Can someone add a link to the Founder & Admin Forum:
I am talking about adding the link to the top of Special:Forum (Community Central Forum).
Can someone add a link to the Founder & Admin Forum:
I am talking about adding the link to the top of Special:Forum (Community Central Forum).
It's important to note that the Founder & Admin Forums are focused on a specific subset of users, and part of a dedicated section of Community Central. That section is clearly visible on the wiki navigation and, given the nature of that subset of users, they probably won't have too much trouble finding it.
The main Support Forum, on the other hand, is meant for all users. Having the first thing on the page be a link to some other set of forums is likely to cause confusion since, as you said, most websites have only one set of central forums.
There's a Community Management board there which does cover some of the same subject areas as the Founder & Admin Forums. Since it sounds like you're concerned about users not being aware of the Founder & Admin Forums, one option might be to glance through the Community Management threads periodically and post links to relevant info/threads on the other Forum. Creating those types of connections, based on specific questions, will probably be more helpful to newer admins than a general link, and less confusing for non-admin users.
Timeshifter wrote:
There needs to be a way to alert staff to a particular thread that needs staff attention.
The way to do this is via Special:Contact. There is no need for an extensive summary to come with the submission, in most cases just a direct link may be enough. I can assure you that the Community Support staff will follow up.
Note that {{staff needed}} still works in the Founder & Admin Forums and you are certainly welcome to use it there as needed.
Many websites have one central hub linking to all the main forums. The forums may be scattered around. The point is the central hub.
BertH. It is good to know that an extensive summary is not needed when using Special:Contact to point out a thread. Though I don't know why someone would bother to contact staff after seeing the poor interaction in this thread.
I don't understand at all what the big deal is about putting a link in the most logical location so that people have immediate access to all the central forums. It does not hurt anything to add it. I already pointed out the problems of not having it. You ignored them, or acted like they were not legitimate reasons. Fortunately, I have much better interactions with some of the staff via Special:Contact. Maybe I will ask there for some other staff to consider this thread. Or not.
You still don't get what I am saying. I have repeated my point several times. Let's try yet again. You wrote: "That section is clearly visible on the wiki navigation and, given the nature of that subset of users, they probably won't have too much trouble finding it." This is at least the third time I have made this point:
People will not look for something they do not know exists. They can arrive at Special:Forum from links on other wikis. They might only see "Forum" in the "On the wiki" tab of the navigation links, and not look for more forums. Why would they think to look for more forums? They already found the forums.
Also, I remember another reason that I like seeing a link to the Founder & Admin Forum. I, and many others, prefer getting help from admins. Why, you might ask? They are frequently more helpful than staff. I had almost forgotten why I rarely ask for staff help. I had forgotten the poor interactions I got via Special:Contact back when I used it more often long ago. I complained about this long ago. Nowadays I rarely use Special:Contact, but when I do, I usually get high-level staff, and cooperative help from them. But I guess it is still in my DNA to avoid staff, and to ask for their help only as a last resort. There are many people like me, going back all the way to the days of the Monaco skin, and the wonder of wider pages. ;) So that is another reason that people may prefer getting help from admins via a link to Admin Central:Forum.
Timeshifter:
As I explained before, and Cam also said, though perhaps it needs to be stated again more clearly: it is not possible to add anything to the top of Special:Forum, even if you wanted to. Special:Forum is not a normal wiki page that can be edited, and there currently does not exist a system message for adding content to the top of it. Hopefully in the future Wikia may create a MediaWiki page for this, but for now, what you are requesting is not technically possible.
I apologize if my response came across as ignoring your points, it was moreso my seeing no merit to debating something that isn't possible when (in my opinion) perfectly suitable alternatives are already in place (e.g. the wiki navigation).
There is always a way. :) Cam wrote: "You can add a script in to do it."
The link at the top of Special:Forum says "Please click here to read forum policies before posting."
It could say "Please click here for forum policies and links to more forums". A link to Admin Central:Forum could be added to the popup page.
Also, if nothing else besides a link can currently be added to the top of Special:Forum, then Wikia might redesign the forum extension to allow this.
You can indeed add a script that will do it. I recently came up with a Oasis 'sitenotice' that woul probably do the trick. But take a look at the content of MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Wikia.js. All they contain is stuff to highlight staff replies and locking old threads to stop 'gravedigging'. The latter is deleted. Scripts are generally a no-no on central.
Personally, I don't think Admin forums serve much purpose now. I don't think Wikia's forum extension is particularly good, and the old DPLForum is much easier for maintenance. However, the content covered by the admin forums is largely replicated here. Those who check admins forums to answer questions also check here. You really aren't missing out on much by not knowing they're there.
Special:Version lists Extension:DPLforum and "Forum" (Hyun Lim, Kyle Florence, Saipetch Kongkatong and Tomasz Odrobny). DPLforum is what is being used at Admin Central:Forum. I don't know what is being used on Special:Forum here. I assume it is the "Forum" software.
In some ways I prefer DPLforum because it uses the full edit toolbar with all the wikitext shortcuts. I prefer that because I can deal with complex questions about charts, and much more. Also, I always edit in source mode.
The edit toolbar on Special:Forum only has 5 tools. There are some interesting aspects to Special:Forum. The ability to choose sorting methods: "most recent" versus "most active in 7 days".
Since Wikia created "Forum" then Wikia can change it to do whatever Wikia wants with Special:Forum. Such as allowing a paragraph on the top of the forum hub.
I think the Admin Forums should be retired. They see very little traffic and Wikia does almost nothing to advertise them. I only look to help at the Admin Forums after I have looked at these forums. Lastly, about 90% of the questions asked at these forums are really admin questions.
As far as putting a link on Special:Forums, Timeshifter has basically revealed that it should support some MediaWiki: message page so you can add customized intro info for your new forums.
Can you give some specific examples? I never use the toolbar, so I don't know how not having it limits the editing capabilities.
Well the editing toolbar is generally there for those who aren't used to wiki-markup, such as tables or bold/italics. Those are relatively simple to pick up in my mind.
The ones I assume to be default (those enabled on central) include other inserts like galleries, external links, math tags, nowiki tags, file links (as opposed to embedding them), signatures and horizontal lines. External links, nowiki tags and embedding files might prove useful, but math tags and horizontal lines aren't going to be widely used for this particular style of discussion.
I can't see any mediawiki page relating to the editing toolbar here, nor do I believe there's one for the editing interface as I've seen CSS to remove certain buttons that aren't needed (signatures in mainspace for example). There are ways to add more in, such as w:c:kangaroo:Scope, but I'd probably just add a link to MediaWiki:Edittools as it's far easier to maintain.