All posts by Spongebob456

Hey folks! I'm Chris, the Community Manager for this wiki, and I'm here to bring you some of the latest Fandom updates from November. Let me know if you have questions or feedback!

Barney Fan Q&A/Giveaway

Many of you will remember Barney & Friends from the 90s/2000s. In celebration of co-producers of the show, Connecticut Public, winning at the 4th Annual Signal Awards, we're doing a special community Q&A in honor of their Generation Barney podcast! Fans can submit questions to the team, which will enter them into a giveaway! Read more and enter the Barney giveaway.

Disney Bracket Challenge Giveaway

What's the best Disney animated movie? It's time for YOU to decide! Fans can vote in a tournament bracket, which pits iconic Disney animated movies against each other. The fan who most accurately predicts what the final bracket looks like will win a prize! What are you waiting for? Read more and enter the Disney Bracket Challenge giveaway.

Community Feedback Platform

Fandom has introduced a centralised feedback platform, where users can publicly post Fandom platform feedback. You can search feedback to see if it has already been posted, and also upvote/downvote feedback posts. There is also a comments section where you can constructively join the conversation. The board is located at support.fandom.com, under the big "Community feedback" button! Read more about the community feedback platform.

Changes to Ads for Logged-In Users

From November 25, Fandom is changing the ad experience to better reflect how the platform has evolved. Active editors will continue to receive the ad experience they have now, while other logged in users will see an ad-light experience with fewer, higher quality ads than the logged out view. Read more about the new ad experience.

Please post feedback for this on the community feedback platform, as explained above.

Hey folks! Just a quick update from me as we fast approach spooky season! 👻

As you know, we've introduced new features to allow users to track their progress in video games, TV shows, collectables etc. This is been through adding checkboxes in interactive maps, table progress tracking (TPT), and the ability to view a history of pages you've visited.

This information is often fragmented though, spread out on the individual pages. Introducing My Fandom, which collects that information in one place! This is designed to make your experience more personal, showing areas you've personally engaged with and making tracking your progress easier.

Try out My Fandom for yourself!

Right now, My Fandom is a tracking hub that is primed for expansion. The goal is to add more personal utility features over time. This is where you can help with this! What other tools and features would you like to see in My Fandom?

Please do comment below or share your feedback via Zendesk. Thanks!

Read more about My Fandom in the Staff blog.

Hey folks, happy July!

A while ago, we announced Table Progress Tracking, a new feature that adds checkboxes to wiki tables. The testing phase is complete, and the feature is now available on all wikis if they want it!

Why progress tracking?

This feature allows you to track your personal progress, directly within wiki tables. You can track things like:

• Collectables obtained in video games

• Episodes watched in TV shows

• Merchandise collected

• Whatever else you can think of!

This helps you keep tabs on what you've already done, and plan for what's next. This is a great for a wiki as users may revisit your content as they progress through a game or TV series for example. Users need to log in to use this feature, and it's a good way to encourage new users to stay on the wiki longer!

How it works

Please read the Help page for all the details on using this feature. You can also view an example at the bottom of this post to see if it's your kind of thing.

If you want Table Progress Tracking on this wiki or another wiki, definitely talk about it with local admins and see what's possible!

Any questions?

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback - please let me know! We also have a #progress-tracking channel in Fandom Discord, to discuss the feature and ask questions.

Read the latest Table Progress Tracking Staff blog

(from the Marvel Rivals Wiki Achievements page)

Hey folks - just dropping by to give you some key updates from the past month. Let's dive in!

Admin Code of Conduct

We recently published an Admin Code of Conduct. As part of a strategy to clean-up and consolidate policies to make them clearer for users, this policy aims to be a clear starting place for how all admins (and indeed users) should apply themselves on the platform.

If you have any questions on this, please do contact me or Fandom Support directly!

Read our blog about the Admin Code of Conduct

Web accessibility resources

Web accessibility refers to making websites as accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of disability. Doing this on Fandom allows even more users to access and enjoy the content you create, potentially growing your community.

We published some new resources about how you can make your wiki more accessible, and what benefits that brings to your community.

Read our blog about the new accessibility resources

Video uploads

Video uploading has been re-enabled on the platform. .mp4, .webm, .mkv, and .mov are once again supported video types!

Read more in the Tech updates from last month

That about covers it! If you have any questions or concerns, please do comment below or drop me a message. Thanks all!

Hey folks! Back in November, we announced that Fandom will be upgrading to MediaWiki 1.43 in 2025. You may now have seen a scary notice pop up saying the migration is happening soon!

Please do read the blog above, but I'm here to give you a TL;DR of what to expect over the next few months.

What changes you can expect

As with all MediaWiki upgrades, these often bring performance and security improvements, as well as new features. We will update the Help page with a list of changes in the coming weeks.

The key areas here are:

• This will not change the design of wikis

• Most of the changes will happen under the hood, so you won't notice many visual changes

Timeline

Our current plans have this wiki to migrate in March. However, this is subject to change, so could be earlier or later. View Antonio's blog for a full breakdown of our migration timeline.

Note: During the upgrade, the wiki will go into read-only mode for around 30 minutes (potentially longer for larger wikis).

Report issues

If you have any bug reports, issues, or feedback, please contact me via Discord, message wall, or reply in this thread. The Fandom Discord server also has a dedicated #mediawiki-upgrade channel where you can request help too!

Further information

Read more in depth about the upgrade:

• Fandom's MediaWiki 1.43 upgrade blog

• Fandom's Help page for the MediaWiki 1.43 upgrade

That's about it folks! I'll keep you updated as and when I have new information. If anyone has any questions, concerns, or feedback, please do reach out to me. Thanks!

Hey folks! As we're heading into the Holiday season, we've been hard at work on giving our global navigation a makeover! As a reminder of what this is - this is the bar on the left hand side where your profile and notifications are currently located.

What's changing?

Long time users may remember the global navigation used to appear at the top of pages. This is now returning! The following are moving to the top bar:

• Profile and notifications

• The search function (now a search bar)

• The "Start a Wiki" button

The left navigation is remaining too, with some Fandom-centric buttons being replaced with more wiki-centric ones:

• Explore - highlights other wikis and news around Fandom

• FanCentral - links off to FanCentral

• Current - pages other users like you also viewed, as well as popular pages on the wiki

• Recent - pages you've visited recently

• History - a longer list of pages you've visited recently

Why are we making this change?

This is based on user feedback, experiments and data, which will hopefully help the user experience and keep users around on this wiki longer!

Timeline

All being well, we're aiming to launch on these dates (subject to change if blockers arise):

• December 11: for everyone outside the United States of America

• December 12: full release to everyone

This is available to test right now! Head over to Fandom Stars Wiki to try out the new navigation.

Feedback

Please read Lostris' blog on the new nav for more information

If you have any feedback, please either comment on that blog, comment in this thread, or contact me on Discord.

Thanks all!

Hellooo! It's somehow March already, and lots has happened lately - let me share an overview with you folks about the latest developments:

February's Community Culture

Fandom has started a new Community Culture blog series - a monthly post highlighting diverse people, programming, and entertainment aiming to introduce you to new people, communities, and their topics. Keep an eye out for these posts each month and, in the meantime, check out February's post focusing on Black History Month (BHM) and its 2024 theme, Art for Change.

Technical Updates: February 9 and February 23

Check out our last Technical Updates blogs which cover known issues, bug fixes, and experiments. Picking out two important ones:

• CodeMirror - We updated the CodeMirror extension for the 2010 editor (responsible for syntax highlighting). We reverted the first update after community feedback, and we're currently fixing the noted issues. Once we're done, the next upgrade will happen in smaller batches for a more controlled release

• Extra protection - In the coming weeks, wikis directed at children (an option given to a user when founding a new wiki or defined as such by Fandom staff) will require accounts to be emailconfirmed in order to edit. The goal is to increase the protection of our younger userbase against spambots and other malicious actors. You can confirm your email via Special:Preferences. If you have any concerns about this, please let me know!

Read the February 9 Technical Updates blog

Read the February 23 Technical Updates blog

Reorganizing the VisualEditor

We released a minor design update to the VisualEditor, both the Visual Mode and the Source Mode (aka 2017 editor) on February 8. This is with the goal of making your editing experience more accessible and intuitive.

Read the blog about reorganising the Visual Editor

QuickAnswers update

We're continuing work on QuickAnswers improvements - here are some of the latest developments:

• Vetting period - mod teams will have a select time period to edit new Quick Answers before they go live on the wiki.

• Filters - The QA Dashboard filters have a counter that will auto-update as the QAs are processed to give mods a better overview.

If you have any concerns or questions about this upcoming feature, please let me know!

Check out the latest QuickAnswers blog

Fandom's First Transparency Report

Fandom published their first ever transparency report, showing the measures we're taking to keep users safe on the platform. Covering our Trust & Safety actions for the 2023 calendar year, this comes with data that you wouldn't usually see, including everything from the number of JavaScript submissions we reject, to the number of wikis we close.

Read more about Fandom's first Transparency Report

Any questions, issues, comments on this, please do comment below!

Hellooo!

Today, Fandom released an update to their VisualEditor, to both the Visual Mode and the Source Mode (aka, '2017 editor'). This is to make your editing experience more accessible and intuitive!

To not miss out on any information, check out this blog and/or the updated help page.

If you're pressed for time, don't worry, I have the key points handy! To summarise, we:

• Renamed some of the tools (e.g. "paragraph" is now "normal text")

• Shuffled some icons around (e.g. the back and forward arrow buttons are now located on the far left rather than the middle)

• Hid some less-essential tools from view to make the initial editor view less overwhelming in all its glory (the tools are still accessible in dropdown menus)

• For the 2017 source mode: we removed the options available from the menu icon (those three stacked horizontal bars) -- If you want those back, you can customize your toolbar to access them from there)

• For the 2017 source mode: we used the menu icon to replace the gear icon

Are you more of a visual person? Check out the design mocks detailing the changes below:

VisualEditor - Visual Mode

VisualEditor - Source Mode (aka 2017 source mode editor)

Any questions or comments, give me a shout below or send me a message elsewhere. Thanks all!

Hey folks!

We've been celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) from September 15 to October 15. This has focused on Hispanic creators in Entertainment that often go unnoticed, such as those behind the scenes including directors, writers, special effects artists, makeup artists - and more!

Read Fandom's Hispanic Heritage Month blog

Fandom is highlighting these people through our Makers Series. We want to hear their stories of how they got into the industry and how're they helping to shape their field.

Check out the first blog in the HHM Makers Series by Fearless Diva!

YOU can help!

• Create blogs or Discussions posts on your wikis, highlighting those creators and their influence on the fandom

• Edit articles about Hispanic creators and make sure they're up to date - you may learn something new too!

• Finally - music! Celebrate HHM by listening to music by Hispanic artists.

Check out Fandom's Hispanic Heritage Month Spotify playlist

Spotlighting HHM and other celebrations is important for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). It's about everyone being treated fairly and with respect. Without raising awareness, we may take the contributions people make for granted without realizing the challenges many go through. We can all get involved and make a difference!

Check out our other recent DEI blogs and what you can do to help:

• My experiences with Disability for Disability Pride Month

• The importance of DEI in the entertainment industry

• Fandom's Pride Month celebrations

Technical updates - September 22

Next up, here are a couple of key things from our most recent Technical updates I wanted to draw your attention to!

• Thanks extension - this has been tested for some time on some communities and we've made several styling improvements. Eventually, it'll become a toggle on the Admin dashboard. Until then, if you're an admin on a community with a Wiki Rep assigned and you'd like to have this enabled, feel free to reach out to them or otherwise contact staff

• Reported notifications - this feature allows post reports to appear in notifications under the bell icon. We've rolled this out to 25% of wikis and reviewing the results and feedback from this. Will keep you posted!

If you have any questions on these, feel free to comment below! Plenty more updates in the main tech update blog too.

Check out the the September 22 Technical update blog

Quick Answers

Fandom's been contuining development of Quick Answers and I have a new update on this!

For those of you who don't know what Quick Answers is - it's a module that appears on wiki pages that formats information into questions and answers. This information is relevant to the wiki page it's featured on and only displays for logged out users.

The key takeaway from this latest update is that admins and mods will soon be able to edit the questions and content for Quick Answers. This will be hopefully happen around end of the October (though this could change).

Read more in Brandon's update on Quick Answers