When I've put in some more time and effort here, I'd love to get more involved in any areas that need volunteer labor. I was never heavily involved with cataloging and the "backend", but I have my MLIS and have been doing library work for 6-7 years, so stuff like the tagging project is (I think) in my area. I also maintain LibGuides (spent this summer completely overhauling our guides and how they are organized with my coworkers) and have some thoughts about organization/ease of navigation.

I am a strong believer in forums, honestly— when I'd quit every other form of social media I stayed active on a forum for parrot owners still firmly rooted in the early 2000s. It manages to be one of the healthiest online environments I've ever seen, despite being home to a wildly diverse bunch (you know, the kind of stuff you see in real-life communities)— a small group of people with a common passion, using a slow-moving platform that wasn't driven by an insidious algorithm.

In addition to posting more work, I want to make an effort to comment on a lot of work— I think that's one of the most useful and encouraging things we can do for each other.

Finally, regarding your point about quality— I completely agree. I think the Library loses not only its specialness but its value as a writing resource if downvoting is perceived as "mean". I think the "like" and other similar features on large social media platforms have poisoned this tool, to a degree— made it about the person, not the content. I'm hoping that a downvote paired with a really thoughtful, supportive comment can keep criticism a normal part of the culture. I think WL becoming "where I put stuff that isn't good enough for SCP Wiki" would be a tragedy.

The community here is so welcoming, so talented that you can't hang out here for long without being filled with inspiration and ideas. This place is really special and I hope to be able to contribute to its future growth.

Here's to many more.

To another thirteen years!

-Rosie

I feel the need to mention just how friendly and welcoming the community of this site is. I understand that I'm not exactly very charismatic and trying to speak to other people causes me a small amount of paralyzing fear but people saying nice things about my writing or even just talking with me a bit has been really helpful. My favourite part of writing is posting here, because sometimes someone likes what I wrote enough to tell me. And then I read something someone else has written and just want to keep writing, just in case I can create half, a tenth, of what they were able to do. A true collaborative space.

Sorry if this was rambling. Anyways, I have a crevice to hide in.

To another year, another slew of dead worlds and dead gods, and another pile of half-finished drafts.

The Library has been my home for 1.43288 years, and it's been a blast. I can't say how much I've improved as a writer due to this community. Rounder said something about the site's goals as a place to really become a better writer, and I think it has fulfilled those goals, at least for me. The first piece I ever posted to the internet was some silly social commentary that's sitting in the graveyard; I think that it was supposed to be about 'bad poetry'. I'm not gonna say I'm the best writer to ever live (or even a good one), but since then I've most definitely improved.

What I'm trying to say is this: thank you, Wanderer's Library, from the bottom of my heart. Writing is what I want to do with my life, it's something I want to actively put out into the world. And this is literally the perfect outlet for both the posting and the critiquing. There is no site like this site, no community like this community. This site should be bigger than it is. It deserves to be bigger, to have more of the limelight. So much has been put into this by our wonderful, wonderful staff team. Nothing would be possible without them.

Ahem. Well, uhm, good day then.
Here's to wishing the Library ten thousand more birthdays in the future!

A big clap on the back to Snap, who ran Debateclub almost entirely solo.

WAH thanks Rounder sobs

Soooo I've been here since 2020, and it's kinda wild to think that I randomly showed up just slightly before the WL community really came together. I'm not Old Guard, not by a long shot, but most of the people who are active now started after myself… which is a weird feeling. Y'all probably never saw the old site theme/header! The old main page! That was a cool update two(?) birthdays ago. Almost the entire staff team is different from when I joined! Would you be surprised to learn we've been talking about improving navigation for most of the time I've been a member of the community lmao? I feel your pain Rounder, the TAGGING WILL BE FINISHED THIS YEAR IT HAS TO BE. *Ahem* It's all very odd, and it makes me feel a strange mix of emotions, but it also makes me feel very responsible for the lot of you, and very proud of you all.

I dearly love this site, and I can't wait to see where we go from here. I'll still be here, writing at a snail's pace but still writing, making dumb jokes on the official twitter account (and maybe the new tumblr account too :0), and chilling out in the discord. Happy 13th!!!!!

Here's to thirteen years, and here's to many more.

-STYG

Looking Back

To be upfront, I've had less time to dedicate to the Library this past year between events on SCP and my real-life matters. But it's nice to see that that hasn't affected how active the rest of the community is. We're continuing the thread of every year being better than the last — from April 2022 to April 2023, we've had:

• 399 (!) surviving articles posted
• 856 new members join the site
• 2 new admins, 3 new staff members
• 3 site events

These are pretty similar to last year's numbers, with a slight uptick in articles posted. Like I said, continuing the pattern — more posts on average, more activity, more forum posts, et cetera. A lot of those were the result of the two contests we ran this year: the Picturepalooza and the Debateclub contests! More on those later.

Quickly touching base on some important events through this year since our last birthday: the most immediate afterward was the dreaded Wikidot Outage of 2022. For the better part of a week, our hosting site went down, and we were left unable to access the site and determine what, if any, damage had occurred. It was a nervewracking time for all of us, especially since there was nothing to do but sit on our hands until we received word that the site was back online. Thankfully, no data had been lost, and we were able to get the site going again ASAP. But looking back, it was a nice (if sudden) respite from the hustle-and-bustle, wasn't it?

We started doing Biweekly Discussion threads again, then stopped after a few months. There are a few reasons for this (which I'll again get into in the next section), but overall it was an interesting experience to see how site members can discuss and debate some ideas, and injected some much-needed life onto the forums again. I'm pleased to see that's been relatively successful in pushing site debate and discussion onto the site, rather than onto the Discord where it's been hosted in the past.

Some loose events occurred in the interim: we began to use CROM for our site search, giving us a functioning search system! Yet another win for that fantastically functional feathered friend. We started hosting a lot more art on our front page, sourced from artists in the community. Speaking of art, we created the Hall One page! Like the Wing pages, except hosting multimedia — art galleries, themes, and audio works. We transitioned the site to HTTPS-only, making it more secure and easier to access safely. And, after realizing that we'd gone and filled up our sandbox, we created another! A real milestone, that one. And as of yesterday, we've expanded onto Tumblr!

And let's not forget the events! Picturepalooza and Debateclub, both very novel contest ideas that I think produced some fantastic work for the site. The amount of entries you guys produce for contests is always staggering, and these were no exception. Some of those articles are the highest-rated original works we've seen in a while, and for good reason — you guys brought your A-game. A big clap on the back to Snap, who ran Debateclub almost entirely solo.

And let's not forget the 2nd Annual Yuletide Exchange — one of my favorite times of year, and this one was just as great as the last one. Plenty of awesome gifts delivered by awesome people — and another clap on the back this time to Uncertainty, who seriously pulled through and helped make sure every single person had a gift in their stocking. Not to mention making the fantastic-looking Yuletide Hub to immortalize the gifts. I look forward to running it again next year!

Speaking of our staff members, let's take a look at them. This year, the Library got its first new administrators in nearly 4 years. UncertaintyCrossing and Snapdragon133 have constantly showed their commitment to the site and community, and it only felt fair to entrust them with the power and responsibility of maintaining it. Since then, they've done me proud at every juncture, and I feel secure knowing the Library is in good hands. meltedbee, LAN 2D, and destinysday are the new staffers we brought on this year, and they've also very much impressed me. I can say that staff is spoken for, at least.

Tagging! Tagging. This is always a tough topic, but we did an incredible amount of tagging over the past year — though most of it is invisible to you! As I mentioned in my last State of the Site, we started work on the tag revamp — it's been slow going, especially recently. But over 2/3rds of Wing One was tagged with the new system — that's over 700 entries. I can't think our volunteer taggers enough for the hours they put in reading and cataloguing stories. Now, it's a matter of finishing up that last third and moving the finished ones from the spreadsheet to the site. The new system is much better at organization, and I hope we can get it implemented ASAP.

Looking Forward

Last year's State of the Site ran a little long, so I'm gonna try to keep it brief this time, or at least brief-er.

Well, that was a complete failure. Okay, I'm definitely gonna keep this section brief. Promise.

Future plans! Number one priority to me is to get the tagging system in order. It's like my personal Highlander curse, and you lot aren't getting rid of me until it's finished. The new system is genuinely very cool, and it's already in play on a number of shelves in Wing One. I just want to get it on all of them, now that you guys have seen how cool it is.

Beyond that, improving regularity in staff matters is a big deal for me. We're all passionate people but passion isn't always consistent — we need to be able to host things like the Biweekly Discussion regularly for long periods of time, whereas in the past they've always faltered sooner or later, like you saw in the tag revamp. Ultimately, we only have so much energy to give. I'd like to get things into a position where they don't depend on the energy of one person. We've already done this with features — now we just need to keep it going.

Speaking more culturally, I want push some change on this front. The Library is a great place for new writers to cut their teeth, but I've noticed a sentiment of posting stuff 'just because' or because it's 'good enough' that's disturbing. The Library should also be a place where people strive to improve their writing and create the best work they can, not stuff that's just okay. I think at least part of that is because over the past few years, we've had a cultural aversion to downvoting and being harsh in critique that hasn't necessarily served the site's best interests. This isn't to say we need to always be mean, but there's a balance to strike, and I think right now we're very much off balance. I have some ideas on how to accomplish this, but my advice to you? Read critically, and try to analyze works to see the flaws in them. By doing so, you help the authors and yourself.

I'd like to gently nudge WL in the direction of being a more writing-focused space, in that sense. Focus on helping writers get better, hosting workshops, creating the best site we possibly can. We're all in this together, after all — I might be an admin but at the end of the day, we're all users that care about the Library and want to see it succeed. It's been a crazy year, and an exciting one. Here's to another, crazier year!