User:Relyk/promotion

Reddit Question and answer

Stephane posts a thread for an AMA on wiki contributors. This is necessary because stephane will have the ArenaNet symbol next to his name and the subreddit will upvote any of his comments out of hype and excitement, therefore giving the thread attention. This also avoids the accusations about the admins being evil and such. Stephane acts as the host for the wiki and makes it seems as an official Guild Wars 2 event. They will be too busy with hype to realize he won't be commenting on the thread. This is low effort requirement on stephane's part, which is important as he otherwise will be too busy to do anything else.

This is an AMA, which means questions don't have to be about the wiki. People don't want to talk about the wiki, they want to talk about the game or people playing the game. The wiki doesn't have any identifiable "players" in Guild Wars 2 apart from Konig and Ishmael. Most people probably aren't aware lon-ami is a contributor to the wiki along with contributor to the subreddit. Contributing to the wiki does not mean you aren't active in other communities or the game itself but carries the stigma that contributors spend all their time on the wiki.

A goal is to talk to the admins and senior editors. Most of the admins spend a majority of their time playing the game rather then editing and administrating the wiki. I know this because they all have more achievement points than I do. The wiki does not have policies so players don't need to fear wikilawyering. This is not a common issue on the wiki either as discussion doesn't escalate except when it involves Konig.

Pretentious topics can include:

1. [High] What recent features has the wiki introduced for players. This is one of the main purposes of User:Relyk/Wiki Newsletter and we can name a few projects going on. We are in competition for crafting guides, walkthroughs for Living World story, jumping puzzles, the world boss event timers, maps, and item information.
2. [High] What features players would like to see. The wiki often works in a black box, where lack of discussion on talk pages prevents the wiki from attacking problems. That desire is mirrored by editors, where they see problems that have existed but have no way of approaching them or simply being hard to. This also allows players to get interested in what features the wiki already has and explore those while making suggestions.
3. [Medium] The documentation of lore on the Living World. Lore has come into focus with Living World season 2 and the wiki is the primary resource for players on lore. The wiki is the only place you can find dialogue documented beyond that_shaman's datamining posts on the subreddit.
4. [Low] Getting people off the forums and subreddit and on the wiki for making suggestions. Threads on the forums and subreddit telling people to help the wiki simply don't work. People say they would love to help if they have time and are satisfied that its the thought that counts. This is because editing takes effort and a wall contributors must climb.
5. [Medium] How editing, discussion, consensus, and reversion works. I don't understand how this works sometimes or the best way to go about it. I think we need to establish that your work isn't lost if someone reverts your edit or writes more than you on a talk page.
6. [Low] Invite players to the IRC. Most of the users on IRC exist to answer questions because they don't edit the wiki. It provides a place for help on the game itself, traversing the wiki, or getting the information they want, rather than going on talk pages that can be difficult to find and edit.

This does not include what people think is wrong with the wiki or issues with users. This simply leads to using the thread as a punching bag. This includes what someone views as misinformation on an article, issues with who edited articles, or complaining about the admins. These conversations are never fruitful or enjoyable for any of the parties involved. We see this happen whenever a thread about the wiki pops up and usually contains "strong opinions" as Horrible would say. Keep in mind the same thing happens whenever a thread about a guild or a forum post comes up.

Area/Zone day

Invite people to finish up an area or zone. This includes discussing content of the area or zone, mostly lore and adding screenshots. Players can then work together to develop the article. This addresses the common complaint about the wiki having errors but readers not being alone to bring up and address the issue. The day would be restricted to once a week or longer to provide an appropriate period. This activity has some precedence as players have gone back to document all the ambient dialogue in cities or revisit certain areas for their lore.

Equipment galleries

If dulfy is any indication, people love weapon galleries. The wiki needs high quality images of weapons rather than the preview. This can be as easy as uploading dulfy's weapon galleries to the wiki (The galleries are always high quality). Images are simple for players to upload and encourage people to create accounts. Most people who add images for the wiki have very little trouble or questions about it. They also see their name as the one who uploaded the image, which mitigates the perception that their contribution is meaningless to them. This activity is accessible and desirable for editors.

Videos

The wiki needs the Youtube widget. Video walkthroughs of the Living World are demanded by players who missed the events. Video walkthroughs are also demanded for jumping puzzles. The youtube widget needs a whitelist feature for confirmed contributers, similar to Authorized Shoutcasters. A whitelist is needed to prevent users from abusing the widget in the same way as simply adding links. This can be restricted to only the official channel if it becomes too much trouble at any point. I would also like to whitelist dulfy and woodenpotatoes as established content creators for the community at large. The wiki is made by the community, for the community, and this approach reflects such.

Game updates

People post game updates on reddit in plaintext. People then have to search the comments for bugs or other notes. This is an outrage. The wiki can wikify the game updates to access information on content quickly and add all those undocumented changes in the notes. The wiki is the best place to add these notes and doesn't rely on someone editing their post on the forum or reddit. Undocumented changes is the best crowdsource topic in the entire game as people can quickly verify and edit rather disparate issues. Our sexy {{trait icon}}s display the trait line in the hovertext and nobody knows about it.