First off, allow me to acknowledge the success of the changes made several months ago to the voting system. The set periods for nominationss and voting have achieved exactly what they were meant to, allowing a variety of candidates when voting rolls around. That being said, there's a few more things I'd like to address in regards to the Voting Center.
First off, I propose we remove the Featured Trivia section of the main page. As I see it, trivia is neither a substantial enough aspect of the wiki nor one with enough interest to sustain a spot on the main page. A trivia section is an optional part of an article, and is merely a collection of footnotes about the article's content. Often there is nothing to merit a trivia section on an article, but one is added anyways presumably for the sake of producing trivia for the main page. It makes more sense for trivia to simply be considered as part of the equation in the Featured Article category, rather than its own. More significantly, it does not attract significant attention from the userbase. The last Featured Trivia vote to have more than two nominations was in November of last year. The past two sessions have seen a total of three votes for Featured Trivia a each, and the session before that there was a total of one. Overall I would say there is adequate enough reason to remove it.
Secondly, I request a change to policy prohibiting self-nominations for Featured User. Of the four current nominees for Featured User, three are self nominations. When voting started this session, there were SEVEN self-nominations. And this is not a first time incident. Back in December there was a similar bout of self nominations (five out of six). While in neither case did these nominations affect the votes and were more satirical in nature than anything else, they do clog the Featured user section and set a generally bad example. Until recently there was an unspoken rule against self-nominations, but as that seems to no longer be the case, it may be prudent to at last speak it.
Lastly, I propose we limit Featured Quotes to actual quotes from released stories, articles and blogs. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the verb quote as "to repeat (something written or said by another person) exactly." While I suppose this is a bit of nitpicking on my part, I suggest we add a small condition to the Featured Quote section requiring all nominations be actual quotations from released stories, articles or blogs. This way we are actually featuring content that can be found on the wiki on the main page. This is, after all, the goal of our Featured Content sections.
While none of these are problems, per say, they are areas in which a few minor changes could be made to improve the Voting Center in the near future.
All of these sound good to me.
What if we were to replace the FT section with a featured headcanon section? HAIL DENMARK 21:42, August 28, 2016 (UTC)
- The forums aren't exactly view-able to the casual public, and all we do there anyway is discuss them, not select everyone's favorites.
- I'm not sure a replacement for Featured Trivia is really necessary. It's not written in stone that there have to be a certain number of featured content highlights. That being said, I'm not opposed to the idea of a new spotlight, as long as it's relevant and attracts enough nominations. The issue with the Featured Headcanon or Featured Theory ideas, as I see it, is that we'd be highlighting content from the forums, which I have a problem with for two reasons. One, as I've mentioned before and as Bob said below, the point of the spotlights is to feature content from the wiki. Headcanons have found there home on the forums, which is not technically on the wiki. Secondly, and following up on the last point, the forums are a closed community and not accessible to everyone. The idea of spotlights is to give guests and even users, to an extent, a glimpse of what is offered on the wiki so that they will want to explore more. Highlighting content from the forums does not do much to accomplish this goal. In addition, it would be a pain to have to sum up a different Headcanon into a brief, concise summary that still captures the idea properly every month.
- tl;dr, I don't think a Featured Headcanon or Featured Theory would work as a spotlight, but if a different replacement could be found I would not be opposed to it. || DeltaStriker
Who said anything about the headcanons coming from the forums? We are able to think independently and come up with original content on our own, even headcanons made especially for the wiki. They're all the rage right now.
I'm with Delta on this. I don't really care much for a Featured Headcanon idea, regardless of where it's from. I do think we should get a replacement, though. The box for it is already on the main page, and I feel like it'd be a bit of a pain to fix the layout after ditching an entire box.
Voting[]
Featured Trivia[]
Motion to remove the Featured Trivia section of the main page.
For[]
- I would be in favor of this on the condition that it be replaced with something more productive, like Featured Headcanon or Featured Theory. -- BobTheDoctor27
- I suppose. But like Bob said, it needs to be replaced by something. ~~Chalk33
- --Invader39
- HAIL DENMARK 19:54, August 31, 2016 (UTC)
- I have no idea if this is public, delete my vote if it isn't. But I'm all for this. ---Maccy1949 20:36, August 31, 2016 (UTC)
- Hopefully we can decide on something good to replace it WindfalltheWanderer
- Probably, but I don't have a clue what should replace it Excelsior!
- From The Future!
- - BeastlyIrritatingContent
- See above. || DeltaStriker
Against[]
Self-Nominations[]
Motion for a change to policy prohibiting self-nominations for Featured User.
For[]
- -- BobTheDoctor27
- ~~Chalk33
- —Rando07 19:19, August 31, 2016 (UTC)
- --Invader39
- HAIL DENMARK 19:54, August 31, 2016 (UTC)
- WindfalltheWanderer
- ---Maccy1949 22:00, August 31, 2016 (UTC)
- plz Excelsior!
- - BeastlyIrritatingContent
- || DeltaStriker
Against[]
Featured Quotes[]
Motion to limit Featured Quotes to actual quotes from released stories, articles and blogs.
For[]
- Sure, this seems practical. The whole reason we have the features spotlights is to promote content on this wiki anyway. -- BobTheDoctor27
- Ye. ~~Chalk33
- To be honest, I thought this was already a rule. —Rando07 19:19, August 31, 2016 (UTC)
- --Invader39
- HAIL DENMARK 19:54, August 31, 2016 (UTC)
- what Rando said WindfalltheWanderer
- sure ---Maccy1949 21:59, August 31, 2016 (UTC)
- Excelsior!
- - BeastlyIrritatingContent
- || DeltaStriker