01-14-2018, 10:54 AM
The ruling on the field is confirmed: The MFGG Wiki is useful! Here's a moderately lengthy discussion on why it's useful, and how we can make it even better!
Google loves us
I recently installed Google Webmaster Tools (a.k.a. Google Search Console) on the MFGG Wiki. This lets us know which Google searches are leading people to the MFGG Wiki. This can be useful for improving search engine optimization (to make sure that search engines can read the information on your site and will rank your site highly in search results), identifying software errors, and learning more about why people use your site.
After analyzing a few days' worth of data, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how many people are finding the MFGG Wiki through Google searches - over 100 clicks per day. That's not counting people who find the site through other means - that's just Google searches. This is more than twice as many clicks as we get on the forums, so we need to give the Wiki some love!
That said, not all Wiki pages attract the same level of interest. Most of these searches lead to the Wiki pages for popular fangames - not surprisingly, Psycho Waluigi is the leader here, but many other games are represented in the list. That's not to say we shouldn't document our history, fads, and events, but if we want to make the Wiki more useful for external audiences, it's best to focus on games pages and making sure they're useful.
The Wiki is here to stay!
Near the end of 2017, a few members suggested archiving the MFGG Wiki - they thought the Wiki was hopelessly out of date, and they claimed that too many pages focus on old drama. I agree that the MFGG Wiki doesn't get as much love as it should, and some information is badly out of date. Like most of you, I'm not a big fan of articles cataloging old, little-remembered interpersonal disputes in great detail (although these are a small fraction of the hundreds of articles we have), and there are some short member articles for people who never really did anything.
While it's tempting to archive the Wiki and start fresh, a bit of searching reveals many good articles that add value to the MFGG experience and aren't easily substitutable:
For the foreseeable future, we're committed to keeping the Wiki in its current state. It's a valuable resource for both fangame makers and fangame players, and it attracts a lot of people to MFGG. Also, we don't have anything that can do what the Wiki can do - there's not a viable substitute for it right now.
Make Wiki software great again
For the past six years or so, the MFGG Wiki has been running on MediaWiki 1.17. This software is showing its age. Since MFGG has been on a "let's stop using outdated software" kick lately, I've begun the process of upgrading the MFGG Wiki software to something a little more modern. I've been taking it slowly, just in case one of these updates breaks a vital feature. Yesterday afternoon I upgraded to MediaWiki 1.20, and everything seems to be good (aside from theme issues). And that brings us to our next point:
Make more themes
MediaWiki software updates are likely to break our custom skin. This means that we're going to need to make a few adjustments to make it play nice with the new software - although it might be even better to design a new skin. If you'd like to help, that would be awesome!
Also, a note for Wiki users: I changed the default skin to the slightly boring built-in skin. If you're still using MFGG's custom skin, you might need to visit the Preferences tab to change to one of the other skins.
Slay the spambots (but not MFGGers)
The MFGG Wiki still has a major problem with spambots. A few years ago, we installed a special plugin that does an excellent job of preventing spambots from registering and creating posts for dubious dating sites, forex scams, kayak trips, and other spammy things. However, it also makes life more difficult for legitimate users who want to contribute to the Wiki. With this plugin, all new members have to be approved by a Wiki Sysop before they can post, and we haven't always been good at checking the registration queue lately.
To make it easier for new members to register without causing a spam deluge, we're going to explore alternative anti-spam mechanisms that don't interfere with legitimate users.
Here's the gameplan!
Here's a summary of what we want to accomplish on the MFGG Wiki in 2018:
If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or concerns, please speak up! We'd love to have more people regularly contributing to the Wiki, and if there's anything we can do to make the Wiki more useful to you, please let us know.
Google loves us
I recently installed Google Webmaster Tools (a.k.a. Google Search Console) on the MFGG Wiki. This lets us know which Google searches are leading people to the MFGG Wiki. This can be useful for improving search engine optimization (to make sure that search engines can read the information on your site and will rank your site highly in search results), identifying software errors, and learning more about why people use your site.
After analyzing a few days' worth of data, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how many people are finding the MFGG Wiki through Google searches - over 100 clicks per day. That's not counting people who find the site through other means - that's just Google searches. This is more than twice as many clicks as we get on the forums, so we need to give the Wiki some love!
That said, not all Wiki pages attract the same level of interest. Most of these searches lead to the Wiki pages for popular fangames - not surprisingly, Psycho Waluigi is the leader here, but many other games are represented in the list. That's not to say we shouldn't document our history, fads, and events, but if we want to make the Wiki more useful for external audiences, it's best to focus on games pages and making sure they're useful.
The Wiki is here to stay!
Near the end of 2017, a few members suggested archiving the MFGG Wiki - they thought the Wiki was hopelessly out of date, and they claimed that too many pages focus on old drama. I agree that the MFGG Wiki doesn't get as much love as it should, and some information is badly out of date. Like most of you, I'm not a big fan of articles cataloging old, little-remembered interpersonal disputes in great detail (although these are a small fraction of the hundreds of articles we have), and there are some short member articles for people who never really did anything.
While it's tempting to archive the Wiki and start fresh, a bit of searching reveals many good articles that add value to the MFGG experience and aren't easily substitutable:
- This is the only place on the Internet that includes download links for a very popular fangame series. A case could be made that the Waligie games should be on the mainsite, but for now, this is the only place that documents these games in detail.
- Competition pages, such as this one, are our only archives of previous competition winners. This is especially important for Sprite Competitions, since many image hosts have died, thus breaking a lot of old sprite/art topics on both the IPB and phpBB boards.
- Wiki tutorials are always nice. We could use more of these!
- Sometimes you'll find cool ideas that are worth reviving.
- This is a nice summary of a fun fangame-related event.
For the foreseeable future, we're committed to keeping the Wiki in its current state. It's a valuable resource for both fangame makers and fangame players, and it attracts a lot of people to MFGG. Also, we don't have anything that can do what the Wiki can do - there's not a viable substitute for it right now.
Make Wiki software great again
For the past six years or so, the MFGG Wiki has been running on MediaWiki 1.17. This software is showing its age. Since MFGG has been on a "let's stop using outdated software" kick lately, I've begun the process of upgrading the MFGG Wiki software to something a little more modern. I've been taking it slowly, just in case one of these updates breaks a vital feature. Yesterday afternoon I upgraded to MediaWiki 1.20, and everything seems to be good (aside from theme issues). And that brings us to our next point:
Make more themes
MediaWiki software updates are likely to break our custom skin. This means that we're going to need to make a few adjustments to make it play nice with the new software - although it might be even better to design a new skin. If you'd like to help, that would be awesome!
Also, a note for Wiki users: I changed the default skin to the slightly boring built-in skin. If you're still using MFGG's custom skin, you might need to visit the Preferences tab to change to one of the other skins.
Slay the spambots (but not MFGGers)
The MFGG Wiki still has a major problem with spambots. A few years ago, we installed a special plugin that does an excellent job of preventing spambots from registering and creating posts for dubious dating sites, forex scams, kayak trips, and other spammy things. However, it also makes life more difficult for legitimate users who want to contribute to the Wiki. With this plugin, all new members have to be approved by a Wiki Sysop before they can post, and we haven't always been good at checking the registration queue lately.
To make it easier for new members to register without causing a spam deluge, we're going to explore alternative anti-spam mechanisms that don't interfere with legitimate users.
Here's the gameplan!
Here's a summary of what we want to accomplish on the MFGG Wiki in 2018:
- Make sure that there are games pages for all popular (or semi-popular) games, and make sure that they're reasonably well-written and up-to-date, with a working download link to the game and at least one image to make things pretty. You can help!
- Member pages are a lower priority, but feel free to trim any needlessly negative stuff - especially lengthy analyses of long-ago interpersonal conflicts.
- Improve the Wiki software.
- Make a new theme.
- Implement a spam-prevention system that doesn't interfere with legitimate members.
If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or concerns, please speak up! We'd love to have more people regularly contributing to the Wiki, and if there's anything we can do to make the Wiki more useful to you, please let us know.
![[-]](https://forums.mfgg.net/images/emerald/collapse.png)
![[Image: CourseClear.gif]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/d5mcpm4nmt0gd14/CourseClear.gif)
![[Image: MK8-Line-Koopa-Thwomp.gif]](https://www.mariowiki.com/images/f/f1/MK8-Line-Koopa-Thwomp.gif)
I love that the wiki has member entries. So I wouldn't prune any of that stuff.
![[Image: d7a49ew-d195ad6d-6235-4c54-89d2-19b13160...5AXvZdbJzI]](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/297161e7-ff39-45af-9a0b-b0e8c5d14779/d7a49ew-d195ad6d-6235-4c54-89d2-19b1316052a3.gif?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzI5NzE2MWU3LWZmMzktNDVhZi05YTBiLWIwZThjNWQxNDc3OVwvZDdhNDlldy1kMTk1YWQ2ZC02MjM1LTRjNTQtODlkMi0xOWIxMzE2MDUyYTMuZ2lmIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.ionJpfBcX9p0sBSLGFDGkYMF0J6igKBap5AXvZdbJzI)
![[Image: RRv_PMRXRfuHb3VnO1TqBA.png]](https://image.prntscr.com/image/RRv_PMRXRfuHb3VnO1TqBA.png)
