User blog comment:Ohmyn0/Let's Talk About Talk Pages/@comment-1091639-20110603061257

I started to notice that various default MediaWiki features get replaced with their simplified Wikia alternatives. Source mode -> RTE, Talk pages -> Comment sections, Monobook -> Wikia skin, Templates -> Layouts to name just a few. While I think I understand the rationale behind it - simplified features attract more contributors and viewers - I'm not entirely sure that this is the right way.

The trade-off is losing some of the options and editing freedoms that the core MediaWiki features offer. I guess you know what you're doing and how the new features affect your the numbers of your editors and viewers. I just hope that the changes won't eventually result in limiting access to the default tools to promote the custom Wikia ones, since I'm a big fan of diversity among wikis, with each of them having their unique styling and structure.

That being said; I'm very enthusiastic about seeing some alternatives for the current talk page system, since I also notice the flaws listed in the post. I just hope that with the new system in place not too many of our editing options will be lost.