Creeping Bureaucracy threatens UGC fun on LGPedia

Note: This article is entirely the opinion of QtheC, and no one else, and you are more than welcome to disagree with me! ;)

There are those who want to control every detail of the LGPedia to keep it neat and tidy and up to date, and some of their hard work is unarguably beneficial. But it can go to extremes, and become stifling, unwieldy, and harmful, and this is happening quietly, to UGC pages all over the LGPedia. It's a program, rolled out over many months, called the "Fanfic Revamp." With all the good intentions and some benefit, what is, in fact happening, is that a lot of old content is being "nominated for deletion" and later deleted by a small number of busy hard-working editors, with little regard for the hard work that went into producing that content in the first place, and few attempts to merge rather than delete that content.

My message is simple: encourage contributions and creativity and sharing of fun UGC on LGPedia by keeping it free/open and yes, even a bit messy at times. The attempt by a few to impose excessive rules on how and what and where and in what format content may be added to the LGPedia is not beneficial to the community. It is undermining the fun, and discouraging new additions.

There needs to be two LGPedias. The carefully formatted areas that supports the canon show, and the free/independent wild areas where untamed drunken content roams.

But it doesn't end with the "Revamp." Now, one or two people have taken it upon themselves to outline very detailed rules for a series of hoops a potential UGC series creator must jump through if they want to add or restore content to the LGPedia. It's horrendous and absurd. It's this new nightmare of legalese just waiting for poor innocent future UGC series creators to walk into, and I say we cut it off before it is ever instituted. For these reasons, I have "nominated for deletion" this proposal page on LGPedia:
UGC Desk.

If there is going to be a "UGC Desk" of any kind, it should be about helping by providing a page of suggestions and examples, not trying to control what gets added in this domineering fashion. Let's recast LGPedia staffers as "helpers."

Join the discussion here: LGPedia Talk:UGC Desk

Note also the discussion here, where the "Fanfic Revamp" project has been nominated for deletion: LGPedia_talk:Lucy's Balcony/Fanfic revamp. Those commenting in favor of deletion of that page or for preserving content in general so far include ApotheosisAZ, Immortal1, LordGreyStoke422, Modelmotion, Greg Gallows, Zudit, CDNMatt, and JenniPowell.

I want the LGPedia to be fun and all-inclusive and welcoming and to reflect the crazy silly creative spirit that is reflected in the comments pages, on the forums, and on this blog. Sometimes, messy is good.

Note: This article is entirely the opinion of QtheC, and no one else, and you are more than welcome to disagree with me! ;)

Note addded by mm: The so called fan fiction revamp was a very open process and the LGPedia admins repeatedly ask for community input. There were also numberous invites to participate posted on LG15 Today. Despite all these efforts there was a very limited participation by the community. After the "consensus" process went into effect the broader community began to see some of the consequences and this has stimulated more discussion of the topic. This has never been a closed process and while it is true that some of the discussions were complex and excessive I truly believe that everyone just wants what is best for LGPedia. For a more extensive discussion of this see my comment below. It is my understanding that most of the current changes are actually on hold as we work out a process where we can preserve the historical record on LGPedia while still meeting some of the administrate needs. I think that shows that the admins are totally responsive to the needs of the community/