Forum:Wikianswers Widget

Discussion
I found out quite by accident that we now have a WikiAnswers widget on our sidebar that all anons see by default. Judging from the questions generated on WikiAnswers, most readers use this like a search box - which means I need to divert my time form my wiki to answer the questions by directing the readers back to our own wiki. Most of the time, the "search terms" are even spelled correctly, and the only benefit this has for us is to pinpoint where we need to add redirects to make up for MediaWiki's shortcomings in recognizing different capitalizations of an article title.

At worst, Wikia is stealing our readers; at best, it makes needless work for us. Why? To recreate a list of Special:Mostvisitedpages in a variety of spellings on another wiki that links back to us? -- ◄mendel► 18:16, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Hmm. Maybe you feel the need to spend time surfing over to Wikianswers and referring people back to articles on your wiki that will help them, but I see this as a gadget that has nothing to do with my wiki (currently I'm seeing a pokemon question, two PSP questions, something about a "Tej", and something about a Honda car). I don't intend to spend any effort supporting Wikianswers. I had a similar feature slapped onto my Yahoo group and I don't once recal ever seeing an on-topic question over there. Eventually, I went into the admin settings and turned Yahoo Answers off, I would turn off Wikianswers too, if there was a 'click to boot this off your wiki' box. If you feel pressganged into editing Wikianswers, perhaps you should just copy me and ignore it. If everyone ignored it then Wikia would abandon it and move onto something that was more relivant for individual wikis. David Shepheard 00:06, 19 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Once users have asked enoug hquestions from your wiki (5, I think, is the number), the widget will show only these. On a big wiki, that happens quite quickly. Then your users will see what appaears to be useful links on the sidebar, that lead to another Wikia site, but there won't be useful answers there. I'm afraid they'll think our sites less useful because of that; they might assume that the answers to these questions can't be found on our wiki, even though they can. That's why I'm making the effort to direct these questions back to our wiki. -- ◄mendel► 12:23, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

WikiAnswers
I apologize for any inconvenience caused by the rephrasing option in our wiki (WikiAnswers). I do want you to understand that any user can rephrase a question, and then answer it. The admin can do their best to help in this situation, but at the same time cannot guarantee that all your users will be redirected back to you due to the other users rephrasing questions, or changing "improving" the answers. I don't know yet if the staff will have a correct solution to this.

I will definitely consult with Angela immediately about the best way to solve this situation. I apologize again for any inconvenience this may have caused you, I do my job as an admin as I was trained. Will comply with any changes as they become available.

UPDATE: A definite re-direct can not be guaranteed either, unless the question is protected. I am not sure what makes a question qualify for the "protect" feature. Again Angela is perhaps the best to answer this. --Molokaicreeper 19:15, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Molokaicreeper refers to this issue. -- ◄mendel► 20:54, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Questions asked in the answer box open in a new window, so there's no chance of the project "stealing readers". If someone asks a question that isn't phrased as a question, that will be reworded into a question to make the answers project more useful and to help people that are searching for an answer to that question in google. If you don't want a particular question to display in the widget on a wiki, simply remove the category "your wiki name" from the question. Angela (talk) 21:59, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * You don't get it. These questions were never meant as questions. You are making WikiAnswers into a collection of questions that nobody intended to ask, and deceive our readers into thinking they have used our wiki search. This is madness. -- ◄mendel► 23:19, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * The Wikianswers widget on GuildWiki is place so close to the wiki search box that people accidentally ask questions when searching for a wiki page. &mdash; [[Image:BalisticSig.png]] 23:59, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I didn't notice the widget until now since I was using Monobook. Yes, most users are asking questions specific to the wiki the question has been ask on. And no, I won't waste my time at WikiAnswers to answer those questions. Also, I'm sure the users asking the question are expecting a magic answer to pop up in seconds. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 00:32, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * PS: Why is everyone searching in the form of a question? We don't have semantic search engines. The searching tools here don't understand what "who", "what", "when", "where", "how", and "why" mean. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 00:32, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * That's how we recognize that these users think of this as a search box: they're mostly NOT using the widget for questions. Have a look:
 * [[File:Search_guildwiki.png]]
 * [[File:Wikianswers.png]]
 * They're separated by a lot of space, if you scroll the page just a bit you won't see the search box, but the widget. And actually it is more noticeable than our search box. Would you think that it leads you offsite before you've used it? At least the corner ads that were used previously didn't mislead like that. -- ◄mendel► 01:53, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * They're separated by a lot of space, if you scroll the page just a bit you won't see the search box, but the widget. And actually it is more noticeable than our search box. Would you think that it leads you offsite before you've used it? At least the corner ads that were used previously didn't mislead like that. -- ◄mendel► 01:53, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree that the widget is causing a great deal of confusion. The widget should at least make it more obvious that it is not actually part of the wiki it is shown on, because even I got confused for a second when I logged out and saw this great big widget with questions related to the wiki topic being shown on them. I probably wouldn't agree with removing the widget entirely, but I'd definitely like the widget's actual purpose to be made far more conspicuous. Wjxhuang, the 888th Avatar  {Talk} 14:27, 11 June 2009 (UTC) It seems Wikia changed the widget design to set it apart better. This is a step in the right direction. -- ◄mendel► 22:49, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Weird, i still see the gey area at top of it and the search box at bottom (on Central). — TulipVorlax 00:46, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I think if a wiki uses CSS to customize the look of its widgets, the Wikianswers widget could look like a "local" widget, and it would require special rules to make it look properly branded again. This might be the reason why ours looks like the screenshot I posted first. -- ◄mendel► 08:58, 12 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Actually, this is how i see it, Wikia-wide, even after reload of CSS :
 * http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/7131/12062009052137.jpg
 * I know GuildWiki's one is altered to fit the custom skin, that was not what i was asking about. — TulipVorlax 09:24, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Judging by the picture it looks like the English widget is showing for you. For the widget to work well, you need to choose your language (in this case is French).  My widget in Spanish is working great.  If this is not the problem then rest assured if you let Angela or Zuirdj know, they can fix it.--Molokaicreeper 10:36, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Are you talking about the global prefs setting ? If so, it always was french, since the creation of the account (more than 2 years ago). Look in next section to see why some strings are still in english. — TulipVorlax 14:20, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * My screenshot is how an anon sees it; the offer to partcipate is only extended to logged-in users, and the widget changes to accomodate that. -- ◄mendel► 08:26, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that is what i was thinking. So, the grey area change placement for anon ? I think it shouldn't. — TulipVorlax 05:15, 15 June 2009 (UTC)


 * There's a different widget for anon users. Logged in users see one that asks them to become a category editor. Admins see one that asks them to become an admin. For anons, the grey area is at the bottom and the whole sentence is now a link to the Wikianswers home page so they can get a better idea of what that wiki is about. The widget for anons is a very very long way away from the search box. If you're seeing it close to the search box and you're either logged in, it may be that you've chosen to put it there when you enabled it in your widget dashboard since it's not yet shown to non-anons who haven't enabled it for themselves. If you're seeing it close to the search box when you're logged out with a browser cleared of its cache and cookies, I would suspect that you're blocking the ads since there's usually one above the widget. Angela (talk) 11:42, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

New : support of other languages than english
People are complaining above about that widget been use as a search box but on my part, if i would have complained about something earlier, would have said that on a french wiki (or for a french user) the widget was only sending us the english Wikianswers.

But this is not the case anymore. So it's great now. Thanks. — TulipVorlax 11:11, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Except for links in the grey header that are still for the english wiki. — TulipVorlax 11:13, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * These can be translated. See w:c:answers:MediaWiki:Answers widget anon note, w:c:answers:MediaWiki:Answers widget admin note, and w:c:answers:MediaWiki:Answers widget user note. If you send me the translations, I can add them to w:c:messaging. Angela (talk) 13:34, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

 Wikianswers recherche de nouveaux administrateurs. Voir les détails.  (Bold italic part in the link; i'm not sure of what to put.)
 * I'm not sure that MediaWiki:Answers widget admin note should be translated since it ask for admins for the english wiki. Or, if we translate it, maybe the link should not change ?
 * Anyway, here all three of them :
 * MediaWiki:Answers widget admin note :
 * MediaWiki:Answers widget anon note :


 * MediaWiki:Answers widget user note :


 * — TulipVorlax 01:35, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

I know this must be very frustrating, but if it helps in any way I am going to paste what the contents for my WikiRespuestas show. So far like I mentioned it works well as long as my language is set to Spanish. I am not sure what difference this would make but hopefully we can get somewhere.


 * MediaWiki:Answers_widget_user_note
 * ¿Quiere ayudar convirtiendose en un "Editor De Categoría" en WikiRespuestas?


 * MediaWiki:Answers_widget_anon_note
 * WikiRespuestas es un wiki de Preguntas y Respuestas en el que todos participan.


 * MediaWiki:Answers_widget_admin_note
 * WikiRespuestas está en busca de administradores. Descubra más aquí.


 * --Molokaicreeper 00:13, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Could there be a problem with...
The inner code of the wiki needs a more accurate French translation. But this can only be done by staff and I see that none of them are fluent with French. The Spanish wiki is set that if you try to open an equivalent English page on the Spanish wiki the system automatically translates them to their appropriate Spanish link. I see that is what your problem might be. Someone with staff access and fluent in French might need to fix that. Sorry. --Molokaicreeper 01:07, 13 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure why you feel so concerned about fixing it for french, but i'm pretty sure when Angela will find the time to return here, she'll be pleased to put my 3 translations in the messaging wiki wich serve message pages (mediawiki:) to all others wikis. — TulipVorlax 04:34, 13 June 2009 (UTC)


 * It doesn't benefit me in any way to have any improvement in any other wiki other than mine, honestly. Just that if I was in your shoes I would want to get help.  Although I can't do much about fixing coding and such, maybe supplying some text that covers my wiki widget might help anyone, be Angela or Zuirdj, find out what the problem is.  I could very well be doing something else. --Molokaicreeper 05:51, 13 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, the problem was that the string were translated yet. If i understand it correctly, it seems i could have translated it locally on, say fr.guildwars or fr.3d, but that would only affect thoses wikis.
 * The widget need to appear in french on any wikis i visit, since all (almost) others UI elements are in french even on wikis of others languages. So, translating this locally would not be so usefull.
 * I've translated locally many UI elements in the past. Why am i not this time ? I dont know. It's not that i didn't care about this. But the functionality of it was not really ready for bein used by french users. ... ...


 * I just find out while typing this that the Widget doesn't even show on french wikis. That weird. I could swear it was there... — TulipVorlax 06:15, 13 June 2009 (UTC)


 * The widget is not yet enabled for French wikis. I'm not sure that there are enough people watching over the French edition yet to cope with the increased number of questions this would generate. Angela (talk) 11:03, 15 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I dont think there is enough people neither. But the first time i saw that widget, it was on fr.guildwars. But it was always sending to the english wiki. It's a good thing it has been removed to prevent to much questions in other languages than english on the english wiki. — TulipVorlax 08:49, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

partial fix
WikiAnswers now refuses to accept questions of only one or two words, which takes care of a lot of "search box"-type queries. -- ◄mendel► 22:35, 14 June 2009 (UTC)


 * That's been that way for some time since even on Wikianswers itself, not via the widget, people tend to ask questions that are not in question format. Angela (talk)


 * Hmm, right. On examination, the "search-box type queries" that make it through mostly have 3 words. -- ◄mendel► 13:00, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Widget wording
I've changed the wording of the widget to say "Ask on Wikianswers" rather than "Ask a question". Once this is working, it should make it very clear that doing so will ask the question on another site, not on the wiki where you're viewing the question. It can be changed per wiki by editing MediaWiki:Ask a question. Angela (talk) 11:20, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Design flaw
Hopefully I'm not just beating a dead horse here, but I thought I'd chime in after Mendel directed me here. I've recently taken it upon myself to answer the majority of the questions in the PvXwiki category which, for the most part, has involved providing links to builds and re-categorizing to GuildWiki, again, with links to articles. Most of the questions appear to be extremely general terms which, unfortunately, wouldn't even provide many useful search results. Examples include "Raptor Farming builds", "600 farm build", and "Best * build". (The full list is available here.) As a designer myself (namely the Graphics Editor of the Daily Iowan, if that holds any sway in the minds of those involved), I personally think that the issue largely has to do with the large amount of contrast which the Wikianswers logo has in comparison with the background and search box. Right now, I can think of only three easy, logical solutions: a) Make the Wikianswers box more indistinct and make the search box more distinct. This would mean that a user would have to more or less "find" the Wikianswers box to use it. b) Mark the Wikianswers box as something clearly separate from the wiki. (i.e. Give it an entirely different style.) c) Before publishing a question, make users confirm that they want to be asking a question, or if they meant to search for it.

Obviously, removing it, while an option, seems to be out of the question, so I'm personally in favor of options a and c. Of course, even with this wall of text, I do realize that there's a chance nothing is changed, however unfortunate that may be. ··· Daññy  14:58, 22 June 2009 (UTC)


 * The part of making users confirm is something i would have suggested. But it might not be a so good idea since users want something fast and most of them will surely adopt a "click through" behavior without really reading. But could be interesting to test how much "stupid questions" amount would be reduced by that. — TulipVorlax 16:41, 22 June 2009 (UTC)