User blog comment:Poseidon133/Why do some wikis have talk pages?/@comment-5558012-20150415150005

Some wikis want absolutely no discussions or personal opinions on article pages. Talk pages help with achieving this goal by 1) moving comments off the article page and 2) reducing comments overall. Talk pages are not a forum as article comments can be treated as. Article comments commonly (in my experience) are less than constructive and can quickly create drama. They are also harder to manage as if you wish to delete many comments you have to delete every one separately contrary to talk pages where you can make one revision. I also remember a case where I moved a page with a very large number of comments and not all of them were moved and in some cases they were in the wrong order. I've heard multiple stories of older Admins that quit wikis altogether because of the problems caused by article comments. The moderation is too much and, frankly, if you have a forum, article comments are a poor addition.

As for message walls, I think they are a great idea. Notifications are easier and quick involvement is a plus. Generally understanding what reply was for which comment is straightforward as they are, for the most part, between two people.