Forum:An Alternative for SiteNotice?

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Hm, since the SiteNotice has been long gone, it has been difficult for me to catch the attention of users in the wiki. So, I'm asking what have been your alternatives for this? What do you guys use as a replacement for sitenotice that can actually catch user attention? Mckrongs 20:09, March 14, 2011 (UTC)

You can mimic SiteNotice with JS if you want. I think Wikia wants you to use the community corner, but I doubt anyone looks at that anyway. The wikis I use/administrate are mostly quiet, so there's never really a need. If I really have to say something, I usually do it with news on the main page.  Monchoman45  Talk  Contribs  Skystone  20:18,3/14/2011 

Most users (veteran users, mostly) lurk around Special:RecentChanges to see for something to do (might not be true for new wikis), so I would suggest add a pseudo-SiteNotice in that special page. You can create a pseudo-SiteNotice by modifying MediaWiki:Recentchangestext. I've done so with Dead Space wiki's RC and so far, I'm liking the presence of the pseudo-SiteNotice.— subtank ^(7alk) 23:45, March 14, 2011 (UTC)

Veteran users use recent changes, but the majority of users use wiki activity - so on many wikis, most users aren't likely to see recent changes. Although, there are definitely wikis where more people use recent changes. I think the best solution is creating a pseudo site notice that functions like the bubbles Oasis uses for when you have new messages. All users will see it, and if you combine it with a cookie function, it won't annoy people to death.  Monchoman45  Talk  Contribs  Skystone  00:03,3/15/2011 

Whenever Community Corner is updated, MediaWiki:Communitymessages-notice-msg is sent out to everyone on the Wiki. Put your intended Sitenotice in that message, than make a small edit to Community Corner - and a space or an extra line or something. Boom. -- LordTBT ^Talk! 00:31, March 15, 2011 (UTC)

Funny I didn't notice that MediaWiki page... — subtank ^(7alk) 00:44, March 15, 2011 (UTC)

Edit; or, you could just place {{MediaWiki:Community-corner}} in MediaWiki:Communitymessages-notice-msg and place the sitenotice in MediaWiki:Community-corner. That way, you can still continue to use Community-corner et al.;) — subtank ^(7alk) 00:47, March 15, 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately, people who travel to your wiki with a short url (wikiname.wikia.com/wiki/) and that don't have the redirect disabled in their preferences probably won't see the community corner notice, because they're likely to not read anything on the page and go wherever they were planning on going. They also won't get the bubble, because they were already at the page. On top of that, as far as I've been able to tell, if you update community corner once, that message appears for all new users who visit your wiki forever, or for a significantly long period of time. It's Wikia's idea of a good fix, but honestly it's just annoying.  Monchoman45  Talk  Contribs  Skystone  00:54,3/15/2011 

I really have to say, putting site messages in an obscure place on Special:WikiActivity, combined with redirecting logged-in users to that page upon the use of the short URL (which makes it unlikely they'll even read it, as most users enter the wiki this way), makes getting notices out the community not even half as effective as in years past. My experience has been that the only people who actually get the message are those who are actually browsing the wiki at the time and are, of course, not on the Wiki Activity page. Speaking as someone who was not highly critical of the new look, the Community Messages feature simply doesn't work. It doesn't do its job. Wikia should at least prioritise community notices over displaying an activity feed, and show the community messages directly below the heading on the Wiki Activity page. If Wikia is concerned about message becoming too long, then just restrict its length. Until a more effective solution is found, admins will just keep wondering why half the people on the wiki keep missing important notices. The 888th Avatar (talk) 08:47, March 15, 2011 (UTC)

Wikia recently sent out a survey to some admins. In one of my answers I said to bring back SiteNotice. Hopefully others mentioned it as well. Community corner is one of the worst things I've ever seen. The corner popup notices are annoying.

Wikia is at least trying to give the impression that they're listening, but I'm worried that they'd rather admins adapt to whatever scheme they think is a good idea rather than listen to the admin community. -- Fandyllic (talk · contr) 16 Mar 2011 6:25 PM Pacific

Hi guys -- I totally agree that the Community Corner messaging isn't a great solution. It was always meant as a temporary situation while we work on creating some more effective communication features. The first part of the communication project is a live chat feature -- we've got a prototype of that now. As the chat develops, we'll be working on a larger public talk/forum system which will address the need to communicate with wiki contributors as a whole. Those are in active development now, and you'll see more throughout the spring and into the summer.

Meanwhile, one workaround that some wikis have adopted is to have a single "current events/community portal" page where wiki news is posted. Community members can follow that page, and then they'll get notifications whenever the page is updated. Obviously, that's not a perfect system, but sitenotices weren't either. We're working on it. :) -- Danny (talk) 04:57, March 21, 2011 (UTC)