Hey folks - just dropping by to give you some key updates from the past month. Let's dive in!

Admin Code of Conduct

We recently published an Admin Code of Conduct. As part of a strategy to clean-up and consolidate policies to make them clearer for users, this policy aims to be a clear starting place for how all admins (and indeed users) should apply themselves on the platform.

If you have any questions on this, please do contact me or Fandom Support directly!

Read our blog about the Admin Code of Conduct

Web accessibility resources

Web accessibility refers to making websites as accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of disability. Doing this on Fandom allows even more users to access and enjoy the content you create, potentially growing your community.

We published some new resources about how you can make your wiki more accessible, and what benefits that brings to your community.

Read our blog about the new accessibility resources

Video uploads

Video uploading has been re-enabled on the platform. .mp4, .webm, .mkv, and .mov are once again supported video types!

Read more in the Tech updates from last month

That about covers it! If you have any questions or concerns, please do comment below or drop me a message. Thanks all!

Hi Brickipedia! I've a potentially neat idea for the wiki

Something I've noted about a lot of articles on here is that they have very little out-of-universe context for the given sets. A lot of designers nowadays use social media or Brickset to document their experiences designing flagship sets and the development of them, and I think it's important that sort of thing be documented in one place.

I've glanced on over at the Manual of Style and I've noted that there isn't really any sort of header suggestion for this sort of content. What I'm proposing here is that if applicable, a "History and Development" header could be a great segment to add to articles.

I've drafted an example of this over on the 10497 Galaxy Explorer page. I haven't completed it - I want to write a more detailed description also detailing the set's combination models - but it gives a good idea of what I'm going for.

Any feedback is welcome! I understand I'm a fairly inactive editor here but I think this feedback could help enhance articles greatly.

Hey folks! Back in November, we announced that Fandom will be upgrading to MediaWiki 1.43 in 2025. You may now have seen a scary notice pop up saying the migration is happening soon!

Please do read the blog above, but I'm here to give you a TL;DR of what to expect over the next few months.

What changes you can expect

As with all MediaWiki upgrades, these often bring performance and security improvements, as well as new features. We will update the Help page with a list of changes in the coming weeks.

The key areas here are:

• This will not change the design of wikis

• Most of the changes will happen under the hood, so you won't notice many visual changes

Timeline

Our current plans have this wiki to migrate in March. However, this is subject to change, so could be earlier or later. View Antonio's blog for a full breakdown of our migration timeline.

Note: During the upgrade, the wiki will go into read-only mode for around 30 minutes (potentially longer for larger wikis).

Report issues

If you have any bug reports, issues, or feedback, please contact me via Discord, message wall, or reply in this thread. The Fandom Discord server also has a dedicated #mediawiki-upgrade channel where you can request help too!

Further information

Read more in depth about the upgrade:

• Fandom's MediaWiki 1.43 upgrade blog

• Fandom's Help page for the MediaWiki 1.43 upgrade

That's about it folks! I'll keep you updated as and when I have new information. If anyone has any questions, concerns, or feedback, please do reach out to me. Thanks!

Hey folks! As we're heading into the Holiday season, we've been hard at work on giving our global navigation a makeover!

What's changing?

Long time users may remember the global navigation used to appear at the top of pages. This is now returning! The following are moving to the top bar:

• Profile and notifications

• The search function (now a search bar)

• The "Start a Wiki" button

The left navigation is remaining too, with some Fandom-centric buttons being replaced with more wiki-centric ones:

• Explore - highlights other wikis and news around Fandom

• FanCentral - links off to FanCentral

• Current - pages other users like you also viewed, as well as popular pages on the wiki

• Recent - pages you've visited recently

• History - a longer list of pages you've visited recently

Why are we making this change?

This is based on user feedback, experiments and data, which will hopefully help the user experience and keep users around on this wiki longer!

Timeline

All being well, we're aiming to launch on these dates (subject to change if blockers arise):

• December 11: for everyone outside the United States of America

• December 12: full release to everyone

This is available to test right now! Head over to Fandom Stars Wiki to try out the new navigation.

Feedback

Please read Lostris' blog on the new nav for more information

If you have any feedback, please either comment on that blog, comment in this thread, or contact me on Discord.

Thanks all!

For me, I have the Ninjago game, the Harry Potter Collection games and I would like the star wars game.

Hey folks - Happy Halloween! I've got an update that should help users feel safer on the platform during the spooky season and beyond! 👻

We're making some changes involving email confirmation and anonymous editing. Please read Brandon’s blog for a full breakdown, but areas I want to draw your attention to are:

• Email confirmation - wikis where anon editing is disabled (including this wiki), editors will now need to confirm their email addresses before they can edit or comment on wikis. This is another user safety measure to act as a roadblock for bad actors, and we’ve already been doing this for some time on wikis aimed at children

• Anonymous editing - While anon editing is seen as a gateway to editing, it also carries risks of extra vandalism. To help with this, we are disabling anon editing on brand new wikis (already live) and disabling anon editing on wikis with inactive admins/mods (aiming for this week)

Please do read the blog for more information and rationale. As always, as your Community Manager, if you have questions or feedback - please let me know!

I was trying to access this figure's page, but it redirects to a disambiguation page and none of the results seem like the right page. Does this character not have a page or am I missing something?

If a page needs to be added, here's his lego.com profile:

“Oops, did you step on something? Hee hee hee!”

The Goblin is a mischievous little imp of the forest. He scampers through the shadows and hides out in rocky caves and hollow trees, snatching up bugs and birds’ eggs for his supper…and wherever he goes, he’s always giggling to himself about all of the tricks that he’s going to play.

Have you ever been building something and thought that a brick was missing, only to discover it later sitting right there on the table? That was the Goblin’s doing. Inside his magical bag, he keeps all of the pieces that people think they’ve misplaced, and he loves to leave them just where you don’t expect to find them – like under your feet!

Hellooo! It's somehow March already, and lots has happened lately - let me share an overview with you folks about the latest developments:

February's Community Culture

Fandom has started a new Community Culture blog series - a monthly post highlighting diverse people, programming, and entertainment aiming to introduce you to new people, communities, and their topics. Keep an eye out for these posts each month and, in the meantime, check out February's post focusing on Black History Month (BHM) and its 2024 theme, Art for Change.

Technical Updates: February 9 and February 23

Check out our last Technical Updates blogs which cover known issues, bug fixes, and experiments. Picking out two important ones:

• CodeMirror - We updated the CodeMirror extension for the 2010 editor (responsible for syntax highlighting). We reverted the first update after community feedback, and we're currently fixing the noted issues. Once we're done, the next upgrade will happen in smaller batches for a more controlled release

• Extra protection - In the coming weeks, wikis directed at children (an option given to a user when founding a new wiki or defined as such by Fandom staff) will require accounts to be emailconfirmed in order to edit. The goal is to increase the protection of our younger userbase against spambots and other malicious actors. You can confirm your email via Special:Preferences. If you have any concerns about this, please let me know!

Read the February 9 Technical Updates blog

Read the February 23 Technical Updates blog

Reorganizing the VisualEditor

We released a minor design update to the VisualEditor, both the Visual Mode and the Source Mode (aka 2017 editor) on February 8. This is with the goal of making your editing experience more accessible and intuitive.

Read the blog about reorganising the Visual Editor

QuickAnswers update

We're continuing work on QuickAnswers improvements - here are some of the latest developments:

• Vetting period - mod teams will have a select time period to edit new Quick Answers before they go live on the wiki.

• Filters - The QA Dashboard filters have a counter that will auto-update as the QAs are processed to give mods a better overview.

If you have any concerns or questions about this upcoming feature, please let me know!

Check out the latest QuickAnswers blog

Fandom's First Transparency Report

Fandom published their first ever transparency report, showing the measures we're taking to keep users safe on the platform. Covering our Trust & Safety actions for the 2023 calendar year, this comes with data that you wouldn't usually see, including everything from the number of JavaScript submissions we reject, to the number of wikis we close.

Read more about Fandom's first Transparency Report

Any questions, issues, comments on this, please do comment below!

Hellooo!

Today, Fandom released an update to their VisualEditor, to both the Visual Mode and the Source Mode (aka, '2017 editor'). This is to make your editing experience more accessible and intuitive!

To not miss out on any information, check out this blog and/or the updated help page.

If you're pressed for time, don't worry, I have the key points handy! To summarise, we:

• Renamed some of the tools (e.g. "paragraph" is now "normal text")

• Shuffled some icons around (e.g. the back and forward arrow buttons are now located on the far left rather than the middle)

• Hid some less-essential tools from view to make the initial editor view less overwhelming in all its glory (the tools are still accessible in dropdown menus)

• For the 2017 source mode: we removed the options available from the menu icon (those three stacked horizontal bars) -- If you want those back, you can customize your toolbar to access them from there)

• For the 2017 source mode: we used the menu icon to replace the gear icon

Are you more of a visual person? Check out the design mocks detailing the changes below:

VisualEditor - Visual Mode

VisualEditor - Source Mode (aka 2017 source mode editor)

Any questions or comments, give me a shout below or send me a message elsewhere. Thanks all!

Hey folks!

We've been celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) from September 15 to October 15. This has focused on Hispanic creators in Entertainment that often go unnoticed, such as those behind the scenes including directors, writers, special effects artists, makeup artists - and more!

Read Fandom's Hispanic Heritage Month blog

Fandom is highlighting these people through our Makers Series. We want to hear their stories of how they got into the industry and how're they helping to shape their field.

Check out the first blog in the HHM Makers Series by Fearless Diva!

YOU can help!

• Create blogs or Discussions posts on your wikis, highlighting those creators and their influence on the fandom

• Edit articles about Hispanic creators and make sure they're up to date - you may learn something new too!

• Finally - music! Celebrate HHM by listening to music by Hispanic artists.

Check out Fandom's Hispanic Heritage Month Spotify playlist

Spotlighting HHM and other celebrations is important for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). It's about everyone being treated fairly and with respect. Without raising awareness, we may take the contributions people make for granted without realizing the challenges many go through. We can all get involved and make a difference!

Check out our other recent DEI blogs and what you can do to help:

• My experiences with Disability for Disability Pride Month

• The importance of DEI in the entertainment industry

• Fandom's Pride Month celebrations

Technical updates - September 22

Next up, here are a couple of key things from our most recent Technical updates I wanted to draw your attention to!

• Thanks extension - this has been tested for some time on some communities and we've made several styling improvements. Eventually, it'll become a toggle on the Admin dashboard. Until then, if you're an admin on a community with a Wiki Rep assigned and you'd like to have this enabled, feel free to reach out to them or otherwise contact staff

• Reported notifications - this feature allows post reports to appear in notifications under the bell icon. We've rolled this out to 25% of wikis and reviewing the results and feedback from this. Will keep you posted!

If you have any questions on these, feel free to comment below! Plenty more updates in the main tech update blog too.

Check out the the September 22 Technical update blog

Quick Answers

Fandom's been contuining development of Quick Answers and I have a new update on this!

For those of you who don't know what Quick Answers is - it's a module that appears on wiki pages that formats information into questions and answers. This information is relevant to the wiki page it's featured on and only displays for logged out users.

The key takeaway from this latest update is that admins and mods will soon be able to edit the questions and content for Quick Answers. This will be hopefully happen around end of the October (though this could change).

Read more in Brandon's update on Quick Answers

It's Pride Month!

How's it going, folks? This June, we're celebrating the contributions of the LGBTQIA+ community. Whether it be in movies, TV shows, video games, books, music, or just you as a person - we're covering it all.

Our theme for Pride this year is looking back and moving forward. We reflect on the challenges the LGBTQIA+ community faced in the past and continue to face now. The goal is to improve the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people going forwards. We can all help with this and now is the perfect time to educate ourselves and learn how we can contribute.

Our programming

Fandom has a bunch of things planned for Pride Month - let's dive in!

• Pride playlist - Fandom is back with a Pride Spotify playlist! Featuring solely LGBTQIA+ artists from a variety of genres, this is the playlist for you. Did we miss any artists? Comment below!

Listen to Fandom's Pride Month 2023 Spotify playlist

• Drag Queen interviews - Fandom also visited RuPaul's DragCon! We heard from the Queens about the importance of being able to express yourself without fear.

Check out the interviews from DragCon

• Drag Race bracket tournament - Stay tuned for this anticipated tournament on the Drag Race Wiki. See how far some of the fiercest queens can go!

Read Fandom's Pride blog for more details

What can you do to celebrate and reflect?

Want to get involved on your wikis? There's a lot you can do and here are just a few suggestions:

• Wiki theme - customise your wiki theme with Pride colours to show your support this month. Check out designs on Wookieepedia, Avatar Wiki, and Encyclopedia SpongeBobia for inspiration!

• Highlight people in your franchise - use blogs or Discussions posts to highlight prominent LGBTQIA+ characters or creators in your franchises and their contributions.

• Editing projects - start an editing project to improve articles featuring LGBTQIA+ themes. I'm sure editors would love to get involved!

Let's get some conversations going in the comments! Share your favourite LGBTQIA+ characters and creators from your favourite franchise.

Happy Pride Month everyone!

Hey folks!

Can you believe it's May already? Not sure where the time's gone! As we're gearing up for the second half of 2023, time to review the latest Fandom updates - let's dive in!

Asian American Pacific Islander Month

This May, Fandom is celebrating the contributions of Asian-American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) creators in the entertainment industry for Asian American Pacific Islander Month. The theme this month is Breaking the Mold, breaking down stereotypes and showcasing the incredible work of AAPI creators.

There are so many things Fandom has planned for the event, including an AAPI Spotify playlist, highlighting AAPI artists in a diverse range of genres!

What does Breaking the Mold mean to you? Comment below!

Read the Asian American Pacific Islander Month blog

Technical updates

JP recently posted the latest Technical updates, including announcements from Community Connect 2023! There are a lot of exciting things on the way, here's a taster of what's in the blog:

• Community Connect 2023 recap

• GenAI

• Thanks extension

• Fandom Compass

• And more!

Read the May 5 Technical updates blog for more information

Mobile CSS

A highly requested feature is now available for ALL admins - Mobile CSS!

This allows admins to customise more areas on mobile including templates, tables, main pages - and more! As long as updates comply to our Customization Policy, you're good to go!

Want to get started? Admins, head to MediaWiki:FandomMobile.css!

Read the Mobile CSS introduction blog

Star Wars Day!

Last but not least, I posted a blog on Community Central celebrating Star Wars Day on May 4, highlighting why Star Wars is awesome and what folks can do to celebrate it. As a long time Star Wars fan, I had so much fun writing it and chatting to users as well as highlighting some years old SpongeBob-Star Wars fan art!

We also featured some TERRIFIC Star Wars trading cards in the blog - I'd really appreciate it if you could show them some love!

Check out the Star Wars Day blog and trading cards

That about covers it - if have you questions on anything, please comment below!

Hey everyone! As we near April, I wanted to post two updates from March so you're all up to date. Let's dive in!

Women's History Month

Fandom kicked off of the Women's History Month (WHM) celebrations earlier this month and as we approach the second half I wanted to highlight it again as more initiatives are coming this week!

As a reminder, the national theme for this WHM is Embrace Equity. Equitable opportunities should be matched with equitable action to drive progress. This is about making sure there are inclusive spaces promoting equity and belonging - this has a big impact. Equity requires us to be fair and impartial and to shift from considering opportunities to committing to true equality through action.

Fandom initiatives

• Spotify playlist - This curated Spotify playlist focuses on intersectionality and specifically shines a light on women of color, LGBTQIA+ women, femme-identifying and non-binary artists, disabled women, and women of other minority groups making strides in music. Let us know your favourite song from the list! Listen to Fandom's Women's History Month Spotify playlist.

• Gaming stories - We highlighted women, femme-identifying and non-binary people gamers throughout the community. Check out the WHM gaming stories blog!

• Scream Queens and Final Girls - later this month, we'll be featuring a game card style highlight of some of the best actresses who are prominent and influential in horror films

Happy Women's History Month everyone! Feel free to comment below with how you've been celebrating WHM this month and your favourite song from our Spotify playlist!

Read Fandom's Women's History Month blog.

MediaWiki 1.39 - migrations have started!

As many of you have likely seen from the banners on your wikis, migrations to MediaWiki 1.39 have started! This is just a reminder that if you notice any bugs or have any questions about the migration, feel free to leave a comment here, drop me a message on my message wall, or message me on Discord. Happy to help!

Read more on the MediaWiki 1.39 upgrade.

Hi all! As 2022 draws to a close, I wanted to post the last updates of the year so let's dive in!

Native American Heritage Month roundup

Read the NAHM round up blog

In November, we celebrated Native American Heritage Month (NAHM), highlighting rich culture and history of Native Americans. Working with the Native American Media Alliance, we explored the nuances of Storytelling and Storytellers through a series of events, including the NAHM Panel and a Roundtable hosted by the fellows from the Native American Media Alliance Feature Film Writer’s Lab.

• Watch the NAHM panel!

• View the NAHM roundtable in the Fandom Discord server

We also wanted to highlight IPs that tell the stories of indigenous people from global perspectives! The blog features an interview from Doane Tulugaq Avery, a film writer of Iñupiaq descent, whose works often focus on feminine, queer, and Indigenous character-driven narratives. We wanted to find out what Storytellers and Storytelling meant to her - please do read the interview in the blog!

Extension Review Nomination

Read the Extension review nomination blog

A highly requested feature is to be able to nominate extensions to be featured on the platform. Once a quarter, we will conduct reviews into which extension should be enabled next. Fandom users will be able to suggest extensions to be enabled. There are lots of extensions to choose from and to submit one for review, you can post a link to it from the relevant MediaWiki.org page, eg, Extension:Thanks.

Suggest an Extension to be added to the platform

We will then move to a public voting stage after suggestions are entered to select a winner - you can vote as many times as you'd like! We'll provide another update at the top of the year with what nominations made it through. We will continue with quarterly nominations throughout 2023. This quarter's suggestion period closes on December 21 so be sure to get your suggestions in!

Technical Updates: December 16, 2022

Read the December 16 Tech Update blog

Picking out some key areas in this edition of the tech update, though please do check out the blog for more!

• Code freeze - This is the final technical update of 2022 as we enter a code freeze to get ready for MW 1.39 announced earlier this year. I will have updates for you all on this in 2023!

• Link colour - with the addition of mobile theming and contrast checking, releasing soon is that links may now be underlined if they have less than a 1.5 contrast rating with the surrounding body text. We can fix if it comes up!

• Discussions Post/Reply history - This has proven more complex and roll out to all communities has been delayed until next year.

• Advanced Mobile Contributions (AMC) - We're still on track to have AMC enabled by default in early 2023. As a reminder, if you want to enable advanced mode, go to your settings page on the mobile site and select "Mobile options".

• Preferences resetting - There is currently an issue where preferences are resetting for some users - we're aware of this and set up a log to see if we can track down when these issues are happening.

The blog features a lot more as well, please do check it out!

Admin Plus Update

Read the Admin Plus Update blog

Admin Plus was an initiative released earlier this year, designed to help admins learn new skills and also gain badges from this that could be used on resumes, LinkedIn, or wherever you want. This benefits individual admins, and now these can benefit the wiki as a whole!

If all admins have completed the three A+ courses, the wiki could qualify for A+ Wiki status. Find out more about this on the Admin Plus help page. A+ Wiki status helps show community members admins are committed to creating a safe space for users. There are other perks including prizes to be won - check out the blog for more details!

Note: From December 21 to January 4, Admin+ quiz submissions & A+ Wiki applications will not be reviewed. Please feel free to submit quizzes & applications during this time, but they will not be reviewed until the new year.

That just about wraps it up! Have a fantastic and safe Christmas all! :D

I remember coming on here And there be 10 post everyday With 10 to 20 replies Where @Theo0005 At And Vader Rip Oh Is @Toa Kopaka Nuva still here W mod

Hi all - there was some key staff blogs that were posted recently and I want to keep you updated on so let's dive in!

Native American Heritage Month

Read the Native American Heritage Month Staff blog

Fandom is celebrating Native American Heritage Month this November, to celebrate the contributions and achievements of Native American people. We will also be discussing the challenges the community faces how we can become allies and support each other.

This year on Fandom we are exploring the themes of storytellers and storytelling. We will be involving community members including in a Discord roundtable and a Twitch panel!

In the Discord roundtable, we explore Native American IP including movies, games, television, and more! This roundtable takes place in the Fandom Discord server on Wednesday November 16 at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT.

Express interest in the Native American Heritage Month panel.

MediaWiki upgrade in 2023

Read the MediaWiki upgrade Staff blog

In 2023, wikis will be upgrading to MediaWiki 1.39. This is part of our work on the Unified Community Platform (UCP) to enable us to upgrade MediaWiki regularly to get new features and updates to come with it.

Upgrading ensures we keep tools up to date for editors, with more modern features and improvements on the platform. Upgrading on a regular basis means changes for each upgrade are more manageable compared to if left for longer.

We're looking at an early 2023 period for the update, with backend work starting in November with work on updates on MediaWiki 1.37 being frozen around the holiday period in December. Feel free to message me though if you spot a bug!

Admin Plus AMA in Fandom Discord

On Friday November 18 at 12pm PT / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT we are hosting an AMA on Admin Plus, the program designed to help admins with technical, content, and community skills. If you complete the courses successfully, you will receive badges that you can use anywhere you want, including on LinkedIn!

Join us for an AMA with our Senior Community Manager of Safety and program lead, Jenny Uchisawa, to learn more!

Express interest in the Admin Plus AMA

Two-factor authentication is coming to Fandom accounts

Read the 2FA staff blog

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is coming to Fandom accounts soon to help increase account security. This is optional and will involve the use of an authenticator app which can be used when you log into your account. This means that if your password is compromised, your account is still secure as there is another barrier in the authenticator app that is needed to be completed. I encourage you to read the staff blog to find out more about this.

Technical updates - November 4, 2022

Read the November 4 technical update blog

There was a new technical updates blog released earlier in the month and I encourage you to read it to find out more about what we're working on.

Thanks all! Any questions/comments, please let me know. :)

Hey everyone - today I bring news that mobile theming is here!

This means that the colors set in the Theme Designer will apply to both desktop and mobile. The following variables apply for this:

• background

• sticky nav

• header

• accent

• link

• article background color

• background image

• heading font

Admins will receive a prompt to check Special:ThemeDesigner for wiki contrast issues. Read about why having proper color contrast is so important for the creation of accessible web content.

Once there are no contrast issues anymore, admins can enable mobile theming on the wiki. Without fixing these issues, it will no longer be possible to make any theming changes.

There's more! With this new update, theme designer now also shows a mobile preview! Admins can thus verify how their chosen color theme will look on either version.

To enable mobile theming:

• Are you an admin? Head over to Special:ThemeDesigner!

• Not an admin but there are active admins? Reach out to them to make it happen!

• Not an admin and there aren't any? Reach out to the Wiki Representative if one is assigned. You can check via Special:Community, accessible through the explore menu. If you don't have a Wiki Rep, you can reach out to Fandom Staff instead via Special:Support

For more information:

• Read more in the Announcement blog

• Read the updated Help:Theme Designer page

• Read about making accessible web content on Fandom

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please do leave a comment in the comments on the announcement blog. Feel free to contact me as well.

Thanks all!

Hi everyone - I bring some more updates as we head into the Fall. Hope everyone is safe and well!

Hispanic Heritage Month

Fandom is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, recognising the contributions and influence of the Hispanic Americans to their history, culture, and achievements. The theme at Fandom this year is Las Voces, continuing to represent and amplify community voices.

We are introducing initiatives this month, including launching a new interactive map which highlights famous IPs, characters, and actors from a variety of hispanic countries. There is more to come!

Read more about Hispanic Heritage Month on Fandom!

Interactive map updates!

Interactive maps have been a highly requested feature on the platform and users have used them in a variety of ways. Now we have made more updates to them! Feel free to check out interactive maps yourselves on wikis you visit.

Read more about interactive map updates!

Discussions AbuseFilter and Mobile Theming are coming!

Discussion AbuseFilter and Mobile Theming are currently being beta tested, for release soon! As well as this, we will also see mobile editing improvements. Keep your eyes peeled for these and feel free to drop me a message if I can help with anything!

• Read more about Discussions Abuse Filter

• Read more about Mobile Theming

Technical Updates: September 9, 2022

Every other Friday, we’ll share notable changes on the site on Community Central. This update is meant to keep the community informed of changes on the platform that may affect you. Be sure to keep an eye on the staff blogs!

Read the September 9, 2022 Technical Update