Forum:Possibility of merging with Sims Freeplay Wiki

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Hi all. I was wondering what the possibility would be of merging the Sims Freeplay Wiki with you guys. The existing admin has not edited since October and it rarely gets edits compared to here. Let me know what you guys think. Thatawesomecat (talk) 15:51, April 21, 2020 (UTC)

Discussion

Sure, feel free to make articles about The Sims FreePlay here. Just make sure they're properly categorized. - ✨AireDaleDogz✨ (talk) 18:12, April 21, 2020 (UTC)

While certainly it is possible to create the relevant pages here on this wiki, that wouldn't be a wiki merger. In order to bring about an actual merger, the editing community on the Freeplay wiki would need to agree to it, as would the community here, and then submit a request through Fandom staff. An initiative to merge wikis would probably be more effective if the admins of the Freeplay wiki were also pushing in that direction. Looking at the users list there, it looks like CoolStar1998 is a current bureaucrat and admin and has edited as recently as yesterday. If merger is something you really want to pursue, I'd recommend getting in contact with her and seeing how she feels about it. If she's opposed, you likely won't be able to pursue a merger. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 18:26, April 21, 2020 (UTC)

I don't dislike the idea of a merger, however I do think The Sims Freeplay has enough content and gamplay to warrant its own wiki. Ѧüя◎ґ (talk) 21:04, April 21, 2020 (UTC)

Here is CoolStar's post on the Freeplay Wiki about the merge. No opposition yet. --awyman13https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/joeplayground/images/e/e5/FandomStaff.png (Talk/Work) 22:57, April 23, 2020 (UTC)

I think The Sims Wiki should strive to be the best it can and adding the information from The Sims Free Play Wiki will be a testement to this. I support merging and closing down the empty wiki.MarketingSimmer (talk) 15:35, April 25, 2020 (UTC)

I think it's worth noting that the Sims Freeplay admins would retain their administrative rights over here as well. If you guys are still cool with that, we'll move forward with the merge. Thatawesomecat (talk) 04:59, April 29, 2020 (UTC)

Hold on a second. The Freeplay admins keeping their admin roles wasn't something brought up before, and it's something that needs further discussion.

I'm not outright opposed to the Freeplay admins getting admin on TSW. But, TSW does have a process in place for adding new administrators, and that process is a part of our broader community policy and can't just be ignored. The admin selection process on this wiki is meant to ensure that any admin selected is supported by the community. Given that none of the Freeplay admins currently edit on TSW, it'd be hard for the community here to know much about them or be able to give an up-or-down vote on their getting admin rights. We could bypass the regular RfA process if the community supports doing so, but that would require discussion; it's not something that an individual admin or bureaucrat here could okay on their own.

As well, so far this discussion hasn't gotten enough input to establish community consensus for the merger in the first place. There is no opposition here as of this comment being written, but we've also only heard from a couple members here. I don't think a merger could fairly move forward until this matter gets broader consideration. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 05:52, April 29, 2020 (UTC)

I like the idea of a merger, but I'm staunchly opposed to the FreePlay Wiki admins getting the admin bit here automatically. None of the admins there are regular editors of this wiki and are unfamiliar with how the processes of this wiki work. And after the *&^%storm of not too long ago where a "Content Team Member" used their sysop powers to delete our templates using a CSD criteria that was incorrectly applied for that purpose (link), I simply cannot support an initiative where users are automatically given the admin bit here. The wiki has already suffered enough from too many people unfamiliar with how the processes here work getting the admin bit, and it's clear that our autonomy is not being respected. I will not support a proposal that further undermines the local community's ability to run this wiki. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 21:22, April 29, 2020 (UTC)

I am in full support of the merge as we have articles on the wiki about games outside of the main PC game series, but I cannot support the administrators of the The Sims Freeplay Wiki regaining their same abilities over on TSW. We worked tirelessly a couple of years ago to re-work the entirety of the User rights process, and as someone who took great part in re-creating the process, I would be quite insulted if our policies and rules were ignored. Your community members are free to join our wiki as regular users and if they wish to be a rollback, content moderator or perhaps even an administrator, then they would have to follow the same process as the rest of us. ~ Beds ^{(talk - blog)} 21:41, April 29, 2020 (UTC)

I was just informed that the Sims Freeplay admins are fine with not retaining rights for the merge. Thatawesomecat (talk) 02:29, May 7, 2020 (UTC)

Strong Oppose  - The merger just won't work-it's like trying to merge this wiki with the SimCity or the MySims wiki-both of those are meant for different audiences. The solution is to just increase edits on the Freeplay wiki and just skip the merger. Timmymanest.2004 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Timmymanest2004 (talk • contribs) 14:39, May 3, 2020 (UTC) - Please sign your comments with ~~~~

Next steps

It appears that a merger, with the caveat that the Freeplay admins wouldn't retain admin privileges here, has been accepted by the general community, as well as the Freeplay editors. However, I think there are other details that are in need of discussion before the merger takes place. I've messaged User:CoolStar1998, the main active admin from the Freeplay wiki, to come over and help us lay the groundwork. My goal is that this process should take a matter of a couple weeks.

A few potential (relatively minor) issues spring to mind immediately. First, the Freeplay wiki may have content namespace articles that share names with existing articles here on TSW; we'd have to decide whether these articles should be merged, or whether they should be imported with a disambiguation. Second, the Freeplay wiki uses templates on their articles that are unique to their wiki, and don't match the standardized Infobox templates on our wiki; we'd have to work on adapting them for the wiki, or substituting TSW templates if possible. Third, and in a similar vein to the first issue, there may be issues of overlapping categories, and the need to work the Freeplay categories into our existing category hierarchy. Those are the main issues that immediately spring to mind, but I'm not discounting the fact that other things may come about that necessitate discussion. To be perfectly honest, I am not familiar with The Sims Freeplay or with the Freeplay wiki enough to be able to do this single-handedly; assistance from the Freeplay editors and admins would be appreciated and thoroughly welcomed.

I want to stress, especially to Thatawesomecat and Awyman13 (who has contacted me via my talk page to ask about the status of this discussion), that while the community has, in my judgment, consented to the merger, that doesn't mean the merger should happen immediately. I really want to work with CoolStar1998 and the other Freeplay editors to help integrate their content so that when the merger is completed and their content is imported, that it's as seamless and as painless a process as possible for everyone involved. There will probably be additional work to do post-merger, but I'd like to head off some of the more predictable problems before the merge, rather than after. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 06:41, May 12, 2020 (UTC)

No rush at all on my end, I'll leave the merge itself up to you guys. I'll keep up with what goes on. I appreciate you guys and the community here, keep up the good work! Thatawesomecat (talk) 19:38, May 13, 2020 (UTC)