Lit Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki

Is it odd that I sort of suspect they've been keeping their "Canon" pages as short as possible as some sort of protest? The clear majority of them seem to be stubs.

 

Well, it's certainly not odd that you suspect that, because TPTB at Wookieepedia have... not taken a very open-minded view of the new canon. But both the size of pages for it and the tabs defaulting to Legends until now do make some sense without conspiracy theories: there's just much more source material out there for Legends articles.

 

The canon Darth Vader content (I think that's a good baseline for as to how much the canon articles can progress) for ESB & ROTJ seems to be getting bigger, which is decent because it looks real odd if the movie info for the characters is barely breezed by when there's like, 5 graph recaps of single issues of Marvel's 2015 run.

 

And even if two subjects have basically the same volume of information, the one that's a year old is generally gonna be shorter than the one that's been around for ten years.

 

I don't know why they have two separate pages for Gray Squadron that fought at Endor and the Gray Squadron that fought at Vrogas Vas. They did the same for Yellow Squadron (the Endor one and the Vrogas Vas one)

 

Because you could get reprimanded for not providing source they're one and the same?

 

Ah man. I followed the link that Big Al posted above, and then started browsing around the sites in a kind of nostalgic way. What I found wasn't encouraging. The queue of Featured Articles, which for the last four years has provided two FAs per week to be showcased on the Wook's main page, has dried up. So has the Good Article queue. There just aren't enough users writing, nominating, or reviewing articles for Featured or Good status anymore. More than one article has been sitting on the FA nomination page for more than two years. There are only five people on the GAnom review panel, when just a couple years ago there were around a dozen. I mean, I'm not really surprised --- the old boys' club at the Wook has been chasing away long time users for years, as well as doing all they can to discourage new people from joining --- but I guess I didn't expect their fiefdom to become so small so soon. What will become of the power hungry administrators when they have no one left to rule over?

 

I, for one, am still there. But let me tell you no one rules over me.

 

Yeah, you're definitely one of the good ones. I know you know that I've always known that. And I know that writing FAs is far from the only way to positively contribute to the site --- you seem to be adding a lot of actual canon info, something for which a lot of people in this thread have been wishing. But it's still disheartening to see that only twenty FAs have passed this year, when five years ago we were getting more than that each month. A lot of people were really enthused about what they were doing back then, but that spirit was gradually lost over the next few years as guys like Tope kept driving away the more level-headed and chill members of the community (many of whom were from this very forum, which seemed to piss off Tope and his cronies to the point of conspiracy theorizing about TFN members). When I resigned from the Inquisitorius in 2013, only four Inquisitors including myself could be arsed to bother reviewing more than two FAnoms per month. Everyone had become so lazy, as well as defensive and petulant when their laziness was brought up. And now it looks like it's gotten even worse. But hey, turn a welcoming, democratic community into a get-the-hell-out-of-our-oligarchy led by a piece of **** with a Kim Jong Il-esque cult of personality, and what the hell do you expect is going to happen?

 

Wookieepedia, ladies and gentlemen.

 

I think that thread has been linked to before, and I am still astounded by the entire rant. It is just utterly ridiculous.

Not to mention it is about one of my biggest pet peeves, which is the instance on wikis (and other places) that characters be referred to by their last names because it is "proper". It makes so much more sense to refer to them by the way they are most commonly referenced.

 

No, because Wookieepedia isn't a place for galleries. Fair Use is a notoriously ambiguous doctrine, but in the area of using whole copyrighted photos, the Ninth Circuit found that it was allowable (in that instance, for thumbnails in a search engine) "if the secondary user only copies as much as is necessary for his or her intended use" (Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corporation). That's been a core principle of Wookieepedia's image policy from early on - we use only as many images as are necessary to support our articles.

And yes, the Wook has a rule where you have to make 50 edits to upload an image. It exists to stop users from uploading entire galleries images, often unsourced, before they have time to learn how Wookieepedia works.

Star! So good to see you! I was just wondering how you were doing a few weeks ago. I hope all is well.

For better or for worse, April Fools decisions aren't made on the site, but on IRC. Keeping the deliberations out of the public eye is an obvious necessity for something like April Fools, but the unfortunate side effect is, if you're not participating in the offsite discussion, you have no idea what's going to happen until it hits the website.

That said, the 2014 April Fools joke was a painful black eye to the reputation of the site, and part of the reason I stepped down as bureaucrat a few months later, though real world time concerns and the Legends announcement admittedly played a bigger role in that decision.

 

Presumably because once new users start to understand how Wookieepedia works, they'll realize they're not wanted on the site and will stop attempting to contribute?

 

I kinda dig this post in the vote to switch to Canon default (background, they seem to think there's a consensus to rush it, what with TFA and all but then this bit that keeps going, whole lotta phrasing of ratifying and law, which is odd considering it's a fan wiki). But I think the story has a happy ending! :

This tab switch is the single-most impactful decision we will ever have made as a community. And inevitable as it may be, if and when it happens, it's going to be ratified legally, according to our site policies, lest it stand forever compromised. That means Vote 1 needs at least 45 eligible voters participating to overturn the original decision. I will be making sure that this forum is closed properly in accordance with our procedures and that each vote is eligible. Toprawa and Ralltiir (talk) 14:57, December 6, 2015 (UTC)....

(But we need to get it done before TFA, someone reasonably points out)

I recognize the community's desire that we've reached the point of making this change. But it'simperative that this be ratified totally above board and by the letter of the law. To do what Brandon is suggesting and just "ignore our rules," especially for this of all outcomes, sets a disgusting precedent for every future consensus vote we ever have from this point forward.

However, the outcome at the end was cool because they had a wiki admin Mofference so big props for A) Mofference reference B) getting things done in a reasonably timely fashion. However, the senate seems to be bogged down in procedure. I object, there is no proof!

 

Why do the people running the Wook make it sound like they are running a courthouse? It's a fan wiki for crying out loud.

 

What is the Galactic Senate meets Wikipedia?

 

They have as many as 45 eligible voters? Huh.

Nice to know they've gone from being a fan site to a full-blown bureaucratic municipal service. Which form do I choose to fill out for permission to upload images?

 

Yeah, I don't think I am an eligible voter.

 

I noticed that, too. Every canon article could easily have had their canon sections copy and pasted from the Legends tab, but that would have been too easy. No, instead they make the articles possess the vaguest language as possible, to include the least amount of information. The entire TPM section on the Legends tab is longer both the TPM and AotC sections of the Canon tab put together.

 

Most of the info they are updating for the new canon is being put in the character bios. They easily could be updating the overall plots of the stories at the same time though so they definitely aren't going out of their way when it comes to the new canon. Especially when you compare it to the EU where it seemed they tried to update every nook and cranny of it.

 

Well, when the entire place was built on cataloging the collective whole of the Saga and EU, it is understandable that they would cling to that. And they also have a policy of explicitly following exactly what LFL says, so they aren't going to state anything from the EU in a canon article unless it is explicitly stated by LFL, which means they will be very particular about what goes into a canon article.

 

LelalMekha, if you're planning on staging a takeover and declaring yourself Wookieepedian Emperor, I'd totally be on board with it, fwiw.

 

lol

 

You flatterer. Do not tempt me.

 

I'm snoozing my way through the Forum:CT:Canon/Legends Default Switch. Never seen another fan wiki behave like this, no wonder people shy the place.