Template talk:UserAnniversary

Unification

Is there any particular reason why this template merely links to user pages... and doesn't just have all of the data actually exist in this template, or perhaps subpages? Is this just a case of "someone else made this" and not wanting to tamper? Or is there another reason for it? —  Talk · Cont 13:13, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

I don't know if this is related, but is there also perhaps a way to change the 1 and 3 year badges so that they either reflect who actually gave them, or are generic like the others? Felderburg 16:26, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

The original anniversary badges were separate templates, each created by different admins who (at the time) defined them as their own user templates. When I started going through the user list and updating the anniversaries, I was simply placing the appropriate template reference (or replacing the existing reference with the template for the next year) on the user pages. After about a year of that, I decided that it would be much easier to have a single template with a switch based on the anniversary year that referenced the existing templates. (Thus the original editing comment when I created the template). And that's how this was born.

Later still, I realized that I could use the {{age}} template and never actually have to manually update a user's anniversary again. I just didn't get very far into replacing the references before we got hit with the shutdown notification and got completely distracted. It's only really now that I'm starting to peel myself away from moderating the Titan boards and managing the Twitter feed enough to start checking the Recent Changes list again.

So, tl;dr version: After a long time of not being very smart about how I was doing things, I started getting lazier and this is just how I chose to implement it at the time.

As for changing the names on who awards the badges: we could probably set something like that up, but the existing templates are a reflection of the admin that created the badge. Not that there's any consistency - particularly given that I created all of years 3-6. Rather than make the templates reflect the person that added the anniversary badge to the page, it might be better to change them to generically reflect "Paragon Wiki" wishing them a happy anniversary. The only real argument against that is based on pure nostalgia.

--Eabrace 07:33, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

The problem with using {{age}} so that it auto-updates is that the user won't be notified when it changes. Not much point in wishing someone a happy anniversary if they aren't going to know about it. Making it automatic also undercuts the somewhat personal nature of it, IMO. -- Sekoia 13:49, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

Not really disagreeing with that, either.  :) Eabrace 17:03, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

One nice thing about auto-updating the message, though, is that you don't have to worry about missing someone's anniversary. Case-in-point, Archabaddon just updated his user page in the past couple weeks, and the last anniversary posted was for the two-year mark, even though it's been over five years since his first edit. (I'm not pointing fingers, just making an observation.) This leads me to some other questions:

• Is there a date-sorted list of all first user edits that's used to make the updates?

• Are all users checked each time there's a pass made for new anniversaries?

• Is there a minimum threshhold of edits that a user is required to make before they qualify for anniversary tracking?

• Should all users continue to be checked for new anniversaries, or only active ones? (I realize that Felderburg and I have made the lion's share of edits since the shutdown, but this question isn't asked to bring us special attention. It's just to raise awareness and discussion about future options.)

I think noting a user's edit anniversary is great and a fun little nod we give to thank them for contributing. But, thinking about the ease and thoroughness of maintaining the program in the future, automation might have some weighty benefits worth considering. — talk / contribs 17:26, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

To answer your first question, there wasn't a date-sorted list of all first user edits, and apparently there's no easy end-user way to get that info en masse. So I pulled it from the DB, made it pretty, and created an article for it: Project:Contributor First Edits. The data will need to be updated about once a year, but if someone makes an anniversary check and notices it's too far out of date, they can poke me to get an update.

I have no idea if all users have been checked. I don't think we've been applying a minimum threshold. My guess is it's been applied based on the users that we see active but I have no idea for sure.

I somewhat don't like that we replace the old anniversary badge rather than add the new. If I'm at my fifth anniversary, why shouldn't I have all five anniversary badges? If we were to start doing that, we could start awarding based on whether they've editing during that anniversary's year (so someone who made a few edits, then didn't contribute until four years later might have anniversary badges 1 and 4, but not 2 or 3). But that adds a whole new level of complexity to it that I doubt we want to bother with.

To a degree, we're over-formalizing this. It was originally intended to be a friendly nod from a big contributor/admin to someone who was contributing. It was originally a fairly personal thing. Now we're looking to nearly completely depersonalize it and make it very universally and consistently applied. I'm not sure that's good.

In any case, it does seem a bit weird to me to update anniversaries for people who are no longer involved in the wiki. I'm inclined to stick with awarding/updating them to people who were actually active at some point in the past year. -- Sekoia 18:26, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

"I have no idea if all users have been checked. I don't think we've been applying a minimum threshold."

I had been maintaining an Excel spreadsheet with a list of all users who have registered, their first edit date, and their most recent edit date. I started by looking at the list of all users (by registration date) and checking the history of each user to get a first edit date. Then, each year, I checked those users in the anniversary month of their first edit for their most recent edit date. New users were added to the list as they registered, and if they didn't have any edits at the time, I would check them again the next year, using their registration date rather than first edit date.

The spreadsheet is It's a bit out of date at the moment, but I know it was current at least at the beginning of last year, maybe as late as June.

My criteria for awarding a badge:

• at least one edit for a one-year anniversary badge
• at least one edit within the last year for any other anniversary badges

So all users who made any edit to the wiki prior to January 2011 (one year before I'm absolutely certain my list was updated) should have at least one anniversary badge on their User page.

Regarding replacing vs. adding: when I started my first sweep through, most users had only the most recent anniversary badge on on their page. Only a few had more than one. I just standardized on the most common for consistency. And the issue you mentioned with editors taking a year or two off and then returning was part of my decision.

What I was going for when I began the effort to track anniversaries was trying not to play "favorites" and exclude newer editors from getting the anniversary badges on their page. But that meant getting all of them. And once I started sweeping through the user list, I just found it was easier to get all users rather that select users. I'm pretty sure I started a forum thread asking if there was an easy way to get the data I needed rather than having to track it all myself, but that was probably back on the old forums somewhere.

--Eabrace 19:45, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

It appears that the last time I updated anniversary badges was in January 2012 and I got as far (going month by month) as updating my list with users who had registered prior to May 2011 and awarding first year badges to anyone registered in May 2010 who had made an edit prior to May 2011. I didn't quite finish with updating users registered in prior years during the month of May, or else Archbaddon would have been granted the 3-year badge at that time. --Eabrace 19:57, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

I kinda figured there had to be some system set up to monitor and award the badges, though it sounds like it was a bit overwhelming to maintain. In an effort to simplify the whole thing, what if we repurposed the anniversary badges to not celebrate each individual user's first edit date, but rather the first edit date of Paragon Wiki? The badges would be given to everyone who made an edit in that year's time, and would be cumulative rather than mutually exclusive, as it was in-game. The date also happens to coincide with the first day of City of Heroes' sunset, so there's an interesting symbolism there, I think, which could be translated into the badge titles. — talk / contribs 00:52, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Here are some ideas for repurposed user anniversary badges:

• (1) Founder - As a founding editor, your contributions have helped Paragon Wiki get off to a great start. (Awarded to everyone who made an edit in the year prior to September 1, 2006.)
• (2) Documenter - Your efforts at documenting the contents of City of Heroes are greatly appreciated. (Awarded to everyone who made an edit in the year prior to September 1, 2007.)
• (3) Gatherer - You've gathered more bits and bytes, and added them to Paragon Wiki. (Awarded to everyone who made an edit in the year prior to September 1, 2008.)
• (4) Transition Maker - You've helped welcome Paragon Wiki to its new home by adding more information about City of Heroes. (Awarded to everyone who made an edit in the year prior to September 1, 2009.)
• (5) Data Hound - You've left no stone unturned in the search for more content to add to Paragon Wiki. (Awarded to everyone who made an edit in the year prior to September 1, 2010.)
• (6) Archivist - An archive doesn't just happen on its own. It takes people like you. Thank you. (Awarded to everyone who made an edit in the year prior to September 1, 2011.)
• (7) Knowledgebase - With your help, Paragon Wiki has become an even more expansive repository of knowledge. (Awarded to everyone who made an edit in the year prior to September 1, 2012.)
• (8) Torchbearer - Although City of Heroes is shut down, you've continued to contribute to Paragon Wiki. (Awarded to everyone who made an edit in the year prior to September 1, 2013.)

Any thoughts? — talk / contribs 03:07, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Blondeshell's proposal sounds good to me, and easier to maintain. Eabrace, sorry I didn't see your forum post requesting help to retrieve the data; in the future, feel free to send me a forum PM to draw my attention to similar requests. If it's in the database, there's a good chance I can find a way to query it out. -- Sekoia 04:48, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Another option would be to leave the current UserAnniversary template as it is, and use the above suggestions as part of a new WikiAnniversary template. In this case, the existing badge images would be used for the new template and the old template would be switched to the new yearly veteran badges that were added in with Freedom. This would be more in-line with the intended purpose of the badges - i.e., the anniversary badges were for at least just popping in once a year, and the veteran badges were for cumulative time/effort. — talk / contribs 07:32, 14 July 2013 (UTC)