User blog:Unatratnag/My Two-Week Experience with Updating a Wikia

I've been updating the dc.wika site for two weeks now, and thought it would be a good idea to write down my experience from a two week perspective. The goal would be to maybe help someone who's looking at getting into it this or just starting as well.

I've been a long-time reader of comics, though maybe not as avid as some comic book fans. My first comic was the either the Spectacular Spider-Man vol 1 189 30th anniversary giant-sized, hologram cover or Wolverine Vol 2 50 both from 1992. I was primarily a marvel guy but I grew up watching the 90s animated Spider-Man, Batman, and X-Men shows and have been hooked since then, though not always able to afford purchasing all the comics I've wanted to read. It wasn't until about 2008 that I purchased my second DC comic. Why did I decide to start with updating the DC wiki which I have significantly less knowledge about compared to my Marvel knowledge? No one will ever know, perhaps it was just to start learning from mistakes, maybe it was to avoid feeling like I didn't know as much as I thought I did when it comes to Marvel. Either way, I've learned that you don't have to be an expert, and shouldn't take your ego too seriously for corrections. More on that in a bit, but wikias are really communities built on improving the wikia's knowledge for others.

I have an absolutely horrible memory. A while back I started using Evernote to write down brief synopsis of every comic I read. That way I have a search-able history for when I'm trying to remember something. I never updated wikia because it seems intimidating and filled with people who had way more knowledge than I did about characters. You can also see in the page update history, people were quick to revert changes. You could see admin walls filled with comments of people infuriated with changes being reverted, so I just never jumped in.

I came to DC.Wikia when I needed to refer back to some items on the Brubaker Catwoman run. When the wikia pages were all blank, I just shrugged it off and moved on. When I started re-reading the Geoff Johns run recently, because I was inspired from watching the new Flash TV show, I saw it once again was blank for a lot of the details. I decided to jump in and contribute notes from my Evernote pages to Wikia so others didn't have the same questions I had.

I updated the Flash:Iron Heights page as that was the issue I missed the first time I read through this run and was a little confused reading the straight numbered issues. I recently purchased the John's Flash omnibus which had this issue included so I decided to update it. Sure enough, as soon as I committed my changes, they were reverted instantly. I felt embarrassed as it said my comments were "out of universe" which I didn't understand at the time. I thought to myself, what the heck, I'm trying to add content, why would you just delete it rather than update it? Rather than give up, I asked the admin what the deal was and I learned when writing you have to speak from the point of view of the character in the universe. At first I didn't understand but as I read through more and more update reversals on wikia pages by others, I can see that there's so much content added to the site, that if it wasn't monitored, it would get hectic, sloppy, and unusable for the intent it was created for. That's why you see millions of dollars invested by corporations for data governance tools. Data organization is huge. When you see all the updates being made, admins don't have time to fix everything. They really need help from community members to help make good contributions. They also might not follow MLA standards for where references go, and can be inconsistent, but just remember you're hear to learn how the admin of this wikia site wants it organized to provide some conformity.

Another thought is the whole Myers Briggs spectrum. I can imagine a majority of people using this forum belong to the J spectrum vs P. J's tend to prefer their data organized. Coupled with a 'T' they can be viewed as highly logical individuals. As a result, a lot of feedback tends to be straight and to the point. Probably can seem harsh to someone new who expects a compliment sandwich. It's one of those things that no one really monitors your ID specifically. Maybe at some point you'll build some trust, but just expect that someone is policing the data, and you'll get feedback straight. It isn't mean to be mean, but delivered directly can sometimes insult people. Just get over it, this site is about the community and once you learn some of the rules it's not bad at all.

I'll say adding to the wikia has changed my own note taking when I read comics. I have to look a bit closer and by linking to characters when writing the summaries, I tend to remember them better and notice smaller clues in individual panels. Some things I certainly missed before in the Johns run really became apparent and can appreciate his genius creativity and story weaving. As a result, I think updating wikia has really enhanced my comic reading experience and knowledge, on top of my ability to enhance the wiki for others. Well, I don't claim to be a grammar or librarian, but it helps and I'm sure one of those guys can come along and clean up some of the mess I create. For anyone on the fence, I'd recommend trying it.