The Zen Admin - Revisited
This is the fifth post in a series of six about admins on FANDOM, adapted from past posts written by Sannse.
Today's topic was suggested by 452, and it's a good one. We've talked about the attributes of the ideal admin, and about the best ways to react to trolling. But between those is the best way to react to users you dislike or are causing problems on the wiki in ways other than simple trolling.
This is related to "Don't Feed the Trolls," but there are some differences. Not feeding trolls is generally about not giving feedback to those that are editing specifically to get a reaction to their disruption. But sometimes there's more involved than that, and sometimes your reaction is not just about not feeding, it's also about your own effect…
Five Things Every Admin Should Know - Revisited
This is the fourth post in a series of six about admins on FANDOM, adapted from past posts written by Sannse.
I've given a lot of social advice to admins and to others on FANDOM, but today I want to give admins some more practical advice on pages to use and skills to learn. These are the top five areas that I'd suggest any admin learn.
Wiki Activity is a useful page for getting an overview of what's going on on a wiki, but it's not the full picture. The full details of what's happening on any community are on Recent Changes. This essential page lists every change on the wiki, including edits on pages that are less often changed, like templates.
For an admin, or for any keen contributor, this page is the starting point for understanding everyt…
I Want to Be an Admin - Revisited
This is the second in a series of six posts about admins on FANDOM, adapted from past posts written by Sannse.
People on FANDOM want to help. It seems to be a characteristic of people around here, and is something really special about our community. Often that urge to help leads to questions like "please can I be a chatmod?" or "how can I join the VSTF?" So today let's look at that.
The most important thing to know is: you don't need to have rights or a profile badge to be helpful. There is a lot you can do without the admin profile badge, and a lot of pride and satisfaction you can get out of doing it.
The route to becoming an admin or getting other rights for a community will vary a lot from place to place. Some wikis have a voting page wher…
Admin Philosophy Revisited
This is the first in a series of six posts about admins on FANDOM, adapted from past posts written by Sannse.
These are some thoughts about the things that I strive for when I'm on FANDOM. My aim in life is to try to avoid adminitis and to follow the example of the best admins around.
Admins are role models. They are the people who others want to be. They lead by example, showing how it's possible to stay polite and reasonable in the most heated dispute. They are the ones that others trust and try to emulate. They choose their words and actions knowing that they are demonstrating good practice with everything they do.
Admins are supportive. They are the person that everyone turns to in a difficult situation, the one who brings calm and reason …
Dealing with Bullying Online
Wikis are communities of people working together on a common project. It's almost inevitable that there will be disagreements and arguments as the community grows - that's just human nature. But when do disagreements become harassment or cyberbullying?
Harassment and bullying are more than just a mean comment or a nasty argument. In both cases, they involve repeated attacks over time. They might involve lewd texts, threats on social media and elsewhere, and even posting personal details and pictures. These are serious issues that may have "real-life" or even fatal consequences.
Some examples of harassment or cyberbullying on Fandom might be:
- Making repeated nasty comments, Chat messages, Wall messages, etc.
- Following a user to other communitie…
How to Block Someone in Your Community the Right Way
Blocking is the right and duty of all admins. It's a way to stop damage to a community, such as the damage of vandalism or the more subtle reasons such as social disruption.
Blocking itself is not hard to do. You can find a link to the block page on contribution pages, or go to Special:Block on your wiki and add the name of the person you are blocking, make some selections, and click "block this user".
What's harder to do is to block well.
The first things to consider are the options given on the block page. The first is possibly the most important - the timespan of the ban. It's tempting to make this as long as possible, after all, since we usually get to the block page when we are annoyed at someone's bad actions. But a long ban removes any …
Welcoming New Contributors
New users are something that every community needs, whether it's an established community or a brand new one. New users bring more hands to do the daily work of building and improving the content, and can bring valuable new ideas too.
The problem is that many people make their first edit and then disappear back into the Internets. Reaching out to talk to new users is one way to help bring them into the community.
All communities come with an automated welcome tool that leaves a message for each person when they make their first edit. This is a good start, but it's not the end of the welcoming. Each message is "signed" by an admin. That way, if a new user replies to a welcome message, there's an admin who's notified of that who can write back.…
Why Social Media is Important For Communities
Wikians are often at the epicenter of their favorite fandoms. You represent the biggest experts there are, not to mention that you have some of the most intense passions for pop culture in the world. That's why it's not very surprising to know that social media is an important tool for your community. What better way is there to talk to other fans and let them know about your community?
Every day, we talk to fans on our own brand accounts, @getfandom and @Wikia, and we've learned a great deal about the importance of engaging with an audience on social media. As social media becomes more and more important in the evolving internet landscape, I wanted to share some of what we've learned with you.
When you have a well-established community, you…
You and Your Socks
Allow me to introduce to you User:Sanns sock. She's a pleasant enough sort of user, not very active on Wikia, but she's been around for a while. She's useful when something goes wrong and there's a need for some non-staff testing.
Then there's User:Sanns bot. She's retired now, but used to do some work around Wikia every now and then. Just routine spelling corrections and other simple changes.
There's also User:A user name with spaces, User:Sannsetestingagainandagain and, for some reason, User:APrettyPinkPotofPreciousPetunias.
As you might have guessed, these are just some of the accounts I've made on Wikia over the years, my "sockpuppets". Most of them were made to test various features and verify bugs. Although, as an old Uncyclopedian, the…
How to Deal With a Bad Bureaucrat
We’ve given plenty of advice in the past on how to deal with trolls, annoying users, and bad admins. But what if that user who is upsetting the community is a bureaucrat, and can delete anything and block anyone they like?
- 1 Try diplomacy first
- 2 When to get a bureaucrat demoted
- 3 How to get a bureaucrat demoted
- 4 Bureaucrat trouble in very small communities
As in any dispute, the best option is to talk it out: Stay calm, assume your bureaucrat isn’t evil, but just coming from a different point of view, and see if you can find a way to work together.
Try these options, if a bureaucrat is causing trouble:
- Talk to the bureaucrat: Leave them a message and let them know what you think they should do differently, and why (be nice about it).
- Talk to the oth…