The Future of GBFans.com Is in Your Hands

Definitely rounding the corner on the Wiki.

A lot of changes have been made to how the editor works. It is a very thorough GUI editor, you don’t need to know any syntax to use it. Essentially just drag and drop, or select and apply formatting. Much like a word processor.

One question I have for everyone is this:

What prevents you from contributing to a public knowledgebase / wiki, where everyone can edit and make changes?

Is it the fear of breaking something?

Providing inaccurate information?

Stepping on someone else’s toes?

Not enough of an incentive / recognition?

No wealth / fame / power / free parking? :joy:

I wish I knew that answer, too. :wink:

Without an investiture, there’s just no motivation. Lol.

Just time these days. I used to be (probably still am) an administrator of the Battlestar Wiki one of the largest still independent Wikis around. Obviously interest around that series has wanes over the years since its finale in 2009 but maybe if it’s ever rebooted again it will spark back up. I never sought fame or recognition… but others did. And often those people were the biggest pains-in-the-bum. More trouble than their worth.

I definitely preferred editing in wikitext/mediawiki markup though rather than a fancy GUI. I hope there’s still an option to edit the old fashioned way.

I guess that means I’m in the minority, as when I see inaccurate information on a wiki I do bother to update it–so long as there isn’t some barrier to entry preventing me from doing so. I do have a Fandom account (ugh), but at least on Wikipedia you don’t even need to be logged in to make an update so that’s nice.

If the question is specific to GBFans, the answer is “I don’t believe I have anything new to contribute.” If that ever changed, I would absolutely be willing to make an edit. Barrier to entry isn’t really a big deal since obviously I have an account since I’m replying to this thread, so…

Thank you for the feedback about the Wiki!

I am getting excited a little bit because I have gotten the Wiki just about where it needs to be and it is looking better than it ever has before. I have started putting the same level of polish on the Gallery section. After that, I feel like its only testing and bug fixes until it is ready.. along with some data migrations.

I need to make sure the following systems are working 100%:

-Email / Notifications

There is a whole new system that allows for more detailed notifications. Since there are a lot of places for content to go, commenting, replies, chat messages, forum tags..etc. It is important to make sure that is 100% functional from the start. I believe one of the features of the new forum will be the ability to reply to an email to post your reply to the forum. You will have the ability to get a push notification or a native phone notification if you have those setup as well.

-Shop

With the launch of the Hasbro 1984 Pack, the orders have been coming non-stop again. It has actually forced me to slow down with the programming because I’m the one that ships the orders too! :joy: That being said, the shop needs to function continuously with no interruptions. Without the shop there is no funding for the site. And it needs to keep working so orders placed before the launch can still get fulfilled after the launch. There are also a few spots that need a bit of polish to be done.

-Fan Profiles / Feeds

When you login to your account, you’ll be met with a feed of activity. Props, Fan Art, Reference Photos, posts, forum posts, replies.. etc all streaming in. Since there have been no users on the site while testing, its been hard to make sure that feed is going to work as intended. That needs some testing and some mock data added.

-News Tips

One of the cool features I have made (but zero testing so far) is a news tip line. It will be an email address where you can email news that you have found or companies can send in their press releases for new product launches. Those emails will get fed directly into an inbox that exists as part of the news area, so to go from email source to news article will be very fast. The RSS feeds that are currently on the main page of the site will also be monitored, so if there is breaking news it will land and get a news article created quickly.

-Ticket Support System

Along with email tips, the system will be monitoring my email inbox. It will hopefully keep track of new emails that come in and assign a ticket. Your tickets will be something you can view from your dashboard as well. It should help me keep track of things like an email that has been sitting without a reply for a few days. I can also quickly answer questions about orders and help with account issues.

OK. So in order for this to work out, I have to launch on a weekend.

AND

I am going to force myself to do it THIS weekend. The site is almost there. A few features will be pushed for post-launch.

I will be working frantically to get everything synced up and live, hopefully by Sunday afternoon.

The forum and site will go down Friday evening. Data migration will happen Friday night and Saturday.

Testing and bug fixes will happen Saturday and Sunday before launch.

See you on the other side!

Good luck! I’m always so stressed when the launch day has arrived.