User blog:Muppetfan/IMPORTANT: My Address to Arthur Wiki

It has dawned on me recently, even before CJ's Pipebomb blog post, that being an administrator of Arthur Wiki, it is high time that I make an address to the wiki. I hope no one takes offense in any of the things I'm about to say, do not take it personal and think that I am only talking to you.

The way I see it, there have been four basic generations of this wiki. The generation where Limequat created the wiki and a few began adding some things, the generation of me, Noahcs, and FrancineFan3883 in 2010, where we began laying the foundation of the wiki. The generation of the adminships of Luke and Annawantimes and the beginning of CJ's adminship, and now. You can argue with me over this, but that is the basic way I see it.

When I first came to this wiki way back in 2010, I had done a lot of wiki searching. I had searched and searched for wikis that had topics that I am passionate about. I found many. But only one that I could find seemed to have any hope. The rest were all a big vandalism mess, and for me, a fairly new wiki editor in 2010, they seemed hopeless. It was only this wiki, Arthur Wiki, that to me seemed like it had hope. Sure, it had some vandalism here and there, but I saw the potential of this wiki. So I came. That potential had been built up by Limequat, the creator of the wiki, and the others who contributed in the early years of the wiki. Basically we had three users who edited regularly, me, Noahcs, and FrancineFan3833. Some others popped in here and there, and I'm not out to take credit from anyone who may have. But during those years we laid the foundation to the wiki. We created pages to set up something that we knew would be good for many years to come.

In some way or another, I quit editing here. I guess life just got in the way, so I quit coming here. (This may sound like a personal story, but I'm almost getting to my point here) so months passed, and I wanted to come back terribly. I wanted to come back and edit again. But I was scared. Incredibly scared. I had figured that the whole wiki most be overtaken in vandalism. There was probably no active users there, and the whole thing would just be a big mess for me to try to clean up. Yet one day, I decided that I should return. So I went to Arthur Wiki, expecting this use, vast land of vandalism and abandonness. But that isn't what I found. I found a wiki with dedicated users. I found a wiki that didn't have a hint of vandalism left unnoticed. I later found out that it was the magic of that third generation that did it. The generation that took the rights to the wiki and got it back to its former glory. I later found out that for a while users kept trying to adopt the wiki, yet Wikia wouldn't give the rights because too many editors were requesting adoption. That to me is amazing. That a bunch of people were so persistent to get this wiki back under control, that they kept requesting adoption, even though Wikia kept saying no.

In the first generation, a group of dedicated people laid the groundwork to the wiki. In the second generation, a group of dedicated people laid the foundation to the wiki. In the third generation, a group of dedicated people continued building the wiki at all costs. Throughout its entire history, this wiki was carried, grown, and nurtured by a bunch of dedicated people who were willing to work on a collaborative guide to some TV show with no pay.

That is what we are today. We are a bunch of people that are working on this collaborate guide to some TV show without getting a penny out of it. And that's what each user here is expected to behave like. They should be carrying on the spirit of the past generations of the wiki, where we are so enthused to edit that our wiki keeps on growing and growing.

Believe me, though there may have been some quarreling among users, the users in the previous generations didn't fight the way we do. Users weren't constantly having problems with each other. Maybe here and there, but not a lot. And I suggest and encourage that you carry on that spirit while working on Arthur Wiki.

If you haven't noticed, our wiki is gradually becoming more mainstream. Very gradually, more and more Arthur fans are coming here for a guide to the books and show. Just the other day, someone I know was telling me about how their amazed that we have a page for about every background and minor character that exists. We are the #1 guide for Arthur information. And currently, when some new wiki editor comes, wanting to edit the wiki to add more info, they easily may be discouraged to come because of the quarreling they see not only on the main page, but also in Arthur Wiki Chat. As the people who are breaking new ground, traveling into uncharted waters for us, we have to get our act together. We have to set a good example to all new users, so that they are aware that there most definitely is a standard as to how you should be acting here. I want you to act in the spirit of Arthur and friends. They have arguments and disagreements, but they never, ever have ongoing hates. Rarely, if ever are they talking about people behind their backs. And if they are doing something in that order, it never, ever goes with out teaching them a lesson. And that's what I want to see here.

I am very, very proud of what that little obscure wiki of nothingness that I came to in 2010 has become. And I am positive that it will continue to evolve into an even greater wiki. I am also very, very proud of the users here and the work they have done. Most of all, I am proud to say that in each and every editor on this wiki, there is not one of you that I don't find at least one good quality that you bring to this wiki. And I want that to be a challenge for everyone: make sure you can pick out the unique quality that you bring to the wiki. If you cannot, then I want you to look at your other, maybe not so good qualities, and make an effort to change one of those into an extremely good quality that is beneficial for our wiki.

I believe that we have the potential here at Arthur Wiki to become a wiki with over 20,000 pages of quality articles, with an extremely large community. But that is not our final goal. If you don't mind me saying so, I truly believe that this is our unwritten mission statement:  "Our mission is to create a collaborative guide of information about the Arthur book and TV series, so that it may collect more information about Arthur than any other source, so that Arthur fanatics can always come here and find the information they need to continue to learn more about the series."

You may have different thoughts, but I feel that that is our unwritten mission statement. And that is a mission statement that we must always be working toward. I feel that following that statement and dedicating ourselves to making the wiki more informative is the best thing that we can do for the wiki community right now. I feel that doing this will be the beginning of blotting out all of the hate and backstabbing going on on this wiki.

And I encourage you to further evolve a collaborative guide of information about the Arthur book and TV series, so that it may collect more information about Arthur than any other source, so that Arthur fanatics can always come here and find the information they need to continue to learn more about the series.