The CUSWFN logo.
The Completely Unofficial Star Wars Fanon Newsletter, often abbreviated as CUSWFN, was the newsletter of the Star Wars Fanon Wiki. Although unofficial, which allowed the Editor(s)-in-Chief to decide what would happen with the newsletter, the newsletter had grown to be a collaborative project that incorporated a Meet a User section, news about Star Wars Fanon, media articles concerning fan projects, and reviews of Featured and Good Articles, among other things. The newsletter was originally founded by Darth tader in 2007, though he served for only five issues. Darth tom took over for the sixth issue and continued it into the unprecedented seventeenth issue on a weekly basis, making it the longest running newsletter on Wikia at that time. He eventually relinquished his duties and the membership of Star Wars Fanon agreed to allow Brandon Rhea and Victor Dorantes to run the newsletter on what a bi-weekly basis. However, because they felt they lacked the time to carry out their positions, they retired and allowed for a new election to replace them. Darth tom was re-elected as a co-head of the newsletter, along with Drewton. On November 13, 2009, Darth tom proposed the abolishing of the CUSWFN and replacing it with a blogger blog. Brandon Rhea counter-proposed the blogger blog with a Wordpress blog. On November 22, 2009, the CUSWFN was abolished and replaced with a Wordpress blog.
History[]
Under Darth tader[]
The former CUSWFN logo.
The newsletter was originally founded in 2007 by Darth tader, a former High Priest and user with rollback status, after inspiration from Halopedia’s Oracle Newsletter, the weekly newsletter published by the administrators and a select group of users there. After seeing this, he felt Star Wars Fanon should have one, and spoke to Victor “Squishy Vic” Dorantes, a Supreme Chancellor at that time, via AOL Instant Messenger, to ask for permission to start up a Star Wars Fanon newsletter. After Dorantes gave Darth tader permission to start the newsletter, Darth tader set about doing it.
As it wasn’t really official, the newsletter was named the Completely Unofficial Star Wars Fanon Newsletter, abbreviated to CUSWFN, a newsletter that would be led by Darth tader with community involvement. Darth tader, who had known another Supreme Chancellor, C3PO the Dragon Slayer, for some time, decided that the newsletter would remain unofficial so that it didn’t violate the clan policy, something Darth tader seemed to have misunderstood the full meaning of, as official organizations weren’t affected by such things.
Originally, the layout was based upon that of the Oracle Newsletter, with minor changes in name and such being made, although the color and general layout remained the same. A test template was designed, and sent to people such as Wayne “CurrentBigThing” Lipman III and Victor “Squishy Vic” Dorantes, to ask them their opinion on the layout, appearance, writing style and general presentation of the newsletter. After the feedback was positive, Tader set about making the newsletter proper, making a page for CUSWFN, a user subpage of his own userpage.
A category was created for users to place on their talk pages, although Tader originally spelt it as ‘Recipitants’, and the first edition was ‘mailed’ to many users, such as NKSCF and General Grham, the former being one of the few users to have been a recipient from the very beginning of CUSWFN’s existence. The CUSWFN logo, designed by Shadowphobia was designed early on in CUSWFN’s existence, a simple, yet considered effective by many, design that featured the Star Wars Fanon logo emblazoned with the words ‘Completely Unofficial Star Wars Fanon Newsletter’.
A ‘staff team’ consisting of the head editor, of ‘Head’ of CUSWFN, Intern writers and such, was created by Tader, although this was later abolished by Darth tom when it was deemed to be a breach of the clan policy, and a deterrent from the general user creating an article. After articles began to be submitted by these ‘writers’, who consisted of users such as Xepeyon and Pinky49, they were published in the newsletter. The newsletter at this time often published many articles in one edition, and had no set layout, the layout being predominantly decided by how many articles were submitted.
The Editions were released on a weekly basis, the first being released on June 11, 2007, although that was the test version. The first official version was released on June 18, 2007, but the newsletter only continued until July 15, 2007, three editions on (there had been sporadic releases during that time), when Tader took his leave from Star Wars Fanon, leaving CUSWFN to die. CUSWFN wasn’t resurrected by anyone else, as Tader had stated that he fully intended to return, but the newsletter became inactive for some time.
When Tader returned after three months, he picked up CUSWFN and his other projects, such as his Mandalorians: Path to Glory game, and the edition of the new CUSWFN, which featured a new layout, designed by Shadowphobia again, that was unlike anything the Oracle Newsletter of Halopedia had ever featured, the Oracle Newsletter never progressing from the basic, original layout. When the fourth, revived edition of CUSWFN was released on November 4, 2007, it was fully expected to carry on as it had previously, however Tader only released one more edition, on the 21st of November, 2007, before abandoning CUSWFN finally.
Under Darth tom[]
In the next year, (2008) Darth tom, a user who’d been a relatively new user at that time, discovered the CUSWFN on the talk page of NKSCF, a user he’d asked many of his queries to at that time, and added the recipients category to his own talk page, hoping to receive the newsletter himself. However, when he didn’t receive it after three weeks, he began to find out about the newsletter, and discovered it to be inactive. Being relatively new, naïve, and not understanding of what he was taking on, Darth tom asked Darth tader if he may revive the newsletter. Darth tader allowed tom to take on the newsletter, and Darth tom set about informing Victor Dorantes of the revival.
Victor Dorantes said he had no problem with Tom reviving the newsletter as long as ‘it remained active’, and Brandon Rhea later contacted Tom informing him that he would be the editor of the revived CUSWFN, as the grammar and spelling in the old one had been ‘terrible’. Tom was pleased to accept an administrator onto the ‘team’, and told Brandon he’d be happy to have ‘someone of his calibre’ on the team. Tader, however, informed Darth tom that he wished to continue with CUSWFN himself also, and agreed to allow Darth tom to be ‘Head writer’, with Tader being the ‘Head’ itself, as he wished to keep control of CUSWFN.
After CUSWFN was penned in to be released weekly once more, after Tader’s instruction, (Darth tom had originally planned for it to be bi-weekly) no more activity was heard of from Darth tader, and Darth tom took on the position of ‘Head’ himself, to make sure that CUSWFN didn’t collapse, as it had previously. Despite Tom’s efforts, his inexperience in this area was apparent, when the release date of the edition became a fiasco of his own making, with the angry resignation of Brandon Rhea following in the aftermath of what had happened.
With the expectations of many being that CUSWFN would collapse again, as it had previously under Tader, Darth tom now being the only full-time ‘member’ of the newsletter, had it all to do himself, and fully suspected that he himself would fail. However, persevering, he continued to produce editions of the newsletter, releasing them on Sundays as had been originally planned, making sure that the newsletter now followed a proper format, and always contained the same types of pages. The section entitled ‘Meet a User’ became more factual and less of opinion, whilst a section for News was made, and an Activities page was introduced by Darth tom, featuring a crossword done by Solus for some time.
Another addition to the Newsletter, implemented by Darth tom, was the cartoon, a cartoon image that appeared on the CUSWFN News section weekly. Although the aim was for it to be created by a member of Star Wars Fanon, only one ever was, that one being done by Gyasz Kudeb, the others being uploaded from a different, independent site. This idea was implemented in the first Edition Darth tom published, Edition VI, and continued on until the end of his term, Edition XVII, when the new heads had said they didn’t plan to remove the idea.
Although Brandon Rhea had retired as editor, he continued to assist Darth tom by offering up his own articles, and articles submitted by users on Star Wars Fanon, with due permission asked, onto his site, allowing Darth tom to use such articles as the articles for CUSWFN Media, as articles weren’t submitted on a weekly basis, whilst also offering his opinion on the various Meet a Users decided upon by Darth tom. For some time, Joe “Obi maul12” Butler did the reviews of good and featured articles, although he later resigned from the position. Solus also made the crossword, although she too later stopped, after time issues.
On the 2nd of May, 2008, Brandon Rhea offered to return as editor of CUSWFN, stating that he’d believed the newsletter would ‘crash and burn within a few issues’, but Darth tom had ‘proven me [Brandon Rhea] wrong’. Rhea was accepted back as editor, and continued to edit the editions before they were released, making the editions of a better quality. Another change implemented by Darth tom was the use of colors in the layout; Edition X, as the tenth edition, featured a dark red background, whilst Edition XVII, an Edition that marked CUSWFN becoming the newsletter with the most released editions in all of Wikia, was a bright gold.
Each edition was published on a weekly basis, Darth tom being praised in a User of the Month nomination because of turning out weekly editions, instead of being released ‘sporadicly, like the old one was’. On the times when Darth tom went away on holiday for a few weeks were the only times that the newsletter paused, with that occurring two times, although the release date was changed from a Sunday to a Monday. Edition XIII featured the announcement of a new ‘Sponsorship System’, where CUSWFN would have the right to sponsor works on Star Wars Fanon, endorsing them, publicly praising them, and willing to offer help, as well as publish any articles related to them.
Edition XIV saw the introduction of a Darthipedia supplement, as Star Wars Fanon was now partners with Darthipedia, featuring the news of Darthipedia as written by the wiki bureaucrat, Gonk, and was featured in the ‘Star Wars Fanon News’ section. In Edition XV, Darth tom announced his retirement as head of CUSWFN, and started an election for a new Head, or Heads. Brandon Rhea and Victor Dorantes were chosen to lead the CUSWFN, by the election.
Under Brandon Rhea and Squishy Vic[]
Despite being chosen to run the newsletter, Brandon Rhea and Squishy Vic were never able to find the time to put together an issue. Therefore, rather than hindering the future and progress of the newsletter, they retired from the position. Darth tom was re-elected as the head of the newsletter, although Drewton also stepped in as a co-head.
Under Darth tom and Drewton[]
Under Drewton and Unit8311[]
Under Brandon Rhea and Unit8311[]
The first issue by both Rhea and Unit8311 together was the twenty-third edition, which was released on June 10, 2009. It was considered a major improvent over the past several editions.
Sections[]
Main Page[]
The main page, under Darth tader, started off merely as a navigational page, with links set out across a small, placard like page, linking to the various pages of that weeks CUSWFN edition, with the only real information on the page being the logo, date and edition number, the design being copied from the Oracle Newsletter of Halopedia. This developed eventually, into a main page that held a minimum of information, yet still retained the large amounts of links, the main page merely being a way of linking to and between articles, not really a page of its own, but more of a navigational template.
Eventually, it developed, with the new design meaning the main page really was a page of its own, featuring articles, information and such. Darth tader used it as a means of putting another article into the newsletter, as he had an abundance of articles from the large writing ‘staff’ he had, and used this to put another article on. Darth tom, however, didn’t have such an abundance of articles in the newsletter, and instead used it to advertise what would appear in the newsletter itself.
Meet a User[]
The Meet a User section was a section taken from the Oracle Newsletter of Halopedia, and a way of ‘advertising’ users to the other users, so that the community would know who to turn to with a specific problem, such as one of wiki markup and such, or to introduce the administrators to the community, and establish an effect of knowing them, or of being able to turn to them. Darth tader’s Meet a User was largely based upon his own personal opinion of the user, whether he liked them or their articles, what status they held, how long they’d been there, and who he’d liked.
Under Darth tom, general opinion was used, with the opinions of Victor Dorantes, Brandon Rhea, NKSCF and C3PO the Dragon Slayer being asked their opinion of the user in question, as well as the editcount being used to determine their edits, and fact being the predominant factor over opinion in the Meet a User of that time. The Meet a User also grew in size because of the influx of new fact, with the longest being the Meet a User of Brandon Rhea, which was over five times the size of any of the others.
CUSWFN Media[]
Under Darth tader, the media had always been a loose affair, and merely just articles that had been included in, featuring some new sort of television show in the Star Wars world and such, written by the ‘staff’ tader had, and the media was always focused around canonical Star Wars events and Media, such as the Clone Wars series and such, the Media section being merely a way of showcasing new, upcoming, canonical fiction or events.
Under Darth tom, at the suggestion of Brandon Rhea, the CUSWFN Media became just one, large, article a week, mainly focused around a fanonical media, such as Avian Hunt, Force Exile and such, with an actual canonical media being merely a fallback, and not the idea for media.
Star Wars Fanon News[]
Under Darth tom, very little was done to change what had happened under Darth tader, with the basic idea being kept the same, as news from Star Wars Fanon couldn’t really be changed. The idea of MPK to include editorials in the newsletter was noted and used by Darth tom, although Darth tader had always done that. The only real, major change was the introduction of the Darthipedia supplement, a small news section complete with Darthipedia’s classic humor.
Users Comments[]
The Users Comments was originally designed as a page for user feedback, or for users to have their ideas or comments published in a CUSWFN, although many weeks saw it unused. There was very little change and, indeed, very little to change between Darth tader and Darth tom. As some of the issues in 2009 were not up to some users standards, the section was used more often, offering praise or criticism about the current edition.
FA/GA Updates[]
The FA/GA Updates page featured the reviews of that week’s main page featured and good articles, the reviews being in depth and of a lot of personal opinion of the reviews. There was very little change, apart from in layout, between Darth tader and Darth tom, and the reviews were done by Darth tader, Darth tom and Joe Butler during the time.
Activities[]
The activities page was a completely new page created and implemented by Darth tom, who gained inspiration from English newspapers of the time to feature a weekly crossword in the CUSWFN, the crossword being based upon a fanonical work and being an attempt at having a bit of fun, ‘advertising’ peoples articles and improving the presentation of CUSWFN. The crossword was done by Solus for quite a few editions, Darth tom on many, and Victor Dorantes on his own creation, Narod Antrell. The activities page also had activities such as fanon novel competitions, or slogan competitions and such. Unfortunately as few users have the time to design and create the lengthy section, it has not been seen since Edition 18, in November 2008.
CUSWFN News[]
The CUSWFN News section was merely designed as a way of spreading the CUSWFN News and events for matters that weren’t activities, and there was very little change between Darth tader and Darth tom. The only major difference was the introduction of a cartoon by Darth tom.
Picture of the Edition[]
The PotE section, or formally known as Picture of the Week, was added into the newsletter to show the readers what fantastic images are being created on the site. The image must be created by the uploader, be it either a photograph, computer-generated scene, or drawn. Edits of existing copyrighted and stock images are not accepted.
IRC Conversations[]
The IRC conversation section was originally created to show reader's an interview between two users in IRC layout, involving the normal questions and answers format. This section was started by Arav the Undersith in late 2008 when Darth Tom was head editor, but only seen once as Arav did not have the time to continually interview people. After the appointment of Brandon Rhea, the edition was brought back but the IRC format was scrapped and turned into report form. The IRC interview provides the article writer with the lengthy information about the subject.