not contributing to a wiki based on who runs it just never occurred to me. It's actually a pretty big factor to a lot of people. Fandom after all is one big school ground where the cool kids are still the ones with the influence. I know that when I had recently joined a fandom, I tried to start an archive for it, because the main one was shut down (because the owner decided they had had enough, and they didn't even give the members any warning). I had a few people help me out, and managed to get it up really quickly, but because I wasn't well known, and the people helping me out weren't BNFs, my archive was quickly overshadowed by one that was opened much later by BNFs. Even though I had contacted all of the authors who had posted on the site that was taken down, they all decided that they'd rather wait for a BNF to put up a site than trust someone they didn't know. There were other factors involved too, but that was a really big one.
Not contributing because a wiki is only as good as its contributors, however, really doesn't make sense to me. It does and it doesn't for me. On the one hand it's a self fulfilling prophecy, but on the other hand, do you really want to put a lot of work into something when you're not sure it'll take off? That no one else in your fandom is going to care? If the owner/members don't care enough to work to get us to contribute, why should I (generalized I here) waste my time trying to do so. Especially when there's another one around the corner that *is* trying to get my attention. That is doing it's best to get a wide variety of members, and is going to be attached to something that by it's nature will be getting a lot of traffic and a wide variety of members.
The wiki's the one area they appear to be doing the exact same thing as someone else in fandom I still don't think that's a reason for them not to do it. If only because as a bigger more well known group of people, with a wide variety of members, theirs is going to be bigger and offer things to more people than the one that already exists. And while *some* people are willing to take the time to go fill in a wiki, most just want to show up and have information there for them, so that respect the current wiki is failing. The OTW is also probably going to be taking a slightly different approach to how they build and organize their wiki, so it won't actually be exactly the same.
I happen to think - and I'll be careful how I word this, because I've seen her get really criticized for sounding self-centered when she said this - I would've liked to see them contact her. If the owners reason for not contacting the OTW is because she feels that they should have contacted her, then it's no wonder that people feel she's being self-centered. That's not really an excuse at all. When it comes down to it, she's not a threat to the OTW; there are a hell of a lot more people devoted to ff.net than there are to the wiki. Cont...
Re: OTW Part 2
It's actually a pretty big factor to a lot of people. Fandom after all is one big school ground where the cool kids are still the ones with the influence. I know that when I had recently joined a fandom, I tried to start an archive for it, because the main one was shut down (because the owner decided they had had enough, and they didn't even give the members any warning). I had a few people help me out, and managed to get it up really quickly, but because I wasn't well known, and the people helping me out weren't BNFs, my archive was quickly overshadowed by one that was opened much later by BNFs. Even though I had contacted all of the authors who had posted on the site that was taken down, they all decided that they'd rather wait for a BNF to put up a site than trust someone they didn't know. There were other factors involved too, but that was a really big one.
Not contributing because a wiki is only as good as its contributors, however, really doesn't make sense to me.
It does and it doesn't for me. On the one hand it's a self fulfilling prophecy, but on the other hand, do you really want to put a lot of work into something when you're not sure it'll take off? That no one else in your fandom is going to care? If the owner/members don't care enough to work to get us to contribute, why should I (generalized I here) waste my time trying to do so. Especially when there's another one around the corner that *is* trying to get my attention. That is doing it's best to get a wide variety of members, and is going to be attached to something that by it's nature will be getting a lot of traffic and a wide variety of members.
The wiki's the one area they appear to be doing the exact same thing as someone else in fandom
I still don't think that's a reason for them not to do it. If only because as a bigger more well known group of people, with a wide variety of members, theirs is going to be bigger and offer things to more people than the one that already exists. And while *some* people are willing to take the time to go fill in a wiki, most just want to show up and have information there for them, so that respect the current wiki is failing.
The OTW is also probably going to be taking a slightly different approach to how they build and organize their wiki, so it won't actually be exactly the same.
I happen to think - and I'll be careful how I word this, because I've seen her get really criticized for sounding self-centered when she said this - I would've liked to see them contact her.
If the owners reason for not contacting the OTW is because she feels that they should have contacted her, then it's no wonder that people feel she's being self-centered. That's not really an excuse at all.
When it comes down to it, she's not a threat to the OTW; there are a hell of a lot more people devoted to ff.net than there are to the wiki.
Cont...