Forums > Consensus track archive > CT:Actual forums now available
This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made in the Senate Hall or new Consensus Track pages rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record.
The result of the debate was no consensus, leaning toward do not adopt for any purpose. jSarek 03:05, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
Wikia is working on actual forums. Do we want them? I say yes, but clearly I can't speak for everyone. I've been told all we have to do is ask. -- Darth Culator (Talk) 12:08, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
- Looks good...but I for one am fine with what we've currently got. Unit 8311 12:11, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
- Having used phpBB forums for my own web site and for another semi-commercial venture before, I'd actually prefer what we've got. Wildyoda 15:12, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
- No. It's bad enough we get users who treat the main space like a forum. We shouldn't be catering to them. What we have is fine. If we were, then we'd have a ton of users joining the "actual message boards" and post random dribble without them actually contributing anything useful. --Redemption
Talk 15:34, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
- No. It's bad enough we get users who treat the main space like a forum. We shouldn't be catering to them. What we have is fine. If we were, then we'd have a ton of users joining the "actual message boards" and post random dribble without them actually contributing anything useful. --Redemption
- Having used phpBB forums for my own web site and for another semi-commercial venture before, I'd actually prefer what we've got. Wildyoda 15:12, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
- I've used phpBB forums before as well and like it. But I think the Knowledge Bank is as close as we should get to forums. -Fnlayson 17:29, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
- I'd say we should consider it. If anything it might serve as a vent for all the off-topic stuff we get here, as well as a social space that's easier than IRC. Kuralyov 17:39, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
- In the name of Katarn, no. The last thing we need is a set of forums. The current system works just fine. Havac 00:22, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- I concur. Forums should be avoided at all costs. Chack Jadson 00:25, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- Amen. Any advantages it would provide in terms of attracting chat from other places, would be made up for by new users coming here to chat only, and worse, posting everywhere else before being directed to the forum. Internalizing newcomers into not chatting is hard enough, without actually inviting people to chat who then has to be internalized to chat only in specific places -without the normal contribution we usually get in return for it. It would be a win-lose situation. DarthMRN 00:35, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- That's nonsense. The forum would be hosted by Wikia. Any people who would come to us from the forum would likely already be wikians. By giving newcomers an actual place to chat would in no way increase the amount of chat here. It would give us a place to discuss things. There is no way this would be detrimental in any way to us, would require essentially no effort on our part to set up or maintain, and could provide a nice social gathering at the least. Kuralyov 02:57, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- I'm not sure I follow, Kura. Would this forum not be a part of the Wookieepedia domain? Then, whether through hearsay or Google searches, people would find a SW forum on this site without being members of Wikia already, and quite likely branch out from it and into the site at large. I don't see how we can be sure that new forumites would be wikians already, any more than regular newcomers are. DarthMRN 13:17, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- Difficult to see, the future is. What's going to happen. I'm kind of used to how the forum is now. And I'm thinking, why is it bad that people chat. This new forum doesn't show up in the recent changes, and as far as I know it doesn't show up in the edit count. So again, what's so bad about people contributing and chatting in the same place? The talk page would still look the same, only the forum is going to change. That would make it easier then ever to identify where you should stay on topic and where you can talk about anything and everything. --Steinninn 07:26, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- Amen. Any advantages it would provide in terms of attracting chat from other places, would be made up for by new users coming here to chat only, and worse, posting everywhere else before being directed to the forum. Internalizing newcomers into not chatting is hard enough, without actually inviting people to chat who then has to be internalized to chat only in specific places -without the normal contribution we usually get in return for it. It would be a win-lose situation. DarthMRN 00:35, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- I concur. Forums should be avoided at all costs. Chack Jadson 00:25, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- Why fix what isn't broken? -- Riffsyphon1024 07:56, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- Let me just get one thing straight because we are discussing people "chatting" in phpBB forums if we got them. If we DID get them, wouldn't they just replace these forums? And wouldn't we just be moving the rules we have in place now to cover the new forums? The only thing that would change would be the software and the look of it, and conversation would still be divided amongst the Senate Hall/Knowledge Bank/Consensus Track/Admins' Noticeboard or equivalents. A software change shouldn't change the fact that we don't want people talking about Star Wars (other than questions in the Knowledge Bank), we want them talking about the wiki in the forums. So we might as well cater more to wikians by leaving the forums alone than cater to chatters by making them more forum-like. Wildyoda 18:54, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
- No, they wouldn't replace these forums, and no, the rules for this wouldn't necessarily be transferred to the new ones. These would still be here to serve its purpose, those would be there to serve theirs. Kuralyov 02:01, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
- So, these would be entirely new forums for the purpose of chatting alone? Then my vote is decidedly no. DarthMRN 03:18, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
- For once this week, I strongly agree with DarthMRN. (Well said.) May I point you to WP:Not#Discussion Board? Granted the point of that is so that the Senate Hall, etc., can remain functional for its original purpose. But to have a chat-centric forum to have to patrol (and we would have to do a lot of patrolling if we had something like that affiliated with us in any way) would be such a waste when we can simply point people to forums.starwars.com or theforce.net for chatting purposes. Wildyoda 03:48, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
- No, they wouldn't replace these forums, and no, the rules for this wouldn't necessarily be transferred to the new ones. These would still be here to serve its purpose, those would be there to serve theirs. Kuralyov 02:01, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
- The whole point is that the PHPBB forums don't show up on recent changes. Our less productive users would be effectively quarantined, and we could attract people who prefer a more structured format. I'd like to see us have an equivalent to boards.theforce.net or the starwars.com message boards, but without the asskissing censors. -- Darth Culator (Talk) 02:46, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
- At one point early on we talked about bringing in forums to handle discussions. The reason was that the wiki format is not that conducive to conversations. At that time I kinda liked the idea of phpBB or something similar. But we have had some great improvements made to the site since then, and I don't think the forums are necessary at all. If we did do it, it's my opinion that it would be like Wildyoda said: simply a "software change" to transfer the discussion-centric parts of the site to, keeping the same rules. If it is as Kuralyov said and it is just another place for people to "hang out," then I see no need for the forums. They can go to TFN or wherever. We don't need another distraction or anything else to monitor/moderate. I see very little benefit and potential dangers with that kind of forum. WhiteBoy 08:39, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
- Especially if the name "Wookieepedia" is anywhere near these proposed forums. I say no as well, it's a relatively useless idea, considering our main purpose. To say that potential members of the forum would be almost exclusively wikians is short-sighted. If the forum was, in any way, linked from Wookieepedia, the membership would become infinitely more...diverse. Yes. Diverse is a polite word. --School of Thrawn 101 09:11, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
- Yea, what WhiteBoy said. :) No need for redundancy. -- Riffsyphon1024 09:19, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
- Per WhiteBoy. I'm leery of this idea. Atarumaster88
(Talk page) 13:14, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
- Per WhiteBoy. I'm leery of this idea. Atarumaster88
- I don't think having an area on-site where free communication can occur is a bad thing. Even if a separate, ordinary conversational board IS voted down, though, I think replacing the existing Knowledge Bank with this sort of board would be beneficial. Many who ask questions there are new to Wikis, and have no idea how to indent, sign their name, or handle other basic formatting details that make conversation flow smoothly. jSarek 20:33, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
- "I don't think having an area on-site where free communication can occur is a bad thing." We have one. It's IRC. I don't think the occasional wiki-illiterate poster here is enough reason to change the way we do this. Gonk (Gonk!) 17:21, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
- By the by, someone needs to archive the current Senate Hall.--172.129.89.16 06:13, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
- If it's only a software change, I'm fine with it, as long as it's relatively easy to implement. Just keep the same rules as the ones for the Senate Hall and the Knowledge Bank. That way, it doesn't clog up the Recent Changes. Could forums or pages there be put on a watchlist, though?Hobbes15(Tiger Headquarters) 06:45, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
- I think debates like Forum:Jack Nebulax would be MUCH easier to read and comment on if there was some sort of actual forum software involved. jSarek 20:27, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
- I would be strongly opposed to using the forum software to create discussion forums. However, I think the use of bulletin-board style forums could greatly facilitate the types of conversations we already have in the Senate Hall and Knowledge Bank and would strongly support use of the software for that purpose. NOT for new discussion forums. - breathesgelatinTalk 03:11, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
- Amen. DarthMRN 02:35, 30 June 2007 (UTC)
- I disagree, Breathes. Really long, verbose stuff in BB-style forums is always hard to read IMO, and many such forums have barely-functional Search features, which is a real pain when the thread goes past one page (and most would around here!). Whereas with wiki "forums," it's as simple as your browser's Find button. The pages get long, sure, but meh. Gonk (Gonk!) 01:26, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
- As I said above, I think what we've got is fine. If it doesn't show up in the recent changes, then some troll or vandal could post inflammatory or nonsense comments and have it not noticed for a while. Unit 8311 21:14, 30 June 2007 (UTC)
- I would be strongly opposed to using the forum software to create discussion forums. However, I think the use of bulletin-board style forums could greatly facilitate the types of conversations we already have in the Senate Hall and Knowledge Bank and would strongly support use of the software for that purpose. NOT for new discussion forums. - breathesgelatinTalk 03:11, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
- I think debates like Forum:Jack Nebulax would be MUCH easier to read and comment on if there was some sort of actual forum software involved. jSarek 20:27, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
