Thread:Thailog/@comment-1037137-20130824023712/@comment-3026053-20131005092357

Are we prohibiting people from talking? No. They can just take it to the forums and talk there. Yes, the comments are gone, but people can still talk.

Fire Eater wrote: And as much as it's an encyclopedia, it's a forum for the fandom, and one of the fandom's primary online locales. No, we are not. I understand how commenters would like to think that, but we are not that. Being a forum for the fandom is a side occurance, but in no way is it a goal. The encyclopedic goal does and will always come first. The fact that part of the fandom also converses there is good for them, but that on itself is not a goal and especially not on the same level of importance as the editing.

Fire Eater wrote: I think that by limiting it to the degree that it has been, you take away a part of what it is, not to mention seriously clamping on the right these users otherwise should have to speak, forcing them to rely on stuff like EmailUser or IRC which are cumbersome and such. Again, no. By disabling the comments, we are not taking away part of what it is. By disabling the comments, we are focusing on what the AW is, namely an encyclopedia. And really, for the last time: people are not restricted in their ability to speak and converse with each other. They can still do so on the forums. As such, they are not restricted to mail and IRC, they have the forums. If people are going to complain about stuff, they should at least get their facts right.

Fire Eater wrote: I think it could drive away users if it goes too much further, these rules are becoming difficult to bear with. It's not just an encyclopedia. No, it may not be a social networking site, but you can't separate socializing and talking. Talking IS socializing, and vice versa. We can prioritize and that is exactly what we've been doing. And the people we might turn away with this are people that solely comment and do not want to use the forums. So no offense, but those are people that are virtually useless to our main encyclopedic goal, so the wiki is not affected in the least by hypothetically losing those people.