User blog comment:MisterWoodhouse/The first specifics on the Unified Community Platform/@comment-25653892-20191017015853

Thank you for already acknowledging some of the following points in the blog body and replies to other comments. I'm sure this won't be an easy transition to make, but with a seeming lack of specifics decided on yet, I find it paramount to voice these concerns and state which conditions and features I find most valuable, even if it comes across as reiteration in the context of the greater discussion here.

Transitioning existing content to the replacement features should be standard procedure. I'm very glad that you're doing it for Message Wall, but I can't rest easy unless this is the case for all features. Since the code seems to be proprietary, I really can't think of a way these posts could be viewed after the fact if not ported over.

Posts on the forums and comment sections represent long and significant editing history for many wikis, which is needed to review past discussions and decisions, as well as to keep up evidence behind warnings and blocks. I find it imperative that these discussions remain easily accessible. Even if the corresponding content pages (e.g. the Talk:…/@comment- pages, for comments) aren't deleted in the transition, without porting, they would be prohibitively difficult to view and review. So I implore you to make the transition archival and human-readable and -accessible, as well as lossless.

Comments are particularly integral to discussing articles and blogs. They're easy to learn to use, and having the comments fully usable from the same page as the relevant content makes them very convenient. The system just works and is practically second-nature to use, and I couldn't envision it being removed or drastically changed. (Solely adding AJAX—like on Twitter, when an account has made new posts since you loaded its page—and a less awkward pagination system would make the implementation pretty much flawless in my book.) Comments are, in my opinion, the most important feature to carry over: I'd be relatively fine with Forums and Message Walls living on as lossless archives, but comments are far too vital to deprecate.

On the topic of mobile, I haven't used that skin in a hot second but I seem to remember from preliminary testing that mobile users don't get talk page notifications. This makes it impossible to get in contact with these users, i.e. to inform them of wiki policy, give them reminders and warnings that they're sure to read, or even make them aware of the wiki's community in the first place. I imagine that being prompted to view automated (and real!) welcome messages would also improve mobile user retention and make for more longterm editors and community members. Creating a dedicated mobile comment editor would also lessen the feeling of being stuck in a communications vacuum on mobile.