Wiki Tribune Report #5: Let Me Tell You a Tale for a Penny

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Wiki Tribune Report #5: Let Me Tell You a Tale for a Penny

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Well, hello again. From either his office on Arx, or traveling abroad across the galaxy on the merry ship, Perdition, your Wiki Tribune is back again to shine a light on the Wiki and to point out some things. I also get to shine a light on some folks. Woot. There are a number of things I am hoping to cover in the length of this month’s report, so I hope you all are strapped in.

Seriously though, this one is a bit of a doozy. I had a lot I wanted to be sure to cover with this latest report. Actually, it probably delayed me even more than I had initially intended, but I really felt that I can and should cover a bit more in Wiki Tribune reports.

Don’t worry, this one should be an outlier among my reports, so don’t expect such a long report next time. Hopefully. Ahem...without any further ado, allow me to tell you a story for a penny...a.penny...

oh a penny

...A penny for a tale…

See, lads, lasses and everyone else, there are gears being shoved into motion. Exciting storylines are going to be opening up. Opportunities you only have to seize will soon be within your grasp. In other words, big things are on the horizon. I have great expectations for the next few months. Given that it is tasked to myself and my staff to chronicle and and sort all varieties of content, there is always something to do. We are here to serve you, and as the Head Wiki dude, that means that I have to stand up here and represent my staff, myself and the Holocron Center. Which leads me into the first big section of my report.


Wiki Policy Change: The Featured Article of the Month

I had mentioned briefly at the end of last month my intention to update the guidelines used to select Featured Articles. In reviewing various pages, I came to the conclusion that I had been lacking transparency as to the exact standards that I have been using. To be frank: I have been using standards higher than those specified on the Wiki when determining what page should be the Featured Article of the Month.

I tend to look with a slightly more critical eye when it comes to the selection of these pages. As such, I updated the page to reflect the things that I am actively looking for when I am making these determinations. Rather than link you all to the page to have you read it for yourselves, I am going to list the standards here so that I can briefly talk about each in turn.

rules that must be followed

"...rules that must be followed"

A [Featured Candidate] article must…

…be well written and detailed.

A glance into the Featured Article category can serve as a good source of examples of this. Skimming the list, I picked out the page of our own Combat Master, Atra Ventus. While admittedly a bit brief for my own taste, it nonetheless gives a fairly detailed account of who the character of Atra is, and how his life has intertwined with those of other characters and the Brotherhood as a whole.

Other examples of well-written pages that would also include those such as: Morax Darkblade, Ka Tarvitz, Mauro Wynter, Mune Cinteroph and Xen'Mordin Palpatine. These are just a few examples. If you have any question as to whether a page is well-written or needs work, you can of course speak with myself or any member of the Wiki Staff. We are here to help.

…be written from an unbiased, third-person, objective point of view.

This section is a little harder for me to describe. Not because of the subject matter. I actually have to be more careful in how describe this because I do not want to hurt any feelings. I have not been in this club for much more than three years (give or take a couple months, I think) but even outside of the Brotherhood, I have seen some things. I helped in the upkeep of a Wiki for a previous community I contributed to, and I will tell you...I have seen some things. keep these things in mind.

ob·jec·tive əbˈjektiv/ (adjective) (of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.

Pretty straight forward, right? The next thing to think about is third-person.

Writing in third person is writing from the third-person point of view, or outsider looking in, and uses pronouns like he, she, it, or they. It differs from the first person, which uses pronouns such as I and me, and from the second person, which uses pronouns such as you and yours. ~~ (Yourdictionary.com definition of third person)

So , if you avoid writing in the first person, and if you write your article in a manner similar to an encyclopedia entry, you will tick off this particular requirement rather easily. Avoid saying things like "Gary Stu is the best pilot in the galaxy" or "Gary Stu is a really awesome guy and people love him..." as a rule. The first is not factual- there are a lot of people in the galaxy and there is almost always going to be someone more skilled than you. The second shows an obvious bias. We all have biases when it comes to their characters, but my own feelings about my character do not define reality or facts. An article should be factual in nature.

…have a complete, detailed biography if the page concerned is a character article.

This is an area where I have seen some weakness on the whole of the Wiki. Having a dark and mysterious background when one joins the Brotherhood can be understandable to some degree. For some, it will take some time to flesh out who their character is. Heh, I have seen some people completely rewrite their history to explain what has made their character who they are today.

This is the biggest thing I can point to about this particular point. Any character, even one who does not know or remember their past, will be shaped by their experiences to some degree. Your past, as much as is known by your character, should be written down and described in enough detail that people have an idea of who your character is. It is easy to say, "my character is a criminal type who dislikes law enforcement and just wants to have fun roaming the streets."

Reflecting a time growing up on the streets, running into corrupt (or non-corrupt) law enforcement may have left a character jaded. They may have rebelled against authority, parental figures, or government. It could be they just seem to run afoul of those above them, or they could have been political radicals or rebels of one kind or another. They could just like the payday that comes of getting involved in illegal activities. There are lots of ways that you can show, both in their farther past and perhaps even within the Brotherhood that explains how your character has become the person that they are today.

At the top of your page, you should ideally have a section that acts as a summary for the whole of your page. To pull a short description from the page of Mune Cinteroph:

Seer Mune Cinteroph-Palpatine has long been part of the Imperial Clan, his disappearance for a handful of years notwithstanding; he has distinguished himself well since his return to the ranks of his fellow Palatinaeans. Born on Seraph in the Caperion System, he is a scholar, calculating thinker and talented swordsman. Before his disappearance, he was a leader within Scholae Palatinae for House Acclivis Draco. He took only two apprentices in his time, Impetus M'Nar and Braecen Kaeth. The reasons for his disappearance remain his own, though it is rumoured that the Doctor and Empress, Elincia Rei is aware.

The above section gives a brief description of who he is, acts as a teaser to the larger body of the article. This is what I am typically looking for in a lead. I have taken the first couple of paragraphs in cases where a larger lead section was used. So long as there is something good there to work with, I am usually game to make do when it comes to an excerpt to use for the Featured Article Template.

…not be the object of any ongoing edit wars

If people have been mercilessly editing a page over several weeks, this will likely omit that article from consideration. Sometimes, members have been making little edits, like spelling. Too many cooks in the kitchen makes it hard to single out one person to award the Dark Side Scroll to, however. I do look at history to see who has made the majority of edits on a page, but if I do not feel I can fairly award a page, I will hold off until things calm down so I can give an earnest and fair judgement.

…not be tagged with any sort of improvement tags (i.e. more sources, expand, etc)

This is pretty self-explanatory. Maintenance templates like Empty Section, Deletion, Confusion, Under Construction, Underlinked, WikiStaff (this one is about needing help, not the one that lists my staffers and myself), Imageless, Improvement tags, HTML, Quality and more. If there is an area that is so needing or lacking that it has one of these templates, then it will not be considered to be queued or selected for Featured Article until the highlighted issues are addressed. Very simple.

If your page has one of these tags and you would like help with addressing/fixing it? My email and TG boxes are open. My staff is also available. I believe in you all.

Now this is an oddly touchier section than I had expected when I was first examining how to explain this. You see, I would define reasonable amount slightly different dependent on a number of things. If you have a long, descriptive, colorfully written page with like, three red links over the breadth of an otherwise beautiful piece, I might feel inclined to overlook it. After all, who- besides my staff, my fellow Consuls/leaders, and myself really spends that much time actively giving the Wiki a thorough eye to find things like red links or broken files?

I say this with a caveat. I do play this slightly by ear. If your page has one red link per paragraph written- as an extreme example- I am sure it does not take much imagination to see why I would not select such a page as a Featured Article. Actually, this is an interesting bit, as I have seen some pages that save for one or two relatively minor elements, could have stood as exemplary candidates for a Feature. I will hit upon this a bit later in the report once I have finished discussing the Featured Articles...

This is actually one section that started me on this odd little journey that made a relatively brief report stretch out into one of much grander size that I had initially envisioned. See, I do not have an issue with one kind of Featured Article being nominated again. If your page is in the Featured Article category- yeah you are out of the running to be considered for that particular page again. Well, with a caveat but as long as your page has not been moved from this category to the Formerly Featured sub-category, the page in question is out of consideration. How does one tell that their article is no longer featured? Well, there is a nice little visual indicator. You see, for pages whose featured status has been revoked, will have a small small star with a strike displayed in the top right corner of the page. So if you had a featured page, and it became de-listed as a Featured page, you have a chance to regain your Featured Status! If you edit your page to adhere to the current standards of a Featured Page, you may have that status restored. If you page changes are particularly exemplary, you may even be featured in a report and gain a shiny new Dark Side Scroll for your efforts. That is the one caveat.

A final note: please do not take restoring a page to Featured status a promise of a Dark Side Scroll. You may be added to the Queue for future awarding, or you may be recognized in a report. I would love to be able to Feature a newly 'detailed' and polished page, but I have to take consideration of each page in turn. The possibility does exist, but it does depend on a number of factors. Still, if you want to try to get your page re-featured, you can feel free to talk with myself to discuss the possibility and what it might take to hit that standard. (Seriously, i would love to have a healthy queue of pages waiting!)

...not contain a trivia section comprised of a random assortment of miscellaneous facts.

This section is also a bit touchy, for a small number of reasons. As said on the Wiki, a trivia section is not by its very nature a bad thing. Sometimes, it might be the best way to display particular information. I have personally used alternative ways to integrate the miscellaneous facts contained in such a section. I chose to remove mine, and more often than not such a section is not the most efficient way to convey information. I have used infoboxes, created sections which discuss how particular events played into my character's past and more. I personally decided I would integrate a positions held section into my main page by making mention of positions and leaving of positions during the course of my Character Biography/History sections. I also have it listed on my user page. These are personal choices. They are not the hard standard.

Sometimes things like infoboxes and fact listings can be useful. On the whole, they do tend to end up being disorganized and/or outdated. While I am reluctant to say that I would without question knock a page out of consideration for Featured Status based on the presence of such a section, I do tend to closely look at how such a section is being used. Our dossiers are quite excellent about displaying things like awards. For that reason, I have declined to make any mention of the Ruby Scepter which is displayed on my dossier. I have made mention of recognition in places, but I would suggest avoiding a list like:

=Trivia=

  • Gary Stu has gathered a number of awards over his DJB career. To date he has 666 Clusters of Fire, 666 Clusters of Earth, 666 Clusters of Ice, a Dark Cross, a Steel Cross and a Scroll of the Master.

  • Gary Stu has served as the BTL of Battle Team Awesomesauce since August 2nd, 2018.

  • Gary Stu once served as the Magistrate to the Herald for 2 months.

  • Gary Stu has written 666 words of fiction about his Knight trials.

  • Gary Stu got his lightsaber crystal by stealing it from a Jedi during a Vendetta.

  • Gary Stu has a pet mynock named Mister Chomps

Not the most creative Trivia section, but as you can see, a lot of these things can be found on his dossier. Others are somewhat inconsequential (such as the off-hand mention of a pet mynock) or could be mentioned in another section (such as the mention of the stolen lightsaber crystal). I could go on, but this report is already running pretty long. I suggest that anyone who is still confused should take a look at the corresponding article on Trivia on the Wiki for more details, or to send my a Telegram PM or an email.

By the way, if you have read through the entirety of this section, I would be very thankful if you would reply to the report with your favorite Star Wars creature. Seriously, it helps me to know who actually reads through the entirety of this report! (Well, besides my proofreader, of course.)

Oh! Before I forget, my example of a page that hits some marks, but not all, I give you: Vodo Biask Taldrya. See, Vodo’s page has a nice foundation. If he were to flesh out the page a bit more as he brings his character’s history up to date- just a bit, were to integrate his DJB facts section into his larger article and perhaps play with the image placement, he could very well be a fair candidate for a future Featured Article. Sometimes, it just takes a bit more work to hit that mark. His is not the only page I have seen that has been close, it is just one of those which was denoted in the Potential Featured Article section as an example.

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Dark Jedi and Gray Jedi Orders Updated

This section is going to be one of my shorter ones. After that huge block of text above, I believe that I owe you a shorter section. For those of you who were previously of the Dark Jedi or the Gray Jedi Orders, I am certain you have noticed that you are now all shiny, newly tagged Force Disciples. Well, this had to be reflected on the Wiki. Unless I missed something, that should mean that any non-infobox references to Gray or Dark Jedi should be changed. I do still need to fix the infoboxes so that they group both members of the Dark Jedi Order and Gray Jedi Order nto the new Force Disciple Order category. I realized that I owed you all a report first, so here we are.

Well, looking up that is still less brief than I had hoped. So, we go onward!

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Disambiguation and You

Now, this is a less common subject to cover. I did not touch upon it in the Wiki policy section because:

  • first off, it isn’t really a change in policy so much as bringing a standard to your attention

  • the policy change section was already long enough because I decided to give a good chunk of description/explanation to the whole of Featured Articles when I update various criteria

  • when it is a less common subject or something I believe has been insufficiently covered, I typically prefer to highlight it- as in the case above.

Basically disambiguation pages might be used in the case of links like that of DC (Disambiguation). DC can be used to stand for the Dark Council, the Dark Covenant, the Dark Cross, or the Dark Crusade Vendetta. This helps to eliminate some confusion, and aids in members who might link to DC. See, if a member follows the link and finds a disambiguation page, they have a neat little guide that can also assist them in divining where to point the link they followed to so it goes to the appropriate or intended article. This is the intent, in any case.

There is also another template that can be used on pages to eliminate some confusion. To take my own home Clan as an example, the designation Harbinger for the Warhost (Naval) Fleet of Clan Naga Sadow could refer to one of two ships: an Imperial-II Class ship that was destroyed during a Collective attack at Sepros or a Venator-Class ship that replaced it's place in the fleet and remains in service to date.

To further clarify matters, there is a template at the top of the Imperial II-class that denotes: This article is about a former Sadowan ship. You may be looking for the ship that replaced it, the Harbinger (Venator-class).

This template is applied with the following wiki code:

{{youmay|a former Sadowan ship| the ship that replaced it, the [[Harbinger (Venator-class)]]}}

So, in this way, you can use such a template to point to more common uses, or to the disambiguation page itself. This is seen on Wikipedia and other sources as a template which reads "...For other uses, see __________ (disambiguation)*.

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Projects

I am sure that some of you are wondering if I would ever make it to this section. Well, it is not like you cannot say your patience was rewarded. Unless you just skipped down to this section. In which case, I suggest you read what you skipped. But hey, don’t let me stop you for doing you.

Greater Ease of Navigation On the Wiki: Looking at more things like disambiguation, better wiki linking and categorization to enhance navigation. Capitalization is still a sticking point that might get addressed later.

Perpetual Wiki: “This is the project that never ends, it goes on and on my frieeeeends…” Seriously though, some things have slowed down and I am going to be shifting the focus with regards to this project to a bit more nitty-gritty details with the Clans. Think ships and NPCs.

Project Shift: Work continues.

Codex pages: Some refinement has occurred in <redacted>. <Redacted> has put its section on hold.

Brotherhood Guidelines Category update: Pages that are rather bare and/or missing information in some cases. So it will be a general update of all things under this umbrella. Some ground being made up. Still under work.

Wiki-Sponsored Fall Festival: This event is not exactly back to the drawing board. However, after talking with the Grand Master, issues of timing arose. Stand by for updates on this in future reports.

Historical Review: Not exactly a project unto itself so much as a mission. There are lots of things all over the Wiki that are old, antiquated, or just plain out of date. After we make sure we have covered DJB-wide events, I hope to coordinate with my staff and the Clans to help get the whole of the Wiki updated in this manner. That last part is more of an ideal, and there is still much to do. Thus for now, i will leave its status as ONGOING.

Given the “living document” realities of working on the Wiki, there are always little things that will be changing or updating. To get a good idea of how things are moving forward, keep reading future Wiki Tribune reports!

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New Report “Due” Date

Okay, here is a thing. I have been playing a little fast and loose with my reports. I have always aimed to make sure they came out each month. They keep getting later, though. So, sometimes I have to bring the foot down on things, when they are not going as I want them to. Sometimes, this even means I have to bring down a foot upon myself. As such, I am setting a date for future reports: the fifteenth of the month will be my due date for Wiki Tribune reports. Now, there might be a little swing between a day early or a day late. I do want to commit to giving you a report each month, two weeks into the month. So I will see you all again on October 15th, if all goes according to plan.

So yes, the next month’s report will come sooner than expected, but I am doing this in order to set a new precedent. There you have it: what I hope is the shortest section of my report. Mark your calendars, folks!

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Featured Article

This month’s Featured Article and Wikipedian of the Month took me a bit to decide upon. Though, to be fair, that might have worked out a little more easily if I were not trying to make sure I detail more or less thoroughly how I make these selections. However, I digress.

This month’s Featured Page is none other than Clan Odan-Urr’s Jedi Praxeum. The Praxeum, located on Kiast, serves as a place of learning for newly-minted Jedi among the Odanites.

The page gives some good detail into the nature of training at the school, the layout of the facility, the trials experienced through the ranks, and more. It also acts as an excellent starting point for any Odanite to write about their history or affiliations with the place and helps newer members to have a kicking off point for fiction. On the whole, it stands as an excellent example on how Clans and members can write and integrate a location article into their personal and Clan fictions.

Although a few people have tweaked the page, the logs show that the lion of the work was done by one individual in particular. As such, I am recognizing Aurora “Aura” Tavar’s contributions to the Wiki by presenting her with this month’s Dark Side Scroll.

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Wikipedian of the Month

I will spare you the exact details of how a Wikipedian of the Month is selected. It involves a combination of edits, contributions, and even things as simple as uploading pictures or otherwise enriching some aspect of the Wiki.

I have actually seen a good bit of work done across the Wiki this month. Though, one person has stuck out in particular. Mauro Wynter has been working across the Wiki, making over 200 changes to the Wiki in the last 30 days. A lot of this work has been across a smaller number of pages, in particular focusing upon Dark Council Starships and Brotherhood locations. For their efforts over the last month, Mauro is hereby recognized as September 2018’s Wikipedian of the Month.

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Recognition of Service

Now, I do think it would not be fair to take a moment in my report to recognize the hard work of one of my own. Now, that actually applies twice over, but I am here in my capacity as Wiki Tribune. Of particular note is the work that Morax Darkblade has put into helping to improve the Wiki. In a recent supporting recc for Darkblade, I detailed some of the work that he has done on the Wiki. Some of that has been in helping the CNS side of the Wiki, but a large amount has been the so-called busy work of the larger Wiki. He has patrolled the Wiki, but has also completed a number of projects that could often go largely unsung, such as:

”...implementation of a tag which helped the Wiki staff in making the stub category less of a receptacle for abandoned pages and helped to make it of use again to both my staff and the Brotherhood as a whole. This work involved going over greater than 200 pages that were previously in the Stub Category, reviewing the content of each page, looking at attached dossiers and determining what pages were had been left alone, which had been left over from previous projects and the status of player characters who had been placed in the stub section. Taking all this information, he worked with myself when needed to determine whether a page should have the STUB designation removed, or should be placed into the new HISTORIC CHARACTERS category via template, or left alone. He and I worked to complete the project. One hundred and twenty four of the pages in the new HISTORIC CHARACTERS category are thanks to Darkblade. He worked quickly and efficiently to execute the changes I desired. While this work can be relatively quick to complete, it is rather tedious and involved.”

The work done by Morax Darkblade allowed him to earn his first Sacramental Award. So I wanted to publicly congratulate him on a job well done. I also look forward to seeing what other contributions he brings to the Wiki in his position as a member of my staff.

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Final Words

So you made it to the end. I hope you all were able to garner some new tidbit of knowledge or know-how from this report. It has been a long one. Well, except for those of you who jumped to the bottom. For you, I will be placing a TL;DR section. It only seems fair.

The Wiki is big. Sometimes it seems like I have seen it all. Then I come across a page or a story I never got to check out before. It’s neat. Almost like a big…carnival...with sights to entertain and captivate the senses.

a carnival of sorts

. As a living repository, I find our Wiki as a really neat place. It acts as a vector for dozens or hundreds of stories, large and small. It isn’t just the leaders, or the Wiki-obsessed Tribune, or my staff that make that true. Every member contributes to some aspect of the Brotherhood. We all play in a sandbox where anybody can be a magical space wizard, or a wicked awesome Mercenary, or a skilled Loyalist. We are all in a unique corner of the Star Wars fandom, and I really have not seen a group quite as devoted to such an ideal. Well, there was one place, but that was in another life.

It is worth saying, or in this case repeating: our Wiki does not exist in a vacuum. I try to look over pages to determine what articles are worthy of being Featured each month. You all can easily take a part in this process, however. If you visit this page and nominate a page that you find particularly exemplary, it allows us to show a greater variety of pages beyond those that the Tribune happens to eyeball. I am sure there are still pages I haven’t perused out there. The Wiki is deep and wide, after all.

It is rewarding to see people’s characters grow and develop as members make their way up through the ranks in the Brotherhood. I am a roleplayer. It warms this heart of mine to see people enriching their characters and experiences in the Brotherhood. I enjoy watching people craft, tweak and refine an in-club persona. I enjoy watching each of you take ownership of your particular portion of our galaxy far, far away. Thank you all for making this making this place all the more special for your involvement..

TL;DR

  • The Tribune explained the more exact standards of how a Featured Page is determined. They have has been updated to reflect how the Wiki Tribune plans to select/judge pages for Featured Status moving forward.
  • Bentre made some references to a particular movie of questionable merit.
  • A change to two Orders was very briefly touched upon, at least as to how the Wiki is affected
  • The Tribune gave a relatively brief explanation of how we use disambiguation
  • The Jedi Praxeum is this month’s Featured Article.
  • Mauro Wynter is our Wikipedian of the Month
  • Morax Darkblade was recognized publicly for his contributions to the Wiki as staff
  • more talk about how nice the wiki is
  • Bentre thanks all the folks who have helped to make the Brotherhood awesome
  • Spoiler alert: if you are reading this, that includes you!

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And hey, whether you have questions, comments, praise or whatever, feel free to comment. If you want some help with any aspect of the Brotherhood/Wiki I am able to, you can also email me. I am also pretty available most days on Telegram, time zones aside. Whatever problems that might crop up, I can assure that either my staff or myself are more than willing to help should you need us.

In the meantime I remain, once again as ever, Yours In Darkness,

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In defense of my wiki page, it use to be longer and I've trimmed it since getting featured. :P

Even thinking of breaking off the older history into a linked sub-wiki and expanding it further with only the more recent history showing on the main page.

Thanks for the clarity and info dump, though!

Congratulations to Blade, Mauro, and Darkblade! And thanks to Bentre for the added transparency.

I don't like almost any SW creature. :P But I have had pages featured...one of which is now under construction forever TM. I sometimes wonder about how construction should affect examples of wiki pages, but...wiki work is almost always ongoing. Good job wiki folks!

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