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Forums: Index > Wiki discussion > Introducing the Forum Extension

When the new(ish) forum extension was first proposed by Wikia, our wiki was in great opposition to this feature and it has remained disabled through Wikia Labs. However, I have been looking into this extension, and I believe there are many reasons why we should at least reconsider its addition here at Nukapedia. Please allow me to explain further:

Forum Moderators
-With the use of the forum extension, it becomes possible to have a new special rights user specifically tailored to cater to them. What do I mean by this, and what sort of rights would they have?

  • Forum Moderators will keep watch over the forums by deleting inappropriate topics and posts.
  • They have the ability to move threads to their correct forum.
  • They may tag threads with a correct topic.

-Why do I feel that this is important? Because not only will this motivate those considered forum moderators to help keep our forums clean and friendly, but we'll also have a new group of special rights users to help us out during our times of need. It's easy to see when looking through our forum archives that quite a few of them were neglected. I'm hoping this will fix our issues at hand considering the fora.
-What would it take to become a Forum Moderator?

  • At least 250 edits in the fora/blog-space.
  • An Administrator nomination
  • 30-days active on the fora. Even after a Forum Moderator has been appointed, they must not exceed 30-days of absence from the fora-space, else their rights will be immediately revoked.
  • Follows the same requests as Patrollers, and are appointed by our Bureaucrats.


Shout-Outs
We have a problem when it comes to getting important topics out to all of our users. Using the forum extension, Administrators may highlight important topics, which will make them not only a sticky thread, but will also appear in the notification tab in the upper right hand corner of the wiki.



Embedding options
-Most of us already know how to embed videos, use proper linkage, and making bold/italicized text. But our fora-space is frequently used by newer members trying to look for answers, and the forum extension allows easier access to tools that can help them explain their points. When commenting, a wide-array of new options would become available:

  • Quote button to avoid confusion when replying to others. While this is typically not a problem in our blogs, it can sometimes be a problem within our fora.
  • When Darwin comes to our wiki, a button will be available to switch between source mode and visual mode while commenting.
  • Bold/italicize buttons.
  • Add link/add photo/add video buttons.


Kudos
I don't really care for this, but it's still worth mentioning since it'd be a pretty big difference. Comments and threads themselves would have the option to be upvoted or downvoted. In theory, this can help our Forum Moderators weed out comments and threads that need deleting.



Pros & Cons
-Here are the pros as I see them:

  • We gain a new special rights option to help the wiki out with forum moderation.
  • The forums become much more friendly towards new users seeking out our forums for wiki help.
  • Template use becomes much easier with new embedding buttons, and the forum extension will also fully support when Darwin comes to our wiki and we'll have both Source and Visual editing to take advantage of.
  • Administrators will have the option to highlight important forum topics instead of solely relying on the community messages corner, which, as has been discovered, is not frequently looked at by even some of our prominent users.

-And here are the cons as I see them:

  • With the kudos system and all that jazz, this will be a bit like how social media works. I'm truly sorry for that, and I will be speaking with Wikia to see if there's any possibilities of changing a few things around for this extension.
  • Some will prefer the current forum layout. Myself included.

Comments[]

Please let me know your thoughts, everyone. As additional pros and cons are suggested here by the community, I will add them to the list above for everyone to take into consideration. No plans for a community vote are set yet. I really want to give the community a chance to have their say before it's officially considered. ForGaroux Some Assembly Required! 18:23, November 9, 2013 (UTC)

Also, if anyone is interested, additional details for the forum extension may be found here. ForGaroux Some Assembly Required! 18:30, November 9, 2013 (UTC)

I don't see forum moderators as a mentionable ability... our forums are dead enough as it is. I really wish we'd have gotten proper PHBB forums like we were promised years ago.... Agent c (talk) 21:32, November 9, 2013 (UTC)

I think forum moderators will be something we will need once our forums become active again, but I really don't like the new format or the 'kudos' system at all. I know that current internet trends are moving towards a more 'social' format but I don't really think that sort of outlook suits our wiki. Not only that, despite wikia's insistence that it will have no effect, these new features seem to have huge impacts on site performance (at least for me). FollowersApocalypseLogosectatorapocalypsi 22:15, November 9, 2013 (UTC)

@Chad - I have confirmation from TES wiki that Forum Moderators are able to do what I mentioned above, and from information given to their Bureaucrat Timeoin, Wikia have plans to modify the group even further. ForGaroux Some Assembly Required! 23:03, November 9, 2013 (UTC)

@AFollower - I know exactly what you mean. I hate the social media aspects. But in this case, I believe the pros outweigh the cons. Not sure about the site performance. I am currently running TES wiki on my old OS, and I don't seem to be getting any significant performance hits. Let me know if you notice anything on your end. ForGaroux Some Assembly Required! 23:05, November 9, 2013 (UTC)

Ah well. We might as well bow to the advancing pressures now and have it set up and managed properly for when we will actually need it. I'm still noticing some issues with TES wiki on each of my OS's, although it is much better than it was before. I notice it the most in trying to load the forums. After exploring there a bit more I think the forums flow a bit better than I had earlier assumed. On the topic of forum moderators, we would need to implement the policy to create them. I can see that J is currently in communication with TombRaiser about them borrowing our chat conduct policies as they implement wikia chat on their wiki, perhaps we could have a mutual swap of policies? Saves the time of creating a whole new policy from the ground up. FollowersApocalypseLogosectatorapocalypsi 23:47, November 10, 2013 (UTC)
I'll have to experiment further so I'll know what we're dealing with considering possible site lag issues. When it comes to Forum Moderators, we wouldn't need many policies/guidelines behind them since they have very limited special rights restricted to our fora. I'll check out what they have over at TES wiki real quick. ForGaroux Some Assembly Required! 00:12, November 11, 2013 (UTC)
My biggest concern, as Follower has already mentioned, is performance. If performance issues can be avoided, or handled long before implementation, I have no issue at all with this. However, I'm very wary of the social media aspects. We're not Facebook or Twitter, we're a wiki, an encyclopedia of information about Fallout. I fear that wikia is driving towards the social media route again, which is one of the major reasons the split occurred originally. I don't want that too happen again, so we should approach these new innovations with as much caution as possible. Ask all the necessary questions. How will this affect the way our visitors see the wiki? How will it affect site performance for all users, not just the top of the line computers, but for those using older systems? Will this force our users to incorporate some social media site in order to continue to use the wiki adequately? How will this affect the current means of editing? Will it impact template functions? ---bleep196- (talk) 21:43, November 11, 2013 (UTC)

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────Good questions! I'll answer them to the best of my ability:

  • "How will this affect the way our visitors see the wiki?"
    • This would only affect our fora, with a cosmetic overhaul and additional features that I listed above such as new embedding options, the kudos system, and easy access to Source/Visual editing once the Darwin update rolls out. Outside of our forums, the only aspect of our wiki that this extension will affect will be the notification tab in the upper right hand corner of the wiki.
  • "How will it affect site performance for all users, not just the top of the line computers, but for those using older systems?"
    • I don't seem to be noticing any significant performance hits on other wikis utilizing the Forum Extension. However, I have noticed that TES wiki loads significantly slower than Nukapedia, but I haven't been able to peg down the reason for why this is since they are opting in as testers for Darwin and the new fluid layout. It might be worth putting this extension through a trial period on Nukapedia to determine what adverse effects it might have.
  • "Will this force our users to incorporate some social media site in order to continue to use the wiki adequately?"
    • Absolutely not. The only change that will be forced on users will be the cosmetic change, as well as receiving alerts for highlighted threads and replies on followed topics/comments. Everything else will be entirely optional.
  • "How will this affect the current means of editing?"
    • Won't affect wiki-editing even in the least.
  • "Will it impact template functions?"
    • Optionally - yes. With the Forum Extension utilizing a button while commenting that allows the commenter to switch between Visual/Source editing once Darwin rolls out, template usage will differ slightly.

As for the rest, I can sympathize. We are, like you said, an encyclopedia first. We also have a community, though, and I'm hoping the pros involved with this extension will improve how our fora operates. ForGaroux Some Assembly Required! 22:00, November 11, 2013 (UTC)

As long as we can get any performance issues out of the way, your answers thoroughly resolve any issues I might have with this new extension. ---bleep196- (talk) 02:04, November 13, 2013 (UTC)
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