Welcome to the club

Welcome to our alliance, and congratulations for passing through the application stage! This article serves as an orientation on your next steps, as well as some important things to take note as a member wiki.

Alliance Coordinators

Alliance coordinators are top level individuals who help manage and oversee the wiki. Management is done through them, you can think of them like alliance staff who run the show!

We currently have six coordinators:

  • Buildaroo (Affiliated with Fischipedia)
  • enews (Affiliated with Dovedale Railway Wiki & Hybrid Cafe Wiki)
  • IPutMyPCInTheFridge
  • Mooncloud (Alliance Overseer)
  • PixDeVl (Affiliated with Miraheze/WikiTide Foundation)
  • Skye (Affiliated with Fischipedia & Miraheze/WikiTide Foundation)

Member Wiki Representatives

Each member wiki must appoint one staff member, usually an administrator or bureaucrat, to serve as its representative. This representative speaks on behalf of the wiki during discussions and application threads, communicating the team’s views and position to the alliance. While a person may be listed as staff on more than one wiki, they cannot hold representative roles for multiple member wikis at the same time.

Shared template

The alliance uses a shared template that is automatically synced across all member wikis through GitHub Actions, updating both icons and wiki text from the repository’s template.wikitext file.

To join the system:

  • Ensure your wiki has the TemplateStyles & TemplateStylesExtender extension (and optionally TemplateData) enabled
  • Complete the required form to request your wiki’s inclusion or submit your own pull request if you know the repository workflow.
  • After approval, assign User:IRWABot the bot group on your wiki so its edits are marked as bot edits.
  • Avoid protecting the template page unless the bot is made an administrator, which is generally discouraged for security reasons.

After setup:

  • Follow the formatting instructions.
  • You can style the template however you want.
  • Do not remove any featured wikis from the shared template.
Add your wiki to the template
Shared template example

IRWA Website

The IRWA runs a website that showcases its purpose and lists all member wikis. To get your wiki added:

  • Submit a form (or open a pull request if you know how to use the repository).
  • Check your Discord DMs for any follow-up questions to speed up approval.

You’ll need to prepare:

  • A 400×400 wiki logo (square format).
  • A short description of your wiki.
  • Relevant links (e.g. donations page, Discord, social media).
  • The username/alias of your wiki representative.
Add your wiki to the website
Shared template example

Discord Server

Each wiki in the IRWA Discord server receives its own server role and is included in both the roles directory and the #wiki-listings channel.

To set it up:

  • Send an alliance coordinator your preferred HEX colour code for the role.
  • Make sure the colour is not already in use or too close to another wiki’s role.
  • Confirm your wiki’s staff members and representative so the correct roles can be assigned.

After roles are assigned:

  • Post your wiki in #wiki-listings using the pinned format.
  • Include your relevant links and information.
  • You are encouraged to announce the alliance to your own community and invite members to join the server.

Applications

Applications are how new wikis join. During the application process, all wikis are opened up to critique and scrutiny by our coordinators and wiki representatives. The intention of this scrutiny is not to attack or insult any project, but to help highlight potential improvements to the project and to assist your project in meeting the standards of the alliance. Projects in our alliance are expected to be of a certain standard of quality. These requirements can be found on our Joining page, and include clauses like accessibility and security.

Since wikis that are part of the project are featured in various places that make them more visible, it is important that the wikis it features are of decent quality, and are regularly and appropriately moderated for safety.

Process Overview

After an application is submitted, our process for evaluation is as follows:

  1. One of our Alliance coordinators will do a thorough check of your wiki according to the criteria for joining listed on our website and will point out any potential issues or sections that need work. Questions may also be asked to get a better understanding of your project. We don't have any hidden criteria or private requirements.
  2. After all issues have been addressed and the coordinator feels the wiki is ready, all IRWA Coordinators and Member Wiki Representatives will be notified to give their opinion on your wiki joining the alliance.
  3. After a period of opinion gathering, once sufficient consensus has been reached a final decision will be made regarding your wiki joining the alliance.

Applications usually take two weeks to review, but this can be longer or shorter depending on our coordinator and representatives availability.

Before Applying

A majority consensus between wiki staff is required when requesting to join IRWA. How that consensus is achieved — whether voted on privately by staff or by doing a community poll — is up to the wiki's discretion, but we will not accept applications that are backed by only a small minority of staff member(s).

Consensus

An application is decided based on a majority consensus. Once a wiki is open to opinions, Alliance Coordinators and Member Wiki Representatives should give their opinions in the appropriate format.

Your message should:

  • Express your support, opposition or neutrality in the matter, using the appropriate emojis
  • Have a brief description of why you think so
  • Optionally, issues you would like to highlight that are related to your decision

Only coordinators and Member Wiki Representatives are eligible to provide their opinions. Please note that if you are not able to opine and you are not directly related to an application, you should not be talking there unless you have a strong, on-topic reason. An application's thread shall be focused on discussing the applying wiki, so do allow the applicants to speak for themselves.

Your consensus messages should not be considered individual votes as we are not voting. The final decision is made by coordinators based on the information provided, which includes the opines.

After a period of several days, when the managing coordinator of the application is satisfied with the amount of responses, or deems that there are enough opines to make a decision, an application will be closed, and a decision will be made and announced soon after. IRWA reserves the right to reject any application on any basis; your ability to apply is a privilege, not a right.

Examples of opine messages