Do you have a wiki with quite a few visitors and people “hanging out,” but not a lot of editing action? That can be frustrating -- you know they’re there, but they’re not contributing! To get people more involved and engaged on your wiki, there are a few things you can do...
Set up weekly projects[]
Every week, come up with a new project that everyone on the wiki can participate in and work on together. By providing specific tasks and needs, you’ll encourage your visitors to participate and make helpful contributions. Using Rift as an example (but these pages exist on every wiki):
- Wanted pages need to be created or the links to them removed so you don’t have red links.
- Dead end pages don’t link anywhere else on the wiki which hurts your search engine results and makes it harder for folks to find their way around.
- Orphaned pages aren’t linked to from anywhere, which makes it really hard for people to find them.
- Unused photos have been uploaded but aren’t on a page anywhere ,which means they may never be seen.
- Unused categories have a page set up for them, but no pages use them. You can categorize pages that use them, or just delete the category page.
Harness the imaginative conversations[]
Every wiki has its own set of rules about non-canon, or fictional information, but there are ways to make that information work for the wiki. You might try giving people a place on-wiki to discuss their opinions and thoughts or even topics that may not directly relate to the topic of the wiki. This keeps them on the wiki, and the longer people stay, the more likely they are to find canon information to add. Here are some interesting ways wikis are using information that isn’t strictly encyclopedic:
- http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Category:LOST_Book_Club
- http://bakugan.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Blog_posts
Want to keep your wiki a pure encyclopedia but people keep trying to role play or add fan fiction? Instead of deleting their content or blocking them, direct them to a fan fiction or role-playing wiki. You could point them to one that already exists, or even set up a new one, and share links so that people can travel from encyclopedia to fan fiction and back again.
These are just the tip of the iceberg; there are tons of ways to get your editors involved. Do you have an example of something that has worked for your wiki? Tell us in the comments below, and help others learn from your experience!
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