The Energon Pub

Back in 2005, when I started visiting Seibertron.com, and especially after I became "officially" a Seibertronian in 2008, I found "Ask the experts" sub-forum quite interesting and useful. Whenever a younger/newer fan had a question about anything related to the TF mythos, there was always someone willing to answer and explain. This usually led to some great conversations about several matters. I have noticed that these days, when someone makes a question, he/she usually gets a link to a TFwiki article as an answer and the conversation, most of the times, ends there. I am not against TFwiki, as I myself use it every time I don't know/remember something, and I don't mean to offend fellow Seibertronians who give that kind of answers..I am just wondering wether we miss the chance to discuss not only the facts(which are quite analytically presented in TFwiki), but also everyone's personal opinion or way of understanding the facts. What do you think?

Didicos wrote:Back in 2005, when I started visiting Seibertron.com, and especially after I became "officially" a Seibertronian in 2008, I found "Ask the experts" sub-forum quite interesting and useful. Whenever a younger/newer fan had a question about anything related to the TF mythos, there was always someone willing to answer and explain. This usually led to some great conversations about several matters. I have noticed that these days, when someone makes a question, he/she usually gets a link to a TFwiki article as an answer and the conversation, most of the times, ends there. I am not against TFwiki, as I myself use it every time I don't know/remember something, and I don't mean to offend fellow Seibertronians who give that kind of answers..I am just wondering wether we miss the chance to discuss not only the facts(which are quite analytically presented in TFwiki), but also everyone's personal opinion or way of understanding the facts. What do you think?

I agree 100%.

The wiki is a useful tool, but it has a lot of editorial bias and should be A reference source, not the ONLY reference source.

I think I may have, on an occassion or two, discourages the use of the Wiki.

For starters, it's a Wiki, and open to errors. Yes, so are our experts but we have a few of them that can quickly chime in.

Secondly, and this may sound lame, but it detracts from the community we're building here. If someone comes and asks a question and they're pointed to another site, why would they then stay around? They could then miss out on the potential to form some good friendships.

If I may...

It may be my twisted point of view, but more often than not, most posters only come here to have a question answered, then never post again. And that's seemingly all they care about, as they hardly ever put in a proper introduction of themselves.

As for using the wiki or other sites, I actually encourage refering to them, but only to validate the information people are giving. That goes especially for figure ID's.

The amount of information that a single Wiki entry holds on any given subject (invariably including side trips to even more interesting or necessary-to-know details) is propably unbeatable for speed and revisit/rereference value, but there are rarely solutions there.

I used it full-on for the first time to look up TF reproduction, and again recently to look up TF death.. It was detailed, funny, but didn't answer any questions, just listed the problems with TF inconsistency, with a noticeable tint of irony and sarcasm.(Wiki is still cool and thank you to whoever sweated over their keyboards to catalog all that stuff, sincerely!)

Nor am I sure that only asking the experts is the give all solution (but don't kick out the experts by any means!).

Tho fans disagree as much as TF wiki listings do, the forums eventually provide solutions that I, personally will always look for over both 'canon'(*koff*bullshit) and a Wiki archive.

The best questions, respectfully, don't come from experts, and I feel that the best conversations come from the best questions.

I use the Wiki for finding character bio's, cool pictures, and for some laughs. If I have a question about a figure or collecting, I consult you guys.

I enjoy reading each individuals personal take on the different topics.

Eh...the wiki is good for character bios and humor. But I go on there all the time to undo crappy toy information.
But I got bored with that after a while. Why? Because there's no one to talk to! I find it fun to be able to talk to people that really know the stuff I want to know. You'll find better answers from die-hards on here, trust me.
But if you just want to learn a little about certain characters, or you want comedy, the wikis are good for that.

TFWiki is a good resource, but that's all it is. A resource.

As far as it goes for usage beyond that It would be better to just change the preface for the experts section to reference TFWiki, and then feel free to post your questions to cover any aspect missing or simply lost from the wiki aspect.

Wiki's a good thing to go and check. And then there's the Wiki Magic where you wind up discovering things you didn't expect, by clicking random links. But yes, it's impersonal. Forums are nice, though I know I personally have a chronic lurker's syndrome, where I almost never post and just read what everyone else is saying.

The only thing I use the TF wiki for is the tracking down of the most obscure of facts or for something that is related to the non-U.S. TF lore that I may not have solid knowledge of. I much prefer to spend time on here tracking down info I may need. In fact, I prefer this site so much, I'll needlessly waste time finding info here that I may be able to find more easily on TFwiki just because I trust the folks here and feel so comfortable with everyone. I enjoy the sense of community and feeling like we are all part of a family. Granted it's one big dysfunctional Transformer family, but it's still family and we all help each other and look out for each other and everyone brings a different perspective to the topics on here. That's so much better than the impersonal facts of the Wiki sites.
As I've noticed the number of "Mini-Cons" (new folks) rise over the past 2 years, I've tried to steer a few towards the variety of forums we have here and inform them of the pit-falls of relying too heavily on the TF wiki site. It's always cool watching fellow Seibertronians step in and help the newcomers out and pass on the collective knowledge & experience we have here.

I occasionally contribute to transwiki. So, referring to the wiki and discussing subjects here is encouraged.

I really dislike the whole "why dont I google that for you" or "it's not hard to look up" attitude. It's not hard to ask a question and if you're not willing to give the answer, why did you? Check the attitude at the door. People say "just use the wiki to look it up" Well, you're just asking a question. The person giving the wiki as the answer doesn't know the answer either, they had to use a link.
Though, ultimately, I think link answers are ok if that's what the person was looking for. Yea, it's impersonal, but, if they have a follow up question, then there ya go, it can pick up from there. Providing people with information is good, as long there's no unneeded attitude as well.