User blog comment:Waterkai/Considering Applications: An Attempt Without Bias/@comment-3008090-20140502125802/@comment-4961229-20140504183624

I have to agree with Waterkai. This is not something that should involve the Wikia staff. Doing so could have unintended consequences should they actually decide to get involved. This matter should be something that can be settled among the users of this site.

The so-called improvement of writing on this site remains a matter of opinion. It is based on subjective anecdotal evidence and personal preferences. My own observations tell me that the admins and bureaucrats are in violation of their own policies. All of them are guilty of many things cited by BuriedMemory as flaws of the past system, power inflation being the most prevalent.

It is the gaming aspects of RPing that give rise to the most egregious examples of power inflation. Those participating in the fanon canon are the most likely to engage in this behavior due to the fact that fanon villages are under siege. Characters are in danger of being killed. No one wants this to happen to their favorite characters. They power inflate to prevent from being overrun by other "players." I experienced this myself, as I had no desire to power inflate until I started participating in the various fanon canons on the site. People participating in the fanon canon are for all intents and purposes engaging in an arms race, one that favors entrenched special interests "with a few extra buttons" over newer participants.

It is easy to point out the objective standard of finished articles and assign that as some magnificent benefit of the applications process. However, correlation does not equal causation. If such a benefit did not exist before it can only be due to neglect of the mass delete policy itself, which was far less intrusive even if it would've been enthusiastically implemented.

It is also easy to give anecdotes about talented writers, who've avoided the website for various reasons, while ignoring talented writers, who may have left the website or avoided it altogether for many of the reasons I've illustrated here and elsewhere.

There are many users here who avoid participating in the fanon canon and who use the site legitimately for other purposes. I had originally planned to post some of my fan fic here. I have refrained from doing so because some of it revolves around conflict with the Uchiha and other clans. I would need to do applications for multiple characters that are simply going to get killed off or who's only purpose is to play a part in my own alternate universe. Since these characters will never interact with those in the fanon canon, it is absurd to have go and justify them to someone with a multitude of personal biases, incentives towards internal and against external power inflation, plus "a few extra buttons."

In any case, if there is any real benefit at all to having an application process, it would be quite achievable without trampling on the legitimate usage of users who have no wish or need to participate in such a process. Simply by restricting its scope to the fanon canon, advertising the fanon canon on the most visited pages and universally accessible menus such as the home page, top content, and community menus. In this manner, the best foot, if such a thing is more than a figment of some user's imaginations, will be placed forward with the most publicity.

As far as the entire website, the mass delete policy was acceptable and far less intrusive. Half finished articles, poor grammar, horrendous spelling in the age of ubiquitous spell checkers are all reasonable standards with objective benchmarks. If proper attention and care is taken to actually implement the mass delete on a frequent and regular schedule, that should curtail most of the other serious problems with the rest of the site.

Any other writing problems can be dealt with through encouragement and aid such as providing templates for finished articles. The forms already go along way towards this, yet they were unavailable on the main page and hard to find until after Jason proposed putting them there after I had been asking about them. This only happened in the last year or two. An I submit this has as much to do with any recent improvement as any application process.

However, there is also good information in the apps themselves when not being used to bludgeon users into submission. The questions asked on the applications are indeed good questions that anyone thinking to make a article should answer. When you create an article from the pull down menu within the "Contribute" button, you are given a choice between a blank page and a rather basic template called the "Standard layout." Couldn't these questions be merged with that template or multiple templates that prompt the user creating an article to start thinking along those lines? I'm thinking of a well formatted template with those application questions embedded in appropriate areas. This would funnel users not prone to use the forms into various templates loaded with encouraging information. Indeed, perhaps this information could be merged with the appropriate forms themselves in relevant sections so that the "body" text box of the form consists of a complete template with prompting information, rather than a blank slate.

We also need a FAQ and a site map on the main page clearly accessible from any of the most traveled pages. Information on creative writing and proper formatting of articles would also be quite useful. The "Guides" section of the "Rules and Regulations" page doesn't cut it. You need helpful information conducive to article improvement prominently displayed in the most traversed areas of the website so that the greatest numbers of users will encounter most needful encouragement and assistance.

My point is there are many positive things that can be done to improve the site in quantifiable ways without resorting negative policies that can and have had harsh unintended consequences, which IMO outweigh any sought after benefits.