Thread:Inept Wiki User/@comment-5275759-20191214104202

Seeing as there are a number of people in need of a recap as to what's been happening on the wiki over the past few months, I'm going to be compiling a joint recap here.

There is a lot to cover so this might take a little while.

Currently compiling/writing as of 18/12/2019

Sections to be written: Recent Wiki Activity, Recent User Actions, Series Three Overhaul Project (Index III/Accelerator, 2020), Progress Log, Personal Notes (Operation Leaf Sweep, Depression)

Previous Discussion Thread: Discussion, Brainstorming & Plans (22/10/19-)

User Status
So far as I know, OH&S is due back today after their trip overseas. Herald is planning to help with Railgun T episodes. Ollerus and The Lord Reader have been busy with end of year exam work but that may have passed now. As for me, I'm currently attempting post-stall recovery (not for the first time).

Active Tasks (Currently Writing)
The following tasks are currently ongoing (bear in mind that these might not be all of them):
 * New Release Updates (very gradual progress)
 * NT22R
 * Railgun SS3
 * Biohacker Arc
 * Index III/Accelerator Anime (Series Three Overhaul Project)
 * Monthly Manga
 * Pre-Railgun T work (Series Three Overhaul Project)
 * Image Information Survey (stalled)
 * Operation Leaf Sweep (stalled)
 * Overhaul Plans (multiple subjects)
 * Multiple joint projects (Shared Drafts)

Shared Drafts
In the past, we have tried to carry out simultaneous joint work on certain subjects, with mixed success in the draft phase. I've previously considered the idea of having an open sandbox for such work (though there were a number of problems with this idea), but a month or so ago, I realized that there was another possibility and began an experiment to test it.

The result of this was the creation of the Shared Draft templates. As the name suggests, these are templates containing a draft which can be worked on by multiple contributors. The contributors can place them anywhere on their sandboxes, wherever is convenient. The template has a top-nav bar on top containing links to the sandboxes it is located on as well as an edit link and refresh button - that way the users can easily edit the template and then easily return back to where they came.

First impressions seem good, so I intend to continue with them. I have to admit, I did get a bit overenthusiastic and carried away in the early test stages so I created a large number earlier than I probably should have done. There are currently 50 of them, 45 of which have been assigned tasks, though only a few of them have been positioned on multiple user sandboxes.

Given the nature of the Shared Draft templates and subsequent discussion, I've decided to discontinue the Image Tasklist posts that I had previously been doing in favour of a regularly updated one on one of the Shared Draft templates (with something similar for Odd Jobs). Other tasks which have been assigned so far include monitoring, aggregation and brainstorming tasks.

Image Information Survey
One of the major undertakings within the past few months is an effort to catalogue the many images which are lacking proper information and add it to them (which will be necessary for certain other plans which are in the works - such as a link to episode images from an episode infobox, which would depend on the images listing the source episode so they can be listed via Special:WhatLinksHere). Given that there are over 9000 files on the wiki, I decided to carry out the initial phase (going over and recording all of the images lacking info) via sweeps carried out with my recently activated Bot.

In order to carry out this project, which has been called the 'Image Information Survey', I copied a list from Special:AllPages (File:) of all files on the wiki at a particular point - separated into 28 batches, created a tag (which can be used to produce a convenient list via Special:WhatLinksHere) and category (to indicate the files currently being processed), and drew up a plan of sweeps to be carried out in a specific order to accomplish the objectives.

I carried out the first lot of sweeps on the first batch at the start of November, logging the results as I did so. I ran into a few unforeseen problems while carrying them out, which I intended to tackle and record so the procedure could be amended. However, being the nitwit that I am, I did not record them in the clearest of manners, missed a few key details, and I was interrupted by other matters, such that when I returned, I had forgotten many of the details and couldn't easily remember them. This led to other stuff, and coupled with other matters demanding simultaneous attention, resulted in the project stalling.

I hope to get it going again as soon as possible. I've tried to review and recover all of the details, but the messy recording and other matters interfering has meant I've kept losing my place (I'm somewhat tempted to start over with the second batch and amend/recall as I reencounter things).

One other thing - I've been manually adding tags/framework/details to images added since the list of files was extracted.

Wiki 10th Anniversary
As you know, it was the wiki's 10th birthday in September and as such, I thought that it would be an idea to do a few things to commemorate it. We discussed the matter and go a number of items together in the short time we had. Aside from a commemorative message (similar to the one done for our 8th anniversary), Herald made a great 10th anniversary wordmark, the Featured Article page was updated (to the recently overhauled Coffin page - tying in with the Accelerator anime), and I made a couple of megapoll posts. There was also a countdown to the anniversary itself - although it malfunctioned a bit due to an oversight on my part. There was an idea for a banner but it hasn't gone anywhere yet (just a few tweaks to one of the front page's navbars). Two other ideas were an advent calendar and an 'on this day...' template on the front page similar to the 'Did you know?' template (which incidentally was overhauled earlier in the year and recently had a few more items added) - obviously it is too late for the first one and there has been no work on the second.

Given that it is our tenth year and what happened when it was Toaru Majutsu no Index and Kamachi Kazuma's 10th anniversary, I was hoping to get at least 10 commemorative items ready. However, as Ollerus pointed out, we don't have to hurry it - after all, the 10 announcements for Kamachi's 10th anniversary were spread out over 2014. As such, work on other anniversary items is on hold for now, as we have more pressing matters.

Overhaul Brainstorming
There are a fair number of pages on the wiki which are in need of an overhaul. However, some of them have a very wide scope, with a lot of subtopics and overlap between them - as such, those articles will require extensive and careful work. For these, I was thinking that it would be an idea to do some collective brainstorming on the subjects, putting everything we can think of on the table, considering all of the various possibilities for them, and figuring out how best to approach the reworking. For example, in the case of Academy City, there are many scientific disciplines, technological fields, state elements, societal and cultural factors, and other aspects which are complexly intertwined and intersect in many places.

The main two subjects which I had in mind were Academy City and Magic, and two Shared Drafts have been assigned for brainstorming them. However, my attempts at initiating collective brainstorming have so far fizzled out, owing to various individual circumstances on all sides.

Progress Log (Currently Writing)
I have continued to record the activity and progress on the wiki and usually posted log posts fortnightly. The idea behind this was to keep track of what is being done on the wiki and to help manage and coordinate work. However there have been numerous problems in doing so. For one thing, it is difficult to verify and organize it into a more presentable and processible form (even then it is still a handful), and updating the log requires considerable effort, even as other work is being done. As a result, many of the logs have been unfinished by the time they were to be posted, and by the time the previously posted and unfinished one is sorted out, the next one is suffering close to posting, and so on. There is a considerable risk of it becoming a serious time sink.

I've previously made regular image tasklists, with possible images to look out for in new releases, particularly while the anime has been airing. However, with the introduction of the Shared Drafts, I've decided to discontinue them in favour of using one of the SD templates for a regular updated shared tasklist.

Upcoming Media
As most of you know, aside from the monthly manga chapter releases, Railgun T, the 3rd season of the Railgun anime and 3rd of the three anime announced for this stage of the Toaru Project, is starting in January and Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index, the 3rd series of the Index light novels, is starting in February. Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Biohacker Arc is also continuing with the release of the Accelerator anime BDs, up to the end of December. Imaginary Fest is also ongoing. No sign of Toaru Kagaku no Dark Matter chapter 2 yet.

It goes without saying that we will need to update as these are released and processed. We will also need to do some updates ahead of time, as we have tried to do before for Index III and the Accelerator anime (with mixed success).

Community Central
There are a few things which have been brought up on Community Central, some of which might need to be looked at in a bit more detail. One of the plans on there is a system change (for the UCP - Unified Community Platform) which means the retirement of the Forums and Talk. Certain other discussion-related parts of the wiki, such as the Message Walls and Article Comments, are on the same system and may be affected by the switch-over.

I'm not completely sure about some of the details, but just in case, I updated the wiki's database dump file in October and might do so again soon, so people can take up-to-date backups if they wish.  