fanpop Article: An Unofficial Guide to the Wiki Feature

8

posted by jlhfan624

Recently I just discovered what the Wiki feature was for. And upon searching, most seem to not know what its purpose is and therefore don't care about it. Never fear, I'm here. It's been approximately never since I wrote an informative bài viết so bạn are all in for quite the treat!

"It's a glorified article."
I've seen several các bình luận that Wikis are a "glorified article", insinuating that what bạn can and would put in a Wiki, bạn can and would put in an article. That is simply not true. See below for example.

Above is what bạn can do with an article. That is noticeably missing when bạn go to create a Wiki for a very simple reason. Wikis are strictly informational.

For arguments' sake, I have tried to put the information I would put in a Wiki in an actual bài viết to hiển thị the difference. The result is below.

This just does not look right.

Okay Heather, bạn make an excellent point as always. But what DO I put in a Wiki?
Thank you. And as I've đã đưa ý kiến before, make Wikis informational. Think of Wikipedia + Wikia (a fandom spinoff of Wikipedia which ultimately is what fanpop is going for here.) This would especially be easy (or difficult depending on your POV) for tv hiển thị clubs. I have already made a total of 5 Wikis for 2 different tv shows, and I've only just begun. There is a wealth of knowledge out there to inform current and potential những người hâm mộ of.

Improper use of Wikis

I can't tell bạn how many times I have found a club on here for a character, tv show, movie, hoặc celebrity and wanted to learn thêm about them only to have to open up another tab and Google it for thêm information myself. Think of how much foot traffic that has Mất tích Fanpop, when it could all be easily accessed right here!

(More) proper use of Wikis

Here are some ideas of Wikis bạn could make for các câu lạc bộ bạn are in:
TV Shows - A page for each season, episode, and character
Movie - A page for each character, and spinoffs/sequels
Actor/Actress - A page for characters they have played, tv and phim chiếu rạp they appeared in
Musician - A page for each album

Awesome! What's to stop people from copy/pasting from Wikipedia/Wikia?
Nothing. But it doesn't mean you should. Not entirely anyway. I copy/pasted summaries for tv episodes for my Wikis but I also didn't take the easy way out and just c/p everything into a Wiki and call it a day. I went the route of Wikia and took screencaps to accompany my words. Take a look at the world's leading Wikia page link. Where I got my inspiration.

A Wiki I created for one season of a tv show.

We at fanpop like images. I think anyway. There's nothing that says Wikis have to be a pile of informative words. Make it fun for the fan! Here are some đường dẫn to Wikis I have already made so bạn can see first hand for yourself. I have only just begun tweaking with this and I can think of so much I could add just to one season page. One annoying thing about Wikis is that if bạn đăng tải an image, it uploads automatically to the club sans keywords/credit. Hopefully this gets fixed.

link
link

Thanks Heather! This was very helpful. I'm off to watch John Wick now.
You're welcome ;)

TL;DR version Make your Wikis informational, opinion pieces and lists don't belong there!

Genevievebarbie, chipetteluver1 and 6 others like this

Flickerflame The images in the article don't show for me (maybe it's just me) so I'm not sure I entirely get your point. You're saying that wikis shouldn't include opinions and list. That's right. But opinions and lists aren't the only content which can be put in articles! Guides and information can also be placed in articles, and I believe that they're actually some of the sub-topics which can be selected for an article when writing one. But maybe the images would make the idea clearer.

jlhfan624 Images are down today. So the article wouldn't make much sense until they're back up. But yes, Wikis aren't for opinions or lists. Not even news articles. Guides don't belong in Wikis either. I guess technically you [i]could[/i] make an article detailing every episode or season of a tv show, but I definitely would not put a season review in a Wiki. That's an opinion and better served for an article. If that makes any sense...

sarabeara Great article, bb. And thank you for explaining. I thought wikis were pointless, but I see now that I was wrong.

deathding I think it's just a more information-oriented take on articles, now featuring the heavenly Strikethrough font. Never was much to me, but hey, the more stuff, the merrier.