Forum:Blog article feature feedback

Discussion
Starting a topic for the Blog article feature because one doesn't seem to exist yet. Anyways, it would be lovely if blog articles I created via the special page would be added to my watchlist or not according to my regular watchlist preferences (under "articles I created"), just in case an admin comes in and edits it. Also, a separate checkbox to "Watch articles I commented on" would be lovely. -Afker All hail AliceSoft! 19:13, 23 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the suggestions :) These two features are indeed planned. 17:35, 29 December 2008 (UTC)


 * The plans have not been implemented, though? -- ◄mendel► 14:27, 30 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I would be interested in testing this extension, or at least being one of the first wikis for implementation. I have a concern about the RSS though. Let's say I use this feature to create news postings, yet I also use it to write an op-ed, while in the meantime someone is using the RSS tracking to monitor the news postings. Is my op-ed going to show up in that RSS? --LordTBT Talk! 22:04, 31 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Bumping. --LordTBT Talk! 00:47, 27 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Unsure about the RSS issue. Which wiki are you proposing it for use on? Should be able to sort that out :) 16:24, 29 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Redwall. -- LordTBT Talk! 04:35, 30 January 2009 (UTC)


 * An explanation of the RSS would help too; would it be possible for example to only track blogs that have "News:" in the title of the postings, etc? It's a big concern. -- LordTBT Talk! 05:20, 30 January 2009 (UTC)


 * RSS update: as far as I recall, it's only for user blog pages - for example, http://swfanon.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Kirkburn has an associated feed just for my blog posts. I can put it live whenever, just give me a prod on my user page when you're around and I'll set it up (assuming I'm around too :P ) 15:56, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

And now I have some feedback. :) When previewing a blog posting before submitting, the categories are not all displayed. -- LordTBT Talk! 20:05, 2 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Not sure what you mean by that - categories aren't shown at all, except in the special category box, when previewing a post. 18:27, 3 February 2009 (UTC)


 * At the bottom of the page. Example: I create an Article, add some categories, and press preview. In the preview, the categories are at the bottom of the page. When I preview a blog post the categories are not at the bottom of the page. -- LordTBT Talk! 19:12, 3 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Ah right, I think I see what you mean now. Yup, this is something that is likely to change. 19:26, 3 February 2009 (UTC)


 * And some more feedback (just occurred to me): a "preview comment" button! -- LordTBT Talk! 04:12, 4 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Good idea - I've noted it down for the future. 15:46, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Still in the future, apparently. -- ◄mendel► 14:29, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Not able to comment
On Marvel, several other Sysops have told me that they are unable to comment on others' blogs. I can, but I have helper rights too. I haven't heard from any non-sysop users about this problem yet.

&mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 23:23, 4 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Is this issue still occurring? 12:44, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Not that I'm aware of. Even with the inception of blogs as article reviews, people aren't using them that much.  Hopefully it'll pick up over time.


 * We do have a problem where I've tried to edit an old blog post, only removing unnecessary categories and not changing any text, and the page would not save because it 'Looks like spam'. The page is essentially exactly the same and it's spam!  Funny. :)


 * &mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 14:57, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * The "looks like spam" issue should be fixed - has it occurred since Wednesday? 00:13, 27 March 2009 (UTC)
 * This issue is still occurring for me. -- LordTBT Talk! 03:44, 27 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Darn, I'll get it looked at again. Same circumstances, and happening as often as before? Also, do you get an error code? 08:35, 27 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Update: we've rolled out another fix - how about now? I tested before and after and it appears to help. 09:27, 27 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Looks all fixed on Marvel. Thanks!
 * &mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 15:35, 27 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Seems to be working now! Finally! -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 16:39, 27 March 2009 (UTC)
 * *cheer* 08:46, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Another thing...
Is it possible to change which categories appear in the 'selectable' categories when creating a new blog post? The issue I'm having is some users are selecting categories that blog posts should not go in, and then of course I can't edit the post to remove them because it thinks I'm spamming. -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 23:47, 4 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I can imagine that's a pain: We're planning on replacing that category chooser fairly soon, and hopefully that "spam" bug won't be around much longer. 16:04, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Some more feedback
When blog articles are in categories, they don't seem to be counted. E.g., you don't know how many there are. Example: --<font color="Green">LordTBT  <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 05:01, 9 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Reporting it, thanks. 15:51, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I've noticed this seems to be fixed now too! Great! However I am getting this error:
 * "PHP fatal error in /usr/wikia/source/releases_200903.4/extensions/wikia/Blogs/BlogArticle.php line 432:
 * Using $this when not in object context"
 * here -- <font color="Green">LordTBT  <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 17:22, 27 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Just from viewing the page? It looks to be fine here. 08:46, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, just from viewing the page. However it appears as if all is well now. -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 18:43, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I found out this was fixed over the weekend :) 09:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Any Updates?
Just wondering what the status was... -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 04:41, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Hunting for an update again... -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 23:06, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Looking for an update, maybe the 3rd time's the charm. --<font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 23:19, 2 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Still working on some bugs, and the future rollout plan. May have more to tell later this week :) 00:47, 5 March 2009 (UTC)


 * All right. I'd like to re-emphasize the inability for administrators to edit blogs is very annoying. -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 18:52, 10 March 2009 (UTC)


 * This should now be fixed. 12:45, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

New Bug: "False"
When commenting on a blog article, the comment is not appearing, and I am greeted with the word "false". When I reload the article, my comment is there like I posted. -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 21:11, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Users have cited this is happened to them too. -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 03:26, 20 March 2009 (UTC)


 * A fix was made yesterday - it should be live in a few days. Thanks for the report! 18:01, 20 March 2009 (UTC)


 * When will it be going live? And is there any news for these other bugs?! -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 23:11, 23 March 2009 (UTC)


 * This fix should be live now. 11:53, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Blog about:
The Admins on the Comic wikis would like to have a link on every article page that links to creating a blog about that article. (Essentially to 'review' comics). Is there a way to auto-populate the fields?

&mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 23:45, 20 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Not that I know of, but it sounds like an interesting idea. 12:46, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Accomplished with js, had pages link to Special:CreatBlog/PAGENAME, since the sub-part doesn't affect the page reference, and then populated the title field with the sub part of the URL. Works great!


 * &mdash; Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk &bull; contribs &bull; email) 14:54, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Share on Facebook icon
This icon is not appearing on blog posts. -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 22:50, 25 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Good spot, I shall pass it on. Keep those reports coming! :) 12:49, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Link/example? --Uberfuzzy 15:28, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * A normal page with the Share on Facebook icon . A blog post without it. 2 -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 16:45, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Fixed for next release. 09:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Category Tagging
Just noticed Category Tagging does not seem to be functional with blog posts either. -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 08:54, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * This is true, and is actually part of the reason we developed CategorySelect. We'll being working on it. 12:59, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Given that category tagging is now the main way of categorizing, should it be functional with blog posts? Also, whatever happened to being able to choose what categories appear in CategorySelect? -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 03:46, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Search Results
I've noticed that blog posts are not indexed for Google. Is this intentional? -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 22:41, 12 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It's not intentional - do you have any specific examples I can check on? 14:19, 13 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It now seems results are popping up...maybe it was me. If anything else occurs I'll let you know. -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 20:42, 13 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Cool, and thanks. 14:00, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Blog Error
Currently (over at Redwall anyway) blog posts aren't being displayed, and instead the following message is: "Internal error: Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information." -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 16:45, 15 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Apologies about that - this issue appears to have been resolved. (MediaWiki's error messages are so useful, aren't they ;) 09:59, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

WikiStats
Are blog edits applied to the statistics in WikiStats, and if not, should they? -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 02:37, 27 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't know of any reason why they wouldn't be - are you referring to any specific type of stats? 16:49, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Lots of feedback
I've posted this as a comment on w:User_blog:KyleH/Announcing:_Blog_articles.


 * Threaded comments would be really nice.
 * Comments that you can't preview and that you can't edit are also very un-wiki-like.
 * When I edit a blog page or blog listing page, the headline says "Create a new ..." instead of "Edit".
 * WhatLinksHere is broken for blog pages, it should list the user blog pages and blog listings it is linked from.
 * Adding a category to a comment doesn't place the comment in the category.
 * I can write/edit an introduction to a User Blog: page, but not to a Blog: page.
 * The comment edit box only has 3 lines, which makes reviewing this rather lengthy comment for coherence and style rather difficult. (3 lines in Monobook, slightly larger in Monaco.)
 * It is possible to add comments to a blog post although the author has disallowed this.
 * Level 2 headlines in a blog post do not display in the aggregate page.
 * The Special:CreateBlogListingPage doesn't allow to filter by author.
 * If somebody adds a category to their blog post that adds it to my blog listing, I won't know; and if they initially created their blog post some days ago, I might not even notice as it gets sorted into the listing lower down.
 * There is no way to #link to a comment.
 * The "Email this user" link on the masthead is displayed even if the user has turned email off in their preferences.
 * The Newest first / Newest last choice is not persistent.
 * If I choose "Newest first", the comment I post is inserted at the bottom (should be inserted at the top).

I would really love for the new masthead links to show up in the sidebar toolbox (a blog link on User: and User talk:, a User: and User talk: on User blog pages). That would allow us to unclutter the top of our page by hiding the masthead altogether without losing the links (because they'd still be in the sidebar).

-- ◄mendel► 14:24, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

-- ◄mendel► 20:02, 30 June 2009 & 20:06 & 20:20 & 20:26, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
 * The blog listing page hadn't noticed a new blog post 7 hours after it was created, a manual refresh was necessary.
 * The User blog and the blog listing page do not display the number of comments if the blogger has turned comments off for that post, even if there are some (that were made before commenting was turned off).
 * I have 3 blog posts on w:c:communitytest:User_blog:M.mendel, and I get an 1 Older posts » links at the bottom that leads to an empty page.
 * Blog entries can only use a subset of Wikicode if you want the text to show up in the blog listing. Compare w:c:communitytest:User blog:M.mendel/Transclusion to its entry in the actual blog.
 * There appears to be no way to set the "cut".
 * The fact that the page title is shortened makes it possible to spoof mainspace articles.
 * Avatar images are not shared with other Wikia modules that use them, e.g. on WikiAnswers.

-- ◄mendel► 20:48, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I can't image how inappropriate blog posts can be flagged by users the way regular pages can be delete tagged now: editing them is prohibited, and categories on comments don't take effect.

-- ◄mendel► 21:08 & 22:04, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
 * There is no way to systematically review recently uploaded avatar images other than to visit teh user page of everyone who appears in Special:Log/useravatar.
 * There is no way to attach licensing information to avatar images, prohibiting reuse (or even use of most open source images).
 * There is no edit summary for blog post edits, making the history much less useful.
 * Enhanced/grouped RecentChanges should fold comments for the same blog post.
 * There is no notification system for new comments, not even the watchlist.