimize the content on the wiki that could be used under fair use, if used properly, thus going past what could be considered fair inclusion of the copyrighted work. I wouldn't consider a transcript or a screenshot every other second even close to fair use, but rather copyright infringement. Lyrics Wiki was removed under the disguise of a different aspect of the TOU, though I'd guess it could have easily enough been removed under this one.

"Although some fair use material may be included in our communities, Fandom aims to be a repository of free content, so any wiki which would be primarily made up of fair use material rather than freely licensed material is not permitted." -Community Creation Policy

This is if you wanted to even argue transcripts could be considered fair use and not flat out copyright infringement. Being a duplicate wiki wouldn't even matter.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was closed for copyright violations. Many transcripts are copyrighted and writing them out most likely would be a stretch of fair use. Some franchises are stricter about copyright than others (the big reason I've never supported the creation of transcript pages on the wiki I Admin).

The branding isn't meant to "fit" the wikis it's on. Fandom's branding is to distinguish itself, just as a wiki isn't going to theme itself based on Fandom's colors. Not fitting wikis means that the branding is working to stick out and identify clearly that these wikis are Fandom wikis.

"Stealing" in a wiki's sense is copying without attribution, which is not allowed. There is a reason wikis have the license and it can (really should) be enforced. You should first ask the user to attribute the edits they copy, even if they take those edits and modify them (as per the license). It's also not your responsibility to do it for them. If they ignore you or refuse once you inform them, you can get Staff involved. I've done this a few times because a couple wikis decided to copy content without attribution, and would not follow the license, and those wikis were deleted.

From my understanding, you (as the editor) have the right to enforce the licensing of the content you create. On Fandom, Staff can assist. Off Fandom, you'd have to file a DMCA (from what I remember).

I don't know if that changed recently because I didn't notice this issue when I first mitigated everything (which shouldn't matter as the tables are set to 100%).

Why do full width tables now have a shadow on the right edge and a scrollbar on the bottom?

It can certainly be useful for readers that aren't extremely familiar with a large franchise and don't know exactly what they want to look for. Once it was removed from the previous header I created random links for the wiki's largest categories.

You'll have to adjoin the page and theme selectors (if you want a different color for each theme):

.page-Example_Name.theme-fandomdesktop-light .page__main
.page-Example_Name.theme-fandomdesktop-dark .page__main

The square images just look bulky in the header and would not work in my case as our wordmark will only work as a rectangle.

I'm glad to see the Recent changes button restored, as well as article number, though is the header supposed to be taller now? I'm not much a fan of that change.

Most wikis have a Community menu, Discussions is in the right buttons, Main page is linked through the wordmark and community name, All pages is a default (I believe) on the bottom nav.

A wiki's navigation choices should trump what's default. Another example, I have a detailed breakdown of the wiki's structure in our Community tab so the extra All pages link is less useful. Sure, on wikis that don't integrate their links such a tab would make sense.

The entire "Explore" menu can honestly go away and it certainly shouldn't be the first menu. Most established wikis already use those links or they are duplicated elsewhere in the header.

Perhaps it could be better next to the collapse/edit/toc button? I get that it could be useful for new visitors, though I don't like the idea of recent changes being in the dropdown. Also, the buttons need to be consistent with Discussions (had some nav confusion as the result).

I'd prefer Recent changes stayed out of the dropdown considering how much it's used.

Thanks for pointing out my screw up and ways to improve on it (I misinterpreted the preparation guide).

I noticed the strange ad placement at one point too. I've also noticed the space between the header and content area briefly enlarge before returning to its original size.

I updated my CSS with the above approach. I used to get that ad every single time and it can be large (honestly it's the worst ad I saw). Good thing I experienced this problem before I finally removed it again.