User blog comment:VickyC/Intro to Wikia’s Development Process/@comment-957747-20111013002022/@comment-1788742-20111013232241

After reading this, it makes me wish that Wikia was like it was when I first joined, wish that someday the staff would make Monaco once again an option, continue to accommodate user requests, and make useful updates to excellent skins like Monaco. No, even before Monaco was removed, the staff began to make less and less acknowledgement of users, which came to a head over the new look, which is not at all an improvement in my opinion.

But even the new look debate, which I took no part in (though I was concerned that it looked like a Facebook-y site, I figured I'd get used to it), but my worst fears were confirmed as more and more new features were released over the course of this year, such as Chat, article comments, and now, most recently, the new message wall.

I, like Rappy4187, am still waiting for one day Wikia staff will realize what they're doing. None of these features are really good, and the updates would be fine if they were actually good features. But all of these new features are poorly thought out, buggy, and filled with user requests to make them options.

Firstly, Monaco. I don't want to drag up an old skeleton, so to speak, but would it really hurt Wikia so much to run two skins at once? I, for one, know that it would be easily possible to continue to allow Monaco as an outdated option, even if it wasn't always upgraded, it would certainly be an improvement over Monobook or Oasis.

Also, one more thing— A lot of the changes made to Wikia during the days of Monaco were better thought out then the features this summer. While not universally liked, the blogs, avatars, and old rich text editor were better thought out then the constant changes Wikia keeps pushing this year.

But the new skin was just the beginning, really. I kept my head down during those days, because it didn't seem very important. I would miss Monaco greatly, yes, and some days I still miss it greatly. But my greatest concern was that its replacement simply didn't look like it belonged on a wikifarm— in short, it appeared to be a move to make Wikia more like a social networking site.

And guess what—we were right. On some wikis, blogs have become so popular that, for all intents and purposes, they are the mainspace. That is not a wiki. Real wikis have no blogs, article comments, chats, or Message Walls (or Facebook-y skins, for that matter). Real wikis have Talk pages, red-linked categories, and no image attribution or badges. It seems to me that the new skin was just a small step in the wrong direction, but led to a great deal of other problems, such as the new features over this summer. Wikia no longer really looks like it runs MediaWiki. All of my friends who have never heard of Wikia cannot believe that it is a wiki. It doesn't look like one. At all.

I didn't really concern myself much with Chat, the article comments, or the badges, except the usual groan of Wikia's turning into a social network. Like the new skin, they were (mostly) options (though I still find the change from Monaco to Oasis a horrible change, as it omitted a skin almost every user loved). But this Message Wall feature, which is not optional in any way, is the continuation of the not-so-gradual change that began with Oasis. It's not optional, and causes way too many problems.

I'm left waiting here for the day that Wikia will realize what it's done and find a way to dig themselves out of the hole they're digging right now.

No, I'm not asking for a return of Monaco, or a permanent removal of Chat, article comments, etc,... (while part of me will always hope that in some way, shape or form Monaco will return, I know that's most likely a foolish hope XD), and that's not even the purpose of the blog.

The new skin could be perfectly fine, if it simply didn't add more and more new features which I simply find insulting to the idea of a wiki. If, one day, the staff reads the definition of a Wiki, and realizes that Wikia is supposed to be a collaborative encyclopedia, and not a social network, and changes the direction they're going in, then I'd love to see a return of Monaco, among other things.

Now, really, I'm simply asking for the Message Wall feature to be made optional, like all of the buggy, Facebook-y features that Wikia has released over the summer. I really hope that Wikia will somehow act upon the feedback that their dedicated users have given them and one day make Wikia the greatest wiki on the web (possibly barring Wikipedia), I hope that, at least, that the Wikia staff will make the Wall optional, for the reasons I've been outlining for days now.

Wikia staff, please listen to the feedback that your dedicated users provide you. Wikia is an amazing site, an excellent collaborative project, but it is moving further and further away from the wikifarm it was in the days of Monaco, when the staff would bend over backward to help the community. All this talk about those days have made me feel quite nostalgic, about the days when I felt like I'd discovered one of the best places on the web.

Now, in these days of Oasis, article comments, and Message Walls, I'm honestly wondering what could have gone so wrong? Was there a change in power at Wikia? No. I really miss the days of Wikia working for the communities. Now it seems they're working against them, and this feeling has never been more prominent since the removal of Monaco. While I don't expect drastic changes to come from this feedback that I and others have provided, I do hope that you will act upon the feedback we have provided and make the Message Wall an option.

Finally, will one of the staff please answer my question? What would you lose by making the Message Wall optional? I think that I and other users have provided ample reasons why this needs to be an optional choice for wikis, now I'd like a response from the staff. What would you, the staff, loose by making it an option? It doesn't even seem like the Monaco/Oasis transition, where the staff had several valid points about why they couldn't maintain two skins. (Though I think that even an outdated Monaco skin would be preferable to Oasis). Please answer these questions, and begin to heavily reflect on the responses on this blog. I think I am not alone in saying I miss the days of Monaco, not even so much the skin, but what it represented: a Wikia that worked for the users, not against them.

P.S. I didn't mean to write so much about the Monaco/Oasis transition. I felt it was necessary, though, to show the defining point where Wikia began to move away from the idea of a Wiki. (Really it began before that, with the blogs and badges, but the Monaco/Oasis transition was the moment that change really became apparent to users).