Taking Your First Steps on FANDOM
This blog is for all you readers out there. You've looked around some of the 300,000 wikis on FANDOM, looked at some News and Stories, found some great reads on the wikis, and maybe even visited Discussions. So what's next for you?
Well, one thing you've probably noticed is the rich community on FANDOM. Each fandom is its own community, and then there is the overall community on Community Central and the other language versions of this wiki.
- 1 Building Your Identity
- 2 Making Your First Contribution
- 3 Discussions, Another Way to Join In.
- 4 Let's Talk!
To join a community, the first thing I would always suggest is to make an account. You can do some things on FANDOM without being logged, including reading, editing, and commenting on articles. But logg…
Some Guidelines on Guidelines
One of the first things some people do on their new wiki is to write some rules and guidelines for the site. After all, we all want things to be done right from the start.
My advice would be: don't. For a new wiki, it's much more essential to make it welcoming and inclusive than it is to be perfect. At this stage of your wiki, you are best concentrating on building content and attracting those elusive contributors.
But there comes a time when guidelines become essential. Often it's when someone starts pushing limits and taking advantage of their being no written rules. But ideally, you will begin to get some guidelines written before that point.
FANDOM has its own guidelines, which layout rules of behavior for the whole site. That means the bas…
The Diversity of FANDOM
FANDOM is a diverse and complicated community. We all have different likes, dislikes, and ideas. We also come from many different places and cultures, and are varied in race, sexuality, gender identity and many other beautiful ways.
Most of our differences don't cause issues on wikis unless someone is involved who objects to our group. For example, age and religion don't generally have a strong influence on how someone edits on a wiki, but we have seen problems with people prejudiced against those groups. Be careful not to blame the target of attacks in such cases, and remember that a varied and interesting wiki comes from a varied and interesting community. You don't have to like everyone, or even approve of them. But that doesn't stop you…
Your First 50 Pages
I mentioned recently that one of the first things to do on a new wiki is start writing pages. For design help we ask that you have at least 50 pages on the wiki, and that's a good number to aim for. But 50 is a big number! How are you going to get there when all you have is a blank wiki?
The key thing is to get started. Don't let the task overwhelm you, just pick a place to start and get that one thing done, followed by the next one thing, and then the next. It's much easier to write in bite-sized pieces rather than trying to take on too much too soon.
The main page of any wiki is a critical one. It's your doorway into your wiki and making it interesting, attractive, and easy to use is an important early task. Of course, you aren't going to ha…
FANDOM's Community Video Program is Growing
A few months ago we introduced you to FANDOM's Community Video Program, where admins and users on communities with Featured Videos can participate in the production process by writing and reviewing scripts. A number of communities are already involved, and this collaboration is a great example of what can be done when we partner with community members. It combines FANDOM's video resources and the scriptwriter or reviewer's intimate knowledge of the subject to produce a unique and informative video for anyone wanting a quick overview of the topic.
For example, did you know that Cartman from South Park is so evil that he once made Scott Tenorman eat chili made from his parents? Or did you know that Jotaro Kujo from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Star…