User blog comment:Ohmyn0/Let's Talk About Talk Pages/@comment-4027708-20110601234523

Sometimes people just want to talk (and that's something most wikis don't understand). And outside of the typical going-ons: nominating and discussions on featured articles, the "I don't like what this user did to this page" talk, and other technical issues, there's no clear-cut place for this. I've been on wikis where, luckily the community wasn't so opposed to new ideas, but didn't know where to post them. On my talk page, on the main page, where? On the main page, but then users got the sense that I was making a normal comment on wiki-articleness, when in fact I was trying to open up the discussion to the entire community.

Editor meetings (meetings scheduled roughly every two weeks in a time best for most users) were a step in the right direction. It made the users more acquainted with each other (which was odd because we all had known each other for months, editing on this wiki) as we engaged in light-hearted conversation before getting on to the important matters, but because they took place on IRC, they didn't feel like official conversations/policies. (There was still a sense that, for the most part, nothing was improved.)

Then there are wikis where users don't know where to start proposing improvements and ideas, let alone having to deal with an admin who wants nothing but not to change.

So I ask you, where is a user supposed to go when they have an idea, a complaint, or a testimonial? Nobody knows.

I came up with an idea (which I'll eventually get around to [hopefully]) to create a page where users can do all these things: A box for ideas and improvements, a box for complaints, a box for thank-yous to the site, and a box where users can contact administrators privately. The last thing users need to worry about is where to go to post a conversation.

I'm all for wikis who want to be an encyclopedia (which is just about all of 'em). What I don't like is the claustrophobic feeling they often create. Which is why I welcome blogs and conversations of any kind.