While it would be easy to let all this newness go to one's head, the rules and policies, while not new, still need to be adhered to. Be sure to read them before jumping in.
ETA by Nethilia: If you do poor descriptions, you're getting a two-week ban first offense the entire month of January. "purple dress with belt" or "lavender/purple gown with printed flowers" is not a description. If you don't read the rules, you can't contribute. I ain't got time for messy editing. --Neth
January 31, 2013 / Rules Still Apply About Descriptions
Just a wonderful little reminder that poor descriptions, opinions, reviews, gibberish, and other such things that aren't facts and contribute eff-all to the articles and project will get the offender blocked for a minimal of two weeks. If you want to babble about how Saige is pretty or how weird the Snowflake PJs are or how much you hate Kristen's bed? Get a Blog or a Tumblr, and don't piss it around here.
No one's asking for five lines when describing a plain t-shirt, but "pretty blonde hair" or "green sleigh bed" or "this smells" are not descriptions. I really have no flips to give to those that act out.
--Nethilia is a Meanie Head Admin who Makes You Cry.
February 2013
Feb 6th, 2013 / AG San Francisco Announcement
San Francisco will be home to the next American Girl store. American Girl announced on the their official Facebook page that the store location will open by Fall 2013 in the Stanford Shopping Center.
Feb 6th, 2013 / Taking Pictures for Fun and Helpfullness
See our new article policy: Good Article Images and You! We want good pictures, and good pictures have guidelines. The policy will get fully fleshed out tonight.
We take a zero-tolerance approach to all sorts of rule-breaking, mischief, and nonsense. If you can't follow the rules, you can't contribute. It's as easy as that.
Feb 16th, 2013 / Milestone Reached and New Categories
A major milestone has been passed--every item listed on the list of AGoT/JLY/MyGA outfits has been created! Many don't have pictures, but they are all up. If you'd like to add pictures to articles without them, don't forget to check our article on Good Article Images and You! before adding pictures.
A new category, Paired Sets, has been created. Recent new categories include Modern Holiday Outfits and Doll Repair and Care.
The List of American Girl Place Items has finally been created! It's not comprehensive because it may be lacking--items change in and out all the time. Please help add to it if you know something we're missing!
With these items, there is almost no chance of an official catalog picture, so make sure to add pictures using the data on Good Article Images and You!
A coupon for free shipping is available on orders of $100 or more with the code BRIGHT until March 24.
May 2013
May 4th, 2013 / Categorization for Character pages
To make things organised and a little easier for us to browse through articles of individual characters, users are advised to add the DEFAULTSORT tag at the bottom of each character page, i.e. {{DEFAULTSORT:McIntire, Molly}}
There are some exceptions to the rule, though, such as names that do not follow regular naming conventions, i.e. Chou Spring Pearl. Oh, and this also applies to real-world articles of people who worked behind-the-scenes at AG, such as Pleasant Rowland, Valerie Tripp and so on.
I've gone through the unsorted and unused pictures and cleaned up the sections greatly with help from a buddy. From now on, make sure every uploaded picture is categorized--as soon as it's uploaded, add categories. Uncategorized images are subject to removal.
Also, don't digitally edit article personal images to have colored backgrounds. Personal images are fine without digital edits, trust me!
Details on the American Girl Publication Website show a new series of picture books coming out about Bitty Baby, written by Kirby Larson. Amazon.com shows a publication date of August 27th, 2013. The five titles so far are:
There will also be bundles that include plush toys. Bitty Baby and Me comes in covers that show a black, white, Asian, and Latina cover. Does this mean a revamp of the Bitty Baby Line? We won't know until the books come out!
The biggest news, however, is that Molly McIntire and her best friend Emily Bennett are moving to the AG Archives and joining Felicity and Elizabeth, Samantha and Nellie, and Kirsten in retirement. With this Historical retirement, the first three characters ever released by American Girl will no longer be available by them. Get the two of them while they're still here!
ETA: This Other Admin would like to add that even with news of Molly and Emily's impending archivals, any type of mischief or misbehavior will not be tolerated. If you can read, you clearly have had some form of education, and that means you are capable of understanding and abiding by the rules.
Recent updates to US Federal law regarding COPPA (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act)--have caused a major effect on the American Girl Wiki and editing policies. Feel free to read more about it here on Wikia. But, to sum it up, websites can no longer gather IP addresses from people under thirteen as this is considered personal information. Wikia, in order to comply with this law--since it is a US hosted site--has disabled anonymous editing on wikis hosted at their site that might have targeted audiences under thirteen.
This means that, as of July 1st, all anonymous editing on the American Girl Wiki has been disabled. While American Girl has many adult fans (this admin is in her early 30s), we must accept that the target audience by American Girl itself is eight to twelve year old girls. Thus, we are affected by this new federal law, and Wikia's option to comply with it. Underaged users will still be able to read the content of the wiki, so they can still access the articles and other pages that we as a community have worked so hard on. But they will no longer be able to actively edit or comment.
Rules will be updated to reflect this, as we can no longer have any anonymous edits at all. If you want to edit on the Wiki, you must have an account. No exceptions, even if you're well over thirteen. I cannot turn anonymous editing back on. You will still need to be over thirteen, so we will be scrutinizing every new sign up we have. If you are found to possibly be under thirteen, your account will be blocked until such an age as you would be thirteen.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact me directly. While this will have a major effect on drive-by and quick edits, I believe that overall this will improve the editing quality here at the American Girl Wiki.
Back in May I discovered the new Bitty Baby Books on the American Girl publishing site, with the theory that this would lead to a change in the the Bitty Baby line. Recent web surfing has confirmed this. At the end of August, the Bitty Baby Line will be revamped--the first time since the shift from the Our New Baby line. Some notable changes:
Gone is Bitty Bear; instead, dolls will include small plush "wishing stars", much like the American Girl logo.
There will be eleven options available--up from the current seven.
Dolls will have a new head and face mold and come with embroidered hearts on the chest.
It is currently unknown is this will lead to the retirement of all the prior products (much like when the Bitty Twin line was revamped), or integration into what currently exists. Either way, it's going to be something new.
August 27th, 2013 / New Bitty Baby, New Outfits, New Saige Stuff!
All the new stuff is out for the all-new Bitty Baby! Now there are eleven dolls to pick from, including four new ones. There are new outfits, including the Cuddly Star Sleeper which is unavailable alone. New outfits included for Bitty Baby:
Remember, we require quality in our articles. We expect good, well-thought descriptions. Don't get yourself blocked for poor edits. If you're old enough for an account, you're old enough to write properly.
August 29th, 2013 / More new books, and leaks, too.
Besides the new Bitty Baby stuff and a bunch of outfits and accessories for Saige and MyAG, some info has surfaced on Amazon regarding several upcoming Historical Character Mysteries, Bitty Baby books, and Smart Girl's Guide books:
Also of note are what appears to be books to be released alongside the soon-to-be-released Girl of the Year. Some details have been revealed, but as per wiki guidelines we won't accept any rumours, leaks or speculation regarding her. I'm sure you guys and gals don't want any more trouble from screwing up and posting any unwanted info.
October 31, 2013 / American Girl Charlotte, Girl of the Year 2014, and American Girl in Canada
American Girl Charlotte is scheuled to open around Autumn 2014 in North Carolina.
It appears news and images of Girl of the Year 2014, named Isabelle, has been leaked onto the Internet. I would like to reiterate that per the Good Article Images Guidelines and the Image Policies, we do not condone any leaked images being uploaded to the wiki and any such leaked images will be deleted. People who choose to disregard these policies should not be surprised if they find themselves banned from the wiki.
Molly has officially sold out as of December 3, 2013. Eight outfits/accessories still remain (bed and bedding, floral pajamas, Christmas dress, polka-dot outfit, birthday dress, Miss Victory costume, and schoolbag set). Emily is still available alongside her dog, though most of Emily's outfits and other accessories have since sold out.
December 18, 2013 / All Sold Out, and Isabelle Rumors
Molly and Emily have sold wholly out; Emily's Accessories and some girl sized items still exist, but will likely be gone soon enough. 27 years of acceptable service, Molly. Saige is still somewhat in stock as well as some of her items, but you'd better get anything by December 31st because after that it officially shuts down.
News is coming out that has Isabelle's last name. However, we'll want to wait for a official press release from AG direct, as that is the most accurate information. Plus, it looks better and more professional to wait for official releases of data. Remember, we strive to be professional and mature around here. Once official data is out, we can properly document what is needed.
