Hey all! I went on vacation for a few weeks (as you may have noticed by the wonderful Spongebob456 filling in for me to alert you all about Fandom's Pride initiatives), and it seems like Fandom exploded with new updates and general announcements during that time.

This is going to be a long post, so please bear with me 😅 Per usual, for the full extent of the details, I suggest reading the blogs, but I'm going to try and give you the tl;dr summary of them all (in the order they were published ... so most recent blogs are at the bottom):

• Celebrate Pride Month with Fandom (click for blog post)

Although time moves quickly and we're already nearing the end of June, it is still Pride Month and Fandom still has events planned! As such, a small reminder to check out the blog and to attend the two upcoming roundtables:

- Roundtable about LGBTQIA+ Icons and Activists on TODAY, Wednesday June 22 - 9AM PST / 12PM EST / 6PM CET (check your own timezone here) (Discord link). If you have a local icon or a personal hero, please share them with the rest of us so we may all learn and be inspired to do better!

- Roundtable about LGBTQIA+ Fandom Admins on Wednesday June 29 - 9AM PST / 12PM EST / 6PM CET (check your own timezone here) (Discord link)

As a small side project, Fandom is committed to documenting the wikis who have made alterations to their design in some way to showcase their support for the LGBTQIA+ community. Read more about it in this blog. If I missed a wiki Pride initiative, please let me know, cause I LOVE to spread the rainbow and get the message out there that Love Will Keep Us Together!

• Community Connect May 27-31, 2022 announcements (click for blog post)

Fandom's in-person connect event held in LA came to an end, and it was fantastic! Apart from the friendships that were forged, several features and upcoming initiatives were announced. Read the blog here to find an overview of the event and check out the announcements (some will be covered more in depth later in this post)!

• Update to the community guidelines (click for blog post)

"Read and agreed" must be among the biggest lies on the internet. While we definitely recommend that you read and remember Fandom's Terms of Use, a simpler version of the user conduct section was updated to help everyone understand what's required of you. These guidelines don't list all the do's and don't's for Fandom, but they give a good starting point and cover some of the most important things for everyone to know. Read them here.

Apart from this, it's also always good to make sure your wiki’s rules and guidelines are up-to-date, too. If you have doubts on whether or not this is the case, don't hesitate to reach out to me, so we can review it all together!

• Mobile Editing Fixes and Mobile Theme Designer Are Coming! (click for blog post)

Probably one of the most requested user improvements out there now that mobile is more and more common. So what's on the roadmap (without there being a concrete ETA):

Mobile Editing Fixes

- Tackling quality of life issues

- Some improvements including adding a mobile preview and making moderation easier with things like better utility for mobile page history and making it easier to undo/revert changes

Mobile Theme Designer

- Create theme designer functionality for mobile, which includes supporting light and dark themes and an easy-to-use interface that gives customization options to admins.

• Welcome Breanna, Fandom's new Senior Community Manager, Gaming on the Community Experience (click for blog post)

Ooh, this is my personal favorite to bring to your attention, as I am 100% biased here. I had the pleasure of meeting Breanna at Connect, and she quickly earned my respect and stole my heart by being this amazing person who will without a doubt do fantastic things for the platform. While she's a gaming SCM and you all are from a different vertical, Freezie is an icon and definitely someone you'd want to get to know and talk to, so don't hesitate to hop over to Central to her intro blog to say hi!

She will be doing a Discord AMA on Thursday June 23nd at 8AM PST / 11AM EST / 5PM CET (check your own timezone here), so join us and get to know our new Senior Community Manager, Gaming.

• New Discussions Moderation Tools, Including Discussions AbuseFilter, Are Coming This Year (click for blog post)

It's become hard to ask communities for feedback about Discussions (and Message Walls and Comments) without receiving a request for moderation tools and functionality, so I'm ecstatic to say that YES, ABUSE FILTER FOR DISCUSSIONS IS COMING!

Other things being looked at of which the details still need to be worked out are:

- Making it easier for admins and moderators to access moderation tools

- Quickly remove problematic images without having to edit posts manually

- Creating an overall smoother moderation experience for category and tag changes

- Adding support for post/reply edit history

• Introducing Admin Plus! (click for blog post)

The Admin+ program is Fandom's answer to the question "what makes a good admin?" and "how to showcase those skills on your resume in a professional setting?" Still being build so not accessible yet, this free admin certification program is made up of three online courses for eligible admins to take: Technical Foundations, Content Development, and Community Building. After successful completion, a badge will be awarded, which you can showcase on social media, resumes, or wherever you would like. Stay tuned for updates!

• Fandom Stars, Fandom's New(ish) Creator Recognition Program (click for blog post)

Last but not least, Fandom Stars is BACK! Fandom Stars is the ultimate program designed to recognize and amplify Fandom’s most prolific creators, primarily editors, who go the extra mile to help others and create new and fresh content and fan experiences, so they may serve as ambassadors of the Fandom community and are able to experience one-of-a-kind opportunities only found on Fandom (not mandatory to attend if you're uncomfortable with in-person events). Becoming a Fandom Star requires participation though and taking a brief moment to complete a self-nomination form. Read more about it on its own landing page!

There will be a Discord AMA on TODAY, Wednesday June 22nd at 10AM PST / 1PM EST / 7PM CET (check your own timezone here) to learn more about Fandom Stars, so join us to chat about all things Stars!

Okay, I know this was A LOT! Told you several things happened while I was out. I do hope this overview made it a bit easier to keep track of everything, and if not, don't hesitate to reach out! You can do so be replying to this message, reach out to me on my wall, or contact me on Discord (Lostris#4280), whichever floats your boat. Per usual, I would love to hear from you all. Take care!

Hey everyone! February certainly was eventful here at Fandom with the celebration of the accomplishments of Black and Afro-American people, the commemoration of which was concluded with an in-depth panel discussion on Black Voices & Content in Genre IP (read more about that here). As your Wiki Representative, I want to make sure you continue to be aware with what lives on Fandom, so buckle up for some more exciting news announcements!

• March is Women's History Month

For this year's Woman's History Month, Fandom tends to do its part to "break the bias" and spotlight creators, franchises, and women behind-the-scenes at Fandom and editors who forge a path that support women's equality. Read all about the exiting things we have lined up for it here!

• Fandom is upgrading to MediaWiki 1.37

With UCP, Fandom upgraded from MediaWiki 1.19 to 1.33, which was a massive jump. However, to prevent that from ever happening again and keeping the community impact as low as possible, Fandom is committed to staying up-to-date, which is why we're starting the update to MediaWiki 1.37 in the course of March. The first batch of test wikis is scheduled to be migrated by the end of the month, with the top 5,000 big wikis to follow in April, and the rest during Spring. Prior to the migration, a banner will appear across the site informing the community of the upcoming change along with a link to a help page explaining what changes to expect. These will be mostly backend changes, but read all about it here!

• Trivia Quizzes to drive engagement

In line with the research that concluded that audiences are more likely to engage with dynamic, interactive content like a quiz than static content, Fandom wants to help wikis capitalize on that by offering engaging quizzes to our readers! At this moment, these will only appear on top communities on selected pages for logged-out users. For now, quizzes can only be created by Fandom staff, Wiki Representatives, and Wiki Specialists, as we want to ensure that the product works to engage people without expecting the community to do the necessary work for us. If you are interested to know if your community has any quizzes and on which pages, don't hesitate to aks me. Likewise, if you find there to be something wrong with a quiz in terms of accuracy, let me know which quiz and on which page, so I can make the necessary adjustments. In general, this is still largely a test to see if they'll engage people as much as we hope they will, so we want to hear from you. After you took a quiz, please share your thoughts with me. I'm especially interested in hearing your idea on future updates we can make to the feature! If you wish to read more about the research and idea behind the quizzes, read all about it here!

This was a lot to take in, so if I lost you somewhere along the lines, don't hesitate to reach out, and I'll be happy to explain and get you back on track. As usual, I love to hear back from you as a reaction on this post or any other means you have to contact me!

Hey all, as we reach the last day of Black History Month, Fandom gears up to close out its celebrations with a last event: a panel discussion - Black Voices & Content in Genre IP - to celebrate Black culture and representation in entertainment! This will be an open, in-depth discussion spotlighting the journeys of Black creators and innovators in TV, comic books, stage, and film, and we would like to invite you all to attend and participate!

When? Monday, February 28th at 12PM EST (check your own timezone here)

Where? https://twitch.tv/fandom

Who? Joelle Monique, an iHeartRadio Executive Producer & Entertainment Writer will moderate the panel consisting of:

* Sanford Greene, the Illustrator behind Image Comic’s Bitter Root, which is soon to be a movie helmed by Regina King and Ryan Coogler

* Steve Harper, Co-Executive Producer for Stargirl

* Cameron Johnson, Co-Creator & Executive Producer of Tom Swift.

You can watch the livestream on our Twitch channel, but if you can't make it live, the VOD should be available at 1PM EST after the panel is finished, so you can check that out whenever you get a chance. Hope to see you all there watching and chatting with us!

Let the countdown begin!

I just wanted to rant a little bit because I'm a little bit mad and I almost cried aswell. I'm watching the last episode of season 6 right now. I'm mad and I'm sad and I want JUSTICE FOR TAYSTEE!!!!!!!! That's all, thank you.

Hey everyone! As some may know, February is Black History Month in the US, and so Fandom wishes to do its part by encouraging every creator, user, and reader on the platform to think about the powerful legacy Black and African-American creators have had in establishing your favorite fandoms and characters.

In a more elaborate blog about this (which you can read here), Fandom touched upon the history of BHM and is highlighting some recent TV shows, movies, video games, comics, and artists impacted by black creators. We encourage you to explore and delve deeper into the work they have done, and perhaps find a new fandom to enjoy.

To spread their legacy, Fandom will be hosting several roundtable discussions in the Fandom Discord server to discuss series, movies, and games that feature black performers or characters, were created by, or otherwise influenced by Black and African-American people:

• Tuesday, Feb 8, 12PM ET / 6PM CET: Roundtable about movies

• Tuesday, Feb 15, 12PM ET / 6PM CET: Roundtable about TV shows

• Tuesday, Feb 22, 12PM ET / 6PM CET: Roundtable about Video Games

These are open-ended conversations that anyone can participate in, so it would be fantastic if you could join us on the Fandom Discord server and share your enthusiasm and love for these contribution! More Fandom news and plans for BHM will be shared in the Fandom Discord and via our Twitter account, so make sure to join the server and follow @ FandomWikis Twitter account.

This is also be the perfect time to highlight some of the the contributions of Black and African-American creators to this fandom! You could make a blog about them, highlight them on social media, or anything else you can think of.

Feel free to comment on the blog on Central about this, we'd love to hear back from you!

Hey all, first time reaching out to you all in the new year, so I first of all want to start off with the sincere hope that 2022 has been treating you all better than the previous years have. Continue to stay safe!

Secondly, I wanted to share a glimpse of the plans Fandom has in store for the first months of the new year. Brandon, the VP of Community at Fandom, shared a more elaborate blog about it, which you can read here, but this would be the overview:

Interactive Maps

• In 2021, we released an Interactive Maps alpha to 20 communities.

• Feedback from the Map testers was invaluable to determining what tools to build into the feature next.

• After a pause for the last few months of the year, development has once again kicked off on Interactive Maps.

• It will become available to all communities who want it within the next few months.

• Check out this example on Avatar Wiki.

MediaWiki Upgrade

• Fandom will soon be upgrading from MediaWiki 1.33 to MediaWiki 1.37.

• Changes will be minimal compared to UCP, with mostly backend changes.

• The rollout will happen within the first few months of 2022.

Interactive Videos

• We are continuing to evolve what appears in the Fandom Video Player with the production of more Interactive Videos.

• We've already released a pilot video based on Diablo II.

• Premieres for DC Database and Memory Alpha Interactive Videos are coming soon.

Trivia Quiz Expansion

• We will be expanding our Trivia Quiz feature within the next few months.

• Quizzes proved to be popular with fans as we experimented with them in 2021.

• They are currently available in a select number of Discussions communities.

New Fandom Team Members

• Quincy Carroll recently joined Fandom as Chief Product Officer.

• We are hiring a Senior Community Manager, Creator Outreach on our Community Experience team.

• We are hiring a Senior Community Partnerships Manager, Gaming on our Community Activations team.

• We will be bringing more Wiki Reps onto the Community team.

If you have any questions or remarks about it, head over to the blog at Community Central and ask away!

I can't seem to find their information even on here other than Litvacq.

Does anyone know?

I'm binge watching Orange is the New Black. I just finished with Season 1. Miller dies of a OD. I assume when she states "Tell Red I'm going to make everything right" that she had already decided to OD, but part of her plan was to take Pornstache down with her. He makes it look like she hung herself in the utility closet and to the best of my knowledge Pornstache is still on leave.

It appears the ladies find little drug customer notebook when cleaning out Tricia's personal items, after her death, but make no sense of it.

Will Pornstache's little drug customer notebook ever show up again and he has to pay for what he did? NO I DON'T CONSIDER IT A SPOILER.

Thanks.

Hey all! As you may have read already in this blog, Fandom is teaming up with Starlight Children’s Foundation for the Design-A-Gown contest, a very fun contest to help bring joy to kids dealing with serious illness across the United States by providing them with awesome hospital gowns that are more comfortable and more colorful than the standard gowns.

How to join?

1. Download your Starlight & Fandom Design-A-Gown template.

2. Break out the markers or design digitally, whichever way your artistic muse whispers to you

3. Click here to upload your design by October 1 to enter.

Five finalists will be selected for our voting phase, which will run from October 14th to 21st, with the winner announced on November 3rd. The winning gown design will be manufactured and sent to hospitalized kids across the country!

To help spread the light, feel free to share your your designs on social media as well for some extra visibility by using #DesignHappiness. #ForTheLoveOfSharingLight, and tagging Fandom and Starlight!

• Instagram handles: @StarlightChildrensFoundation and @GetFandom

• Twitter handles: @StarlightUS and @GetFandom

If art isn't really your strong suit but you still want to help out, a $35 donation to Starlight can help provide a comfy, colorful gown to a hospitalized child. Additionally, Fandom is making a $50,000 donation to Starlight as part of this collaboration. Together we're hoping to truly bring light and joy to ill children, so release that creative muse and break out that (digital) pencil!

Hi all!

What stereotypes can you identify in the show that portrays the LGBT community or portrays issues affecting the LGBT community?

THANKS!

Hi there!

Just want some opinions on the following questions:

1. Do you think OITNB portrayed the LGBTQ+ community accurately?

2. Is the representation of LGBT in OITNB positive or negative?

3. How does characters in OITNB encourage audience to think critically about the LGBT community? OR How does the characters negatively influenced the audience?

4. Do you think OITNB is a good series that promotes diversity and hence influence the audience in a positive way?

How do stereotypical characters in Orange is the New Black encourage audiences to think critically about issues relating to the LGBTQ+ community?

In Season 7 we get more of a glimpse into Maria's life up until she got arrested for selling counterfeit jeans (which isn't exactly a henious offense but that's America) she was having sex with that guy who got her involved in the fair jeans business. So she gets pregnant and calls Yadriel and tells him it's hers. Is it meant to be one of those mysteries we won't ever really find out?

So when you consider most characters who were in more than one season OR an integral part of a specific season got a backstory as to why they're in Litchfield and how they were raised etc I was surprised that Gina Murphy and Yoga Jones didn't have a few flash backs. Anyone know why???

I mean the sea witch Linda got one and so did the intolerable Back Fat-ison Murphy.