The Sims Wiki:Newsletter/15 May 2011

{|style="border: 2px solid green; -webkit-border-radius:10px; -moz-border-radius:10px; border-top: 5px solid green; border-bottom: 5px solid green;" width="660px" align="center" May 2011
 * TheSimsWikiNewsletter.png

Contests! Have you voted? There's a lot of contests going on right now, but the biggest are probably the Fanon Logo Contest which is in its voting stage, Second Caption Contest which is in its submissions stage, and the Second Logo Contest which is long overdue to be closed.

Fanon Logo Contest

How many users actually want the Fanon namespace to have a different logo than the main namespace?

Not very many.

In total, there are 14 votes for submitted logos. Although, only 10 users voted for logos. Five users voted for the option of "None of the above", which is just half of how many users voted for logos.

The "None of the above" option was added so that users who don't want a fanon logo and/or don't like the submissions can still have a say in what happens. Obviously, that option is proving to be fairly popular.

Second Caption Contest

How's the Second Caption Contest coming along? ...Slowly.

The idea is that the contest will last awhile, preferably for the majority of the summer. Let's say that the majority of summer is the end of July, for the contest to last that long with it starting on June 5th (the contest recently received an extension) there would need to be at least 8 images.

There's only two submitted images right now. Please, for this contest to be successful, submit images!

Second Logo Contest

I'm sure you've noticed The Sims Wiki's current logo, up on the top left of every The Sims Wiki page. This has been The Sims Wiki's logo since October, and the contest started in early December.

That was 5 months ago, and nobody has voted for a logo since January. As well, there is a clear majority of votes on one of the logos. Will the contest ever be closed? Who knows.

Have you ever been to the IRC channel?
By Bleeh

The Sims Wiki's IRC channel is the second home of some of The Sims Wiki's most well known editors (after the wiki of course!).

"[The Sims Wiki's IRC channel is] A fun way to interact with other community members instantly." - BobNewbie

"It is crazy, fun, unpredictable, and a great place to spend your time talking with friends. :)" - Random Ranaun

The topic of the IRC channel is ever changing, but the most common thing to talk about is definitely not The Sims Wiki or The Sims games. What is it? Probably just absolute randomness. Or Greenland.

SURPRISE!
By Woganhemlock

So, it seems that The Sims 3: Unleashed was a hoax, and The Sims 3: Generations is coming. But, if Unleashed was released, what sort of features would it have? The only question that remains is if, or when, a pets expansion is released. Expansions often carry the same theme through the games, e.g. Vacation -> Bon Voyage -> World Adventures, so here's hoping Unleashed, or whatever it's called takes as big a leap forward as Pets did, and further increases the realism of The Sims.
 * It's pretty obvious that pets would be added, but maybe they would be finally playable without cheats.
 * Perhaps it is time EA expanded on the pets available. So far, it's dogs and cats, and other pets acting as objects. But why not add more pets, like horses?
 * Why not expand entirely on the idea of pets, and make an animals expansion? This means that:
 * Sims can get attacked by bears and wolves in the forests.
 * Sims can run a farm.
 * Sims can get several types of pets, not just cats and dogs.

Month Highlights

 * Edits to property template so it shows at top corner of page.
 * Wikia removed grey divider from articles.
 * IRC channel has moved from #the_sims to #wikia_sims.
 * Two new fanon administrators, XoTulleMorXo and Woganhemlock.

Interview with GEORGIEGIBBONS
Which do you prefer, the wiki or the IRC?

To be honest, I like them both the same.

Do you have any ideas on how to attract more users to the IRC?

Other than advertisement and spamming, no.

Are you happy with how the IRC channel has developed since you first joined?

Yes.

Is it difficult being the IRC contact sometimes?

Sometimes due to trolls, etc, but we get past it.

Thanks for your time!

New Newsletter Icon
Our current Newsletter header and icon look quite dated, and we'd like to get a new one. If you're interested in creating a new header for future Newsletters, post your header designs here and they may be used in future Newsletters, or featured in a newsletter logo and header contest!

From The Editor
T  his newsletter doesn't write itself! Anyone who is willing to contribute ideas or articles should do so; you will be given credit for your contributions, and they stand a good chance of being included on the next Newsletter.

We also need column writers; who write one thing about a certain topic once each month. We would like to welcome Auror to the Newsletter team, who from now will write the Auror's Take column. We have an opening for a column called The Mod and More, which deals with mods and fan created objects, and we ask any modders to contact BobNewbie for more information.

Along with a new column writer, we would like to include one or two more members of the community to write for us, making us a 4-5 member journalism team. This team will communicate via e-mail and IRC to bring the community the best possible newsletter each month. The Sims Wiki Newsletter would also like to remind you of how fun it actually is to write for The Newsletter. We plan on growing and adding a whole ton of new things, from new game reviews by regular users, to in-depth articles concerning Wikia's changes and how they effect users. For now, growth is extremely limited, and we ask for as many possible users to apply to join.

If there's something you think we missed, tell us about it and we'll do our best to include it.

- Happy Simming and editing!