08-18-2018, 07:55 PM
Wiki Research Project
Over the past week, I've been doing further research on how people use the MFGG Wiki. I've been tracking Google clicks for a while, but with the help of @Hypernova, I set up a new script to see which pages get the most (and fewest!) page views. The most popular pages, as measured by page views, are for prominent users (more on that later) and popular fangames. Unfortunately, pages for resources and tutorials aren't getting much attention. On the plus side, pages that focus on MFGG's more dramatic events get very little traffic. Pages for silly fads and forum goofing-off don't attract much interest either, but competition pages are doing well.
This analysis is distorted somewhat by search engine activity - the most-viewed pages are those that are linked by many other pages. For example, I'm pretty sure that 119 human users didn't view Hatman's page last week. This is probably why newer versions of MediaWiki don't track page views - they're not a very accurate statistic. I suppose I could install a tool like Google Analytics, but I don't think that would help me much, and I'd rather not add any kind of tracking software to MFGG.
Off-Site Wiki Content
Over the past week, I've been doing further research on how people use the MFGG Wiki. I've been tracking Google clicks for a while, but with the help of @Hypernova, I set up a new script to see which pages get the most (and fewest!) page views. The most popular pages, as measured by page views, are for prominent users (more on that later) and popular fangames. Unfortunately, pages for resources and tutorials aren't getting much attention. On the plus side, pages that focus on MFGG's more dramatic events get very little traffic. Pages for silly fads and forum goofing-off don't attract much interest either, but competition pages are doing well.
This analysis is distorted somewhat by search engine activity - the most-viewed pages are those that are linked by many other pages. For example, I'm pretty sure that 119 human users didn't view Hatman's page last week. This is probably why newer versions of MediaWiki don't track page views - they're not a very accurate statistic. I suppose I could install a tool like Google Analytics, but I don't think that would help me much, and I'd rather not add any kind of tracking software to MFGG.
Off-Site Wiki Content
(08-16-2018, 04:25 AM)rollerC Wrote: I was browsing the Wiki again and looking at member pages, and I found a few of them to be sort of endearing.I agree! Obviously, there's no point in preserving an argument that happened on AIM in 2006, but there's also a lot of fun things on the Wiki. When I first found MFGG, I enjoyed reading about games and engines, as well as members, events, and fads. MFGG seemed like a fun community full of colorful people, and reading old Wiki articles made me want to be a part of it. (I'm also aware that reading about drama could be a turnoff for new members, so we're working on that.)
(08-16-2018, 04:25 AM)rollerC Wrote: I don't think they belong on the MFGG Wiki itself, but what are people's thoughts on creating another Userpedia for these sorts of articles, where the whole purpose is member pages?I'm not familiar with Userpedia, but I don't see anything we can gain by hosting any part of the MFGG Wiki off the server. Hosting all Wiki content on the MFGG server (whether it's an active Wiki or an archive) gives us a lot of control and flexibility:
- We can choose our own Wiki staff (usually people who have other staff roles elsewhere on MFGG)
- We can moderate content as we see fit and remove anything that shouldn't be on the Wiki
- We have FTP access so we can tinker with the files when needed
- We have access to the database, which is useful for data analysis and fixing problems with user accounts
- We can install whatever plugins we want
- We can use whatever MediaWiki themes we want and change them as we please
- No ads!
Course clear! You got a card.