Our Wikipedia page

[Empyrean]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Heroes

With a cursory look, I didn't see anything at all about NCsoft cancelling us or our efforts to save the game.  This may be a minor thing, but should we use the page to publicize our efforts, and, if so, what exactly should we say?

I look up things on Wikipedia a lot, but I've never edited a page and also wouldn't want to put the wrong thing, so if someone wants to take this and run with it I'd be grateful, and, if not, any guidance would be appreciated.

Save Paragon!

[Vulpy]

I agree. We could use a talented Wikipedian right about now.

[emu265]

I agree as well.  As weird as it sounds I do check Wikipedia for news sometimes.  I'm sure I'm not alone.

[eabrace]

I agree. We could use a talented Wikipedian right about now.

Around here?  That's crazy talk!   

(Will look into it when I get home - late tonight - if someone else doesn't beat me to it.)

[malonkey1]

Awesome idea, but be careful about tone! They like things unbiased.

[eabrace]

Oh, I'm well aware.  And I'd be seeking advice from at least one fellow CoH player who I know spends a lot of time editing on Wikipedia before I submit any changes.

[Clave Dark 5]

There is a slight mention of the shut-down in the list of issues released.  It notes that i24 won't be coming out, but really not much beyond that.

Yeah, we need to be there, including the petition link.

[eabrace]

I'll be working on that tonight and passing along for feedback.  Soon as I've gotten comments and revised accordingly, I'll add it to the page.

[ScottyB]

There is a slight mention of the shut-down in the list of issues released.  It notes that i24 won't be coming out, but really not much beyond that.

Yeah, we need to be there, including the petition link.

A link to the petition isn't the kind of thing Wikipedia would want as a source. They're an encyclopedia, not a news site (Wikinews is for news, although they also have notability standards) and while this is important to us in our circle, we'd need to be able to demonstrate the significance of our actions as they might pertain to the gaming industry or activism in general. We likely won't meet such a requirement until we actually effect a change, and by the time we do that the source that Wikipedia would like is a news article referencing the petition rather than the petition itself.

Keep in mind that Wikipedia articles are supposed to provide a neutral point of view and cite sources (and not primary sources, with few exceptions). While news articles are a secondary source, we have to be careful not to get slapped with a reminder that Wikipedia is not for news reports.

Someone's already added the basic facts of the termination to the opening of the article, and a couple of reputable news sites are cited  in the Production History section regarding efforts to save CoH. We should keep an eye on it, but I don't think there's much more we should do on Wikipedia. Addendum: In fact, some Wikipedians are watching the page and even put in a request to protect the page against vandalism. You can check out the Talk page for the CoH article, towards the bottom, for more details.

Wikinews, on the other hand, could be an outlet for us to cover major developments. When we've got something we want covered it might be best to contact an active journalist on Wikinews to write it for us, to avoid having an article written by one of us disqualified.

[Paula]

I'm not in a position to do an edit right now (just like the paragonwiki, I've registered to volunteer a couple edits here and there, then ran back to the corner to hide), but here's some thoughts for your draft:

7.10 Cancellation
On August 31, 2012, a bulletin was posted to the City of Heroes website announcing the immediate closure of Paragon Studios and a cessation of all development for the game.  (refer back to current citation #2)  The termination of all services was planned for November 30, 2012.

(I don't know if a 7.10.1 would be appropriate for this, "Fan Reception")
The announced cancellation was met with strong resistance from the long-time fanbase of City of Heroes, who responded with efforts to ensure the game's continuation.  Working individually and collectively through the Titan Network (link to the Save Paragon forums), players organized in-game protests as well as creating petitions, letter-writing campaigns, and outreach to celebrities and media.  (Good place to source the articles that are out there as references, and include bits of details from them)

....something like that-ish?

[eabrace]

Just for reference, I'm not planning on making any huge additions to the page.  Just something short and simple stating NCsoft announced the cancellation of the title on August 31 (cite NCsoft press release), and that fans responded by launching several efforts to save the game (cite a few third-party news outlets).  Ideally, I'd like to base its format and content on other, similar content already in Wikipedia.  For instance:

Unhappy with the show's ratings, NBC threatened to cancel the show during its second season.[11] The show's fan base, led by Bjo Trimble, conducted an unprecedented letter-writing campaign, petitioning the network to keep the show on the air.[12][13] NBC renewed the show, but moved it from primetime to the "Friday night death slot", and substantially reduced its budget.[14] In protest Roddenberry resigned from his role as producer and reducing his direct involvement in the process of molding Star Trek and Fred Freiberger became producer of the show's third season. Roddenberry did, however, co-author two scripts of the final third season. Despite the protests of a renewed letter-writing campaign, NBC canceled the series.

Firefly generated a loyal base of fans during its three-month original broadcast run on Fox in late 2002. The initial gathering point where they met was the Internet message board started by Fox for viewer commentary on Firefly. This site,[74] now affectionately known as the Original Board or OB, is still in active use a decade later. The original fans, self-styled Browncoats, used the OB to organize and try to save the series from being canceled by Fox only three months after its debut. Their efforts included raising money for an ad in Variety magazine and a postcard writing campaign to UPN. While unsuccessful in finding a network that would continue the show, their support led to a release of the series on DVD in December 2003.[5] A subsequent fan campaign then raised over $14,000 in donations to have a purchased Firefly DVD set placed aboard 250 U.S. Navy ships by April 2004 for recreational viewing by their crews.[75]

[eabrace]

Heraclea beat me to it.

... which is awesome, since that's one source I was going to run my addition by for feedback anyway. 

[chaparralshrub]

On a somewhat different note: suppose that the worst possible thing happens, and CoH goes under. What happens to the Paragon wiki?

p.s. Sorry for being a pessimist, but I like to have a plan even for worst-case scenarios. Right now that plan involves asking the dev team Champions Online (which includes some of the same people as made CoH) to add what's called a mission foundry, basically Perfect World Inc.'s counterpart to our Mission Architect. If they make it, then we can build a new Paragon from the ground up if we have to. But first I need to know that we'll have enough of the old Paragon archived and available for us to build it with.

[eabrace]

On a somewhat different note: suppose that the worst possible thing happens, and CoH goes under. What happens to the Paragon wiki?

Have you noticed how stubborn we seem to be here? 

Paragon Wiki's not going anywhere for a while regardless of the state of the game.  Even if it were going anywhere, I'm sure the XML dump of the entire wiki would be placed somewhere publicly accessible, allowing anyone to create a new home for it with all of the data, files, and editing history intact.

[emu265]

Have you noticed how stubborn we seem to be here? 

Paragon Wiki's not going anywhere for a while regardless of the state of the game.  Even if it were going anywhere, I'm sure the XML dump of the entire wiki would be placed somewhere publicly accessible, allowing anyone to create a new home for it with all of the data, files, and editing history intact.

This pleases me.  I'd hate to lose the best database for the game, I'm sure I'd like to take a look for memory's sake if the game goes down.

[dwturducken]

FWIW, the Paragon Studios entry is now filed under defunct software companies.  I gave it low stars for accuracy, since they're still negotiating with NCSoft as an entity under that name.  It ain't much, but I feel better.