User blog comment:ThatDevilGuy/Message Wall Final Vote/@comment-24510871-20120211150009

Well, there isn't much I can say that hasn't already been covered. Nonetheless, I do feel the need to say something. As I have said before, the message wall does have positives! I am not at all saying we should keep it, but it seems as if the majority of people here are completely disregarding the good features of the wall. I'd hate to bring it up, but the fact that people say "it looks too much like Facebook" is fairly annoying. Since when was looking like Facebook a bad thing? I can see how people think that it encourages spam-like, one-worded replies to messages already posted and a lack of grammar and such (I do agree with that statement, by the way). But you can't really blame Wikia for "copying" something from a site that has already proved immensely popular, that is after all, what Wikia are trying to achieve, right? And yes, I know we're not a social networking site. By the way, the message wall looks nothing like Twitter to me. :P

Moving on to something else, I do feel that it is indeed disorganised. But I do have to say that talk pages can become so as well. If we do plan on keeping organised, we should at least reinstate how to use talk pages better, because some new users can just randomly post something on someone else's talk, which can be, as I said above, spam-like and grammatically flawed. Again, I feel that the way should use talk pages should be reinstated.

Moving on to the issue of privacy now. I do think that it is somewhat annoying to see an umpteenth number of posts listed on the Recent Activity, although it seems to group them quite well in my opinion, with the whole '7 messages thing', rather than having listed every single edit unlike in a talk page or a blog post, which I find far more annoying. Although it isn't that chronologically organised. Back to the main point, it does encourage people to stare at a discussion on someone's wall and start posting on it because it does for some reason reveal part of the message on the Recent Activity (or all of it, depending on how long the message is). That way people can get themselves involved in conversations that weren't really meant for them, and then they'll continue getting informed of messages that bear no relevance to them at all and they could be constantly dragged into conversations.

I do remember a while back where the community as a whole decided to immensely cut down on blog comments/posts to increase actual editing. As much as that has worked, I do have to say that if we had cut down more on such things then I feel the message wall wouldn't be as much of a problem as it is to some people. Somewhat defeating the purpose posting this on a blog, I know. :/

My adequately positive view on the message wall could easily be blamed on the fact that I never really get messages myself, therefore I'm not at all bothered by it. However, my overall vote is a no, I just think that as a community we need to provide a balanced argument before reaching a final decision on something fairly important so abruptly as we have here.