User blog:LostInRiverview/Community Chat 3: December 15, 2015
Hello, wiki warriors! Welcome to the middle of December, and welcome to Community Chat 3! I apologize for the long period between blogs 2 and 3, but I've been super busy. That's all behind us now; let's get straight to business.
- Spotlights
Before continuing with the main focus of this blog, I'd like to take a few minutes to highlight some good things I've seen on the wiki in the past few weeks.
- Tons of editors - both regular and new - have been updating TSW's information on The Sims 4, and especially The Sims 4: Get Together. Seriously, thank you all for your contributions! There's so many people involved that it would be hard to list them all, but special thanks are in order for AldoHyde, Dorsal Axe, Ryan.fellowsfitts, Sims2Player, Sumaes01, Thatkitten, TiaReshade, Vpetmad, and WizardJeremy! Please let me know in the comments below if I've forgotten anyone, and I'll be sure to add them to this list. Also, if you have time, please help me in personally thanking these individuals for their contributions to the wiki, and especially in helping us fill in the holes that we've had regarding The Sims 4.
- I want to give special kudos to DarkSuicune2000 and his recent edit to the Michael Bachelor article. He made a major update to an important article, and helped us clean up one of The Sims Wiki's former featured articles as well. Special thanks to DarkSuicune, and every other user who has helped us clean up our articles. Let's keep up the good work!
- Upcoming
I am planning on bringing back Wiki Projects in the coming weeks. The exact details of what will be brought forward are still being worked out, and any input into the topic is greatly appreciated! Specifically, I want to know what roles you'd like to see Wiki Projects play in The Sims Wiki's development, or any aspects of the wiki that would be served well by the creation of a dedicated project page. Expect a roll-out of Wiki Projects to occur sometime at the beginning of the new year; you can look forward to more updates on this in future blogs.
- Making a mission
In the last chat blog, I asked for help in crafting The Sims Wiki Community's mission. There were a few responses, and I'd like to highlight a couple of the points that were brought up:
- Equality: A couple users mentioned that our community mission should be to stress user equality in improving the wiki. The idea is that all users, not just administrators and bureaucrats, are capable of making this wiki better and are capable of being good leaders within the community.
- Dedication to content: The Sims Wiki should continue to strive to be a fun place to participate and contribute. But, we should recognize that our efforts should ultimately be directed towards improving The Sims Wiki's encyclopedic content; any thing that is done here should keep that goal in mind.
- Fostering communication and participation: Lately, communication between members has been slim, not just on wiki discussions, but on article talk pages and personal talk pages as well. As part of building a strong and effective community, communication between users and participation in the administration of The Sims Wiki should be encouraged.
Through these points, I am hoping to draft a Mission Statement for the TSW Community. This statement should be short—two to three sentences at most—and should reflect how the TSW Community views itself and its role.
I am not the TSW Community, so I cannot personally draft such a mission statement. Instead, the task falls to you! In the comments below, please give us your draft of the TSW Community mission statement, based on the points I've highlighted above, any other relevant comments, the comments from last week's community chat, or any other sources of inspiration. Please remember that there are no right or wrong answers here; write a statement that sounds true to you and your view of our community's goals and purpose.
- What's the point of all this?
I want to make it clear that I didn't seek the Community Directorship position so that I could draft a mission statement. Frankly, the mission statement itself isn't all that important. What is important is giving the community a sense of purpose and meaning, of getting people talking and collaborating, of giving us a mission to follow and goals to strive towards. The intent of the Community Chat blogs, of the Mission Statement, and of all other changes both past and future, are to build upon these ideas and to get the community working to its fullest potential.
In order for this to work, however, your input is needed. I know we say this a lot in news blogs, usually just after reminding you to participate in community discussions that seem to be dead on arrival, but it really is true in this case. As I said, I am not the TSW Community; I cannot say what our goals or aspirations are; only we can do that. So please, take a few moments and leave a comment, even if it's not related to setting a mission. Talking is an important step, whether it be commenting here, leaving messages on a talk page, or participating in community discussions. Communities communicate! Communication is key!!
- Your homework
In addition to the Mission Statement task, I'd also like to encourage each of you to do something extra to communicate on the wiki. Do you see someone on the wiki doing good work? Leave them an encouraging and thankful message on their talk page! Do you see an article on the wiki that might need to be improved but you don't know where to begin? Start a dialogue on the article's talk page and get other users engaged! Do you see an issue on the wiki that needs fixing but you can't do it alone? Create a forum post and message other users who might be interested in participating in that discussion! Remember that with each message or post you make, you're helping to build a stronger and better community. Thank you.
Until next time,