Great reply from Laurence to Jet (my only quibble being "get basic help pages in", because they are already there in every new post-2006 Wikia).
I wonder whether Jet has read everything that's already on the wiki. The pages given to him from the current starter package (which I wish we had had when my favourite Wikia started) include http://animalrights.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Starting_this_wiki. There's a link to it from the Main Page. Heading 3 says "Improve your front page". Nobody has edited the front page - http://animalrights.wikia.com/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=history Jet has added no substantive content except four articles copied from Wikipedia (with proper acknowledgment) and a PD image - http://animalrights.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Contributions/Jet123. Despite my fairly clear recommendations of several days ago, there is still nothing to hook a visitor who clicks the fairly obvious link called "About Animal Rights Wiki", and the first coloured panel on the Main Page still says "Animal Rights Wiki "You can add a description of this wiki here. "You can also fill in the "About" page at Project:About." Just two clicks and a scroll away from http://animalrights.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Starting_this_wiki is http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/2006/05/charting_wiki_p.html - a sobering commentary around the "1% Rule". Jet has built something and people will come - but for every one who contributes, at least 99 people will just look. When Jet has created (by authorship and/or more copying) enough real content to hook some of those lookers, someone else may add some content. ---- Back to the genealogy and its 114 Wikians (just 3 of whom have made 65% of the article edits)... [Mr] Robin Forlonge Patterson, 88 Motuhara Road, Plimmerton, Porirua City 5026, New Zealand Member of NZ Society of Genealogists since 1974 http://wc.rootsweb.com/~robinp And see http://genealogy.wikia.com/ a free cooperative MediaWiki site ----- Original Message ----- From: "Laurence Parry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Central Wikia Mailing List" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 7:01 PM Subject: Re: [Wikia-l] Blogger > > If you build it... they will come. > > That's one way. Here's how I go about it: > > * Figure out what kind of wiki would be most appropriate for the community. > * Plan out a few categories, get basic help pages in, and some very basic > policies. This is where you get to decide the direction of the site, so try > and get it right, it's hard to change afterwards. Write an "About" page > reflecting the same. > * Write some sample content. 10 articles at least, enough to show a bit of > variety for each category, the more the better. Make it really good stuff, > the sort of work you'd like to see in the future. > * Figure out who to invite as initial seed contributors (you probably won't > get all, or even most) > * Show them what you've done so far, and your plans for the site. Emphasize > the potential and your commitment to its success. > * Some will join you. Be aggressive in helping them out when they need it. > * Start writing about how the project is doing. Attribute all your work to > the group, and all their work to the individuals concerned. > * Gather more contributors until you have a good idea of who is capable of > handling sysop tasks. Grant enough to cover the major hours. > * Begin mass advertising of your best content on all appropriate venues. > Continue to emphasize wiki output as that of the group even if you did a lot > of it. > * (Optional) Deal with trolls without drama, just block and revert > * Continue as above, occasionally running promotions for milestone events > * Go to a related fan convention and hand out flyers > * Wait two years > * Go to a related fan convention and hand out 500 contributor badges > * Profit! :-) > > -- > Laurence "GreenReaper" Parry > http://greenreaper.co.uk/ - http://wikifur.com/ > "Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?" > > _______________________________________________ > Wikia-l mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l _______________________________________________ Wikia-l mailing list [email protected] http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l
