ConRunner:Community Portal

Community Portal

- A place to discuss aspects of the site

Please bring your questions and concerns here. As other users see them we can work on getting good resolutions to the problems and make it a better site for everyone.

Where we are - What works and what doesn't

1. The help files and tutorials are somewhat chaotic or completely not there. The borrowing from Wikipedia left them in a mess. References to Wikipedia probably need to point to ConRunner, to WikiMedia, or be deleted. Basic definitions of terms can point back to Wikipedia, but specialized terms should be defined here.

2. The templates are messed up too. Same basic problem as above. Wikimedia has a lot more templates than we'll ever need, so I suspect the answer here is to just simplify the templates.

3. If you aren't sure how to edit something, go to the Conrunner:Playground to practice. There is nothing of value there, so rollback of mistakes is easy.

Where we are going - Suggestions for the future

1. Every one of the articles can use some cleanup. And wikification. And added information. It is a skeleton that needs flesh badly.

2. The main page is set to have a featured article on the left, and the function chart on the right. Good idea? Seems like this will give a glimpse of the whole point of the site right on page 1. We are in a building phase right now, but eventually we will be an information source and the chart is like a table of contents.

3. Eventually, I'd like to add a calendar of upcoming cons to the Main Page. I'm not sure how this should be done, but a look ahead would be both informative and give people windows onto how different cons are run.

I am working on a project to improve the list of science fiction conventions on wikipedia. [[1]] Recently they/ we moved to sortable tables. I have proposed to add the next scheduled date column. I dont think we should duplicate the effort of 2 lists. Instead we should direct people to one list for reading and updating--Tbmorgan74 12:07, 23 February 2007 (PST)

We have one here at Convention Calendar --Bill Taylor 16:25, 23 February 2007 (PST)

I think the idea is to merge that over to Wikipedia as it is of general interest. The only reason I can see not to is that the one here can link to special-interest pages here instead of to the general-interest wikipedia pages, if in fact we decide we want the pages for individual cons here to contain special interest information. --phi 10:40, 24 February 2007 (PST)

Wikipedia can do as it pleases. But I want to keep a con list here. Each entry can link to an article on that con, or to the con's website, if they have one. Duplication isn't an issue, since these are two different wikis. Why would informationn in one place exclude having information in another place? --Bill Taylor 16:11, 24 February 2007 (PST)

Questions? - Answers!

Q. Why aren't terms used the way I'm used to seeing them used? Why are programming functions categorized under Operations?

A. Not everyone uses terms the same way. Eventually we hope to reflect the richness of variety throughout fandom here in the wiki, but we're just getting started. Please, if you have a different way of thinking about things, post a new article, add text to an existing article, or join / start the discussion by clicking on the 'discussion' tab at the top of the article. Register an account and share your point of view.

Q. The help files on Wiki Markup are missing. Where can I find out how to format my writing?

A. Wikipedia's How to Edit a Page or the Wikimedia Edit page

Q. Help! I've been asked to handle fundraising for our Con! Specifically, they want me to contact potential businesses to see if they're interested in being sponsors, advertisers at the con, etc. Does anyone have some good tips on this? Also, I would love to see what an example 'cold call' letter might look like? Cheers, William

A. These are experiences from Finland, but probably translate relatively well. --EemeliAro 03:26, 20 August 2007 (PDT)

• Call or talk in person first. Just sending a letter without having introduced yourself first probably won't get much of a response. However, having a 1-2 page letter saying what you are (possibly even what SF and cons are...) and what you're offering is essential. Not only is that something you can offer a potential sponsor, but it's your own cheat sheet as well.
• Personal contacts with people make a world of difference. Having a connection to the person that you're talking with external to this funding request/sales pitch/whatever lets you talk on a completely different level.
• Having numbers or some qualifiers about your members is good. What kind of age bracket, what kind of background, etc.
• A lot depends on your size and visibility in the local media. If eveything you are and do is within fandom, you're going to have a really hard time getting interest from anyone that doesn't directly sell to that focus group.
• It's much easier to ask someone "Do you want to sponsor us again like you did last year?" than saying "Hi, I'm with this SF convnetion, do you know what that is?". Look through your data and ask people for past years' sponsors, and do this for any relatively local con for the past five years or so.
• I have no idea how this works in the US, but Finncons get a lion's share of their support from cultural grants. Find out about them.