User:Sycamore/An essay from Sycamore on current strategies

In the time that I have edited the site it has changed a great deal, the catalyst I myself perceived was Famine leaving and from there on there has been a dramatic increase in “Stupidity” – i.e. lengthy dramas and a very clear decline in article quality. I’ve lost count of how many have come to me on the IRC and commented to me personally about it, I’ve also lost count of the drama ridden forums that have taken place over the sites direction. I feel that now I need to say some stuff that you will all care about.

To get to the point, I felt the need to provide some sort of reply; there been a lot said about possible oppage, my ass kicking stats and my chiseled good looks. I am however at a bit of a turning point. Put bluntly, the issue with wikia is becoming a sideline to what this site actually becoming. I’m not too sure at this stage; I hope to constructively help with whatever comes next.

Currently I see a very serious problem with the content we produce (specifically VFH), so many tedious articles, and so much veneration for articles that do not move me (and the bulk of a largely silent majority). Don’t get me wrong so many recent articles make me laugh and many still conform to the goodness I love the site for.

Now the comments Famine made when he left I felt had a lot of hyperbole in it, and I was pretty sure that was not us, or if so only at a limited level; I can’t with any honesty say that at the moment. I don’t feel it’s a wiki break thing, I feel a very progressive state of stupid = funny amongst so much of the community. That’s not to jab at you all, the thing is that we’re getting so good at removing red links and formatting perfectly – but the articles have no imagination, no soul and often seem pretty stupid to me. (Yeah make a jibe at my English – still at least mine have something, some intelligence, imagination etc.)

This is not just me, so many have left, when I started up so many greats were still producing some of their best work. Now with all of our “rising stars” and “Maintenance” users, they’re nowhere to be seen.

Now I feel the need to pause to consider what I’ve been doing, have I been part of the problem or part of the solution? The answer is probably a little of both, on one hand I’ve probable contributed to the escalation of more clever vandals, and pissed off quite a few, adding to the growing number of “insurgent types” – I’ve also pissed off quite a few users with my antics. I felt that I could improve things, though Pee and doing the whole MadMax, Mhaille deal on new pages and content – however I’m not entirely loved by all.

Sadly I often fear that these efforts are not proving effective, the whole carrot ethos has worked to produce no end of drama and vocal stupidity. I have come to believe that we need a Famine character to give out a little bit more stick, not like the random attacking the Thekillerfroggy has been trying out, but someone to move on the people who loiter and generally consider the site as a crapbin. We have lost a sense of a privilege to edit the site, it’s now alright to loiter and fuck about – and too even boast about it.

At the moment there are so many users participating in maintenance, I’m often having to pick up after there slovenly attempts, and being viewed as a bit of a wanker for it as I attempt to save decent stubs from utter retards who think adding to VFD is cool and tagging some pretty decent articles. There is a serious division between pros like UU, MrN9000 and myself and the others who create categories that link only to each other, or QVFD ICU’d articles etc.

There is a lack of writing talent, and a spastic factor of ten on VFH – articles like Paradise Lost, Jingo etc would probably not get featured now. They’d be bogged down with “It’s really good and subtle, but I don’t get it” or “needs more action/stupid stuff with colours” – we’re becoming like a bad film that’s being re-run over and over again. There will always be a mix, but the balance and the site objective at the moment is not hitting the mark.

Consider very closely what has replaced the older articles with more “boring subtle highbrow humour” – let’s face it the bulk of it is fucking shit.

The question I want to ask: what is going to be done about this more fundamental issue than wikia? – The drama of a divided site, the issue of endless de-moralizing statements on our forums and importantly what kind of content we are going to be about, are we going to write intelligent subtle humour, or be a crap bin for tedious namespaces and dull unimaginative drivel.

For my part, I have doubts for the site right now – Of course in a minute Modusoperandi will probably put something great on the discussion page and I’ll be laughing, but seriously I think a shift in the current direction is needed on content and content management.