Something we stopped doing

[The_real_cal_howard]

Spoiler alert: it's nothing major.

See, this may be before some of our times here on the wiki, and some of us have likely forgotten, but what happened to those quirky and fun little captions we put under the images of profiles when we chose to?

The thing is, we stopped doing this on purpose, and started discouraging it, or removing it when we came across it. But...why? It was doing no harm. Like, at all. It added some more personality to the profiles, and made them more than just encyclopedia pages. Could that be something we reinstate?

Note that in no way I'm asking to revise all profiles for this. Even when we allowed it, not all profiles had it. I'm just asking that if we wanted to, we could do that to pages we thought it fits for.

I'm perfectly okay with a no, btw. Like I said, it's minor. Likely not even worth highlighting, or hell, being on the Staff Discussion board.

 

[DontTalkDT]

I also liked the fun little captions.

Though without them the profiles look more "professional".

In the past there were also some like "makes the HST shit their pants", which are problematic, but I suppose that wouldn't be an issue if done today.


So I wouldn't mind allowing them.

 

[The_Everlasting]

I always liked the little personality they added to the page, as long as they're kept regulated.

 

[Dragonmasterxyz]

I miss these. As long as it isn't something offensive, we should be fine.

 

[Monarch_Laciel]

I got no problem with that. I'll support this

 

[Saikou_The_Lewd_King]

We should still try to not get too biased. Remember that this wiki deals with a more touchy subject than most others.

Something like talking crap about a series or overpraising it via those notes should be something to avoid y'know

 

[Reppuzan]

I used to add them a lot, but they were taken down under the notion that they were unprofessional.

Yes, they should be regulated and should not bash any other fandoms, but a little cheekiness can't hurt (look at the Transformers wiki).

Edit: These were probably my favorites that I've written.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

Could we get an example or two of what we can and cannot put?

 

[Reppuzan]

@Cross

Stuff like, "Makes Dragon Ball look like a bunch of *******." Probably should not be permitted.

But I don't see much harm in, "Ultimecia: giving a whole new meaning to fur coats since 1999."

 

[Amelia_Lonelyheart]

Yeah, I liked the little bits of personality and charm they added. It gave off a more fun and inviting atmosphere IMO.

I agree they should have regulations, nothing like insulting other series or use of hard language.

 

[VoidGoji]

Like OBD do?

 

[Burning_Full_Fingers]

I could swear that I still see these in quite a lot of pages. New or old.

But I see it being removed sometimes.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

@Rep: Fair enough. As much as I would like to have put on certain profiles, most if not all of them are rather more offensive than anything and something I'd rather not even have worth the risk/fun.

So yeah as long as it's not outright offensive and rage inducing, I can see captions that can give a little more humor working again...

 

[Ryukama]

I'm with others here. We gotta remember that this site isn't about a very serious or important topic at all. Having a little bit of fun while still maintaining accuracy and some sense of professionalism is perfectly fine. Quirky little captions that had some heart wouldn't be too bad. But offensive, vulgar or derogatory ones would be better to do without.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, I have systematically removed most of them over the years, so I am obviously strongly opposed to this notion, as it would destroy something that I have put a great amount of work into.

One of the reasons why we have turned so mainstream popular to a more general audience currently is that I have made a continuous massive effort to clean up the profiles to look as professional as possible.

I obviously do not at all mind if our members have fun in this site, but that should preferably be kept to the fun and games board, message walls, and the like. If we start to make silly jokes in the middle of the profiles, a much greater amount of people than currently will start to consider our wiki to be completely unreliable, and stop visiting it.

One theme that I have noticed for all of the extremely successful wikis that I have visited, including our own, is that they all attempt to maintain a standard of professionalism in their pages, so I would greatly appreciate if we could continue to do the same thing.

 

[Monarch_Laciel]

Fair enough.

Having had my efforts at Acausality undone, I understand how it would feel to have this changed.

So really, I guess I'll change my position to neutral, leaning towards disagreement. While there's no massive reason not to do this, there's no need to do it either, and F&G board exists for a reason.

 

[Amelia_Lonelyheart]

I believe that is a strong overreaction. A few jokes regulated for the captions of images isn't going to make the site a joke. Take the Transformers wiki for example, they have fun captions for images yet remain a very solid and comprehensive resource for information.

People visiting the wiki will care about the actual content of the site, as in, the profiles. They wont think the entire wiki is some silly, untrustworthy site because a few images have lighthearted captions.

 

[Antvasima]

The Transformers wiki is nowhere near as popular as the top 20 WAM list wikis that I am aiming for in terms of standards.

The issue here is that I may have my flaws with social interactions and franchises that I am badly informed about, but when it comes to systematically building and organising this community almost from scratch, I actually know what I am doing. This wiki has increased in popularity by over 40 times since I first came here according to Quantcast, and likely more if I had access to older SimilarWeb statistics.

This is an important policy issue that is important for the continued growth of our wiki, and would make our pages look ridiculous if applied.

I would greatly appreciate if we could drop this.

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

I have to disagree, this is a strong overreaction and there is nothing wrong with a few quirky jokes here and there.

 

[Antvasima]

In addition, the Transformers wiki can go by on lack of other options for the franchise's fans, whereas we are building a new type of brand to the general public. Systematically undermining our own credibility is a very bad idea.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

Matt has a point here, really...

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

It doesn't undermine our credibility, Ant. If anything, it shows that we don't think too highly of ourselves to the point of block out fun.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

Plus, it's not like we're gonna put it on ALL of the pages we have (and counting) thus far.

It could be for some, while others we either leave alone or don't need to put them in at all for whatever reason.

I get that this is how we shouldn't a year ago but now i don't see the harm in it as long as it's not outright using offensive words in any fashion. Even i wouldn't do that and i have MANY things to say in their captions.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, most jokes will likely not be funny, and strictly seem obnoxious and intrusive. There is no quality control in effect here, and I do not want to have to further increase my considerable workload by constantly having to monitor for removing even more content.

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

Sense of humor is subjective, Antvasima. Just because it doesn't appeal to you doesn't mean it doesn't have any appeal.

And you don't have to monitor it, seriously.

 

[Amelia_Lonelyheart]

Exactly what Matt said. If anything, it'll encourage new users to join because they'll see the site as a place of fun, which it should be.

There doesn't need to be "quality control" or constant reviewing. If a user spots something inappropriate, then they could remove or report it if the page is locked.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, I do not think that you have thought this through.

Let's say that somebody actually places a funny joke in a page. This would still encourage a much greater amount of other members to place decidedly unfunny or downright highly inappropriate jokes in other pages, which would encourage others, and so forward at an uncontrollable rate that would quickly get completely out of hand.

Again, since we cannot place objective quality control standards for what is or isn't allowed when it comes to comedy, as it is all subjective, it is better if we continue to maintain professional standards via our Standard Format for Character Profiles page, which is easy to understand, and keep the jokes to the Joke Battles Wiki and the Fun and Games board.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

@Ant: We're just saying, man...

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

The Madoka Magica wiki is another example of a wiki that has a lot of humor and doesn't take itself too seriously. And it doesn't stop being one of the best sources of information for the series just because of it.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, my apologies, but I remain strongly opposed to starting any drastic changes that have uncontrollable consequences.

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

Ant, this is just a slippery slope argument. That tends to be a severe overreaction thinking that one thing will lead down a spirall of disaster that we'll never be able to recover from.

Of course regulations and guidelines will continue to exist.

You seem to be under the impression that becoming a fraction looser equates to throwing all semblance of seriousness of the wall.

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

Well, my apologies, but I remain strongly opposed to starting any drastic changes that have uncontrollable consequences.

What drastic changes? What uncontrollable consequences?

Everyone is just talking of allowing harmless quirky jokes on profiles. That isn't a drastic change that will allow uncontrollable consequences. Nobody is perceiving this like that.

 

[Amelia_Lonelyheart]

The actual content will stay the same, no changes there. The little bits of humor will follow our typical rules. No major changes, just slightly lessened rules and a lighter atmosphere. No harm will be done. Captions on main images will not through the site into chaos. If it did, the Transformers and Madoka wikis would be in a state of chaos. Which they're not.

 

[Antvasima]

Again, franchise-specific wikis sell themselves due to monopoly and lack of other options, whereas we do not have that luxury, and also have a much larger audience.

We are building something entirely new in terms of general public awareness of the topic. We are on the verge of turning something that used to be resigned to obscure battleboards communities into something mainstream.

It is likely much easier to find examples of far more popular wikis than Madoka and Transformers that do take themselves seriously by attempting to maintain a high degree of professionalism.

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

Also, a moment of introspection:

We're a wiki dedicated to charting the estimated power levels of fictional characters from various series, through a mixture of detailed analysis that often not even the original authors put forth, mathematical calculations that often employ scaling scenes down to the pixel, and philosophical metaphysics + higher-dimensional geometry for higher-ranking characters.

Let's be real for a moment: This is all very silly.

And it's good to admit that.

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

Speaking of Madoka...

Wow does Japan have a high-end educational system

 

[Antvasima]

A slippery slope argument is entirely valid in this case, as I have seen the practical consequences of allowing these types of comments in profiles before. As far as I remember, Fandom threatened SeiryuShin with shutting down the wiki before I started to systematically clean up the language within the profiles.

Again, this is not something that we can keep under control, and most members will not have a good sense of humour or know where to draw the line for what is appropriate.

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

I'm sorry, but the wiki back in 2014 was not what it was now. Literally every other profile was full of profanity and derrogatory jokes.

You cannot compared the state in which it was when you started cleaning it up with now.

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

Speaking of jokes, it is a real shame that some of the jokes from the Undertale profiles were cut down.

They were amazing and I loved them.

 

[Antvasima]

If you wish to admit that anything related to obsessing over entertainment is silly, then fine, but in order to attract more visitors, and more reliable members, we still need to maintain a high standard in our outward respectability.

This has been crucial to the success of most extremely popular wikis: Making an appearance of at least taking themselves seriously enough to continuously check over that not any stupid comments into their pages.

I continue to maintain that it is an extremely bad idea to completely let go of any semblance of control in any area, as it has proven to usually lead down bad paths.