Welcome. I want to address an important issue that the Mountain Dew Wiki has been facing for many years. It's essential to discuss the challenges we've experienced, as our public image has suffered beyond our control.
For those who don't know me, I have been one of the few administrators of the Mountain Dew Wiki for over six years. During this time, I have consistently updated references, added sources, and maintained many pages, although recently limited to just a few.
From 2019 to 2021, I primarily updated pages alone, with little to no help from other users as the only active admin. I lacked the necessary skills to make these updates effectively. However, I took it upon myself to self-teach and improve my abilities to the best of my capacity over time.
In January 2024, I discovered a way to include reference links, which is neat for those who might not take the information thoughtfully. For instance, consider the revision history for the Baja Blast page. It is about 22,000 bytes, which is quite substantial. However, if you look at older versions, you'll see that they were not as well-written; the grammar was poor, and there was a lack of information. In contrast, from those old versions to nowadays, we've had quite a big jump from 22,000 bytes to 46,000 bytes.
A few specific pages were updated with reference links, including recent flavors like Liberty Chill, Purple Thunder, and Thrashed Apple, as well as older flavors such as Pitch Black II and MDX. However, I was hesitant to expand these updates to other pages because it could be problematic if they lack accurate or up-to-date information.
With that in mind, I decided to update the other current flavor pages, such as Code Red, LiveWire, and Voltage, because it makes sense to dig up older information we may have missed and it was safer. One of the details of the information I discovered is the fascinating marketing of Code Red during the 2000s, as it used a different marketing strategy. Some people may not care about it as much or maybe confused without the given context.
I don't want to spoil anything, as it's an intriguing part of history. However, it highlights how much information we lack when it comes to details surrounding a release and the trivia associated with it. Essentially, what I'm trying to express is that we need more information that may have been neglected or kept under the radar. This would be more valuable and credible in the long run.
Having more sources comes with more credibility. However, finding older sources can be challenging for various reasons, including how information is tracked and located. I must admit that I’ve been avoiding finding additional sources for more flavors because it can be time-consuming, especially as a "one-person band" like me.
This might be the reason we're struggling: we lack a dedicated team of Wiki users who edit regularly to add references and sources. While there are users who care, they may not be as invested as I am. Also, it is quite hard for everything to be fully updated as there are various news kept coming out as it's impossible to have it fully updated as it's not going to be perfect.
I’ve been involved in this for a long time, and while users have approached me wanting to help, we haven't taken any productive actions when they did. There was also a time when I had to defend the wiki, though I’m unsure if it made any difference.
Being a perfectionist as my common trait can be both a strength and a weakness. When I edit these pages, I strive to make them as accurate as possible. However, this often leads to do more harm than good in some cases, and I would appreciate feedback and advice on my edits. I never intend to cause harm, but sometimes I act without considering the consequences.
I'm uncertain about my future with the Mountain Dew Wiki. After more than six years of editing, I’ve seen little change in the past two years. I may decide to take a break or completely step away, or I'm not sure as of yet unless something changes for the better. If not, that's the sad reality, nothing will change.
While I understand there are various users editing the wiki, I don’t think we’re seeing viable growth. With two active admins currently, I’m considering temporarily granting admin privileges to some select users for a few weeks or a month. This way, both admins can monitor their edits and determine if this user is suitable or not.
If you're one of the few visitors who want to assist, please drop a comment below this post. It can be recommendations, proposals, or anything else you think could be helpful.
I hope this spreads awareness of our struggles and I hope this could change for the better.
-Duckieboy01 *quack*