User blog:Haldarn/Rally Round The FFXIclopedia

Open letter to all other admins, authors, editors and users

Dear friends of FFXIclopedia!

My name here's Haldarn. I know that none of you know me, having only had the privilege of brief conversations with a couple of you. I have been a user and contributor at FFXIclopedia since 2006 (with a lengthy FFXIV-induced hiatus from 2012 to 2016). I was present during the GE schism and was an active member of the Eorzeapedia forums from 2009 in the run-up to FFXIV's Alpha-testing, in which I participated.

I only have 1,488 edits to my name (though I have contributed a lot of graphics too). The articles I have authored have mainly been copy/paste/edits of events and updates since April this year.

I'm writing this letter to any who can take the time to read it, about FFXIclopedia, which I consider FFXI's greatest online resource. I'm presuming you feel the same, else you would be editing over at GamerEscape or BGWiki!

I think that FFXIclopedia has untapped potential to shine as the premier resource for FFXI and this is what I, and I hope you, want to make the site. Both GE and BG have their own feel and I think that FFXIclopedia can be different enough, yet retain the core aspects that sets it apart. I would complement those sites rather than conflict, and seek to re-establish our place in the community alongside the other essential player resources at FFXIAH, Windower, FFXIDB and Guildwork amongst others.

To do so, there are improvements I would recommend for the site, including but not limited to; front-page layout, common template structures, social interfaces (forums, blogs, chat, comments) and the meta-pages regarding guidelines for editors.

Although I have recently been given the privileges to carry out some of these operations by being assigned 'Discussions Moderator' (and over the weekend I cleared five years' of Requested Moves and Images/Articles for Deletion!) by the site Admin User:Tahngarthor, I feel the proper way to proceed when talking about changes to elements of the site is to discuss with the current admins, authors, editors and users.

To that end, I invite your comments on what I consider the first stage of any future changes - communication. Here's what I suggest:
 * With regards the future of the forum, see my post [here].
 * Activate Comments on Article pages so that there is a place for light-hearted discussion about different game elements (much in the same vein as FFXIAH's comments)
 * Replace the defunct Chat link with Wikia Chat so that users that are online simultaneously can interact casually.
 * Fully adopt and promote User_Blogs, rather than having blogs encouraged over on the phpBB forum.
 * Modify the Main Page so that social aspects mentioned above, along with Wiki Activity and FFXIclopedia-specific news have focus, with the FFXI News Feed still present, but slightly reduced in priority.
 * Encourage discussion on the forums regarding updates to templates which have remained in the same format since before Wikia where screen layout/real estate was very different.

I would appreciate if any other existing admins such as User:Blue Donkey Kong, User:Karuberu, User:Soily or even the big boss man himself User:Tahngarthor could offer their thoughts, whether they be positive, negative or ambivalent!

Also User:Rosalee, User:Mondegreen, User:Danallen, User:Korvana, User:Skyfawn, and editors I've forgotten/are not familiar with and any other regular users who might not have made edits/mainly use checklists, it'd be nice to here your opinions.

Thanks for taking the time to read! Hope to hear from you. -- Haldarn (talk) 15:42, June 9, 2016 (UTC)