"The Death Star will be completed on schedule"
"I should hope so for your sake, commander. The Emperor is not as...forgiving, as I am"

"The exclusive control of the Evas...If you wanted to, you could rule the world."

The general plan for the growth and development of EvaWiki as suggested by V (ultimately all decisions relying on Reichu, who gives the ulimate go-ahead on all things. Her will be done).

EvaWiki Unit 00 -- Prototype

Physically throw content onto the EvaWiki. Basically ask "Is this as good as the WikiProject Evangelion that V originally wrote on Wikipedia itself?" Throw up basic navigation interlinks, templates, and portals. Develop the rules and regulations which govern the Evawiki.

EvaWiki Unit 01 -- Test Type

Same thing mostly, but due to "bootstrapping" (accretion) existing articles will get progressively more refined. The defining aspect, however, is that *images* for every article, sometimes multiple images per article, are added to the EvaWiki.

EvaWiki Unit 02 -- Production Model

Membership positions (bureaucrats, admins) are firmly established. Rules, standards and conventions are perfected. Non-episode guide articles are perfected to the point that Reichu herself would consider them not only "presentable" but "no greater source of information on this topic" (i.e. Asuka) "...exists anywhere" Some time around when Rebuild comes out, allow registered members to join; they have no real power and can NEVER be elected Admin (B-crats MIGHT select new admins over time but don't count on it).

EvaWiki Unit 03 -- Production Model B

Cosmetically different from the last one. Reichu perfects her design choices for how EvaWiki should look, in terms of developing a custom "skin" for it as well as aesthetic tweaks to the wiki's layout (things not directly related to the information itself, and thus not falling under V's Minionistry). Ends when Reichu thinks that design-wise, it looks presentable.

EvaWiki -- Mass Production Model

Interlink EvaWiki with every Eva fansite or news fansite known to man. I.e., interlink it with Wikipedia, where the lion's share of people looking for Eva info will turn. Make EvaWiki the number one stop for comprehensive Rebuild of Evangelion news. Make sure we report news to mainstream media sites (i.e. Ain't It Cool News) faster than the piecemeal fashion that anime news sites handle it........ingratiate ourselves with Weta Digital and if at all possible, ADV films and those responsible for Rebuild. The Rebuild stuff is just a stepping stone, not entirely necessary. However, the ultimate goal is that if Live Action Eva Movie Series becomes "the next Lord of the Rings or Matrix Trilogy", "EvaCommentary" will literally become "the next TheOneRing.net", and EvaWiki will form a vital part of the overall "EvaCommentary" meta-site.

This is not only possible, it is essential



The point of this, of course, is not simply "oh wow, we want to be popular". No, the idea is to first develop a comprehensive knowledge base of "this is what Eva is, in encyclopedia form"...and then show it to Weta & Co, to make damn sure they *get it right*. We did this for LOTR in a more haphazard form, with endless messageboard postings and fanmail. How much easier would the "please do not use XenArwen when Eowyn is already in the second movie" and "Balrogs have wings or not?" complaints have been to get across to the movie makers, if we had had it in an easy to use and understand wiki-format? (LOTR came right before wikis became really popular).

At which point, Eva's in the wiki, and all's right with the world...

One thing I'm interested about is the "attack plan" for the various types of content. There is the sort of content that people tend to associate with the MediaWiki format, but MediaWiki is ultimately a tool, not a restriction. The site would be home to various other things, as need dictates. For example, pages dedicated solely to various theories (the handling of which we'll need to tackle), translations (e.g., NGE2 CI, Die Sterne), collected humor (e.g., the captioned/doctored image archive), "essays" (whether original or adapted from forum posts a la Wigs' site), random resources (e.g., a compilation of "references", which I gave Dr. Nick the go-ahead on), etc. Perhaps this was addressed elsewhere, so forgive me if I'm being redundant...

In any case, the site must be dynamic and able to accomodate all of the content it was always intended to hold. Just handling Commentary Pages will be an enormous task, so I was hoping to defer most of the other stuff to a general "Wiki Task Force".

V wrote:Make EvaWiki the number one stop for comprehensive Rebuild of Evangelion news. Make sure we report news to mainstream media sites (i.e. Ain't It Cool News) faster than the piecemeal fashion that anime news sites handle it........

So we're going to be a news site as well? Paint me skeptical.

I think we should just stick to being a repository of information, archive and of course, the site hosting the commentary. Beyond that and we'll probably end up over stretching our already lethargic forces.

Oh nothing like that; it's just that all wikis have a "news ticker" of the more important news going on out there (case in point the Star Trek wiki, MemoryAlpha). It's pretty easy.

I think this is the hardest part - the training and mobilizing of the forces. Most of us have likely never worked on a Wiki before. While I don't think it looks all that difficult, it will be the organization of the different participants that will be hard. I think after we build the basic snowball, getting it rolling will be the easy part. But I think many of us (those who aren't V) are going to have a hard time getting started for various reasons.

well....my idea was I'd get the ball rolling, as it were, with a basic setup, at which point you can start out by just adding in bits and pieces, i.e. go to episodes 1 to 4 and add stuff you think I haven't covered. Those are pretty much done, 1-4 now.

Of course, my whole hope is that I can help you with this, rather than some wikipedia addict who's obsessed with wikis more than with what they're about (put them in charge and you'd basically sell your soul). :)

I'm not so much worried about myself as I think once I get a few bits and pages under my belt I'll catch on rather quick. I'm mainly worried about getting others involved as this seems like a really big project that's too large for just a few people to handle.

Actually, the idea is to create a hardcore group of 5 to 15 dedicated people.

Wikis dont' really need dozens of people working on them, especially for a series that is mostly finished.

Really, about as many people who did the EvaCommentary are needed for this.

Bump just 'cause I wanted to give my two cents on something. I personally agree that there shouldn't be too many people working on the site, I think 15 MAX would be enough, as V suggested. But if that limit is reached and a few people are eager to join and seem like they'd work, we should let them. After all "Reichu has the right to sack your sorry ass if you suck at your job." ;)

Thoughts?

A relatively small amount of editors seems to be working quite well. I think as long as our quality control is good enough, we shouldn't have too much of a problem adding a few more.