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News and Announcements Guidelines (STAFF ONLY)

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CloverDragon03

CloverDragon03

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VS Battles
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So, I really took notice of this yesterday while browsing the Suggestions for Improvement thread, but we really don’t have much in the way of specific guidelines on making News and Announcements posts.

I talk about it here, but when a post about a fictional character winning a fictional tournament (even if it’s Ash and the event was celebrated even by global news stations), something’s up. This is especially the case since this category is meant for news about the wiki, which is a policy that isn’t really enforced at all. Now I don’t regret making that Ash becoming World Champion post at all but it definitely was a wake up call.

So, I want two things to be accomplished in this thread:
  1. I want us to establish clear guidelines for what is and isn’t a suitable News and Announcements posts
  2. If non-wiki related posts (such as, most frequently, the passing of an important figure) aren’t suitable, what should be done with such posts? Should we ban the creation of these posts altogether, or should they be put into some other category or the like?
I was asked to make a thread on this matter, and I think for good reason, because the News and Announcements category is kind of a mess right now in terms of what is and isn’t allowed.
 
Actually I recently mentioned something related to this, so let me get my immediate thoughts out: while it is unfortunate when actors and celebrities die, I don't think it is proper to use our News and Announcements board to let everyone know, much less make two whole threads. The thread regarding a fictional character's fictional achievement is also something that seems like clog.

I'd be fine with putting non-wiki related threads into General Discussion. Makes the most sense to me.
 
Okay. I think that seems to make sense. Thank you for the evaluation.

Would you be willing to move such threads to our general forum if other staff members here find your solution acceptable?
 
General Discussion currently is for "general conversations about the wiki", so inserting such threads in there would be detrimental as it'd derail from its purpose, I recall the Fun and Games subforum is the one that's meant to cover off-topic stuff, unless we just adjust the General Discussion subforum's description, but then now we'd have two redundant subforums, so I wouldn't recommend that.

Anyways, I'll copy-paste what I've said in the other thread so it's at least kept in mind:

I'll remind that ads/requests unrelated to the site are actually explicitly banned by Fandom, we got in a bit of trouble once for that, one could even argue that misusing the board like this should be a report-worthy offense, especially from now on with this clarification.

Beyond that, the News and Announcements board should stick to notable site-wide changes, paying respects to a notable celebrity or simply talking about a big recent event should go elsewhere as they derail from actual productivity.
Click to expand...

If the above is accepted, here's also an idea of something to add to the Discussion Rules:

The News and Announcements subforum is meant to feature crucial site-wide announcements ranging from changes in staff memberships to changes in indexing standards or otherwise wide requests that remain on topic to the wiki. Off-topic advertisements will not be tolerated as they violate Fandom's Terms of Use, and other topics of discussion should go elsewhere as they derail from productivity purposes.
Click to expand...

I also think that posting threads (not commenting on them, I'm sure XenForo supports that) in there should be restricted to staff members, not only is this baiting misuse especially from sockpuppets, regular users shouldn't have the right to highlight whatever they want without a good reason, and at that point they should ask an staff member for approval.

I know some of this may seem a bit excessive, but imagine if any user could just "pin" in the wiki anything they want, it's detrimental at best.
 
Mr._Bambu said:
Actually I recently mentioned something related to this, so let me get my immediate thoughts out: while it is unfortunate when actors and celebrities die, I don't think it is proper to use our News and Announcements board to let everyone know, much less make two whole threads. The thread regarding a fictional character's fictional achievement is also something that seems like clog.

I'd be fine with putting non-wiki related threads into General Discussion. Makes the most sense to me.
Click to expand...
The bolded part hurts to see but I know it’s true

Anyway, putting such things in General Discussion is something I’m not opposed to. I do wanna see other suggestions, though.
 
Bobsican said:
General Discussion currently is for "general conversations about the wiki", so inserting such threads in there would be detrimental as it'd derail from its purpose, I recall the Fun and Games subforum is the one that's meant to cover off-topic stuff, unless we just adjust the General Discussion subforum's description, but then now we'd have two redundant subforums, so I wouldn't recommend that.

Anyways, I'll copy-paste what I've said in the other thread so it's at least kept in mind:



If the above is accepted, here's also an idea of something to add to the Discussion Rules:



I also think that posting threads (not commenting on them, I'm sure XenForo supports that) in there should be restricted to staff members, not only is this baiting misuse especially from sockpuppets, regular users shouldn't have the right to highlight whatever they want without a good reason, and at that point they should ask an staff member for approval.

I know some of this may seem a bit excessive, but imagine if any user could just "pin" in the wiki anything they want, it's detrimental at best.
Click to expand...
Feels extremely off-beat to put "A famous actor you love died today" in Fun & Games. I think it'd be better to try to broaden the General Discussion board than to put more serious topics into F&G.
 
Well, the passing of creators, actors, scientific legends ect are something quite a majority of the people want to be notified about. I don't check the news on a regular basis, so I recall being behind when some people died and only got notified due to someone posting it on the News and Announcement board. I personally don't mind people putting those on News and Announcement. I know for Stephen Hawking's announcement thread it was on Fun and Games board and the title was "Press F to pay respect" and I later did the same when Game Theorists' Ronnie Edwards passed for the Fun and Games board, but every announcement of a passing I have seen on News and Announcement. Also, some people bring up points that the passing and/or retirement of a creator can often times be a major game changer for what directions a verse' story telling is going to go and thus how all future content revisions are going to be handled. And those cases IMO probably should still be on News and Announcement boards. But a famed music artist passing probably should be on general discussions as opposed to News and Announcement, and it was also agreed to avoid making threads for the passing of a politician (Especially ones who are known extremists).

I think announcements about staff's personal issues that may lead to inactivity are also should be fine too. Also, maybe another approach to a famous person's death also there's the News and Announcement board and also the Highlight feature. A lot of people make use of both, and I think at least one or the other should be used for those announcements since it's something a lot of people would want to be notified for. But maybe not both, perhaps it should be general discussion but a highlight is alright. Or it can be on News and Announcement board but no highlight. I suppose Bambu doesn't want News and Announcement boards for it, but I wonder if he's okay with using the highlight feature for those threads.
 
Fair, another idea could also be make a new board reserved for entertainment community types of news and announcement that aren't like wiki or forum related announcements. Though I'm not sure how difficult it would be to do that and wouldn't want to burden the community with that, and not sure what to call it if News and Announcements is already taken.
 
News and Announcements for important world topics is fine. Although I would prefer if we got a separate board for wiki news.
 
Staff updates are fine, yeah (such as announcements of retiring, hiatus, and so on).
 
Mr._Bambu said:
Actually I recently mentioned something related to this, so let me get my immediate thoughts out: while it is unfortunate when actors and celebrities die, I don't think it is proper to use our News and Announcements board to let everyone know, much less make two whole threads. The thread regarding a fictional character's fictional achievement is also something that seems like clog.

I'd be fine with putting non-wiki related threads into General Discussion. Makes the most sense to me.
Click to expand...
CloverDragon03 said:
Anyway, putting such things in General Discussion is something I’m not opposed to. I do wanna see other suggestions, though.
Click to expand...
Mr._Bambu said:
Feels extremely off-beat to put "A famous actor you love died today" in Fun & Games. I think it'd be better to try to broaden the General Discussion board than to put more serious topics into F&G.
Click to expand...
SamanPatou said:
I'm with Bambu and think the General Discussion forum should be made broader to include even such kind of announcements.
I'd keep the N&A forum strictly about wiki-related matters, whether or not they concern staff and general wiki updates and such.
Click to expand...
Andytrenom said:
I'm fine with things like famous figures passing and big pop culture moments going in the general discussion forum
Click to expand...
LordGriffin1000 said:
I guess the General Discussion Board is fine for such a thing.
Click to expand...
Planck69 said:
General Discussions seems fine for such posts.
Click to expand...
Yes, I also think that widening the definition a bit regarding what kind of topics that are allowed in our general forum seems like the most practical/easily applied solution here.

So should I change the brief description texts for our General and News and Announcements forums, and if so, does somebody here have new wording suggestions?
 
Given the current consensus most of the staff is in favor of that, so...

There's really nothing to change to the current wording in the News and Announcements subforum's description, at most the subforum should be renamed to "Wiki News and Announcements", as if anything on-topicness should be encouraged more given how things are going currently.

But for General Discussion:

This board is for general conversations, a place to express your thoughts on several affairs, some not necessarily related to this wiki.
Click to expand...
 
Hmm. I think that we need to be a bit more specific regarding what kind of topics exactly that are acceptable in our general forum description.

I would appreciate suggestions from the rest of our staff. I can clean up the language flow if necessary.
 
I have nothing to add to News and Announcements, except maybe more carefully noting that posts should be specifically regarding the wiki.

As for General Discussion:

This board is for general conversations about the wiki and adjacent subjects, such as pop culture and media occurrences.
Click to expand...

Obviously it could be more specific but I don't know how much we want to write as a descriptor.
 
Thank you for the suggestions.

Does anybody else here have something to add?
 
Mr._Bambu said:
Obviously it could be more specific but I don't know how much we want to write as a descriptor.
Click to expand...
Keeping it broad but simple is probably for the best.

I agree with the consensus re. using general discussion for non-wiki announcements
 
I'd still advocate for a Discussion Rule given the precedent on subforum groups being barely enforced at all otherwise, but beyond that I'm fine with the current proposal.
 
Bobsican said:
I'd still advocate for a Discussion Rule given the precedent on subforum groups being barely enforced at all otherwise, but beyond that I'm fine with the current proposal.
Click to expand...
Making a discussion rule in addition to the above would be fine with me. I think it should also be kept somewhat broad, though, so that down the line we can look at specific things and decide if they're a problem or not.
 
I am very open for concrete wording suggestions for both a discussion rule and forum description texts.
 
Maybe something like this for the Discussion Rules:

The News and Announcements subforum is meant to feature crucial site-wide announcements ranging from changes in staff memberships to changes in indexing standards or otherwise wide requests that remain on topic to the wiki. Off-topic advertisements will not be tolerated as they violate Fandom's Terms of Use, and other topics of discussion should usually go in the General Discussion subforum as they derail from productivity purposes.
Click to expand...
 
Mr._Bambu said:
I have nothing to add to News and Announcements, except maybe more carefully noting that posts should be specifically regarding the wiki.

As for General Discussion:



Obviously it could be more specific but I don't know how much we want to write as a descriptor.
Click to expand...
Yeah this is fine.
 
How about this draft version?

"Our News and Announcements subforum is intended to feature crucial site-wide announcements, ranging from new staff memberships to changes in indexing standards, or other important topics that directly concern our wiki and community as a whole. Topics regarding deaths of prominent actors or authors, major recent entertainment media releases, or similar should usually be posted in our General Discussion subforum, as they do not directly concern the running of our wiki in itself."
 
Antvasima said:
How about this draft version?

"Our News and Announcements subforum is intended to feature crucial site-wide announcements, ranging from new staff memberships to changes in indexing standards, or other important topics that directly concern our wiki and community as a whole. Topics regarding deaths of prominent actors or authors, major recent entertainment media releases, or similar should usually be posted in our General Discussion subforum, as they do not directly concern the running of our wiki in itself."
Click to expand...
Looks good
 
Thank you.
Antvasima said:
How about this draft version?

"Our News and Announcements subforum is intended to feature crucial site-wide announcements, ranging from new staff memberships to changes in indexing standards, or other important topics that directly concern our wiki and community as a whole. Topics regarding deaths of prominent actors or authors, major recent entertainment media releases, or similar should usually be posted in our General Discussion subforum, as they do not directly concern the running of our wiki in itself."
Click to expand...
@Mr._Bambu @Sir_Ovens @DarkDragonMedeus @GyroNutz @Planck69 @LordGriffin1000 @Andytrenom @SamanPatou

What do you think about this wording for our new discussion rule?
 
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