User blog:Stephan222/The Purpose of Wikis

One thing we have to think about is our articles in the context of how they are used by the rest of the fandom. As a matter of fact, wikis are, 90% of the time, used for quick fact checking. Most fans are not interested in in-depth analysis or pages of text on a Japanese show for children, and if they are, they usually go to places other than a wiki for it.

That's not to say detailed descriptions do not belong on the wiki, it's that they have their place. But knowing this, what does it tell us about the format of our articles?
 * 1) They should be clearly organised and consistent, so that it's easy to find what you're looking for.
 * 2) They should be short and concise. Articles should give as much information in as little space as possible.
 * 3) They should not be written dramatically or book-like, but at the same time they should not be overly formal and dry.
 * 4) The text should be simple and easy-to-read, without fancy words or uneeded elaborations.
 * 5) There should be no redundancy.

While our Kaiju pages have a specific format that works well, not all of them do. For instance, Ultraman X (series) does not give enough information; Ultraman Mebius (series) gives too much. I've posted on the forums about this, but I think it's something we need to be aware of.