Thread:Bratpack/@comment-24739709-20150520180626

Hi there! I’m Andrew, one of the community managers at Wikia. If you don’t know me, here’s my CC profile. I like baseball, laying on the beach with no plans or goals for the day, and climbing things.

We have a new beta project out, and since it's going to be critical to Wikia's future, we're asking for your help.

We want to partner with your community (and a couple others) and collaborate on a redesign of your existing infoboxes. It’s not a small task, but it’s one that we think we can get done relatively quickly and efficiently. Our engineers - both here in San Francisco and in Poland - will get hands-on with your community and work with your team to redesign the infoboxes.

You can read more here in the forum (and head to the sandbox to give it a whirl), but the tl:dr version: our current infobox structure translates very poorly to mobile experiences, and mobile is where Wikia’s growth lies. We came up with a solution that will take a bit of effort, but will pay significant dividends in the near future. What we're hoping is that we can use this community to test out its strengths and limitations while we get it from “beta” to “full feature”.

What you get out of the deal:


 * Wikia engineers who will work directly with your community to update the code that underpins your infoboxes
 * Access to staff for feedback, and our promise that your ideas will be taken seriously
 * A head-start on this change and therefore a significant upgrade in your community’s visibility

What we get out of the deal:


 * Several fresh sets of eyes that can help us understand how this will be used by the average Wikian
 * A test community that will let us track how the new infobox structure is used by visitors and viewers
 * The opportunity to share this initiative’s successes (and failures, I’m sure!) with the wider Wikia community and show them that it’s a smart plan for our shared mobile future

Please talk this over with your admin team and let me know. I’m happy to answer any and all questions about this - please use my wall or just keep the conversation going here. 