User blog comment:Toughpigs/WikiStickies - new feature launching on My Home/@comment-473563-20091210033533

@ TDADJ ... lol ''... so we have a growing arsenal of gadgets, widgets, blogs, stikis and you want to nominate thingies as the next one. ;-) ... can I suggest the one after that be called a who'd-ja-me-flippit please?''

Seriously though, I think this new feature has promise.

It definitely helps with the transition into the world of wiki editing. The general trend with these recent suite of changes is not lost on me even though they may not cater to my personal style or preference I can very much understand how finding a yellow "Post-It" note at web page catches a newcomer's eye and adds to that "kinder, gentler introduction" to contributing at Wikia hosted communities. It helps with the "warm and fuzzy" feeling of MyHome if you view that from a complete Wiki newcomer perspective.

At the wiki I am currently focused on I clicked through the carousel of 20 Stikis (sic.) and was surprised to find that 14/20 are pages that I am glad it directed readers to while only 6/20 were pages I'd prefer not have been picked up by this feature's auto-selection algorithm.
 * imho, ''that's not bad for a brand new feature!"

With all that in mind here are the possible areas for improvement:
 * 1) perhaps a previous button or let the skin reflect a stack of 20 that is being depleted so the user has an idea that continuing to click next will get them to an end point as opposed to an infinite loop. (mmm ... in fact once the've flipped through all 20 suppose that entire section collapsed? ... at least until the next time MyHome is refreshed.)
 * 2) It pushes community-corner even more out of sight. This continues to irk me but I am resigned to the fact that MyHome is not really "My" home it's "Your Cradle"  as prescribed by a Wikia administrative team whose mothering instinct is sometimes (but not always!) at odds with any given wiki's local administrative team of sysops. I am OK with newcomers to wiki being suckled like that. So long as each user is able to toddle away from the cradle as they find their wiki-legs. Please forgive the analogy! .... and I think that is currently the case with the opt-out option that is in place.
 * 3) give sysops a WikiaMedia message page where inclusions and exclusions by category or "Special: " or better still regular expressions can be tailored to each wiki individual need. For example at one wiki I would want to see:
 * 4) * Special:Wanted files added to the pool. The redlink page name for these is already descriptive of the illustration wanted so I name wanted images after the desired content so potential contributors are easily guided by that.
 * 5) * Special:Wanted pages (a.k.a. redlinks) would be another however it is important to be able to add exclusion rules. For example red links that have "what links here" originating from the User: or User_talk: namespaces are often undesirable redlinks left over form a user's sandbox activity or problem pages that have been alerted to on a talk page and subsequently deleted while the original talk message has not been. The filter might be bases on the #pages referring to a redlink.
 * 6) *In short hand the "tweaking dials" over to the local sysops who have a vested interest in making the wiki community grow.

I give this new feature 14/20. And with just a little extra work and hindsight I reckon it could even become 20/20