Bible Wiki:AMP Talk Page/ AMP Roundup

Hi all! Well, our mentorship has come to end, and boy has it been a pleasure to work with you guys! Over the past 3 weeks, we've covered numerous topics and you guys have done your absolute best to make the most out of this experience. We've covered everything from policies to cleanup to templates, and now you and your wiki are equipped to explore new concepts, ideas and everything else! You have now qualified for additional help from the Community Development Team. These guys will provide further guidance as to how your wiki is organised, templates and your main page! And hopefully, with the help of ComDev and your hard work, a Spotlight won't be too far away.

Here's a quick recap of what we've covered:

Policies
Your wiki now has a complete set of policies which will make a new contributor's life much easier! The policies include what the user can edit, how to edit and what they can do in the chatroom - +more of course! You have also created pages giving the contributor a history of the wiki and what you hope to achieve in the future - and beyond! We mustn't forget, that as your wiki grows, the policies will grow. You will have bright new ideas for the wiki; you will think up new ways to help contributors further.

Cleanup
You have learned that:
 * most, if not all articles will contain an infobox to make locating key facts easier and will make the article look more aesthetically pleasing
 * articles should be split up into sub-headings in order to break up the text, again making information much easier to find.

Categories
All articles must have a category in order to improve SEO, and to make navigating around the wiki much easier. The categories should be well organised, having the capabilities to group pages in a helpful manner for users.

A few tips taken from what we've covered on this:

Start simple at first.
 * Have a broad scope - Is the article about a person or nation?
 * Narrow the scope - What era does the Nation, Person come from?
 * Narrow further - Did the nation/person make an appearance in a big event?

Not too narrow though - we just need to make sure each article has enough categories to link it with certain important/relevant subjects of the Bible - Old Testament person, "Genesis" etc.

Then we have maintenance categories:


 * Does the article have an image? - Category:Articles without images
 * Does the article contain red links? - Category:Articles with red links
 * Does the article need cleaning up in general? - Category:Articles in need of cleanup
 * Does the article need a better image? - Category:Articles in need of better images

Lelouch has also created cleanup templates and a layout guide which are very useful for new users as it gives them a good place to start, well done! :)

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
You have learned that:
 * category and file pages are best to have content written on them as this improves how the Googlebot or indeed a viewer will find your wiki - SEO
 * articles should have links to high quality websites in order to improve your wiki's search rating - I believe you have chosen ‎ to be one of them.
 * articles should have rich content, ie they should include key words associated with the article's subject as well as having relevant information. Rich content also includes the use of images on all if not most articles.

Now, we did talk about renaming this wiki as having "-apedia" in the wiki's name damages SEO. You still like this name, which is still okay! :)

If you wish to reconsider changing the wiki's name, go here: Special:Contact/rename-wiki.

Admin communication
Lelouch and Superdadsuper have agreed to hold a weekly discussion on a Friday in this wiki's Chatroom to discuss the wiki. A very good idea, and I would advise more frequent meetings if problems occur or if new ideas are thought up.

Social media
You now have a fully functioning Twitter account with Facebook and Google Plus accounts soon to follow. You know that the best content to post/tweet is information related to the Bible, as well as wiki related stuff - a new Admin, a wiki landmark of some sort etc.

I know Superdadsuper is a little sensitive to this, so Lelouch will run them the majority of the time.

Remember to link to a relevant page on your wiki in every post/tweet - this helps viewers to see what specific part of your wiki you're referencing to, and also generally provides your wiki with publicity.

ComDev will assist with the Twitter and Facebook widgets for the main page.

Special:Promote
You're description of your wiki has now been made more appropriate, and clearly describes what parts of your wiki to visit. Remember you can add further images!

Forums/Blogs
You are aware that you can perhaps link your wiki in certain forum/blog comments to compliment a point you're making. Be sure not to spam your wiki, and to be aware of a website's policy of external links

Wiki navigation
You have decided upon having all your wiki's content under one heading (Browse). This is a very risky move as you are then unable to provided much information about your wiki.

However, the headings you have added are clear and will suit their purpose. I still recommend the use of multiple headings however in order to make your information clearer and more visible - this is the normal Wikia convention.

With more new categories, more new headings can be made. Over the next few days, we can discuss that further if you wish.

IRC
I believe you were considering setting up an IRC chat for your wiki for your Bible Study Course. This is a great move in my book as it provides a place besides the chatroom to focus on the task in hand.

Remember not to neglect the chatroom though; that is the first place new contributors will go to chat, so make them welcome!

Videos
You are aware of videos located in the Wikia Vedo library and that they can be added to articles to make a user's experience better. Videos are porven to attract contributors on Wikia. There are plenty of Bible related videos out there! :)

ComDev - recommended requests
I would suggest asking for the following areas of help:
 * A custom theme - this is required for a spotlight
 * Help with designing your main page - include Twitter Widget and preload templates
 * Perhaps further assistance with templates - you haven't yet, but you might decide you want another template designed for you
 * Further areas of interest

Recommended cleanup tasks

 * An image on every article
 * An infobox on every article
 * Addressing the Stubs
 * Addressing red links on articles
 * Adding section headings to make articles look clearer
 * Being sure each article is properly categorised

Finally...
Remember to look back at the AMP talk page for further guidance, as well as my test page. My test page features the preload templates we constructed for your main page, as well as the designs for article layouts - Feel free to delete my test page if you wish :)

Of course, you can always contact me and Food after the mentorship has ended with any further queries on our CC message walls:


 * Spongebob456
 * FoodbandIt

Remember, your wiki can achieve anything it wants with the community at your side and your hard work. Your Bible Study course is just what Wikia needs to bring further learning into the equation.

The sky's the limit!