User:Bfoxius/So You Want To Reform The Alternate History Wiki?

I've been meaning to make this page for a while now, but I never have had either the time or, frankly, cared enough about this place to write this and considered ditching this place for AH.com like so many others have done before. However, there are a number of problems I have with the site have kind of turned me off to the notion of abandoning ship and going to AH.com. I then took a look back at this place. Mitro, one of our ex-Brass, proprietor of the Alternate History Weekly Update blog, and de facto voice of the online AH community wrote this critique of this site's seeming devolution back in September. While I disagree with some parts of it ("seeming unconcern that people were using sockpuppets"? Does anyone remember Ninjasvswarriors?), I do agree with the overall theme that this wiki has gone downhill over the past year or two and that it needs community-led change, or else nothing will get done and this wiki will sink into either a haven for trolls, or another dead wiki where almost nothing will get done.

On the other hand, there is some very real discontent with AH.com amongst some people. Prominant wikian LightningLynx89 was permabanned from the site due to a passing reference to the GamerGate controversy that was interpreted as misogynistic, with the community and many people he considered friends seemingly applauding the ban. Though I try to avoid such matters, I have found that areas of the site do have an ideological echo chamber-y feel to them and due to AH.com's massive size and dominance over the online alternate history market, many people who hold diverse views are unintentionally stifled at times. This, alongside a very centralized moderating staff that is as prone to mistakes as the rest of us and often comes across as heavy-handed and the almost-arachiac forum interface leaves many people wanting an alternative alternate history site. At first, I thought I was alone with these concerns, but Mitro wrote another great blog post on the seeming overcentralization of the alternate history community and the monopoly effect that it holds.

Are you seeing the solution yet? Now that the wiki is burnt out from the map game drama, trolls, raids, and other nonsense (have you seen the TSPTF talk lately? Just a year ago, it was on fire), we have a golden opportunity to look back, cut our losses, reform the wiki based on the experience that we have gained, and see this place finally growing again as a viable alternative to AlternateHistory.com.

Here are my ideas for the time being to attract new, constructive users:
 * 1) Spin off map games into a sister wiki while banning them here - I used to be vehemantly opposed to people who wanted to move map games off this site, but the longer I have been here, the more I agree. Map games started as an innocent diversion from timelineering, the core of online alternate history. Over time, however, they have taken up a larger and larger share of the site's activity with many taking them much more seriously than anything else. Though map games are not inherently bad, they are, by nature, implausible. Most people who play map games are much more interested in taking their nation to greatness than creating an interesting scenario which leads the the implausibility that has plagued map games for eternity. In addition, many people who joined after map games became popular were not really interested in alternate history itself, only the map games and the various diversions which sprung up after they became popular. Now, we have tried to create another wiki before, but map games were already established and allowed on this site, sealing that wiki's fate before it was even started. By moving map games elsewhere, we will be able to start from the bottom creating interesting timelines and scenarios on this site while still letting people play map games on a wiki that is designed for the games themselves.
 * 2) Reform chat - I've already started on this by trying to implement the chat log bot (sadly, I don't think wikia will get it done for us), but I think a way to see what people have said to prevent the "he said, she said" flamewars that have plagued our community so many times and allow for a swifter and fairer ban process. To prevent accusations of overintrusiveness, the chat log will only be opened by the TSPTF when a complaint is filed on the TSPTF talk page. Speaking of the TSPTF...
 * 3) Reform the TSPTF - Now I have no problem with the current Constable-Lieutenant-Brass heirarchy that we have going here, it's served us fine in the past. What I do want to do is to cut down the ranks of inactive TSPTFers and put more people in the "retired" category when they have gone inactive. I also want to make the TSPTF more of an organization dedicated to the wiki's health and less of a booby prize for getting X amount of edits or being popular.
 * 4) Cut down on the non-AH meta side projects - Unneccessary side projects like the government simulation and Revolution: The Movie are fun and all, but in the end, the side needs a base in good alternate history scenarios before it can do things like the govsim and Revolution. Otherwise, the site will cease to become primarily an alternate history site and when a site named "Althistory.wikia.com" abandons its roots, you know it will go downhill (like it has done in the past). Only when this site has enough interest in Alternate History itself, can we allow the other stuff and even then, it should be officially sanctioned so that it doesn't overwhelm the actual content on this site.
 * 5) Bring back No Cross, No Crown - Political discussions not pertaining to AH are fun and all, but at the end of the day, they should be avoided. One of the major factors many people dislike AH.com is the popularity of political discussions often taking precident over actual AH. This can lead to political flamewars and inevitably echo chambers forming, moderators having to make tough decisions and inevitably making people mad, and overall purging the community of all goodness and light. It is best to avoid this or leave it to the chat.
 * 6) Encourage community projects - While up until now, I have been harping on cutting stuff back, here I want to encourage something. Community timelines. Ask yourself this question, could something as interesting and diverse as 1983: Doomsday emerge on anywhere other than a wiki, where community participation is the name of the game. Community projects, whether they be community timelines, map games, or other things have thrived on here because of the open nature of a wiki. We need to encourage this openness and foster constructive, not competitive community projects on this site.
 * 7) Cut down on the unneccessary fluff here that no one uses (Map Contest, blogs, old crappy timelines, etc.) - If no one uses it, there's no point to keeping it around. We need to do this if we are to overhaul this site and present a fresh new face
 * 8) Encourage old users to check out the wiki and help to restore it - Even though new users will be the future of this wiki, we will need some degree of helpful veterans to help guide them and give them timelines to emulate here. Spread the word that we are trying to reform ourselves. Believe it or not, many prominent internet althistorians got their starts here or at least participated in the discussions here before moving on to greener pastures. SpanishSpy, Mumby, Benkarnell, Max Sinister, Marcpasquin, Upvoteanthology, the list goes on and on. Try to encourage them and vets who have abandoned AH completely to give this site a try.

Discuss this and how we can reform this wiki/its plausibility in the talk page please.

—Bfoxius (talk)