08-17-2019, 09:00 AM
First of all, we should absolutely not be deleting the Wiki without a clear plan to replace its more valuable content. The MFGG Wiki catalogs a lot of useful resources that aren't available anywhere else. The Wiki gets about 70 clicks every day just from Google searches - which is almost four times as many as the MFGG forums. Nearly all of these searches are from people looking for popular fangames. Losing the Wiki would be very harmful to MFGG's search traffic and would cause some resources to become almost impossible to find.
However, I'll be the first to admit that the Wiki is a mess. Much of it is disorganized and outdated - for example, there are a lot of pages that are essentially untouched from 2006 or 2007.
While I think the presence of "drama pages" is overstated, there are a number of pages (mostly user pages) that go into needless detail about little-remembered interpersonal disputes. I don't think there's a need to preserve those for posterity. I don't think the Wiki has a measurable effect on drama elsewhere on the site, though - the nastiest incidents I see people dredging up these days are not documented on the Wiki.
A few people seem to be shocked that users can modify other people's user pages. However, wikis are sites that anyone can contribute to - and that includes user pages. A Wiki page is separate from user profiles (which only users can touch, or possibly admins if you put something blatantly against the rules in your profile). If you've been a significant part of MFGG's history, someone may eventually make a page about you. If you don't like something that someone put in your page, you can update it. If someone's posting content that's clearly false or malicious, you can contact a Wiki staff member who can take action as appropriate. And if there's something on your Wiki page that's especially sensitive, Wiki staff can hide edits from public view.
I'd rather see the Wiki focus more on documenting games and resources, and for sharing useful tutorials. A lot of our more significant pages (for example, for Game Maker) are quite outdated. However, I question whether MFGG has a massive army of people who would suddenly start being active on the Wiki if we archived it and started fresh - instead we'd just have long, drawn-out arguments over what's notable enough to get ported over (or else nobody would do anything and we'd end up with a shell of the Wiki). I think a more workable plan would be to launch an initiative where we go through all the current Wiki pages and confirm they're up-to-date and notable. This would be a huge effort, but we could start with some of the smaller, more important categories and work our way up to the games and members pages.
Personally, I think the best course of action is to continue maintaining the Wiki as is for now. In the long run, I think most of the Wiki's most valuable features could be integrated into lumaSMS - but that's a long way down the road.
However, I'll be the first to admit that the Wiki is a mess. Much of it is disorganized and outdated - for example, there are a lot of pages that are essentially untouched from 2006 or 2007.
While I think the presence of "drama pages" is overstated, there are a number of pages (mostly user pages) that go into needless detail about little-remembered interpersonal disputes. I don't think there's a need to preserve those for posterity. I don't think the Wiki has a measurable effect on drama elsewhere on the site, though - the nastiest incidents I see people dredging up these days are not documented on the Wiki.
A few people seem to be shocked that users can modify other people's user pages. However, wikis are sites that anyone can contribute to - and that includes user pages. A Wiki page is separate from user profiles (which only users can touch, or possibly admins if you put something blatantly against the rules in your profile). If you've been a significant part of MFGG's history, someone may eventually make a page about you. If you don't like something that someone put in your page, you can update it. If someone's posting content that's clearly false or malicious, you can contact a Wiki staff member who can take action as appropriate. And if there's something on your Wiki page that's especially sensitive, Wiki staff can hide edits from public view.
I'd rather see the Wiki focus more on documenting games and resources, and for sharing useful tutorials. A lot of our more significant pages (for example, for Game Maker) are quite outdated. However, I question whether MFGG has a massive army of people who would suddenly start being active on the Wiki if we archived it and started fresh - instead we'd just have long, drawn-out arguments over what's notable enough to get ported over (or else nobody would do anything and we'd end up with a shell of the Wiki). I think a more workable plan would be to launch an initiative where we go through all the current Wiki pages and confirm they're up-to-date and notable. This would be a huge effort, but we could start with some of the smaller, more important categories and work our way up to the games and members pages.
Personally, I think the best course of action is to continue maintaining the Wiki as is for now. In the long run, I think most of the Wiki's most valuable features could be integrated into lumaSMS - but that's a long way down the road.
Course clear! You got a card.