Recently it's been noted that outside of those who look at the recent changes, sitewide Request for User Rights votes really aren't actually shown anywhere. Senate Hall threads, Consensus track votes, Discussions, TC threads and WOTM votes are all listed in the Community tab, these are not however. Historically we have used announcements sparingly, but it occurs to me that using it for important sitewide votes (not just RFUR votes) would be beneficial in engaging those Wookieepedians who are not active on Discord or happen to catch the vote in the Recent Changes. While it would be impractical to use an announcement every time a new thread or vote gets started, what do you all think would be beneficial to use announcements for? Supreme Emperor Holocomm
As someone who has been on the platform for many years, dealing with users who are almost exclusively on the wiki itself, you would be doing a great disservice to your community by not announcing these things. If I am entirely honest, the community is not just those on Discord. It's those across the entire wiki. I am sure that if you look around, you would find many users who aren't active in the server. These reasons aren't important, as that isn't my point.. but not using sitewide announcements only decreases the reach that Wookieepedia has. Not everyone is going to know to check the server, either. To me, it feels like unintentionally excluding someone; I'm sure they could check RecentChanges, but given how busy this wiki is on any given day, that is not entirely possible. User:SnowedLightning/Sig2
- As I alluded to on discord, RFUR votes should definitely be announced when initiated, we are giving/revoking people extra permissions/responsibilities which affects us all. I'd suggest an announcement for WOTM in the last week of the month, wording to the extent of "Voting for [month]'s WOTM is closing soon! Get your votes in and consider nominating someone for the following month!". CT/TC (or TC/CT?) can maybe just be a mid-monthly reminder to "get your voice heard" so it doesn't clash with the regular WOTM announcement. Though I'm not too fussed on the last one having announcements personally Manoof (he/him/his) (talk) 23:39, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
- To respond to an original point made by SE, 'While it would be impractical to use an announcement every time a new thread or vote gets started' can you explain why? All the threads and votes get announced on discord, so why would it be impractical here? Lewisr (talk) 23:51, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
- Site announcements get broadcast to every single person who's been active in the past 90 days, and any new announcement cancels out the old one. For example, let's say we launched a new RFUR vote, then one hour later a CT thread was started. If a new announcement was made for everything, the RFUR vote announcement would immediately be cancelled out by the CT thread announcement and no longer show up, then the CT thread announcement would in turn be cancelled out by whatever the next one was. Supreme Emperor Holocomm 00:05, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
- Okay thanks for clarifying that, what about sending them out in notifications? Lewisr (talk) 00:26, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
- This was the feature that utilized the notifications in the bottom left corner of the screen. Supreme Emperor Holocomm 00:31, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
- Okay thanks for clarifying that, what about sending them out in notifications? Lewisr (talk) 00:26, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
- Site announcements get broadcast to every single person who's been active in the past 90 days, and any new announcement cancels out the old one. For example, let's say we launched a new RFUR vote, then one hour later a CT thread was started. If a new announcement was made for everything, the RFUR vote announcement would immediately be cancelled out by the CT thread announcement and no longer show up, then the CT thread announcement would in turn be cancelled out by whatever the next one was. Supreme Emperor Holocomm 00:05, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
- Just to clarify, there are two announcement tools on the wiki: Site Notice, which shows up as a bubble to anyone visiting Wookieepedia, and Announcements, which show up on the left rail to all Fandom users who have edited, upvoted, or posted on Wookieepedia in the last 90 days. Only one announcement could be put up at any given time. OOM 224 17:24, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
- Thanks OOM, yes it's specifically Announcements I refer to, as we would want stuff like this targeted towards those active on site. Supreme Emperor Holocomm 19:42, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
One of the things to consider when using Announcements is that they go out to everyone who has edited or upvoted a post on Discussions in the past 90 days and that's a lot of people. Last time an announcement was used, it was sent to almost 7,000 users. Only a fraction of these are eligible to vote, and of those eligible, a fraction wish to participate in community discussions. This means that sending Announcements about CT/RFU etc would reach quite a lot of people who either cannot participate, or do not wish to participate. You can argue that some people don't know where votes and other community matters take place (because they're not on Discord or otherwise), but let's face it - if you're interested in a community, you'll find out how to participate. We did it before Discord existed and people have done it without Discord. Making it more accessible is a good idea, of course, but we need to be aware of the downsides of using Announcements. If we were to use them, CT and RFU (maybe just RFA and RFB) would probably be the things to announce. However, like mentioned above, there can only be one active Announcement and it's not uncommon for there to be multiple active votes. What I would like to see is some sort of easily-accessible feed (kinda like #announcements) on the wiki that covers all community discussions without being unnecessarily intrusive (like Announcements). 1358 (Talk) 11:25, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
- Per ecks. A feed or Wookieepedia newsletter hosted on the site and covering Star Wars news, new/concluded votes, and status article updates would be very nice. OOM 224 11:33, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
- Couldn't a pinned Senate Hall thread serve this purpose? It could instruct interested users how to watch the page so they can opt in to notifications. There could even be a one-time Announcement simply announcing the existence of this thread to give it some initial visibility. Asithol (talk) 00:54, 19 October 2022 (UTC)
- A pinned Senate Hall thread listing all active community discussions could be an option, I guess, but the Senate Hall and by extension any such thread would not really be easily accessible or widely used. Something more visible (but yet not spammy) is needed, IMO. 1358 (Talk) 17:47, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
- Maybe it could go in the Community tab thing (or even replace it) on the top bar (or whatever that's called? I know it's technically already there but maybe there's a better way to advertise it up there. JediMasterMacaroni(Talk) 17:55, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
- A pinned Senate Hall thread listing all active community discussions could be an option, I guess, but the Senate Hall and by extension any such thread would not really be easily accessible or widely used. Something more visible (but yet not spammy) is needed, IMO. 1358 (Talk) 17:47, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
- Couldn't a pinned Senate Hall thread serve this purpose? It could instruct interested users how to watch the page so they can opt in to notifications. There could even be a one-time Announcement simply announcing the existence of this thread to give it some initial visibility. Asithol (talk) 00:54, 19 October 2022 (UTC)
- I definitely agree that RFUR posts are absolutely essential -- although ecks said that it would be broadcasting to people who can't vote, it would also be broadcasting to people who can vote but aren't on discord and don't manually check the forums all the time. We can't assume that if you care about the community you'll find a way, because that's a hurdle that they might not get over, but if they're shown, they might want to vote after all! If we want to be a community run on consensus, it's important to have it as easy as possible to participate in that process. While I agree that Announcements aren't the ideal vehicle for this because you can only have one at a time, I think it's worth doing for RFUR, SH and CTs (sorry TCs you're just not as important). We should work out a better way to do it, but we can use the Announcements function while we work out that better way. Dropbearemma (she/her) 08:11, 30 October 2022 (UTC)
- What about an editor's portal? Basically an editor's version of the Main Page where it focuses on community events, votes, etc. It could easily be given a blurb on Wookieepedia:Welcome, newcomers and be added to the Community drop-down on the navigation bar. A single Announcement could then inform every currently active editor of the page, and new editors can find their way through the newcomers page and a link on {{W}}. MasterFred
(talk) (he/him) 08:52, 30 October 2022 (UTC)
