Mass Effect Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Mass Effect Wiki
Forums: Index > Policy > Wiki Lockdown



This page is for discussing a policy related to the Mass Effect Wiki that may or may not be passed by the community. The Form below serves to describe the Policy and what it is about, or what it will modify.

Policy:

Description of Policy: Locking the wiki so that only auto-confirmed users can edit it until April 30th.

Notes:
Supporting links or images:

Other Notes

Ok I know we said we weren't going to do this, but the fact is that we had an idea about what would happen, and as I'm sure everyone has had this experience, reality comes up and turns the table over. We so underestimated the impact that it was comparing Luna to Sol.

The bottom line here is that Commdor and myself, the only two active admins here, are completely, 1000%, overwhelmed with the amount of new content that is flowing in. I get regular emails about how many visitors we get per day, previously the high was near the 500,000 mark, since the release of ME3, that number has never dropped below 1,000,000. We just can't keep up and I'm sure others are feeling overwhelmed. We've been having multiple issues of vandalism slipping through for hours and not being caught, bad edits being made, MoS violations, and a huge number of other issues that are about as long as I’m tall in 8 point font. We have only a few senior editors around, and other regular users are nowhere to be seen. This isn't like a DLC pack where it will be overwhelming for a few days, then calm down. Something like this, we are talking months until we have everything documented.

The bottom line here is that both of us cannot keep up this pace for much longer. Both of us are tired, and Commdor has exams this week that he needs to worry about. We just can't keep up anymore. Both of us are near a breaking point in terms of what we can handle, just look at Commdor's talk page and I'm about the same way.

So what this is. This will institute a lockdown so that auto-confirmed users, meaning users who have their email registered with Wikia, will be able to edit, and everyone else can't. This will help with the flow of information, while we manage to process all of it. This will last until April 30th. The reason for the time is that we need time to set standards back in, clean up articles, and hammer things out.

To anyone voting, please please please understand that this decision is not being made lightly, but, it is one that has to be made quickly, and one that is needed as reality again, has a way of turning the table on you. We aren't trying to punish anyone, we just can't keep up anymore. Lancer1289 22:56, March 12, 2012 (UTC)

Voting

VOTING HAS CLOSED. PROPOSAL PASSES 19-0-3

For

  1. Not an easy decision, but one that must be made. Lancer1289 22:56, March 12, 2012 (UTC)
  2. Agreed. Derpherpherp 22:59, March 12, 2012 (UTC)
  3. -- Commdor (Talk) 23:01, March 12, 2012 (UTC)
  4. Makes sense. Go for it. DS21200
  5. It makes sense, because when real life starts to suffer and burnout happens from the sheer workload then this awesome wiki would suffer. ;) You guys have done an amazing job and I can only imagine how hard it is to make this decision. -- KaloneousHelpDesk 23:24, March 12, 2012 (UTC)
  6. I'm normally hesitant for protectsite, it's defiantly not a long term solution. There are defiantly good IP edits, hopefully they'll just make an account, I can imagine this will stop some casual vandalism. However, users should be encouraged to patrol RC when possible to relieve admins, this won't sort everything out, but I imagine it will help. -- RandomTime 23:33, March 12, 2012 (UTC)
  7. Trandra 00:19, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  8. I'm initially relunctant, having the same reason as Randomtime. But I guess this action is only fair since there are only 2 admin and 1 senior editor (yours truly) active. — Teugene (Talk) 01:29, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  9. Agreed. --Kainzorus Prime Walkie-talkie 01:58, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  10. If IP users are as adamant to contribute as I was, they'll register. — The Primarch «- 02:21, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  11. The Illusive Man 07:32, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  12. Quality over quantity. JakePT 15:15, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  13. Im still playing the game myself but I would love to take a more active role helping here. I agree it would be for the best to stop the vandalism in the short-term, to compile all the new info, from all our playthroughs, and create and update all pages on a set date. I'm all for it. Garhdo 15:21, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  14. Reasonable. Anybody who cares enough about the wiki to edit it can go ahead and register. Diyartifact 16:46, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  15. Seems like a necessary evil to me. For it. Tanooki1432 16:49, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  16. Hate to do this as it locks me out, but it is necessary. BeoW0lfe 16:59, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  17. It's a hard decision. But this is for the best... just do it. See you when this is over. Bluegear93 17:04, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  18. Better safe than sorry. Diggsworth 23:15, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  19. Can understand why this must be done. JediSpectre117 06:49, March 14, 2012 (UTC)

Neutral

Against

  1. As always, against locking down anything on the wiki. As the only active Bureaucrat, who even had to deal with Wiki issues while explicitly away from the wiki (the wonders of email...), I don't see the need. We can handle this without closing off access to people who have just been introduced to the wiki and the series. We don't want their first impression of us to be "YOU CAN'T EDIT!!!" As such, I'm all sorts of opposed to this. It's completely antithetical to EVERYTHING this wiki was founded to be. In addition to the above, this is an illegal proposal, in that a two-day voting period has been mandated in direct contradiction to site policy. SpartHawg948 22:35, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  2. I have played all games and am on my 30th hour of ME3 gameplay but I'm not a contributor here. Regardless, I have been the head of Assassin's Creed Wiki for years now, and I fully support Spart -- a wiki is meant to be a free, open thing. If you admins are not able to fulfill your duties, either find someone who can or recruit more people to help you deal with the influx of data coming your way. You should not block the wiki simply because you can't handle the info. Find editors who you can trust and give them rollback, moderador and/or admin power, even if temporarily. That way you will keep the wiki open and make sure that instead of blocking info from being added, the information added will be of quality. A wiki is meant to be a repositorium of knowledge and a information database -- stopping content to be added because the people in charge can't deal with it all nullifies the purpose and existence of a wiki. -- D. Cello 23:25, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
  3. I would be for this, simply because it would help keep vandalism and such down, but site policy cannot be over-ridden just to make things easier. Unless the voting period is extended to the required 7 days, I'm against a lockdown. --CommanderCousland 23:34, March 13, 2012 (UTC)

Comments

As we are most likely heading for a lockdown, I'd like to suggest that we set up a banner at the Main Page just below the Community Launch Plan banner for the purpose of directing new editors to register, read our MoS, etc. I'm aware it is noted at the bottom of the main page but it's out of view until you scroll down. Considering the vast amount of new users coming into the wiki since launch day, it should be at the forefront of the main page. — Teugene (Talk) 01:42, March 13, 2012 (UTC)

WAIT A D--- MINUTE!!! WHY THE F--- IS THE VOTING PERIOD TWO DAYS??? Are we just making up rules willy-nilly now to justify whatever we want to do? The established guidelines for Policy proposals says quite explicitly "Once a topic has begun, a vote will last for 7 days, ending at the time indicated on the template at the top of the page." Not "a vote will last for 7 days... unless we want to change that on a whim." I'll wait for an explanation, but know that I'm about five seconds from calling BS on this and invoking Bureaucrat's prerogative to stop what appears to be an attempt to railroad this through in blatant violation of site policy. If you all want to change the rules and shorten the voting period (which is a terrible idea), that itself needs to pass a community vote here. SpartHawg948 22:40, March 13, 2012 (UTC)

Changed back to seven. Lancer1289 23:40, March 13, 2012 (UTC)

Outstanding. The rules have meaning again, and editors can see that the admins do, in fact, not consider themselves exempt from site policies. SpartHawg948 23:49, March 13, 2012 (UTC)
Whoops, I guess most of us just skipped the header and vote without noticing it. Sorry Spart =/ — Teugene (Talk) 01:16, March 14, 2012 (UTC)

Implementation

With the policy being passed 19-0-3, I will be sending an email to Wikia support asking for the lockdown. Once I have confirmation it is in place, I will update the Community Corner, and the ME3 launch blog with the details. If there are any questions, message me on my talk page and I will respond as fast as I can.

I will also update this page when the lockdown goes into effect. Lancer1289 19:03, March 20, 2012 (UTC)

Advertisement