Suggestions for the Improvement of Novelas[]
I believe the introduction of Guilds, cells of users joined up in a particular cause, would help create a stronger sense of community on Novelas. I've noticed the community seems vaguely sparse, isolated to a few random talk pages at the moment. I believe it would assist with collaborative visions, and social chemistry between users.
Guild pages could consist of[]
- A mission statement with a clearly defined collaborative range
- Guild Forums
- Contributor List (Active and Past)
- Links to guild projects
- Guild To Do lists
Examples of guilds could include such ranges as[]
- Fan Fiction Guild: The function of this guild would be to keep the structure and categorization of Fan Fiction standard, to seek out new authors, and to maintain the Featured Fan Fiction section.
- Grammar Police: A guild for people who wish to go out and fix grammar/spelling/punctuation in various stories found in and around Novelas, improving the overall quality of the stories through the gathering of a list of poor-grammar stories, and the correcting of said grammar.
- Aethyrbridge Guild: A guild dedicated to the expansion and clarification of Aethyrbridge-related material.
- Word of Mouth Guild: A guild whose purpose to to spread the word about Novelas through as many means as possible. The creation of Novelas-related media (Images/Audio) and the recruitment of new authors is among possible tasks.
- Reader's Guild:A guild whose members go out readings stories posted on the site. Member also assist in categorization standards for each story, and putting ratings to stories.
Execution and creation[]
I believe a guilds section could be integrated seamlessly into the site as one of the main destinations, and should rightly be a main focus. However, I believe that all such social excercises in wiki format should be governed appropriately, allowing both for the freedom of expression, but a clear code of conduct relating to criticism. My suggestion is to create a number of guilds (due to the current low volume of this wiki, this may be relegated to one main guild and be expanded later) to regulate all other guilds, to assist new guild requests in starting their guild pages, to regulate the scructure and scope of the guilds, and whatnot.
Members may create a guild at will, but for them to be considered a real guild, they must have more than one member, a clearly defined mission statement and range.
In Closing[]
I believe Guilds to be a very good addition to Novelas. It can open a whole new door for the site in the user interaction and collaborative project aspect. Users of like-minded interest can connect and collaborate. The site can expand more easily. Any number of guilds can be started, breaching any range of subject which match the scope of the site.
But, seeing as this is a large project, I submit the idea to you, the admins, and also the rest of the users. I've been a member here for a little less than a month, and I've grown to enjoy this site greatly. Should this be a concept people think worthy, then I'll happily lend what help I can to the execution of this project.
And I'd love to hear some feedback ;) --Ex Machina 13:09, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
FeedBack[]
I disagree,this a community where anyone can do stuff.You can,however,put down a phrase of the section's philosophie on its main page.Serprex 15:00, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
I like this idea, primarily because it has the potential of getting people more involved in projects, especially the large ones that can't be tackled without multiple contributors. Even if the guild system were introduced, Fiction will remain a community where anyone can do stuff, as Serprex has said. The one problem at this point is that there aren't that many people for guilds to really take off. Yet even on that point it may be a benefit rather than a hindrance, because it will make it easier for newcomers to find a few users who share some points in common with them and thus make it easier to get started for the newcomers.
Any ideas on how we should get started?
- Well, I was thinking a good way to integrate it would be to create a guild portal, and link to it from the main page header. On the portal page we could have a brief explanation of what guilds are, who can join them (anyone) rules for the creation of guilds, and a list of active guilds. We might want to specify the range and scope guilds can cover. Guild pages should also come equipped with a To Do list, compiled by guild members. (See example ideas above). --Ex Machina 00:36, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
- Also, I had a thought that it would be a good that as time progresses, to include smaller, more narrow-ranged guilds for specific tasks under the larger hierarchy. (IE, Under Conworlders, a sub-page for each specific conworld, which contains links to talk pages, to do list, etc. Could this be done through the Forum: Namespace? --Ex Machina 04:38, 11 February 2007 (UTC)