WikiFur:Conventions/RainFurrest/2007

Presentation draft

What's WikiFur?

• Wiki - user-editable website with almost 8000 articles
• Place for neutral information both unique and relevant to the fandom
• Comics, conventions, people, websites, novels, characters, MUCKs...
• Contains most things furry you'd think of looking up, and lots you wouldn't
• If WikiFur doesn't have it, we probably link to it
• Free content - all site text and many images under GFDL

When?

• Founded July 2005
• 1000 articles within a month of the first content, 2500 by end of year
• 4400 on its first birthday

Why WikiFur?

• Preserving history - too many things forgotten over time
• Method of connecting new furries to relevant groups and websites
• Somewhere to go to share or learn the latest information
• No site quite like it at the time
• GreenReaper wanted to learn more but didn't want to spend time looking ;-)

Why not (just) Wikipedia?

• Because Wikipedia doesn't want to cover "original research"
• Facts liable to be deleted unless written in a newspaper or a book
• Websites don't (usually) count as references - anyone can make one
• Result: Majority of furry topics deemed "not notable" - even Midwest FurFest!
• Wikipedia still has a role to play: a general introduction to the fandom

Who contributes to WikiFur?

• Everyone!
• Over 1,300 registered users plus anonymous editors
• Representatives from just about every convention
• Artists, writers, but most of all regular fans
• You don't have to register or use a fan name to edit, though it helps

Who runs WikiFur?

• Everyone!
• Consensual decision-making - discussion (talk) pages are important
• In practice: people who contribute most become administrators
• They get the work nobody else wants to do
• Most important job: Helping everyone else to achieve consensus
• Second most important job: Watching for, blocking and reverting vandals
• Administrators are there to help, but it's not their job to decide who's right
• That said . . . if they all think you're wrong, you probably are

Why do people contribute to WikiFur?

• To help their fellow furs
• To better-describe the fandom to the public
• To record history for posterity
• To show off their artwork
• To promote (or discredit) their group, activity, a friend, or themselves
• Because they love to organize information
• Because they don't have anything better to do on Friday night. ;-)

Of course, WikiFur isn't perfect:

• Articles are of variable quality - some are great, others just stubs
• Vandals, while ineffectual, still drop by now and again
• People sometimes edit pages out of spite or promotional gain
• This is OK as long as it's adding facts, as tone can be edited out
• It's hard to know the truth; references aren't always easy to come by
• Still, like Wikipedia, it keeps getting gets bigger and better over time

Personal exclusion

• Reasoning: WikiFur is there to serve furry fans, not to hurt them
• Results in blanking and protection of the page about a person
• May not be required; removing things like real names and addresses is fine
• Applies only to articles about people, not (say) their comics
• Subject to approval: if consensus says it's in the public interest, it stays
• A relatively minor sacrifice to avoid a lot of hassle and bad feeling

How to edit (1)

• Pick a page, click edit! No login required for most pages.
• The wiki language is a lot like forum or HTML
• Link with double square brackets. Put a pipe after the name for display text
• External links have square bracket, link, text, close bracket
• Italics with two surrounding quotes, bold text with three
• Register to upload image. Usage: [[Image:A.jpg|right|thumb|200px|description]]
• You can use HTML
  and too, though some style is restricted
• If in doubt, find some other page that does what you want and copy it

How to edit (2)

• To make a new page, link to it from an existing page, or change the URL
• If a page name is wrong, move it (you must be registered for a few days)
• Two things with the same name? Move to e.g. Skunk (comic book), Skunk (person)
• You can make tables with HTML, but there is also a wiki syntax - see main page

Writing good articles

• Write in the third person, like any other encyclopedia
• Include all relevant points of view, and say who holds them
• Don't make it sound like WikiFur holds an opinon - only people hold opinons
• Think like a news writer and a historian - what are the most important facts?
• If a source holds useful but extensive detail, reference and summarise it
• Use internal links for keywords, once per page, even if they don't exist yet
• At the end: add a moderate number of relevant, useful external links

Working with others

• You don't own articles, even if they are about you or your projects
• WikiFur reflects the opinons of everyone, and so should its articles
• Try to incorporate other people's edits within your own rather than reverting
• Get to the facts, then figure out language that is acceptable to everyone
• If there is a problem, bring it up on the discussion page or user talk pages
• If you cannot solve your differences, ask for others to help
• Assume good faith and things will go much more smoothly! :-)

Looking forward

• More languages - French exists, Czech added, German in process
• Partnered with existing Finnish TurriWiki
• WikiFur News - better than trawling through LiveJournals or newsletters
• Plenty of room for new ideas and expansion, the fandom is growing >10% a year
• Should reach the original target of 10,000 pages within a year
• You're welcome to help us get there!

Any questions

• WikiFur's LiveJournal
• Confidential: can contact admins through the link on the main page
• Or ask right now!