User blog:Cosmicsilver/Dark Souls Wiki: Outside Looking In

The Dark Souls Wiki is in dire straits. Let's be real with ourselves, guys. Membership has decreased significantly, the pages are as bad as they were back when I first joined, and there's a backlog of hundreds of pages in need of serious editing.

After months of being an inactive lurker, I have to come to you guys with my blunt observations.

The pages are absolutely terrible. There's already a backlog of about 400 pages marked as article stubs. Now you guys keep creating pages and tacking on the Incomplete tag, so there are now about 150 of those. That's 550 articles that fall below standards. That's over 10% of the pages! First and foremost, you guys need to get a serious plan implemented for fixing pages. Working independently and without aim will get you all nowhere. Come together as a community, create a plan of action to tackle the mess of pages.

Leadership is not involved to any significant extent on the Wiki. One of the things that made the Wiki great was seeing all the Staff members working along side normal editors. Now everyone feels the need to become staff, and so being a normal member of the community is diluted and depressing. Admins need to get the community involved in bettering the Wiki, not alienated and left to do their own thing. Yes, people will always do their own thing, but let me let you in a little secret: If you set the tone for what should be done, people will fall in line, whether they intend to or not. It just happens.

The community is not the welcoming place it used to be. I've seen very little community outreach towards new editors, and I doubt that it's a coincidence that you all are having trouble retaining editors without that outreach. When people join, make it known that they can come to you for any help they may need. Be a resource to your fellow Wikians, and they will be prone to sticking around. That's not the only flaw in the community. The Discord server allows for dozens to sit in the chat and leave their computer running with no intention of actually ever talking in the chat room. As such, it gives the illusion that the Wiki and its community are alive and well. That is not the case, though.

Page consistency is a concept lost on many Wikis, and this is becoming one of them. Each type of article should be formatted a specific way, and there should be little variation. Uniform format allows for users to easily traverse the Wiki and understand the content of each article in a concise and simple manner.

I only make this post because it kills me to see the Wiki failing and sinking. I put a lot of time and effort into this Wiki, and I know you all do too. So I would encourage you to make the effort to do your part in changing this Wiki for the better.