Forum:New forum feature testing

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Not sure how many of you guys know, but I'm a member of the Community Council (a.k.a. Wikia feature Beta testers), and we've been asked about enabling the new forums feature on our wikis. If you've been to Avatar Wiki lately you will have seen the new forum in action. Personally, I think the forums are a great addition, and I really think Young Justice Wiki can utilise the feature to our advantage.

I've spoken to Thailog about this briefly, and we both believe that a user-friendly forum is really the only thing holding YJ Wiki back from becoming the ultimate YJ resource and fan site. The new forums do function along the same lines as the Message Walls, which I'm a huge fan of. There are also some additions to the walls, such as;

• threaded discussions, so you can follow individual conversations rather than pages with multiple conversations
• notifications, both on-wiki and in e-mail, help you keep track of the conversations you're involved in
• Wiki admins can create Boards to organize threads
• a new way for admins to highlight discussions that they want everyone on the wiki to see; a far more efficient system than the Community Corner, which I personally believe is ultra-ineffective

Should YJ Wiki activate the forums, I think the feature could really make up for the fact we don't have article comments enabled. Structuring the forums not unlike Toonzone's Worlds Finest forum, we could have "official" discussion threads for each main character, in addition to the official discussion blogs we host for episodes and comic issue releases (I'm not yet decided on whether those blogs would also be moved to the forums). We have a huge amount of activity in user blogs, but more than half of those blogs could just as easily be forum threads, which I think would further support discussion, especially with upcoming forum features of which I cannot yet disclose.

The wiki would really benefit from the creation of separate Boards, some I think could be useful are;

• Episodic and issue discussion: board pertaining to the discussion of new episodes and comic issues
• General YJ discussion: where the official character discussion threads would live, as well as any other topics that most blogs cover
• YJ news and updates: self-explanatory, for the discussion of news and updates. A blog post would still be made, however comments would be disabled, replaced by a link to the forums, a la The World's Finest.
• Other discussion: anything else that doesn't fall under the other blogs, such as wider DC related material

I'm open to the idea of giving each Board a more YJ-related name, such as "The Daily Planet" for YJ news and updates, but that can be decided upon later. I also wouldn't mind introducing role playing to a separate Board, since IRC RPing is struggling.

If enough people support the idea of introducing the forums, I'll get in contact with Wikia Staff and have it enabled. Apologies for the large post, I had a lot to say. :P I look forward to hearing from you all. :) Rassilon of Old ^{(Wall - Contribs)} 09:28, August 22, 2012 (UTC)

I'm okay with it - though I have some questions.

• Is it on- or off-wikia?
• Do admins and rollbacks have the same rights as on the blogs?

--Tupka²¹⁷ 14:11, August 22, 2012 (UTC)

On wikia and yes. See Avatar Wiki's forum. ― Thailog 14:28, August 22, 2012 (UTC)

Rass, do you know if Wikia has or is developing a feature that allows us to display forum threads in the same way we do for blogs? If not, we won't be able to feature them on the main page like we currently do with, well, basically every blog: news, discussions, announcements. ― Thailog 11:46, August 23, 2012 (UTC)

Really good question. I've brought it up on the Council Wiki, and I'll let you know the result. It's more than likely it either can currently be done, or will be rolled out with a future version. Version 3 is about to be rolled out, with work on Version 4 having already begun. Rassilon of Old ^{(Wall - Contribs)} 12:02, August 23, 2012 (UTC)

Good. One more thing: will forum threads be always arranged in one continuous line, or will they be more like blogs, where you can respond to one particular post in a new set of strings? My main grip with this new forum (aside from the kudos...) is that they pretty much look like walls... They don't even have a different layout (though that can easily be remedied with css). ― Thailog 16:00, August 23, 2012 (UTC)

I've been waiting to see when a feature for that was available. These pages get way to long, and it'd be nice to just see your own comments in the source mode. I say go for it. --theJLUninja Talk to me 15:54, August 24, 2012 (UTC)

So... is this happening or what? ― Thailog 16:09, September 16, 2012 (UTC)

The forums have been enabled by Staff. To answer Thailog's question, replies are not broken off into a typographical offset like in blog and article comments, however, a new feature with the forum enables a user to reply directly to a comment, which involves quoting that comment and linking to it; not unlike many other web forums.

We have the option to create and remove/rename the boards on the forum. Currently, the boards we have are;

• General Discussion
• New on Young Justice Wiki
• Questions and Answers
• Young Justice News

I like the Q&A Board, I also like the YJ News, and General Discussion. General Discussion would be great for "official" character discussion threads, and anything else. I feel like the Q&A could be something that could almost be a deterrent for some questions sent to AskGreg, and another helpful and informative location for YJ-related inquiries. YJ News is very straight forward; being just that. New on Young Justice Wiki is something that would be great for site updates. "Other DC Media Discussion" or something along those lines, could be a new Board for discussion of DC Nation shorts, live action movies, and other animated television series and films. I'd also like to add a Role-Playing Board, the guidelines for which should be drafted out.

The only remaining point of discussion is the Episodic and Issue Discussion, and whether it should be its own Board, or be separate threads amongst the General Discussion Board. I personally think it should have its own Board. Anyway, let me know what you think. :) Rassilon of Old ^{(Wall - Contribs)} 05:28, September 18, 2012 (UTC)

I think each episode should have its thread, of course, but until we find a way to feature them on the main page, we need to keep using blogs. Otherwise, we'll be making it difficult for people to find them. ― Thailog 17:57, September 18, 2012 (UTC)

I was actually thinking of using the blogs as always, with the images and logline and whatnot, but disable comments and have a large button linking to the episode's forum thread. I was going to make a mock-up this afternoon. Rassilon of Old ^{(Wall - Contribs)} 21:28, September 18, 2012 (UTC)

I suppose it's a way to make due. And I misread above. I think Episodic and Issue Discussion should have its own board. Jeez I'm off my game today. ― Thailog 21:48, September 18, 2012 (UTC)

Hahaha, don't worry about it. Quick question: are you happy with having a Board dedicated to wider DC Universe discussion, if so, what should be its name? Or would you have threads such as "The Dark Knight Returns: Part 1 discussion" on the general discussion board? Rassilon of Old ^{(Wall - Contribs)} 21:55, September 18, 2012 (UTC)

I'd prefer to have all DC-YJ-unrelated topics confined in one board. DC Universe discussion sounds fine. ― Thailog 22:14, September 18, 2012 (UTC)

So this is how I envision we host YJ news, as well as episode and issue discussion; with a comment-locked blog linking to a forum thread. I'm open to integrating the link button on the blog differently. Thoughts? Rassilon of Old ^{(Wall - Contribs)} 03:45, September 19, 2012 (UTC)

I like it. Though comments apparently can't be disabled like that anymore... We'll have to do it with java, which doesn't impede people from commenting on mobile devices.

Oh and could you ask Wikia if they plan to make it possible to lock forum threads? ― Thailog 12:42, September 19, 2012 (UTC)

Never mind that. There's a "close thread" option on the drop down menu of the original post. ― Thailog 13:09, September 19, 2012 (UTC)