This meta article will try to document "career" pathways for volunteer editors on wiki projects. This can apply to outside of the WARFRAME Wiki. As of 03:25, 17 May 2024 (UTC), I don't see any resources out there that tries to explain this so I will use my experience to draw some pathways. -Cephalon Scientia (talk) 03:25, 17 May 2024 (UTC)
- Last updated: Fri, 05 Jul 2024 18:12:07 +0000 (UTC) by User:Cephalon Scientia
Entry-Level Editor[]
Most wiki editors typically start out fixing typos or grammar mistakes as their first introduction to wiki editing. Many articles are unprotected and thus are open to anonymous edits. These editors tend to be WARFRAME players who are visiting the wiki, found a mistake, and took the time to actually fix it.
- Tasks: Fixing typos, edit grammar, add citations, and improve readability
- Skills: Basic research, writing, basic wikitext markup
- Tools: VisualEditor or Source Editor
Editing Pathway[]
As editors gain more subject matter knowledge and wiki editing skills, they are able to navigate the wiki more efficiently and perform more accurate edits at scale, utilizing Templates and Modules to reduce effort and deliver information in a standardized way. Experienced editors tend to be "veteran" WARFRAME players who have experienced the game grow and change across major Versions. These folks also tend to have a dedicated account for editing instead of submitting edits anonymously.
- Prerequisites:
- #Entry-Level Editor
- Subject matter expertise
- Informal roles:
- Mid-level editor
- Senior-level editor
- Lead editor
- Subject matter expert
- Content researcher
- Data steward
- Knowledge manager
- Content localizer
- Tasks: Content clean up, information parity between articles, copywriting, patch history updates, contribute to mechanics research, updating databases, official asset rips or reuploads
- Skills: Technical writing, plain language, information architecture, in-game research, math literacy, regular expressions, image/video/media manipulation, metagame knowledge, subject matter expertise, project management, fluency in more than one language
- Tools: Mainly Source Editor, find + replace tool, imaging editing software (Raster graphics editor, Vector graphics editor), bot account
Developer Pathway[]
Wiki developers are a specific type of editor that know how to write programming scripts that extend the functionality of the base wiki engine. MediaWiki allows custom Lua and JavaScript scripts to be written in certain article namespaces to be executed.
- Prerequisites:
- #Entry-Level Editor
- Software development experience
- Informal roles:
- Wiki developer
- Script programmer
- Tasks: feature development, documentation, debugging, testing, data schema updates, code optimization, software design, i18n and L10n
- Skills: software development, software engineering, product management, human-centered design, data analysis
- Tools: CodeMirror interface in Module namespace, browser developer tools
Wiki Administration Pathway[]
- Main article: WARFRAME Wiki:Administrators
Those who are passionate about the subject matter and the community around it may be promoted to be part of the wiki admin team which consist of these roles:
- Content Moderator
- Thread Moderator
- Administrator/Bureaucrat
These are formal roles that are assigned to accounts, allowing for greater permissions than the average editor. They tend to do less editing and focus more on administrating the wiki on the application side, ensuring the wiki community stays healthy and content is accessible. Serving as the wiki's public "leaders", these folks are the first point of contact from external organizations such as Digital Extremes or even individuals. Because of this, they may have more online presence, having multiple points of contact like email and Discord.
- Prerequisites:
- #Entry-Level Editor
- #Editing Pathway
- MediaWiki system administration experience
- Community management experience
- Tasks: Quality control, reverting vandalism, blocking offenders, protecting articles, community engagement, community safety, enforcing code of conduct, approving bot accounts, updating wiki-wide CSS spreadsheet
- Skills: stakeholder management, effective communication, strategic planning, coalition building, project management, leadership, community culture, data analysis, front-end design and development
- Tools: AbuseFilter, wikipedia:Wikipedia:Administrators' guide/Tools
Community Pathway[]
The community pathway is focused on building a community around the wiki and to support end users. They are less involved on technical wiki manners or on wiki content compared to those on the administration team, though admins may share some responsibilities in regards to community outreach and engagement.
- Prerequisites:
- #Entry-Level Editor
- #Editing Pathway
- Community management experience
- Roles:
- Customer support
- Community moderator
- Community manager
- Social media manager
- Tasks: Community engagement, community safety, enforcing code of conduct, communication strategy, production of media
- Skills: Communication management, empathic communication, conflict resolution, stakeholder management, marketing, data analysis, subject matter knowledge (e.g. embedded with community norms), awareness of modern-day discrimination and how it manifests in online communities, media editing
- Tools: varies, including knowledge of tools such as Discord
Infrastructure Pathway[]
Infrastructure folks are one step removed from wiki activity, focused on supporting the operation of the wiki through reliable computing infrastructure. If a wiki is hosted on a wiki farm (like Fandom), then infrastructure matters are abstracted from the end-users (wiki editors, admins, and developers). However, if one wants to have more control over the application and add custom features to it, then they need to operate the infrastructure that the wiki is hosted on. Infrastructure folks have advanced knowledge on the MediaWiki application and knows what resources are needed to deliver static webpage content to a global audience at low latency and high performance.
- Prerequisites:
- Information technology experience
- MediaWiki system administration experience
- Formal roles:
- System administrator
- Systems architect
- Cloud engineer
- Cloud architect
- Site reliability engineer
- Security analyst
- Security steward
- Tasks: design, installation, maintenance, and retirement of IT systems; monitoring infrastructure health; ensure systems meet security standards
- Skills: IT knowledge, IT operations, computer networking, project management, stakeholder management, technical support, cloud engineering, cybersecurity, data analysis, MediaWiki application and environment (e.g. extensions, development community)
- Tools: varies, depends on IT deployment strategy
Business Pathway[]
Business and infrastructure pathways are linked because business folks will support the financial requirements of hosting your own infrastructure, whether on-premise or via cloud providers. Business folks may or may not be integrated with the wiki community as their focus is overall big picture of the wiki, its community, and the organization(s) supporting it.
- Prerequisites:
- Business experience
- Formal roles:
- Business owner
- Business strategist
- Program/project sponsor
- Program/project analyst
- Program/project manager
- Accountant
- Legal advisor/lawyer
- Tasks: people operations, plan product direction, decision-making, networking, market research, fundraising, project oversight, legal compliance
- Skills: accounting, stakeholder management, strategic planning, effective communication, leadership, data analysis, change management, emotional intelligence
- Tools: varies, includes managed payroll services
Application Pathway[]
If the MediaWiki application needs to be customized beyond current existing solutions like extensions, then a dedicated application team is needed to support the its development and deployment.
- Prerequisites:
- Software development experience
- Formal roles:
- Software engineer
- Product manager
- UX designer
- CI/CD engineer
- Test engineer
- Project manager
- Tasks: feature development, documentation, debugging, testing, code optimization, software design
- Skills: software development, software engineering, product management, human-centered design, DevSecOps, CI/CD, full-stack development, Agile software development, data analysis
- Tools: varies, depends on application stack
Other Pathways[]
Skills and experience one can gain from wiki development can apply to different subject matter domains and industries:
- Video games
- Software, Technology, Manufacturing
- Library and information science
External Links[]
- https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Bulbapedia:Leadership_Board, Bulbapedia, the Pokemon wiki, has a very formal organizational structure that mimics media companies