User blog comment:Jenburton/An Update on Message Wall/@comment-2048489-20111001141704/@comment-1714259-20111002024136

What they did say was that theoretically they could turn it on and off for the test wikis. They never implied that it was going to be an optional feature when it was site-wide.

Also, the fact that they were hesitant doesn't mean that they won't continue to roll through all opposition and implement it anyway.