User blog:Aeriesol/Why You're X-ing Claims, not Checking Them

'''Disclaimer: This is not about the X-Men. Thank you for your time.'''

"...helpers are non-rollback users who have certain privileges to complete a certain task to help the wiki and its users progress."

- Official Wiki Helpers

Though I'm an admin of A&S, anyone's who's been around long enough knows I started out with a bunch of people (namely Mel and a bunch of other people I'm too lazy to list love you guys lmao) from the claiming department pretty much adopting (read: lecturing) me (officially never got adopted; 10/10 forever hung up on this) because that's how specially problematic a newb I was. Most of my dep edits come from categorizing and brutalizing claims. At some point Mel nicknamed me the monster of claim checking, but moving on. It came to my attention some time ago that helpers have come so, so far from our official definition, and it isn't necessarily in a good way.

Helpers are best known for their unique ability to check claims. Every other user can help out with the wiki (in fact, we have a couple of users who have contributed greatly without having the Helper Badge), minus claim checking. Most people don't like claim checking, or if they did, the novelty was lost on them as time did its thing. What makes being a helper so significant is that it now also acts as the training process to become a rollback. As you should know, rollbacks have ban hammer powers and basic admin team cool things. Cool shizzle. Everyone on the admin team has helper rights in essence, so all of this applies to them too.

This blog is to address how people aren't being as helpful (the whole point of having the badge) as they could be in claim checking, even if they're reaching the assigned edit quota.

Attitude
'''Helpers correct mistakes. They rarely give encouragement.''' Aside from the cookie cutter hello and various rephrasings of "Welcome to CHB!", you won't see many helpers going out of their way to make newbies comfortable. There are a spare few who make it a point to mention the things they liked in the claim and mix it with their notes, but that's about it.

This isn't OK. Helpers, or anyone who checks claims, are often the first people a newbie interacts with. First impressions matter. Reaching out to a newbie, whether through their talk page or at the bottom of their claim, is vital to the wiki's activity. A few moments of a helper's time spent writing down a little more friendly effort can hugely impact a new user's future activity. I should freaking know, because I almost left CHB within my first two weeks if it weren't for some reassuring words from people. Newbies are inclined to be overwhelmed by the new surroundings, new people, and information overload when they arrive at our wiki. If you are a helper, it is your job, that YOU signed up for to assist in the transition period. Newbies don't give a flying frappuccino if you've racked up 1,000 or even 3,000+ edits as a helper. In all honesty, that might even scare them more. Who are they to question this clearly very dedicated user who's done so much for the wiki? They'll be crushed if you're not approving!

''People are social creatures. They want to belong.'' Minus some of those self-assured, overly intelligent and lovely beings who couldn't care less about peer pressure, but I haven't encountered any of those in a while, so I s'pose it's safe to assume they're figurative unicorns.

So maybe, while you're typing up that pristine, bulleted list of everything that needs to be redone in their claim, try saying something nice. Try a basic IM with an emoji after you send it, telling them you've checked their claim. Try not to imply anything if the claim physically tired you out. Seriously, just give a shot at being a nice stranger (preferably with as few ulterior motives as possible) online. It's a lot easier than in real life where you apparently get accused of being a pickpocket, a fake, a serial killer, and other derogatory occupations.

Monster Attacks
Everyone's so nitpicky about monster attacks that they start fustigating immediately. Can you like, I don't know, calm down and stop being so rigid? I'm well aware I was/am one of these people, but now I recognize this limits the hell out of claim owners. No one should care if some demigod had a Cyclops ogling them evilly when they were five years old, as long as the damn thing did no harm to it and left anyway. No one should care if attacks come early because unless you have a hologram of monster spawn points and the exact cords of every demi, you have no idea.

Some characters will get attacked early, especially if they live in jampacked cities. Monsters can be shooed away by mortals if the demi is young enough to not be a tasty meal, since we've been all briefed in the art of kimchi half-immortals (AKA the older, the tastier to monsters.) Some high level monsters with the intelligence to do it may even warn off lesser monsters, because they want to save this one for their tastiest meal yet! Leave them alone! Don't you think there are reasons as to why toddler demigods aren't immediately eaten up or killed? Or in kindergarten? It's canon that a lot of monsters decide that middle schoolers are the ripest ones and go for them as soon as they hit sixth grade.

And the whole "it isn't in our Monster Encyclopedia!!!!" thing? Scrap that, please, for the love of everything canon. That thing hasn't been updated in literal years and needs a honest-to-goodness total revamp. If it appears in the series and the attack makes sense with whatever limits set on the monster, let it happen. Some of our admins and even the Crats barely glance at that old thing. Until it's redone, kindly refer to your knowledge of the series and the Riordan wiki to moderate what types of monsters appear.

On more exposition, out with "mention they got attacked every year!!!!!!!!" Stop. Please. Demis of the so-called "lesser calibre" (aka pretty much anyone who doesn't have a war-related or Big Three kid) can live mostly functioning lives without having to go near camp. There are literal backstories, written into claims and accepted, where a demi adioses the hell out of camp because hellooooo, they have a life to live. Sometimes they never even need to go to camp, since in general monsters have their main vendetta towards Big Three kids and those on quests. The only reason monsters exist and can track demis down is because Lamia is salty and Hecate is soft-hearted. AKA solution is to delete Hecate and all her children from existence. 'To paraphrase what Moodle once pointed out, I don't see why we should enforce the rule so heavily''. If they get attacked at least twice in four years, then put it down to sheer dumb luck and let it gooooooo'''.

Single demigods can defeat medium level monsters. Out of luck, training, and/or the right environment that play in their favor, those demigods will rarely get out unscathed but can definitely solo some of the nasties rated 'medium difficulty.' Instead of going "change ur monster charACTER TOO OP IF THEY DO THAT OMG!!!!one!1!!!" every time someone uses a medium monster, feel free to explain that it's possible but they'll need to give some logical context as to how.


 * The Most Basic of Basic Examples: Character A narrowly avoided a fatal ambush from Medium Monster. They ended up fighting in a Place That Gives Character The Edge, and with a lot of beginner's luck, Character A left Medium Monster to crumble into dust. However, Character A was not left in Prime Condition and didn't even have time to make Sarcastic Bantering Victory Remarks before seeking medical attention.

There's a sentence somewhere plainly stating that monsters don't matter all that much. I can't find it, but even our super duper outdated guide states that "demis who narrowly avoid an attack don't necessarily go to camp."

Weapons
Claim notes??? About weapons??? Repeat after me: *singsong* I really, really, really don't like this. Our CP 2.0 clearly states that weapons shouldn't be a problem and claim checkers shouldn't bother with them unless they're straightforwardly OP. The whole "what metal is it" debate strikes me as a waste of time. We've already established that every metal ever mentioned in canon (Imperial gold, celestial bronze, Stygian iron, bone steel) function the same on this wiki. They all kill mythological stuff besides whatever special effects they have. I still think Stygian iron on here should immediately send monsters to Tartarus when they're defeated instead of the usual dust. So no messy clean up needed. As long as they provide reasons as to why the character doesn't have regular CN, it shouldn't matter. Unless the claim owner mentions OP Weapon Powers that are Cause for Immediate Concern, I personally don't give a sizzling slag what color they are. That's it. That's the difference. Y'all can cool your pistons on this now.

OK, fine, there's adamantine/adamantium (which isn't really in our books but in mythology), but no one is allowed to have it right now since it's a plot turning point. It can kill everything that's supposed to be immortal, like Primordials. And no one living really knows how to make it without dying in the process or some nufflebuffle like that. Last I checked, some of the BC Lieutenants are looking into it and that's it.

Powers
"Demigods do not usually come into their powers until they get closer to the age of 10..."

- Character Policy

Newly claimed characters shouldn't be able to have a good grasp on their powers without exposition. Guys, why? Why would we even have a barely trained demi walking into camp with little to zero experience and then being able to access all the powers in their predetermined set without majorly screwing up the first few times in training? Are you kidding me? This is obnoxiously preposterous. I'd understand if people were just throwing around passives, but no, they get the full set instinctively and magically and OPly. This is so insane I'm gonna repeat myself. This is obnoxiously preposterous. Not to mention overpowered as mitzserditzer. I don't even know why this has been allowed to go around for so long. So much for trying to keep things "even."

Please look out for this after a character has been claimed. We should check on the rest of the set being abused rather than just the 3/6/9 ones.

Claim Deletion
I don't know when people started deciding that a claim had to be finished within 7 days or deleted. The rule is that it has to be edited within the past 7 days by the owner for it not to be deleted. I'm setting up a new courtesy rule (that you're free to ignore because my word isn't law) because of the sheer amount of potentially great users we have lost due to this time limit.

You are now bound by honor or courtesy or whatever-the-snizzlywozzly to inform a newb about sandboxes when they make a WIP claim or get one deleted for inactivity. If you don't know how to create a sandbox, ask someone who does so you know what to tell the newbs. If you still don't want to ask that, I become the embodiment of disappointment and will angst all over chat as an AoE effect that lasts 7 days. No, I won't, but it won't be living up to your help-y position hype.

If a claim subject to deletion had loads of information written that was relatively OK, copy paste the stuff to the user. It's going to be a lot easier for them to ease back into claiming since they've got everything they need. The same applies for people who made pages instead of claims. Copy paste relevant information in your IM of Ultimate Explanation.

End Note
A fair reminder to everyone: as of 2017, our wiki takes place 21 years after the books. Even if we say that this only counts up to PJO, HoO and Kane Chronicles and MCGoA and the Apollo schmizz still happens before that. Therefore: it doesn't really matter if there are lowkey or highkey references to the other series, as long as the character isn't suddenly the son of Anubis and Athena or some weird, unlikely combo which falls under the jurisdiction of the anti-OP policy. By all means, feel free to point out that their claim is lacking a few fries for a Happy Meal, but for the love of everything unholy, don't be so iffy on censoring eVeRyThInG that isn't mentioned in PJO.

'''TLDR; Be nice. Don't nitpick and declare it absolute law. Give people leeway. And give yourself a pat on the back after claim checking because when it gets active w/ long histories, you usually have to spend around 3 hours doing it.'''