Forum:Welcome template

After giving a lot of consideration as to how I would like it to look, I'd like to present a draft of a revised Welcome template. The draft can be found here. Jedimasterfiolli very correctly stated that the current welcome template puts too much of an emphasis on policies and "rar rar rar follow this or be banned rar rar rar," and that's not what we should be focusing on. First impressions are everything, which is true in all aspects of life. If a user's first impression is that this is a site driven totally by policies rather than by community or fun and interaction, then we're never going to see a community built up like we all want to. I've seen far too many users say things, whether it be in opinion pieces about the wiki or just general questions, that they want to ask a question or give an opinion but they're afraid they're going to be banned if they do so. That is absolutely not what people should be thinking. The fact that a lot of people think that is horrible, and it means that we're putting too much emphasis on policies.

Now, I certainly haven't taken the policies out of this template. That would be foolish. What I did do, however, is only put up the three most relevant article policies: the MoS, the image policy, and the editing policy. We don't need the categorization policy there or the Layout Guide. Even the blog policy was there, which is over the top for a welcome template. I also didn't mention blocks or bans at all. No one wants to register on a website and have the first thing they read be about the possibility of being banned. That's just a bad first impression.

In this version, the policies have taken a back seat to the community. I've given community links like the Writing Center, FAs, GAs, QOTWs, Forums, CUSWFN, and IRC, which is all fun stuff. Forums can be meh in regards to voting on policies, but I'm sure the Fanon Cantina could be a bit more interesting in talking about fanon works and things of that sort. Administrators also take a back seat, as indicated by the fact that the administrator page is the last link. There are also welcoming messages, which basically stress that each user is a valued writer, and valued community member, and in essence a valued user and that the wiki is about users like that. With an emphasis on people instead of rules, we can draw in a lot more people and build a better community.

Some might say that I shouldn't have said that the wiki is already great. While the wiki certainly has problems that need to be addressed and fixed, we're all here for a reason. Obviously there's something we all like here, and there are very obviously some fun and great aspects of the wiki. We can't tell people that they've just joined a problem-riddled wiki and that they're the last best hope for it. I'd rather have the policy Nazi template. No, there are great aspects of this wiki, and we need to sell it that way or else no one will want to have a bigger role than just their own articles.

Is this going to solve all of the wiki's problems? Absolutely not. However, it's a start, and it's a very necessary start at that. Changing the template like this basically is a change in our sales tactics, which we need. We can't be advertising ourselves as the Star Wars Policy Wiki. Fanon is supposed to be fun, and if we can sell the fun and the policies at the same time then I think we'll see some major improvements around here. Is that a guarantee? No, nothing ever is. Is it worth revising our sales pitch a bit? Absolutely.

Now, this isn't a vote, since it doesn't realy need a vote. I just need to know if anyone has any objections to it, since I don't just want to up and replace this template if people have issues. Please give your opinion in the discussion section below. Thanks! - Brandon Rhea  (talk) 23:36, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Discussion
Comments? Questions? Concerns? I appreciate your feedback. =) - Brandon Rhea  (talk) 23:36, 30 August 2009 (UTC)