User blog comment:Dopp/Communicate Easily with Message Wall/@comment-737801-20110926205508

This has bad idea written all over it. I like the current format of talk pages and this just adds yet another annoying social media feature that is all essence useless. Talk pages, and especially user talk pages are for discussing things, and a "Message Wall" is not the way to about it. If you are serious of implementing this, then do everyone a favor and don't make this mandatory, or better yet scrap it all together. I like the way talk pages are formatted currently, and changing that format and forcing me to do things your way doesn’t make things easier for me, it just makes them harder. Whoever thought of this really needs to reexamine what the purpose of Wikia and the wikis it supports, is because I'm not even remotely convinced that this is in the best interests of everyone, or for that matter anyone.

"Your current talk pages will be archived. No data will be lost, and you’ll still be able to find the posts, but the old user talk pages will be protected from future edits." This phrase disturbs me more than anything on this page. We can't even edit our own archives. WHAT!? Seriously who thought of that idea? That isn't the way to do this, especially with a feature, and tool, that functions great. With this statement, I'm convinced this is no longer about upgrading and improving Wikia, it's about turning Wikia and the wikis it supports into a social networking site. Wikis are not here for that, and this is just ridiculous. If this is mandatory, then someone up at the top of the food chain really needs to think about where Wikia is going because it's already off track, and now is about to crash through the guard rail and fall off of a cliff of no return. You have a choice, create and maintaining some of the best wikis on the net which is what Wikia is known for, or try to compete with Facebook, because this feature makes it painfully obvious that Wikia is leaning away from the first and best option, and very much to the latter. I'm not here for Facebook, I'm here for the wiki, and while I like socializing, this is too far. Leave user talk pages alone for your own sake. I want to edit my archives and I don’t want only the staff to be able to do so. I can guarantee you that you will be getting a lot of requests to do so, so save yourselves the headache.

"Newer conversations are at the top of the page; archiving is automatic. When there are more than 20 conversations, your Message Wall automatically paginates, so there’s no need to manually archive content" Again WHAT!? I want to archive my talk page when I want to. I don't want a stupid system telling me to do it. There are reasons sometimes that people don't archive for a period of time. This is something that should be left up to the individual user. Oh wait it already is. Maybe someone needs to rethink that. Everyone is different and everyone wants to do with their user space what they want. On just about every wiki I’ve been to, user pages and someone user space is their property and they control what goes on there. Some people may archive when they reach 100 conversations, others, 50, or even a certain length. We shouldn’t be forced to archive when we don’t want to. You are just taking the rights and liberties of users, and everyone is outright fed up with it. User talk pages work, and this system is not one way to replace it. Mandatory in this case, is just making it obvious that Wikia is now trying to compete with Facebook. I don’t want that. When I leave a message, I want to see it and not have to expand a conversation to read a response. Either make this optional, or something different altogether, or just stop while you are ahead. From the comments here, it is obvious that no one wants this, or a small minority, but you have to respect the majority here. If 99 out of 100 people don’t want something, then doing it anyway to satisfy the one person is not logical. That’s about as far from logical as you can get. And because I have to say this, I cannot find one logical reason here to replace a great and useful tool. There’s a reason why Wikipedia hasn’t done this, because they know it isn’t the right thing to do. If they are considering it, then someone there also took a few hits to the head. Now for the nerd/geek bit, I would encourage the staff to seek out a Vulcan and show them the comments and ask them if this is logical to go through with it. I don’t because I already know the answer, they would say no. But, as with the feedback on other social networking features, the entire negative comment stream has been ignored in the past, so that’s what I’m expecting here. I honestly don’t believe that the staff even reads negative feedback anymore, they just gloss over it and only look for the positive comments. So staff members, please do yourselves, and everyone a favor, and read the comments this time. Because I can guarantee you, you all will learn something.

Wikis are about content and management of data first, socializing second, and this completely reverses that role. Wikia is not a social network site and I'm really getting disturbed with the amount of social networking features that are being added. I'm frankly getting tired of social networking features and this is just one way the Staff is forcing wikis into a social network role, despite the fact that's not their purpose. Socializing is nice and everything, but if you implement this, then I'm convinced that you are not listening to anyone. After looking through the comments, I could find about 5 that are positive, the rest are negative. Now 5 out of 155, at the time I posted this, is not remotely a good percentage. You have even been given great alternatives, so use them. Making this a mandatory feature tells me that Wikia is no longer interesting in content, but in turning Wikia into a social networking site. This feature is nothing but a bad idea, and if you are serious then either make it optional, or do it differently and not replace User talk pages.

The format of them now is great, functional, and it works. THis is a clear cut case of not fixing what isn't broken. The system works because it is the best system. This "new and social network inspired system" doesn’t work for wikis, it works for social networking sites, but not for the purpose of wikis. Socializing comes second to the maintenance of the wiki and the data it contains. Blogs, forum pages, and other ways have already been developed and the work, but this feature does nothing expect put a giant stamp on Wikia saying "We are the new social networking site, come an join us. Oh about that content, yea we don't care about that anymore." That may not be what you are thinking, but that is exactly what you are doing.

I would seriously like to see what the staff is going to say to this, after all there have been features in the past where the vast majority of the community said no, but you went ahead anyway. So I'm asking, no really begging you, listen this time and don't force something on us that clearly no one wants. I have never seen the staff even consider negative feedback and I like the image of the paper shredder because I seriously think that is where is all goes. You don't listen to the community, and you do what you want, even if people don't want, or even like your ideas. This time, please listen to the people who have made countless wikis the best place on the net to go for information, and not a social network.

Social networks serve a purpose, and so does Wikia, and trying to merge those two is not going to work. This is just a disaster waiting to happen. This is equal to taking the five worst major disasters in recent history, and then throwing them into a blender, and this is the result. Wikia isn’t a social networking site, you can’t complete with Facebook so please, PLEASE, PLEASE, do yourselves a favor and stop trying and stop making new features based off of social networking sites. Wikia and social networking sites are not the same thing and trying to make them the same, isn’t doing you, or anyone any favors. Pulling features from other sites doesn’t always work, despite what you may think, and this is a case where it works great for Facebook, but not for wikis. Please reconsider this mandatory change, and rethink what you are going to do. I know that you will lose more wikis if you go through with this. So read the comments, rethink what you plan to do, and actually listen to feedback for once. And all the feedback, not what you want to hear and see. That doesn’t do any favors. You are the ones setting the tone here, and if you don’ t listen to everything, you are only hurting yourselves, and already have on multiple occasions.

Oh and by the way, where’s that larger sreen resolution for the Oasis skin we were promised?

Oh and just to point this out, everyone does things differently with how their talk pages are done. I've seen multiple times on the same wiki, people responding in different ways. The only limitations here, are in your heads. User talk pages work so please be reasonable, and of sound minds, and don't force yet another social networking feature on us, because we don't need it. The system works, works well, and if you don't know, then ask. You literally came up with three reasons why user talk pages don't function, yet I, and many others, come up with probably twenty reasons why they do work. Improving Wikia is great, but at the same time, take the time, listen to your community, FOR ONCE, and think before you act. The listening part, or lack thereof, is I think something we, the Community can agree on. Just listen and everyone take the time to read the responses, because they aren't pretty and while they may not be what you want to hear, even negative comments can be helpful. It's called constructive criticism. This is something that the Community clearly doesn't want, so I again ask, or really beg, you to listen this time. We have opinions too, and since we are the thing driving wikis and Wikia, perhaps you should listen this time because I’m not convinced you have in the past.

Thank you to anyone who just read this wall of text. I usually don't write this much, but I felt that I needed to given what is being said already, and what has been done in the past. I’m curious to see if a staff member will respond to this, and what that will be.