Help:FAQ

(Frequently) Asked Questions

This list collects questions and answers about Wikia Search and the Search wiki.

The list has originally been moved here from a single forum post that collected such questions. This still shows in the style and the questions are currently not representative. Please add questions and their answers as appropriate.

Some of the questions have been answered on other pages, but the answers are not visible here. You can help by moving or copying the answers to here.

1 Short-term questions
2 Mid-term questions
3 What distinguishes Search Wikia from its competitors?
- 3.1 What is the business strategy of Wikia Search?
- 3.2 How should the stated goals be reached?
4 Long term questions
5 How Wikia Search works

[edit] Short-term questions

[edit] Where should discussion take place?

Post bugs to the bug reports page.
Post other suggested improvements to the feature request page.
Users discuss with other users in the forum. This would be the right place to ask for help. Bug reports or feature requests posted in the forum may not be noticed by the project members, use the above pages instead. To discuss a forum entry, do not use the forum entries "talk" page, write directly to the forum entry's page (and sign your post :-).
Wild ideas can be added to Brainstorming.
If you want to write to a particular user, without clogging a discussion elsewhere, write a message on her User_talk:her_user_name_here page. The wiki software will then display a small notification beside her login information at the top right, until she visits her talk page.
Discussion about a particular page would go on that page's discussion page, reachable from the page's "Discussion" link right above the article itself. However, it may take a while until someone notices or replies to your entry there.
You also have the option of joining any of the mailing lists. They are the right place to talk to the project members directly.

[edit] What is the difference between Wikia Search and the Search wiki?

Wikia Search is both the name of the whole project and of the search engine.

Search wiki is where you are probably reading this. It is the name of a Wikia-hosted wiki that serves multiple purposes:

It serves as the mini-article repository.
It serves as a wiki supporting the mini articles, the search engine and the whole project.

When following a "Full Article" link from search results to a mini article, the link target is in the wiki. The wiki is at a different site than the search engine. This is not obvious, especially because of the matching page layout. This can be surprising for new users.

Users can independently log in to both sites. See the next question.

Any account on the search engine side is used for the social networking ("People Matching") feature. There is no need to log in to the search engine unless you want to use the social networking feature.

Any account on the wiki side is really a Wikia-wide account. There is no requirement to log into the wiki in order to read or edit it (with exceptions). If you already have a Wikia account, you can use that account as your Search wiki account.

This can be confusing for new users who are permanently logged in to another Wikia wiki. When such a user creates a new search engine account with the same name as the Wikia account, logs in to the search engine, and then follows a link to the wiki, he has no way of knowing that the account in effect at the wiki is different from the search engine account.

[edit] Why can't I log in?

Wiki pages currently display two different login links. The login text link in the "Wikia Search" box in the navigation bar on the left side leads to the wiki's login page. The login "button" link in the top bar ("wikia Search") leads to the search engine's login page (or should we call it social network's?). This can be confusing.

If you want to edit mini-articles or other wiki pages, log in using the left link. If you want to use the social network feature, log in via the top link.

[edit] How can users make good use of Wikia Search?

Right now, the wiki is a critical feature. Many search requests yield no useful results. So we start filling the Wiki with "answers" to the "questions" that the search results themselves did not answer.

[edit] Should users currently rate search results (click on the stars) or not?

The current popup explains what the developers use the clicks for, but does not mention whether it helps the developers or not if users actually do it (I assume it helps).

[edit] What issues are being worked on already?

Confirmed issues should be added to the Unresolved Issues page. When an issue is being worked on, its status should be reflected there.

[edit] Which issues should users help with?

The presentation needs to be organized better. See there.
Add appropriate pages to category TODO. [As an aside, I just found out by accident that search.wkia.com is already taken. Go figure, there be dragons.]
Forum:Setting expectations talks about what is expected of contributors, and the converse, about what contributors can expect from Wikia Search and the wiki. That page should be fashioned into an appropriate set of pages.
Document your expectations, on the page above or on the feature request or bug report pages. Discuss in the Forum.
Edit expectations already stated elsewhere into the above pages.
Convert useful forum content to pages in their own right.
Be bold: fix it.

There is an old page with a section about this, but it is outdated: search:Community_Portal#How you can help!.

More frequent input and feedback from core project members would be much appreciated.

[edit] Which pages are OK for users to boldly edit?

The front page? The goals page?

[edit] Which pages document existing policies?

See our policies and guidelines.

[edit] What can users expect?

What you expect is up to you (:-). Seriously, for now, you can read the front page and have faith.

[edit] Is the wiki itself as reliable as Wikipedia?

[edit] Can authors rely on that old versions of content are kept accessible indefinitely?

[edit] Should authors make backups of articles that they have considerably invested in?

[edit] What is the purpose of Mini-Articles?

What should be in there? What not? See the article on Mini-Articles.

[edit] What is allowed on search.wikia.com that is not allowed on Wikipedia?

In particular, the subject of a Wikipedia article must be notable. This excludes veiled advertising in the form of articles about non-notable offerings or companies. However, the purpose of a search engine is different. The domain of a search engine, the scope of questions to be answered by it, is indefinite. In other words, no limits. Users want to find information about the obscurest of subjects, including commercial subjects. Users may find it beneficial to find and provide links to commercial destinations in mini-articles.

As a temporary measure to get useful search results, Wikipedia should be be indexed and hits in Wikipedia be explicitly included in the search results.

[edit] What is the privacy policy of the search engine?

Currently there is none. The Privacy page mentioned on the main page currently has no significant content.

[edit] What is the privacy policy of the Search wiki?

Currently there is no dedicated privacy policy. As long as there is no dedicated privacy policy, by default it would be Wikia's. However, Wikia currently does not have an explicit privacy policy. The closest there is is a Terms of Use section on the Collection of personal information.

[edit] Does the search engine search the wiki?

Yes, but not much. To search the wiki, see search:Searching_the_wiki.

Needless to say, the search engine does find mini articles in the wiki, by their title.

[edit] Does the search engine index the mailing lists?

The list server itself does not seem to provide a search service. Use an external search engine instead.

[edit] Mid-term questions

[edit] What is the current purpose of Wikia Search? What is the project aiming for?

See the Search Wikia main page.

[edit] Which ecological niche is it going to fill?

[edit] What are the differences to Wikipedia?

[edit] What is Wikia Search doing new?

For every search query (in addition to a set of links to other sites), Wikia Search provides a link to a user-provided so-called mini-article. Search users, even unregistered ones, can create or edit these mini-articles. This gives users a direct way of providing content, including but not limited to references.

Unregistered users are allowed to edit the mini-articles. This is important for ease of use and maximizing reach. This feature is closely linked to the privacy goal.

Contributing content is one thing. Many services allow this. However, most services require their users to log in before they are allowed to create or edit content. This effectively associates the entire set of a user's activities to the user.

Showing a whole set of interests to others is another thing. Some users like to maintain separate online identities for different aspects of their lives. This is practical as long as each online identity is concerned with only a limited field. A search engine however is normally not limited to a particular field. Requiring a login limits these privacy-sensitive users to contributing to only those fields that they are willing to have publicly associated with their online identity.

Users should have the freedom to keep contributing and showing their interests separate. Wikia Search provides this freedom.

[edit] What distinguishes Search Wikia from its competitors?

The architecture of search wikia allows to use individual components of the search pipeline independently of each other. Other search engines usually allow only the index to be used independently of the result presentation.

[edit] What is the business strategy of Wikia Search?

[edit] How should the stated goals be reached?

[edit] Long term questions

[edit] Should free search engines replace commercial ones? Live alongside them?

[edit] What parts of the search pipeline need to be free?

[edit] How distributed can it get?

[edit] How Wikia Search works

[edit] What is the architecture?

Forum:Source Code gives a rough overview.

[edit] How does it work internally?

Forum:Source Code gives a rough overview. The Tech page also collects links to pages about internal aspects. Look at the individual components' documentation for more information.

[edit] Who is involved?

[edit] Where is the code?