User blog:Heatedpete/Wikia updates, plus inactivity

Ok, this blog is basically to do with non-Battlefield stuff. So no anti-platform/-game flaming or whatever. The stuff I'm about to cover is to do with new wikia updates and some changes to do with the way this wiki's operating.

Wikia
OK, now those who are familiar with Community Central will know that they commonly post staff blogs about new/upcoming features. Frankly everyone should check it out at least once a month. It's an important place where new features can be discovered, debated and tested through the blogs.

Over the last few weeks, there have been a few new things announced by the staff over at comm. central. Here's basically the outlines:


 * [community.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Sarah_Manley/Test_the_Expanded_Wiki_Navigation UPDATE - New Wiki Navigation] - in the next few weeks/months, an update to the Wiki Navigation bar will be taking place. This is purely to make it more functiona, introducing a third level of headings and, unfortunately, a Wikia-controlled tab called "On the Wiki", which we cannot control/replace.
 * New Admin Webinars (seminars hosted over the internet) - these are basically to help new admins get into the swing of their new roles, as well as a host of other topics. Anyone can sign up, but the next ones are focused mainly on admins.
 * NEW FEATURE - Message Wall (boo, hiss) - Now, this one is less exciting. There is a new feature that will be introduced called Message Wall, which is basically an "update" to the talk page which REPLACES the old talk page completely. What we now get is something akin to Facebook users' walls, where people simply need to type in their message, click enter/post, and their message is posted to the top of the page. Unfortunately, this WILL be prone to a whole host of new problems, such as spam, trolling, etc, and will force all talk pages to archive instantly once rolled out, even if they are in active discussions, and protected to admin-only level. Yeah... Also the talk pages are archived automatially so that only 20 discussions are shown, instead of at a user's discretion. An update post was later made, but already a Simple List of Names has sprung up, petitioning against the forced introduction of the message wall. Did I say that before? Yeah, it's being forced upon every wiki. No enabling features like Achievements or Article comments... (N.B. - my personal view is against this, but I am holding off my total judgement until the test wiki has it enabled.)

On the Battlefield Wiki
So, remember to check out the links above, and get your feedback in to the guys over at Community Central. HP out. - 21:05, October 3, 2011 (UTC)
 * Recently we've had to say a sort-of-goodbye to our hugely experienced bureaucrat Bondpedia, who has semi-retired to concentrate on University personal-debts-of-£9k+-a-year-making stuff in the UK. For those who don't know, Bondpedia, or BP, was the ONE major editor before March 2010, when the BATF under Doc.Richtofen arrived, and has constatly been a source of advice, help and impartiality since then. Every admin here has been under his wing for the last year and a bit, so we should all be grateful for the work he has done for the wiki and it's community
 * Other retirements include other experienced b'crat SSD, who decided to call it a day on the wikia side of stuff a couple of months ago. With 10,000 edits, he has been personally responsible for the high quality of articles across the board, especially on stuff from the older games that people such as myself cannot add to.
 * PresEden and Yuri have stepped up to the b'crat/admin post respectively, (sort of) filling in the empty places that BP and SSD are leaving, but you probably already know that...
 * A small side notice from me, due to the fact that I am doing 5 A-Levels (anyone from Britain will know what they are), the amount of time I can spend on the Wiki will be greatly reduced, so, to add to the loss of experienced editors you now lose a highly lacadasical admin - I mean highly experienced editor... erm...