(Resolved) Had to disable Article Comments (sorry) | Fandom

Wazat·8/25/2020 in General

(Resolved) Had to disable Article Comments (sorry)

So Fandom's new changes replaced the old, functional Article Comments with something much worse: "Discussions". When you click on Discuss to get to this forum, you're using the Discussions feature.

It's awkward to use compared to a real forum, and nothing that happens here shows up in the Recent Changes feed.

That lack of tracking in Recent Changes is a big problem now that Discuss is used for Article Comments, User Message Walls, etc... If someone asks a question on one of our wiki's 1200-1400 or so pages, we have no idea. If someone posts spam, porn, hate speech, a link to a website with a virus in its preview image, or anything else an Admin or Moderator might want to respond to... well again, we have no idea that's happened. Fandom created no moderation tools for this fancy new Discuss feature that fills them with such great pride. We're completely unable to answer people's questions on articles or moderate bad behavior.

Unfortunately our only viable choice was to turn off all article comments until Fandom deigns to add basic moderation tools like you'd see on any rudimentary website with comments. They didn't do that before switching to the new software, and we have zero promises that they will do so later, just hope and their neglectful contempt to keep us warm in this nuclear wiki winter.

So uhh... sorry about that. I know the Article Comments were a popular and very natural way to comment, ask questions, share ideas, etc and it sucks to have them gone. Unfortunately we didn't have any good choices, and might not for a long time, if ever.

I'm going to continue checking this Discuss forum for questions and comments, and responding to people as soon as I notice their questions. You can also go to the FFG Forums. They can be a bit toxic at times, but they're quite active and there's a good community of people who are great at answering questions and providing suggestions.

X-WingFFG Community

Whether or not Fandom will be a viable platform long-term, getting better or worse with time, I can't predict. But I'll try to stick around and continue helping out.

(Edited by Wazat)

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Moviesign·8/25/2020

When posting questions, please choose the "Questions & Answers" category to make it easier for the staff to monitor. If your question is about a specific page on the wiki, please click "Add Tag +" and enter the name of the page that relates to your question.

Thank you for your patience. We all look forward to the day when moderation tools become available.

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Moviesign·8/31/2020

New blog from Fandom about this issue, and others.

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Wazat·8/31/2020

@Moviesign Yea I just saw that, thanks!

Really glad they're responding and adding some tracking tools!

Some of the feedback I left them on that article regarding the other major problem I face:

"Look at Recent Wiki Activity on this very wiki [which hasn't converted yet]; it's worth noting how clean and easy to read its design is, because information is arranged in a way the human eye can pick out and parse. Please model Recent Changes on that! The current Recent Changes page is a mess of information with no visual separation, and it's very strenuous to use. Managing the wiki through Recent Changes wears me out like it was designed to be parsed by a script or something, while Wiki Activity was designed for actual use with the human eye."

Honestly I've stopped tracking Recent Changes because it just hurts my eyes and head trying to parse it. I'm sticking to my assessment that it's designed for scripts to parse, not for humans.

Hopefully that's what they're fixing with that sentence about "accessibility" and "neurodiversity". Maybe my brain is inferior or something and most people have no problem whatsoever with reading Recent Changes?

Here's hoping things get a lot more usable soon.

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Moviesign·8/31/2020

I've gotten used to Recent Changes over the years. I like it because it has most everything I could want in a compact space. I have worn out my mouse wheel with scrolling (time to buy a new one) and it's a battle between wanting as much on the screen at one time and having it big enough for my old eyes to read. I look at RC on at least 20 wikis/day. I'm hoping that "accessibility" and "neurodiversity" makes my life easier too.

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Wazat·9/1/2020

Oh I value usability over maximum compactness any day. If I can't easily parse info out of the wall of text, then too many compromises have been made for compactness. :) I have no problem with scrolling as long as I can read what I'm reading.

IMO it'd be easy to accommodate both versions as a simple display option, but that's something they'd have to engineer and I get the impression we're extremely lucky they're hitting the brakes to address any feedback at all. So it's just a hope is all.

It'll be nice to have tools for comments and images again too. Flying blind is asking for trouble!

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Wazat·9/23/2020

Article comments are back!

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Wazat·12/28/2020

@Moviesign Hey we have a user who can't seem to get article comments to work, and has had to rely on the Talk pages. Link Link Not sure if they actually need to be logged in, or need to clear their cache, or what.

Delayed FusesX-Wing Miniatures: Second Edition Wiki

Static Discharge Vanes

Static Discharge VanesX-Wing Miniatures: Second Edition Wiki

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Moviesign·12/28/2020

I tried to post as an anon and did indeed get an error message that says "Sorry, something went wrong." I will investigate.

(Edited by Moviesign)

What do you think?