User blog comment:CruzDude/PERFECT OPPORTUNITY FOR OUR WIKI!/@comment-1840523-20110222191611

OK, draft no. 2

History
Founded 5 years ago, on the 22nd February 2006, the Battlefield Wiki was set up to provide information on weapons, vehicles, maps and other content from all of the Battlefield games in the series. As of the last system check, there are 737 articles ranging from Battlefield 1942 to Battlefield 3, as well as a comprehensive selection of user-made/-uploaded images, over 2000 in fact. Being a wiki, all of the information is open to the public, without subscriptions, payments, or registration needed to access the information we collect and publish. We gave average views of 15,000 a week, and over the five years that we have been in existence, over 52,000 contributions have been made to the articles. Furthermore, we host vibrant forums and one of Wikia’s most welcoming IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels. After the site was founded, it lay nearly dormant for many years, but by this time last year, thanks to BC2, we had gained a team of about a dozen or more dedicated volunteers and many more casual contributors (around 90 last month apparently), with a total of 772 signed-up members, many of whom are still active today.

Community
As said before, we have 772 signed-up members, each with a personal wikia username and access to blogging software, userpages and other features. Many of these editors are dedicated Battlefield fans, who have owned multiple installments in the series. As well as signed up users, we have a common base of "anonymous users", people whom aren't signed up to wikia but still able to edit our content and contribute to the growing community we have. Our most experienced editors act as system operators for the wiki, using special powers to watch over the wiki's proceedings, blocking users/IP addresses that have shown a tendancy to vandalise or disrupt the content and community we host. Thanks to the intra-wiki network hosted by Wikia, we have been able to create good links with other wikis on the network, establishing many friendships with larger wikis such as the Call of Duty wiki and the Comminity Central wiki, the hub of all Wikia activity. While some users have critisised our lack of nigh-on constant editing, we see it as a benifit, as it allows us to be able to clearly find vandalism or disruption in our Recent Changes logs, and can act quickly on anything we find

Features
As the website is hosted by Wikia, we are able to use the full range of features available on their network, from free-posting blogs to IRC channels. We also have a forum system that allows users to post questions and comments on anything related to Battlefield, and commonly we answer questions provided by those in need of the information in a friendly and encouraging way. This is also easy due to the use of MediaWiki software, which allows easy and fast creation of articles and forum posts. Currently, we are considering branching out into the Facebook, Twitter and (especially) YouTube services (we already feature many embedded YouTube videos from contributors on our pages) to allow us to have an easy base for videos, information publishing and community response in the wider internet community. We have already forged links with other Wikia gaming communities, most notably the Call of Duty Wiki, but are always open to partnerships with other communities.

Battlefield 3
Everyone here is hyped up for Battlefield 3. We've been gearing up for this ever since information was released long ago, and, as one could see if they visit the site, we have already altered the background to match the released front covers for the upcoming game. With a large group of editors, we are easily able to publish new information as it is published, and constant refinement by the more dedicated editors allows us to have well structured and well written articles published in under one day after information is released. So, any improvements/additions, or are we clear to go ahead with this?