Talk:Animal Crossing Wiki

Welcome to Animal Crossing City's main talk page! Please post any concerns, questions, or comments here. If you'd like to just chat about the Animal Crossing series, please visit our Forum. Please note that this talk page will be archived periodically to clear the page up. To view the old archives, please click the links below.

August 2005 - 20 December 2008 Archive

Archived
I archived the old talk page, and will try and do so whenever it gets too large.PkmnTrainerJ 11:02, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

This wiki needs a lot of work.
Its disorginized, annd lacks a lot of information.
 * This wiki needs a more active admin at the moment IMO. --YOWUZA TALK 2 ME! 14:46, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Getting It Going
It's no lie. This Wiki needs work. There are several goals facing us immediately, so I'd like to list them out. Please offer your opinions regarding additional problems, etc.
 * 1) Admin: Both admins, myself included, are less active than we should. We need to promote a new one.
 * 2) Page Standards: We need standards for the main page and all other mainspace pages. We should also discuss what we should and should not include on this Wiki, what deserves its own page, what should be merged with other subjects, etc.
 * 3) Hard Work: We need it. You guys are doing a great job in that department.  Kudos.

Let's get it going!

I believe right now, having had experience with editing this Wiki and being the admin of another non-Wikia Wiki, I can offer the most help on subject 2. Subject 1 should be a community wide decision. Please offer up suggestions. If desired, we can create a special page where you can vote on your recommendations for who should be the next admin. Then, after analyzing the work of the highest rated users and trying to get a hold of the other administrator, I will take the appropriate action. Does that sound fine with everyone?

As for problem 2, I'd like to start by establishing what it is exactly we cover, how that can be divided into different articles, and then what each of the formats for these types should be. Due to the nature of Animal Crossing, wherein each person will have a different experience, I don't think we should set out to write "in-universe" articles. I believe that blending in-universe and out-of-universe information in a manner similar to Wikipedia would be acceptable. Many Wikis struggle in their formative years with whether they should include both official and unofficial content. Official content is, naturally, information about the games, anime, etc. This also includes real world information, such as sales figures, controversy, critical reception, and such. Unofficial content includes fan-creations, such as fanfics, information about people's individual towns, personally created patterns, and personal experiences with the series. I believe that, at this point in our development, we should devote our mainspace articles (those without prefixes, such as special or user) to official topics and information. However, I believe that one's userspace is a perfect place to share your experiences and creations with the Wiki - and I encourage that. My dream for this Wiki is that we would create a community as well as a reference site. For me, the most effective and enjoyable Wikis are ones that embrace the humanity of their writers, thus encouraging the writers to devote more time and work harder. Let's see if we can build that!

Next, let's go into what all this "official" content is that we'll be covering:
 * The series as a whole
 * Locations (town, city, home)
 * Characters (Tom Nook, villagers, etc.)
 * Events (holidays, tourneys, etc.)
 * Tools, Furniture, etc.
 * Games
 * E-Cards
 * Anime
 * Merchandise
 * Individuals and Staff

How we go about establishing standards for each of these types of articles is now up to us. I believe we're going to want a template for each different category, first off. Each article, regardless of type, should fully explain the subject (naturally), including detailed information about their appearances in the games and anime, physical appearance, relation to the player, and so on. Additionally, I'd like to establish a glossary, where each article has a short information blurb, much like what Nintendo did with the City Folk website recently. What do you think about that?

Anyway, I have talked to much. I now turn the floor over to you. Feel free to support or tear apart anything said above. This Wiki is not just for me, and Wikis are not a one-size-fits-all affair. Let's get this improvement going! Stumpers 00:26, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
 * For adminship, I think the best would be that people vote and other contributors can support or not (with reasons) since there are somewhat regular contributors here. I think a minimum of contributions is needed for the candidate, and that you also support him or her to become one as you are the only active administrator at the moment. In my opinion, a total of two administrators for a small wiki would be the best: if one goes MIA, at least there will be another to check the wiki.
 * As for 'page standards, I agree with everything; nothing to add for this point. --D-day 17:29, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Two more issues to discuss - (1) Main page policies, particularly news and featured articles. We need policy for when an article is good enough to be featured and what is newsworthy.  (2) How minor can a subject be to still get an article?  Should an implied character, such as Vicious Vole Vinnie get an article or be merged into a "List of implied characters"? Stumpers 21:33, 29 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I think we should vote for a new FA every month. --YOWUZA TALK 2 ME! 19:09, 30 January 2009 (UTC)
 * But what happens if there isn't a new article that meets our standards (which, by the way, we have yet to define)? I do like the voting, though.  How about this (and again I'm taking a page out of the other Wiki I'm a part of) - we vote on which articles deserve to be FAs and then we put them on a list, and each week/month/day/whatever we look at the list and make the next article on the list featured.  That way, should we come to a point where there's no article that month that deserves to be an FA, we can put up an old FA until we get another article in good condition. Stumpers 19:21, 30 January 2009 (UTC)
 * In addition to the requirements necessary for pages, I think we should remind writers to remain impartial and informative. It seems to be, in some occasions, that writers are using language that's too informal and opinionated. 'Oodles of bells', for example. Thanks for setting this talk up, by the way, it's a really good way to hear everyone's opinions. Dab 12:26, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe "mantain a NPOV" could be part of a policy --YOWUZA TALK 2 ME! 17:52, 1 February 2009 (UTC)
 * At the risk of sounding rather stupid; what, may I ask, is an 'NPOV'?Dab 20:08, 1 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Dab! NPOV means, in my experience, non-point of view.  In other words, it means writing as if you were writing an encyclopedia: the only opinions that are voiced in the articles are those of the characters, game developers/publishers, and industry professionals.  For example, I wouldn't write, "This is a very hard task," but rather, I would find go to IGN.com's Game Guide and say, "IGN.com editor ___ claims that ___ is the hardest task in the game." Does that help?  I'm also concerned with the number of "I's" and "you's" that I'm seeing.  It's like people don't understand that we are a formal encyclopedia rather than a community.  I think the more good examples of articles we have, the more people will realize that.  However, adding a segment called "Writing Professionally" into Animal Crossing City:About would be a good idea - I'll have to do that. Stumpers 21:14, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Species
Is it really necessary to have to 'species' category? If it is going to be continued, we need to add all the characters to it, and perhaps get rid of unique species such as 'beaver'. Also, we would need a better description of each species. It would be good to hear people's input on the matter. Dab 12:32, 31 January 2009 (UTC)