User blog comment:Hockeyben/The new look - one year later/@comment-1788742-20111014235902

I posted a similar comment about this on VickyC's blog, but since it fits very well with the theme of this blog, I may as well post it here again, heavily edited. All of these new features like Message Wall and Chat and article comments makes me wish that Wikia was like it was when I first joined, and 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, upon reflection, 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 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 this old skeleton again, so to speak (the arguments on Central were so massive that I figured it was best to stay out of it), 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I, for one, know that it would be easily possible to continue to allow Monaco as an outdated option, even if it wasn't always upgraded, it would certainly be an improvement over Monobook or Oasis. Even if it was still running an outdated version of MediaWiki, many users would still prefer that.

Not only that, but 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. Even if they were all attempts made at turning Wikia more away from the definition of a Wiki in the first place, they were almost all optional, and if a community didn't want them, Wikia wouldn't force them on the community.

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. This isn't MediaWiki. It's MediaWikia, maybe, and it might be based on MediaWiki, but it no longer at all feels like a Wiki.

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 when I show it to them in Oasis. 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, though 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.

The point of a Wiki is that the community runs it, not the hosting company. But Wikia seems to have forgotten this- or, at the very least, is forgetting it. There was no reason to remove Monaco, but users either left, or lived with it. Considering that experienced editors are getting more and more annoyed about the latest mandatory Facebook-y updates, I'm starting to wonder how long Wikia will even remain a wiki, and instead devolve into another social network. And how long the serious editors of Wikia will put up with changes like Message Wall and the new skin.

No, to correct that statement, Wikia has already devolved from the original purpose of a Wiki. A Wiki is an encyclopedia. Not one of the staff seems to remember what Wikia's original purpose was, and what it's really meant to be. The staff should simply declare that Wikia is now a social network, rather then keep trying to make it, as one of my friends said, "The equivalent of a social network in all but name".

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. :(

I hope that one day the staff realizes what direction they're taking Wikia, and will seriously think what they really want Wikia to become. Because there will still be editors here like me, waiting for that day.