User blog:Obi the LEGO Fan/Obi's Contemplations on the Wiki

Well, I decided to make a blog about some of my opinions on some current issues. Here goes...

Pages
Recently the quality of pages has gone down, largely due to making so many of them. It used to be that we could only make pages for fairly well known users, or at least for wiki members who have the info needed to make the page worthwhile. Now, we have pages for several users with less than 50 posts, who are inactive. There was even a page for a user with one post, who is inactive.

Compared to other wikis, out articles aren't really that great. We need to work on adding legit content to the pages, instead of getting hundreds of edits from making small changes; like updating post count. (I'm not naming names, here. I've been guilty of this myself- I just think it would be better otherwise.)

People just don't seem to want to invest the time in actually finding important things out about the users they make pages for. Resulting in a lot of pages that no one would want to read.

The Rules
The rules need reform. This is generally agreed upon by most users at this wiki. Though some may be surprised to know I am amongst their ranks.

One of the biggest problems is Rule 1.4, that tells us to obey the MB rules. Now I am not a proponent of abolishing this rule altogether. Rather, I think it would be best to just take what we want of it; because in practical application, we already do that. The rule is not fully enforced, because it contradicts other rules. On the MBs, you cannot post any links except links to other places in LEGO.com, and occasionally they have let us link to this wiki. (I was the first to do so, almost one year ago.)

On chat, links are allowed (though they are supposed to be approved by CMs.) So we have a clear violation.

Another rule on the MBs forbids us from telling out IDs on any other website, and from giving out an email address. This rule is commonly broken, and no one really tries to enforce it (admins included), so it needs to be specified...

There are more MB rules that no one really enforces, or if they do try to enforce them, are given lots of grief and often called bad mods.

What I am tired of (though it is actually getting better), is the Chat Mods being attacked for the rules. Far too often we get lots of complaints for enforcing the rules. But we didn't make them, and it is far better to push reform than it is to rant on chat and call the CMs names, etc.

Just my two cents.

Chat Mods
Currently, we have plenty of chat mods. We need to focus on training and improving our current team, making it more vertical, not more horizontal (to borrow Sherman's metaphor). Chat Mod is not a rank, and it is not a reward. It is a job, and one that is often more punishing than rewarding. The amount of grief CMs get for enforcing certain rules alone is enough to deter anyone. My point is, don't feel bad if you're not CM. This wiki is just one of the "meeting places" of a larger community, that started on LEGO.com and has spread to other places on the internet. Most of us (at least me ) are here to spend time with friends and have fun. We need chat mods to keep chat safe— to stop trolls, to make sure private info isn't shared, to prevent bad language etc. But we only need a certain number to do that job. Many non-CMs would make good CMs. Many current CMs would rather be non-CMs.

As for potential candidates. I am not going to proffer a list of users who I think would be a good CM. This is because we do not need any more, not because there are not promising candidates. There are some non-CMs who know a brick of a lot more about moderating than some of us CMs, but we just simply have enough.

Admins
The problem with the current admin team is not quality, but quantity, IMO. The admins just aren't active enough (no offense, guys . And this isn't a bad thing about them. We all have lives out side of this wiki (I hope ), and lots of us are busy high school students. I am not blaming any of them. And some of them are plenty active, just not enough of them.

The reason we need more active admins is because of the number of ChatMods. With so many chat mods arguments spring up easily, and we need admins to settle these disputes. We need admins to be actively participating in chat and setting exampled for the CMs. LBB and Swipe are plenty active. But they don't usually get involved in main chat and show us how to act and moderate by example. (Though they do sometimes)

Editing is another thing we need admins for. To supervise, encourage, and teach users to edit, and edit well. Sorry, but I don't really see this happening.

Obviously, this is a big task then. And, probably, only the admins really know who is read to play this role. I suppose that I will give a couple shout outs, nevertheless.


 * Riolu - An excellent chat mod, he is probably one of our best choices. I'd like to see a bit more editing experience for him though, with templates and the like. (Do you still edit in visual mode, Rio?


 * Jdude - a great mod, Jdude has a lot of experience and should be able to help newer mods a lot. He also knows enough about editing to get by. I'd like to see some more activity, however. Seems to be a little on the inactive side lately.


 * Klintrin - One of our best editors, Klint could help a lot in that area. He's also a great mod, and has continued to improve on that score. Klintrin is also very active, a plus when looking at the admin thing from my perspective.

There are, granted, some other potentially good choices. But most of them either are not experienced enough (mostly in editing), or are not active enough. Please, no offense meant to anyone. And it is possible that I just forgot you and would have put you on this list.

Roll Backs
My opinion on "rolling back" (reverting) edits has already been stated, so I'll just reproduce the text below:

Oh, and about rolling back edits. I think that edits should only be rolled back if they damage a page. Otherwise, it is pretty much giving yourself a free spam edit by rolling it back.

For an example, say a user updates the postcount by 10 posts. This does not improve the page, but neither does it damage the page. If, on the other hand, they change the grammar, but in changing it make it bad, this damages the page and should be reverted.

As far as new rollbacks, at least Nxt should get it. Maybe Birdbot, and Jdude (if he doesn't get admin).

What is being done?
Now, the point of this blog is not to complain or rant. I just want to make my stance clear, and maybe get some constructive conversations started.

Things are being done to remedy some of these situations. Reformation of the rules is in progress. (So make suggestions to the admins!) Moderator training is being worked on (or at least was started). So things are being done... And you can help too! Why not give friendly suggestions to struggling moderators instead of criticizing them? (Not saying anyone in particular does) Why not give constructive feedback instead of complaining? (Again, not pointing fingers. ) This is a community. We need to work as a team. So let's make an effort to improve this wiki!

⚔General Obadiah  Langton⚔