User blog comment:Nausiated/How to Write a Proper Issue Summary/@comment-5104557-20180627042048/@comment-61022-20180627204924

If this is all based on personal desire, then I think the community as a whole is contributing for the wrong reasons. Granted, this is a fandom that has a large age range and contributors from many demographics, this is basically an encyclopedia. The only way an encyclopedia is of value to anyone depends on how complete it is. You take a look at other Wikis (Wookiepedia, Memory Alpha, and some of the larger ones) and information gaps are far and few between. Yet, when you look at the comic book Wikis (Us, DC, Image etc.) there are massive holes in data. To me, that's embarrassing.

I think part of the blame here is that generally speaking, editors are looking for personal gratification instead of pushing themselves to go beyond that. Sure it's a hobby to all of us, but I think the community needs to take more of an academic approach to contributions. It can be still fun at the same time.

I also think that most can't be bothered to dig in and do the research, which is kind of why I'm pushing issue summaries to begin with (since it provides resource material that is on the Wiki itself) Which I find kind of absurd since most of this information can be found digitally. If you look hard enough you can find it.

One thing that doesn't help is Wikia's shift to more social aspects on their platform. Between Discord, the Discussions function, and the Forums, they're fostering an environment that is less fact-based and more about discussions. I sat through a seminar on this during a past Wikia Community Connect, and it's basically a marketing ploy to get people to come back to the site without having much to offer to talk about things instead of sharing information. It's all to generate more ad revenue, and in my opinion, undermine the quality of the work that serious individuals contribute to this site.

Indeed it does seem to be a bit of wishful thinking on my part. If people took the effort they put in the who-is-more-powerful !@#$ sucking contests, match mater for fictional characters, and/or arguing who could or could not be an Avenger, a lot more would get done around here.