User blog:Varkanax39/Oh, Mata Nui.

I'm sure we all remember the implementation of the new skin, when Wikia Staff, against the wishes of many, many users, implemented a skin that replaced the old "Monaco" theme. There were many calls of anger at the time, saying that this would turn Wikia into a social networking site. I was one of the least vocal users on this matter, thinking that Wikia would remain at least usable.

But guess what— ''we were right. ''Recently, the staff has been releasing a series of blog posts about the problems that talk pages pose to wikis in general. I admit I kinda saw this coming, considering how many "social" updates wikia has been pushing at us recently.

What is this, you ask. Click here.

Tell me that this wasn't inspired by Facebook. No, of course it wasn't.

Seriously, this is absolutely ridiculous. I mean, the Chat was one thing. The new skin was one thing. But this is absolutely unneeded, superfluous, and unnecessary. I am strongly against this for multiple reasons. Not only does it make Wikia look still more like some type of social networking site, it continues, like Chat and many other superfluous new features that have been added since then, to undermine the core purpose of what Wikia is really about. Even before the removal of the Monaco skin, the staff has been pushing more and more updates that seem to detract from the purpose of the wiki.

And guess what? Our current talk pages will be "archived" and no longer available for editing. In other words, they'll be moved to some undefined namespace that is not available for editing. Not only will this affect users of Oasis, it will also affect Monobook users as well. Clearly, this is a terrible update. Who here agrees with me?

My Argument
Seriously, I'm beginning to think that Wikia is aiming to become a website like Facebook or MySpace. If I wanted to use Facebook or MySpace, I'd use Facebook or MySpace. I use this site because it's a wiki, not for these reasons. I can understand, of course, why some users would want updates like this "Message Wall?", and I fully approve of Wikia Labs and the New Editor. But this is not only completely unnecessary, it seems like yet another attempt to make Wikia something that it isn't.

Wikia is a wiki— a collaborative database for one or more topics. Wikia is not a social networking site. But all of these new updates seem more and more geared toward turning it into one. I can see how some wikis would want this, but can't it be optional? I mean, I know some things, such as the new editor or the skin, can't be, but surely this can? And if it can't, why bother? It doesn't seem like there's any reason for this at all.

Yes, talk pages aren't exactly a perfect system of communication. But we already have blogs and the option of a Chat. Thus, I see no reason to replace talk pages, which are not at all a problem for anyone, so it seems.

If Wikia wants to become a social networking site, then it will 'fail. They cannot hope to ever, ever 'compete with giants such as Facebook and Twitter. But it seems to me like all of these new updates are geared more and more toward users who prefer the "social" aspect of Wikia. I certainly enjoy the social aspect of Wikia. But Wikia is a wiki first, a social site second, which I think is something that is getting forgotten.

What the Staff Say
Apparently, this "New method of communication" will be "easier and more interesting then talk pages." Hundreds of community members are responding negatively to this, yet still the staff will not listen. This change, I believe, is even worse then the new skin, because it not only undermines but destroys the true purpose of a wiki. Who here agrees with me?

In Conclusion
Lancer1289 sums this up very well:

''You are trying to attract new people while you ignore people that have been here for years. This feature is something that doesn’t appeal to experienced users, rather people who just want to be on a wiki to socialize. If that’s what you want, then you are really far gone from what we all thought Wikia was about and you will only destroy yourselves in a end. You are trying to make Wikia into Facebook and appeal to people that will write an article like they do texting, bloging, or talking on a forum. No formal language, no proper spelling, no proper grammar. Really, and I know this has been said, is that who you really want on Wikia? People who spam, don’t even bother to check their work, make this harder for the more experienced users, and eventually wikis will be nothing more than message boards. Is that what you want? Because that is the direction you are going in.''

''Wikia can’t even try to compete with Facebook, and the vast amount of people on Wikia are experienced users who come from other sites, or just want to help a project. If you start with this, how long before you start making comments mandatory? More on that later. Wikia is about wikis, not socializing, and please go back to that. Editing has a learning curve, and making a wiki a better place isn’t all about socializing, it’s about building the content of a wiki. Don’t start dumbing down wikis that will only serve a short term goal. I said it before, and I’ll say it again, many wikis on Wikia are the best places on the net for information about their respective topics. Yet putting a message board, instead of a talk page, distracts from the purpose of a wiki because now people don’t know what the true purpose of the page is, where to discuss things and new people coming from Facebook will see a message board, and think “oh this is just like Facebook” when that isn’t the case. ''

''Stop dumbing down Wikia staff, and go back to your roots. And stop undermining the MediaWiki software. It works so stop subverting it and replacing it with Social Features. Wikis are about content, not socializing, please realize that. ''

Now, given the history Wikia Staff has with listening to feedback, I'm not so naive as to believe this will change their mind.

Thoughts? Opinions? Comments, Etcetera? Please rant, cry, sob, and bemoan the change here.

Should we keep our talk pages? No. Yes, get this "message wall" thing out of here before Wikia starts pushing even more "updates."

Small footnote
Oh, and and I designed a css (Cascading Style Sheet) layout for the Monobook skin. You can preview it in your preferences under the tab marked "skin".

Well, that was my longest rant ever. Please comment.