Thread: Admins

One thing which has always bothered me about Bulbapedia compared to other wikis (including, but not limited to, Wikipedia) is that the admins, rather than simply enforcing community consensus, are allowed to basically control all aspects of the site. What was the reasoning behind this different structural decision, and why is it better?

Well, for one thing, the people who own the site get to do what they want with the site. Be glad they're allowing you to contribute at all, because most Pokemon websites aren't wikis at all.

Second, which aspects are you talking about? Don't just start a thread acting like you have a huge beef with the tyranny of the admins, and then not even bother saying what the awful things are that they're allegedly doing. Be specific!

Speaking generally, because it seems to me you have a specific beef you didn't name, the admins are the ones that put in a ton of work on the 'pedia. They're the most active users. But in almost all cases a random user who goes up and proposes a serious policy change or does a slick update to an old template or otherwise makes a major contribution...will be recognized! It's just that users who have that initiative rapidly become admins. So it seems like the "regular users" aren't doing anything, because the promotion pipeline works in such a way to encourage making the best users staffers.

Originally Posted by evkl

Speaking generally, because it seems to me you have a specific beef you didn't name, the admins are the ones that put in a ton of work on the 'pedia. They're the most active users. But in almost all cases a random user who goes up and proposes a serious policy change or does a slick update to an old template or otherwise makes a major contribution...will be recognized! It's just that users who have that initiative rapidly become admins. So it seems like the "regular users" aren't doing anything, because the promotion pipeline works in such a way to encourage making the best users staffers.

Ha! I've been on Bulba since 2007 and have been vocal on some big issues, including things like old templates and dispute mediation, never been offered adminship. Not sure I'd even take it, I never even applied for adminship on Wikipedia. I'm User:Venomoth on this wiki BTW.

It's true it's their site and that they may do what they wish, they may even have connections to the Pokemon company itself, but I would hate for it to become one of those Wikis with reviewers or only the creator could contribute to. That seems so phony to me, it's like if someone wants to pretend their knowledge and views are the absolute, you might as well just go to a website that doesn't allow comments or feedback - that's fine, but it's not an encyclopedia or a collaboration, unlike Wikipedia, but that's just my 2 cents.

i can assure you that sadly, none of us work for Pokemon (but Game Freak, we are all available if you need some help).

My uncle works for Game Freak. I know all the insider secrets. [/cliche]

Also. It's not just about the time you've had your account created for. It's the amount of effort you put into the site. It doesn't matter if you've been here longer than me, DETH or Kogoro; if you've got less than 250 contributions then you don't stand a chance. Sorry.

Let's look back at my early templates.

Yeah. Regions. Regions was the first template I can say I made all by myself.

GUESS WHAT, IT SUCKED. Zhen and Pie both hated it. Keep in mind, I made it up in late 2006. I was nowhere near the top of the list then.

And now I am. And so my templates have improved, and people like them.