FANDOM Staff Blog

Hello everyone!

This is my second time (originally) publishing a blog post on the Fandom Stars Wiki, and I really like to have this chance to share some of the projects the different Product teams are working on!

This time I would like to announce a new experimentation of the recently added feature in Interactive Maps, making them available for progress tracking. The first iteration was already launched on March 4, and as we announced on March 22, we would be analyzing the results and thinking about new ways to improve the tool.

Now this time has come, so let’s dive into the details!

Experiment Name: Progress tracking in Maps 2

Test Launch: (Tentative) Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Test Closes: 2 weeks

Type: A/B Test (for logged-out users)

Will Be Tested …

Hello everyone!

This is my first time (originally) publishing a blog post on the Fandom Stars Wiki, and I have to admit I’m really excited for it!

We’ve been already announcing the upcoming launch of a new experiment about a redesign of the global navigation bar. Now I would like to share some extra details about it, in case you’re wondering about what’s coming soon!

Experiment Name: Top Nav Bar #2

Test Launch: (Tentative) Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Will Be Tested On: 12% of desktop users (6% control group, 3% logged-in users and 3% logged-out users) from all wikis using English language.

Hypothesis: Re-working the global nav bar would create more space into which we can move other features there and achieve a more engaging nav bar, alongside making …

Hey everybody!

We are running a new experiment on the platform:

Experiment name: Welcome messages for first-time editors

Test Launch: upcoming days

Test Clases: 3 weeks

Well Be Tested On: 100% of the editors after their first edit on a wiki with Message Wall

Hypothesis: We believe that welcoming editors after their first edit on a new wiki in a way that feels personal and relevant to the situation will make them feel welcome in this community, less clueless as to what to do next, and so motivate them to edit more.

Other Notes: After their very first edit on a wiki they have not edited before (regardless of whether they’ve edited other wikis on Fandom!), users will receive a message to their wall, authored by a Community staff member, thanking them for…

Hey everybody!

New update about an upcoming feature that you will see next Wednesday in our wikis:

Tweak: VisualEditor performance improvements

Launching: March 6, 2024

Premise: We believe that a faster-loading editor will make editing more appealing to new and experienced editors, leading to an increased success rate in the editor, and a higher number of editors overall.

Data: The User Generated Content team experimented with loading the VisualEditor before accessing it. During the experiment, the VisualEditor was preloading when users were hovering the top right edit button and other edit entries. It was limited to the users using the VE as predefined editor.

In this experiment, we saw around 4% increase in the number of editors completing an edit…

Hey everybody!

We are going to run a new experiment on the platform:

Experiment Name: Simplified editor for first-time editors

Test Launch: Wednesday, Nov 29, 2023

Test Closes: One Week

Will Be Tested On: 50% of the editors opening the Visual Editor

Hypothesis: We believe that providing first-time editors with a far simpler, more familiar editor interface will enable more of them to successfully publish their first edit, increasing the number of new editors per month.

Other Notes: We are moving/hiding any non-essential elements of the 2017 Visual Editor (the default editor for newly registered users), and increasing the editor’s similarity to other text editors users are familiar with (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs). To do this, we have analyzed …

Hello all!

I am bringing a new update for an update to images anonymous users will start seeing next week:

Tweak: Add a View Image link to access gallery for mobile & desktop for anon users

Launching: Currently in development, but we are looking to go live on Wednesday

Premise: We are adding a View Image link under images to lead anon users to the gallery. We experimented with the idea that creating a visual entry points for anon users would increase understanding that images are clickable. We tested a few different options, such as adding an icon on the image itself, and found that the View Image link underneath the image created the most understanding without being intrusive to the image.

Data: In the experiment mentioned above, we saw a 5.6% in…

Hey everybody!

New update about an upcoming feature that you will see tomorrow in our wikis:

Tweak: Redesign of the highlight menu for logged-in users

Launching: [Updated] Nov 29, 2023

Premise: We will redesign the highlight menu based on the results of the last experiment. This will help to see more searches from our users, facilitating the discoverability of our content, and also will add a new edit entry point from this menu.

Data: We added a highlight menu in the content area with options to search for specific pieces of content some months ago. This resulted in an increase in the number of searches, and proved to be an excellent way to address our readers to key tools as the editor.

In a previous experiment, we saw an increase in search activity…

Hey all,

First, I'm excited to say you’re going to be seeing a lot more of these posts in the coming weeks. As we review 2023 and heading into 2024, your Community staff is focusing on how we can better and more effectively serve information to you. We'll share a bit more in coming weeks, but what you need to know today is: We're committed to better, broader communication of product changes to the entire community. And we're also committed to using this Stars group to drive early, direct, and actionable feedback into various parts of the product process.

To that end, today I'm writing to talk to you about a forthcoming experiment. An experiment is not a full-fledged feature. It is an idea we are testing on the network, measuring the results,…

Happy Pride Month!

I hope you got to spend it exactly as you wanted. Whether it be uniting for a common cause and speaking out or celebrating what makes you who you are. As the month comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to highlight the importance of inclusivity in our fandoms.

Fandom is a home for people from all over the world, cultures and identities. Not too different from the characters in our favorite books, shows and games. We are here because we surround ourselves with the things that we love, and seek out others with the same passion to share it with. Our differences are not barriers, but a means to celebrate what makes us each unique.

Fan spaces are a haven, a creative outlet, and a much needed escape for many who may not be …

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to our second technical update blog for June! For the returning readers, feel free to skip the intro as you know what I'll be saying. For the new readers though, glad to have you join us for our bi-weekly (every two weeks for clarity) tech blog in which I'll be sharing a selection of user-relevant bug fixes, experiments, and platform changes to keep you updated on what lives on the Fandom site. Any comments and questions you may have, let me know in the comments. That's enough recap from me, here are the updates from the past two weeks!

• 1 Notable Changes
• 2 Recent Fixes
• 3 Fixes in Development
• 4 Development Updates
  • 4.1 Engagement
  • 4.2 Platform team
  • 4.3 User-Generated Content (UGC) team
  • 4.4 User Experience (UX) Team

Fandom off…