Last week, we shared the bittersweet news that we are ending the part-time, contract-based Wiki Representative program and shifting to a full-time staffing model for Community team members who directly support our communities.
As promised in last week’s commitments, today’s blog introduces you to the four Wiki Representatives who are officially joining Fandom Staff as Community Managers on April 1st (no joke)! We also have a few updates about former Wiki Representatives who are remaining with Fandom on a contract-basis, but taking on new or different positions now that the Wiki Representative program is coming to an end.
We are really excited to be able to welcome these new Community Managers and, although we know the news about the Wiki Rep program was tough to hear, we hope that you join us in celebrating the four new Community Managers who are joining the team and the Wiki Reps who are continuing in different positions.
Community Manager Overview[]
First, let’s set some context about what "Community Manager" means.
Community Manager is a title that, at Fandom, has been used for years to describe many full-time staff members on the Community team. We have eight of them right now in fact, and that’s not counting these four new Community Managers—or “CMs” as we say as a short-hand. Many of our team members, myself included, started as CMs as well. They’re the beating heart of the Community team, as they’re the staff members who represent Fandom to the community. There’s a number of CMs you probably don’t know as well, given that Wiki Reps were often your direct points of contact, so you’ll get to see our long-standing CMs even more than you previously had as we make this transition.
So what exactly is a CM? You might be wondering this because of the word "manager"—that was something we saw with the original version of the Wiki Representative program, when they were referred to as Wiki Managers, and heard concerns about what the word "manager" meant in that context.
Does that mean that CMs are somehow in charge of the wikis they work with? In short: no.
Admins, moderators, and communities run their wikis, and how that happens takes many different forms—and the community gets to choose what works best for them in terms of decision-making. What CMs are responsible for is managing and growing Fandom’s relationship with the community, by being there to provide support where they can, deliver information about what’s happening at Fandom, solicit feedback, and more. They also work on initiatives within Fandom, many of which are of their choosing based on what they find interesting and what they think will be fun, informative, and helpful to the communities they work with.
Some of you might be wondering—well, you changed the title of Wiki Manager to Wiki Representative in the past, so why not change the title of Community Manager? In this case, Community Manager is an industry-standard title used throughout companies in gaming, entertainment, tech, media, non-profits, and even residential properties like apartment buildings. So it’s an important title for our team members to have, including for their own careers, but you can think of them very broadly as “Fandom Staff” as well.
We’ll have more specifics in our next Staff Blog about the Community team structure and where CMs fit into that, but for now let’s get to the exciting part—meeting the new CMs!
Welcoming the New Community Managers[]
I already said this, so at the risk of sounding like a broken record, we are really, really excited to have these four new Community Managers join our team. Choosing only four Wiki Reps to join as CMs wasn’t easy, but we’re thrilled to have landed on four incredible people after carefully and thoroughly considering everyone.
Barneymiller123abc (Miller)[]
Miller is joining the team as Community Manager, Entertainment. He was a Wiki Rep since 2022 and has worked with communities like Adventure Time, The Big Bang Theory, and Bluey. He’s a huge fan of Barney the Dinosaur (his home wiki is Barney), which led him to Fandom and becoming acquainted with various users on the platform. Outside of Fandom, he likes to write, illustrate, listen to music, and watch TV and films, while even still collecting newly released films on physical media.
In Miller’s own words:
- “I’m excited to be a CM because I’ve had the pleasure of building great relationships with various editors and community members on the platform and I’m excited in maintaining those relationships alongside continuing to be a mentor to wiki editors within various communities. I’m really looking forward to being an advocate for various communities according to their respective needs.”
OishiiOnIno (Kurt)[]
Kurt is joining the team as Community Manager, Gaming. He was an anime Wiki Specialist starting in 2019 and later became a gaming Wiki Rep in 2021, working with communities like Minecraft, Elder Scrolls, and Resident Evil, which are among his favorite wikis. Kurt is passionate about providing a safe space and representation to trans users by connecting with them and helping out with LGBTQIA+ projects on the platform. As a matter of fact, stay tuned for an upcoming Staff Blog—Kurt’s first!—very soon about that.
In Kurt’s own words:
- “I loved connecting with so many of you as a Wiki Rep, bonding over wikis and our passion for video games. Now there’s so many more folks to meet than ever! I’m stoked! Let’s continue building safe, thriving communities together where everyone is heard and understood!”
ReverieCode (Lucas)[]
Lucas is joining the team as Community Manager, Gaming. He became a Wiki Rep in 2019, originally for Entertainment and later for Gaming where he has worked with communities like Genshin Impact, Grand Theft Auto, and Assassin’s Creed. He originally joined Fandom in 2007 and has edited on both entertainment and gaming communities, and as a community member was a Wikia Helper in 2010, a member of Wikia Stars (the precursor to Fandom Stars) from 2014 to 2016, and a member of Community Council until becoming a Wiki Rep. He enjoys writing fiction and delving into great TV shows and story-driven games. His current favorite wiki is Critical Role.
In Lucas’ own words:
- “I wouldn't be who I am without all the online communities that I've gotten to know, and Fandom has been a massive part of that. To be able to see wikis as a full time job now is very special to me, and I'm looking forward to expanding the ways I can support them in this new journey!”
Spongebob456 (Chris)[]
Chris is joining the team as Community Manager, Entertainment. He became a Wiki Rep in 2019 and has worked with communities like Wookieepedia, Disney, and How to Train Your Dragon. As a community member whose home wiki is Encyclopedia SpongeBobia, Chris has been active on Fandom since 2011, joined Wikia Stars in 2013, and was a member of Community Council starting in 2016. Outside of Fandom, Chris enjoys performing in amateur dramatics, playing snooker, and playing LEGOs that he’d be the first to tell you he’s running out of space for.
In Chris’ own words:
- “Fandom has done so much for me over the years - both in confidence and allowing me to express myself much more. I'm super excited to give back and have a role where I can devote more time to building relationships with communities, as well as getting creative with initiatives for users!”
But Wait, There’s More![]
Although we were only able to bring four of the Wiki Representatives onto the team full-time right now, we also were able to continue working with a few additional Wiki Reps on contract based on specific skills they have and projects they were working on.
Jesto95, a Wiki Representative from the League of Legends Esports Wiki who worked closely with our gaming communities since 2022, is moving over to our Wiki Specialist program. As a Wiki Specialist, Jesto will help with content creation (including on gaming Official Wikis), handle adoption requests, and work with our Tech team to identify and solve problems about Cargo, used on many of our historically Gamepedia wikis. If you know Jesto you know that he’s an extremely helpful and positive presence within the community, and we’re excited to keep working with him.
Tagaziel will continue to work as a Wiki Specialist in our Gaming Wiki Specialist program, after sharing the duties of both a Wiki Representative and a Wiki Specialist. Originally from the Fallout Wiki, Tagaziel has been a key person in fleshing out new Fandom wikis as part of Official Wiki partnerships. She's worked on hundreds of wikis since joining Gamepedia, years before Fandom and Curse Media joined forces, which she’s continued to do ever since. If you know Tagaziel, you know that she’s a big believer in wikis as a key source of knowledge and strives to create even more resources for gaming and wiki users. We’re excited to have her continue working on content development as a Wiki Specialist.
Lady Lostris, a Wiki Representative originally from the Avatar Wiki, will be taking on an expanded role assisting with our product development and feature improvement. She’ll be spending some time assisting entertainment wikis with the transition to their new Community Managers, and she’ll also still be an active presence in our product testing and feedback processes – something you’ll hear more about next week, when we go into how the Community team operates in an upcoming Staff Blog. If you know Lostris—and let’s be honest, she’s everywhere!—you know that she’s an absolute tour de force in terms of helping wikis with technical and product changes, including gathering feedback and being a champion for making new features even better for the community. If you’ve participated in any feature testing, you’ve probably seen her be a staple in feature rollouts like Interactive Maps, Mobile Theming, Post History, Reported Post Notifications, and Quick Answers, amongst others—and you’ll see her working with the community on even more features in the future.
Final Thoughts[]
Now that you’ve met the new CMs, you’re probably wondering when they’re going to be ready to start working directly with communities. For that, we ask for some additional patience. The new CMs are starting on April 1st, but a lot of their first few weeks will be spent learning the ropes of the role, going through some additional training, and settling in.
As part of their first few weeks, though, we’ll begin the community transition to this new set up. We remain committed to reaching out to impacted wikis as soon as possible, to let them know how we’ll be supporting them moving forward.
Until then, please join me in celebrating all of the people in this blog on their new roles!
I'm a huge fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Marvel.
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