Forum:What new features would you like to see on Wikia?

As the title says, I'm asking every single member of the Wikia community what new features you'd like to see on Wikia. So, feel free to add in your own ideas, as they're very valuable. :)

I personally would like to see a list of people whom are online, like on internet forums, such as Invision PowerBoard/PHPBB forums and so on. It'd be great in order to find out such things as which staffers are online - whom can I ask for help and such. :)

Another thing I'd like to see is the cascading protection, but that's coming on MediaWiki 1.10 (=in April).

So, what new features would you like to see on Wikia? --Jack Phoenix (Contact) 17:28, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I would like to see an admins only area, but that's not "wiki like". Or something like where the Bureaucrats can de-sysop anyone. But not de-Bureaucrat.--H*bad (talk) 17:35, 18 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, I've thought of coding an extension that adds Special:Cabal, lol. :P


 * Anyway, the desyop extension exists, but it is not installed on Wikia and probably for a good reason, as here admins and bureaucrats might not exactly be trusted users - who knows how they would use desysop extension. That's why the staff does desysoppings. --Jack Phoenix (Contact) 17:41, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Then only grant specific wikis that ability.--H*bad (talk) 17:45, 18 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Maybe the Category Tree extension (see an example) or the ExpandTemplates. And, why not, the Semantic wiki --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -@WikiDex 18:59, 18 April 2007 (UTC)


 * The ability to block pages from creation.--Rataube 19:05, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Cascading protection - introduced in MediaWiki 1.10, that should be installed soon to Wikia. :) --Jack Phoenix (Contact) 20:04, 18 April 2007 (UTC)


 * It's been mentioned elsewhere by other people, but DynamicPageList would become very useful if it was upgraded. It's got a few new functions which make things work better, and look better. It's even got some new things which are required for the core functionality on the WAP, so the top-level will be getting it anyways when the project diverges from some of the normal Wikia code. And a few Wikia could make some interesting use of the TemplateTable extension (Many Wikia use templates for things such as items in RPG's, character infoboxes, etc... That extension could be used to generate item lists, character lists, etc... Just from those dynamic template calls). Though I'm still curious on the reasoning of why the current interwiki map is used to write to all the interwiki tables when Wikia only has one DB Server and already has a shared database for the user table. When I experimented in building modifications which shared users, partial permissions, and interwiki data across multiple wiki I found that I only had to alter a single line of code to make the software access a shared interwiki table instead of using local ones. After that it's a simple case of installing Special:Interwiki onto the top-level wiki (Central Wikia in this case) and giving the interwiki ability to the staff group. And then interwiki stuff is handled instantaniously, and you even get a log of changes to the table. As for de-sysoping, that probably is something that can only be introduced when you add a 3rd layer of administration. (Normaly we have a 2 layer set where the Community Staff are at the top, and then below being helped are the Local Heads and then Admins for the individual wikia; A 3 level system would be similar to the WAP's where you have the Community Staff over top of Heads and Admins of the project who are admins on all the Wiki in the project, and then you have the Heads and Admins of the individual Wikia.) But when you mention de-sysoping, if someone's trusted enough for desysoping then makebot could also fit in as something their trusted with. Though to do that of course we'll need a whole new group class of trusted Bureaucrats. Though considering that Special:Userrights is extremely security riddled (absolutely any class can be altered through it (A bureaucrat could make someone Staff if that specialpage haden't been restricted to staff only), and Special:GroupsAdministration is even more dangerous, I'm thinking up a new Specialpage while I'm designing the WAP's extensions, it's a cross between Userrights and the Makesysop, Desysop, and Makebot extensions. It works similarly to Userrights, but unlike with userrights, it works on a defined list of what classes can edit what classes. In other words, if setup, bureaucrat could alter Sysop, Bureaucrat, and Rollback. While another group could be created which could alter Sysop, Bureaucrat, Rollback, Bot, and itself. Though I'm contemplating if I should or can go to the extra effort to create one-way changes like how you a group can sysop someone but not desysop them. A MediaWiki:Sitenotice undismissable or something would be nice to cancel out the dismissable sitenotice when a wiki really needs it would be nice. (Some wikia use the sitenotice to add things such as page creation forms, and possibly even global title modification). Actually, perhaps users might find UserPageStyles to be an interesting one. Technically it would allow more userpage customization, even things such as removing the title bar and contentsub on your userpage and removing the margins as an alternative to the not so standard uses of negative margins, positioning, and z-index alterations inside the content to create a userpage which has it's own title, or is styled by the userspace instead of the global style (My Userpage for example. Actually, it could also be used on pages such as the TalkTop on my talkpage where I use classes which are only on other wiki to be able to remove the coloring from the TOC to make the archive list coloring fit in correctly. And yes, a regex page Title block would be helpfull. I get a few repeat pages on The Gaiapedia which should never be re-created. And sometimes you don't even want to create a page which says that the page has been repeatedly deleted (Random page would sometimes end up going there) ~Dantman(talk) tricks Apr 18, 2007 @ 19:12 (UTC)

The ability to create postings on regular wikia that magazine wikias can, i.e. news-style postings people can comment or vote on, etc. Maybe something like Special:SiteScout on regular Wikias too? I guess just having available the options the magazines do on regular Wikias. --LordTBT Talk! 16:09, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

What about the ability to watch a whole namespace? This could be useful for admins on MediaWiki talk for users' suggestions and stuff. Gee, there probably isn't any such feature coded anyway... – Smiddle 18:58, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

In order of importance: What I find very important is MIDI files, as I see that Wikipedia does somehow store musical scores in the MIDI format. C3PO the Dragon Slayer
 * 1) MIDI files! I want to share some of the music I compose!
 * 2) Protecting pages from recreation without having to redirect them to a Constantly Recreated Pages section.
 * 3) From my understanding, all edits are recorded in the system, and when they were made. Could a Special:Recentchanges-like feature be made to show edits more than 500 edits ago and more than 30 days ago? I can see this being useful in some ways.


 * Actually, all edits are stored when made. After around 1000 have been made MediaWiki starts deleting the old rows from the rc table and they disappear. Either that or they may even have expiry dates. The rc is for watching current edits for vandalism and what's going on, it's not really meant for browsing old histories. Actually, as for being able to watch something, there's something a little different I'd like. Currently the cross-wikia message notification which checks if you have messages on any other Wikia is disabled. But when it's re-enabled I'd actually like to see and extension of that system into the watch system. Basically I mean it would be nice to be able to set a tag on certain pages so that when they are edited you get a notification even if you are on another Wikia. I'd like to tag my userpages, on The Gaiapedia I use subpages of my talkpage for actual discussions, forum topics and some important talkpages would be nice to be able to do that to. ~Dantman(talk) tricks Apr 19, 2007 @ 23:21 (UTC)

I ran into a few more interesting extensions when I browsed the list again: ~Dantman(talk) tricks Apr 20, 2007 @ 05:13 (UTC)
 * YetAnotherTagCloud: It might be interesting in some of the larger, or even medium sized wiki. I always see Main Pages with issues on organizing a flow of how to get from somewhere to somewhere else. So I usually just end up using Special:Allpages or Special:Categories to get around. But something like this might make it interesting for new viewers to jump into a new wiki.
 * I remember all the talk on not protecting Main Pages, and issues with certain things being done to certain pages, etc... But just a thought, Extension:ProtectSection creates a special type of protection using tags within articles. If some area of an article is being heavily vandalized on some wiki, then possibly that could be used to protect the page while still allowing normal users to contribute. Kinda a nice alternative to asking an admin to make an edit.