WikiCU talk:About

Future of WikiCU

OK, guys, help. I graduate in May. How do we take WikiCU forward? I'm perfectly happy to continue owning the site and keeping it on my server as this takes up very little time or money. However, once I graduate I'll have very little time or inclination to moderate the site or make any significant changes. And it's not just me. TTan recently observed that "the current cadre of editors are mainly former CUCom regs and almost all of them are alums," and most other users tend to make worthless contributions (inside jokes, irrelevant, self-promoting, etc). As TTan says, "we need fresh blood on WikiCU." So we either need a marketing strategy or I need to have over the reigns to someone else. Now, the university - which includes the student councils and all student groups - doesn't want anything to do with the site because they're afraid of being liable for any contributions. (Technically, under the DMCA, websites aren't responsible for user-submitted content, but the university is stubborn, hey what's new.) In light of this, I see the follow options:

• Continue as before. Hope and pray for new editors. Maybe apply a new skin/theme/style to make it look all swish.

• Transform the wiki into something more like a portal with a Columbia start page, blog feeds on the front page, weather, Spec headlines, votes, a forum, etc. CUCommmunity reborn. On the downside this would take a lot of effort - I certainly couldn't do it myself. And do people really want another version of what is ultimately a social networking website when they've already got Facebook? This option would become infinitely more attractive if Culpa and/or Cueats and/or BoredAtColumbia.net would join us in building a mega portal.

• Hand the site over to Spec. They'll still be around in 10 years, and in between hopefully lots of Speccies will work on improving the site. But they're hardly the most innovative bunch (remember all those efforts at making a splog). And because they're run by a big group of people, and new people every year, they might never get round to making any improvements. Also several contributors here really don't trust the Spec.

• Hand things over to another successful CU website. Bwog? Culpa? Would they even want anything to do with WikiCU? At least they've demonstrated the ability to create a good website, respond to student requests, and keep their respective sites running for several years.

• Give it to Wikia, the commercial arm of Wikipedia. They'll keep it running. But it'll have a ton of ads and Columbians will lose all control.

• Give it to some other student. But who? Plus this doesn't solve much because this student will also graduate like me, and isn't necessarily more reliable than me. I think Culpa does something like this - the site is owned by one person, but they designate one or two current students to run it on an everyday basis. Questions: what if this one person completely neglects the site? and how does this person choose current students to run it? surely it's better to hand WikiCU to an on-campus organization that will keep the site running for years to come even if it doesn't do a great job???

Please let me know your thoughts and ideas.  − Reaganaut  04:08, 19 November 2007 (EST)

Pacman

If the site can remain on this server I see no need for most of the proposed fixes. What we really need are more people with an interest in the sort of material that's compiled here. Here are some ideas for that, specifically:

• Improve the site's Google rating. I'm not really sure how (maybe Google bomb stuff), but this has really low visibility on search engines, which hurts its relevance and ability to pull in contributors.
• Advertise. Flyering, appeals to Bwog, whatever.
• Reach out to alumni. They already contribute lots of stuff to the stories section of the alumni website, and have committed interests, like the Ultimate Frisbee team people. You could write to the alumni magazines (e.g. Columbia magazine or CCT) asking if they could run a story about the effort, which should pull in some disparate people.

All I can think of for now. Anything else? Pacman 04:17, 19 November 2007 (EST)

Absentminded

My two cents: adopt the culpa management scheme.

• Flyer on campus to recruit a 'staff' of editors (admins, really)
• At an interest meeting ask them to apply.
• Application should include ideas for leveraging the wiki, increasing usage, etc. Should also ask them to create an entry from scratch.
• I would really like to see some kind of development alliance between us, CULPA, and the new hungrycu.com guys.
• It's pretty clear that because of it's nature the wiki will draw less traffic. It might be a good idea to flesh out a few areas fully to show off. Housing would be the easiest- come up with a standard article format and bring the entire category up to snuff for buildings, really put together a solid lottery article, since that's something that first years will ALWAYS come looking for help on. Then we let the wiki do it's magic when they start clicking links to other articles...
• Aside: It's too bad that Robert McCaughey's class isn't around anymore. This would've been a great platform for his 'research project' assignments.

-Absentminded 04:26, 19 November 2007 (EST)

ttan

First off. Make a prominent link on the main page to this. Right now, the only people who even know this discussion is going on are the aforementioned CUCom regs and other obsessive "Recent changes" checkers with no life. We need to put it out there that there's a serious discussion going on with respect to WikiCU's future. That being said, here are my observations:

• I concur with Absentminded. There is a fairly well-established trend of student-run websites that manage to survive several generations -- most notably CULPA and Bwog. However, that's because they either have a strong and regimented organisation (Bwog), or they serve a pressing need (CULPA). Since it is the very nature of Wikis that they are collaborative and each contributors contributes with respect to his or her free time and knowledge (and also since there's no need for strong organisation), I think the CULPA method is an interesting study.
• To add further credence to the CULPA method, I am a big fan of having a "core" team who can take ultimate responsibility and ownership for a site like WikiCU. For any community to exist (e.g. CUCommunity) there has to be base of regular users that know each other and work together on a regular basis. WikiCU cannot be Wikipedia because we simply don't have that critical mass of users (and even that being said, I will wager that the vast majority of Wiki edits are made by a relatively small base of editors, and the vast majority of Wiki users are readers).
• Absolutely do not give it to Spec. That organisation can't even maintain a consistent web front (it changed no less than 3 times in my four years here). Their upper ranks are full of overambitious zealots over-eager to add their own stamp to a something that isn't broke to begin with. And the point about Splogs is well-put -- they can't even keep that up. What worries me more is that they will close it off, either explicitly or implicitly. Explicit -- only allow Speccies to edit. Implicit -- brand it so that non-Speccies will feel unwelcome.
• Absolutely do not give it to Wikia. I can only imagine the mayhem that will be unleashed on this if non-Columbians are the editors. We might run into your asshole friend who insisted on reversing all your edits on the "University of North America" (remember that?)
• Absolutely don't try to turn it into CUCommunity reborn. Why? The more complicated this site is, the harder it will be to maintain and keep up-to-date. What ultimately killed CUCommunity wasn't just Valcarcel's constant declarations of war, etc., but because Adam couldn't keep up with the buginess and complaints and feature requests of an interface he wrote himself from scratch.
• What would be very useful is if you could provide some technical stats on WikiCU. Space needed, bandwidth requirements, monthly users, etc., etc., etc.
• If we do elect to go the CULPA route, now might be a good time to appoint some positions. You can be 'Owner'. Feinstein, myself, absentminded, Pacman and others who have made some substantive contributions can be 'Senior Editors'. A few that choose to volunteer their continued time and commitment as alums can be part of the 'Management Committee' or something. That way you can advertise that WikiCU is looking for Senior Editors and Management Committeepersons.

Ttan 04:43, 19 November 2007 (EST)

Feinstein

I'm with absentminded and ttan, a CULPA style management scheme would have the best shot at longevity. Attracting new, interested editors is pretty important to the continued life of the site. I can certainly stick around and keep an eye on things. Feinstein 16:36, 1 December 2007 (EST)