Forum:Pain Points

One of the helpers asked me about any "pain points" we had with Wikia or any features on Wikia.

I gave him this list myself:
 * Category Select messed up the edits of random users by making them start rearranging our semantic attributes (we asked to have it disabled)
 * The Rich Text editor likewise messed up articles and we had to have it disabled, if I remember correctly.
 * "CreatePage" in Oasis as well as the left sidebar on Monaco is also potentially problematic with classes of edited focused towards the use of Semantic Forms; though Soul Eater and Animanga Wiki are potentially worse off. (Wasn't as bad in Monaco since we could add another link nearby in the sidebar)
 * Can't say we liked MyHome (the redirect from the homepage to MyHome instead of the mainpage)
 * Detailed the fixed-width issues in Oasis
 * "Can't remember much else besides blogs which we also had disabled, but it's felt like a history of Wikia releasing features that hurt the wiki, then us having to request it be disabled... MyHome and image attribution feel like a continuation of that, but this time without the option to have it disabled."
 * "What's the issue with image attribution?" "the strong nagging feeling that Wikia's quest to get people who can't figure out they can edit to edit is going to increase the number of bad editors we have to deal with"

If you don't understand my issue with image attribution, here's my take (other users have issues with things like it looks like the latest uploader gets credit for the image, it distracts from the actual content, and the way it makes it look like the attributed user owns the image when it's usually copyrighted by a 3rd party) from a past discussion in IRC (really I wish more people here would idle in IRC) "...anyways... my point... Looking at naruto's rc, I see about 7 users recently that sysops had to talk to and explain how to edit the wiki correctly... they edited, but their edits were a bit more problematic than improvements to the wiki, so someone had to point that out to them that their changes weren't really constructive, else they would have continued... Now Wikia's hope with image attribution is that users who can't figure out that they can edit a page (with the big iconified "Edit" button and a [Edit this page] beside the header both in plain view) will understand that they to can "edit" the wiki... Problem there... if the user can't figure out they can edit the wiki with that staring at them... then how are we sure that they even know how to edit the wiki in a constructive way? If the image attribution actually does what it was planned to, turn users who can't figure out they can edit, into users that edit the wiki..... I can only see our issues with users that make unconstructive edits increasing... if a user is intelligent enough to know what a constructive edit is, they probably understand how to edit... but the group of users who can't figure out they can even edit, seam to heavily lean towards the category of users who we'll have even harder time teaching how to constructively edit..."

Anyone else got any memories of having problems with Wikia and the features here? ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) Oct 16, 2010 @ 03:23 (UTC) 03:23, October 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * There's User:Wikia. Jacce's deletion history will tell you how many users were not entirely worthy of warm-welcomes. ~SnapperTo 04:10, October 16, 2010 (UTC)
 * I HATE (to the point when I have to do REAL template editing i go back to old skin), the "Wiki Activity", just send us strait to recent changes. I "think" the point of buttons is to enhance the users ability to navigate; sure I can type the direct link in the url bar, but why should I have to? And the mouseover (short) history, could really use features besides links to the user name and a timestamp. S im A nt 01:17, October 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * ;) IMHO that recent-edits dropdown should actually link to the past versions it's pointing to as it's essentially a quick mini-history... Of course it doesn't... since it wasn't built for that purpose... The only point of building that mini-history was as part of Wikia's extreme attempt at getting people who can't even figure out they are able to edit to edit the wiki, even at the cost of sacrificing functionality and content, it was in no way intended to be a practical feature meant for the use of editors... (which now that I think about it sums up Wikia's new skin...) ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) Oct 17, 2010 @ 01:34 (UTC) 01:34, October 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Since my coding work is near to null, the issues I have are more low-key. Something that bothers me is that when seeing a sub page, for example, the ones ShounenSuki has, there is no more link for the talk page of that subpage, clicking the blue talk page button takes me to the talk page of the main page, not the sub page. Two other minor things is that the justified text option in preferences has no effect in Oasis, but it still does in Monaco, and visited links no longer turn purple. When I canvas the recent changes, visited links help me spot IPs that don't know what they do and the ones that know exactly what to do to vandalise. It also helps me to see which article's edits I've checked. Like I said, those are minor things compared to the above, but they're still annoying. Omnibender - Talk - Contributions 21:29, October 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Heh, i reported that usersubpage/talkpage thing as a bug a couple hours ago through special:Contact. Guess it pissed us both off. S im A nt 21:48, October 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * *Bloody cough*S im A nt 00:53, October 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * It's too bad that Adblock works so well, because that's hilarious. ~SnapperTo 02:06, October 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * Heh, what's that a mockup of? ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) Oct 19, 2010 @ 06:17 (UTC) 06:17, October 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * Vanquish (video game). ~SnapperTo 06:35, October 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * No, I know about vanquish, I mean the layout. ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) Oct 19, 2010 @ 06:37 (UTC) 06:37, October 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * Thats a screenshot of how i actually see the homepage of narutopedia when logged out. S im A nt 12:40, October 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * O JOY, now they fixed the bug which didn't display it even when the preferences set ads to be displayed. Why are we the only wikia with this monster? S im A nt 20:01, October 19, 2010 (UTC)

 sannse, one of our editors said he saw this while logged out http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/8901/wtfjm.png odd.. the wiki shouldn't have been switched over for anons yet... hasn't when I view it now  sannse, switched over? that's not Oasis... that's Monaco with what looks to be a takeover ad oh, I'm tired, I saw it as Oasis. Long day. Yes, I see the ad, the skin must have been cached on my first look - we've done that type for quite a while now, not common, but they happen  O_o really? I have never heard of a single takeover ad ever on any wiki on Wikia in my entire time here guess that shows that they ain't common :) let's see... we had frontline on some lifestyle hub wikis... a wow one for the last big release... a movie not that long ago on a couple of wikis.... I have ads turned on, but don't pay much attention other than when looking for problems -- classic ad blindness, the bane of the system ;)  any comment on the fact that part of the ad actually kills part of the mainpage content? the extra sized box? that's why we introduced the column tags in the first place, because of those ... again, not common, but happen sometimes I think I've seen about 3 since we introduced the column tags, what was it... about 2 years ago?  I thought those column tags were introduced as a way to let the system fit a 300px ad into the mainpage instead of a banner ad...  in fact, at one point we had real wiki navigation inside that area no, the main pages of larger wikis have had both for a long time - the "roadblock" set up... the idea of the tags was to fit the box in, and to allow the content to slide down without breaking if the box was the larger type (300x600 I think)  ok, slide down... but I never for the life of me saw anything about replace... wait... it shouldn't replace oh that's not right at all  gah... I worked at least 12 hours today, and aint done yet... sorry!  *sigh* well, I guess at the least the great part about these auth tokens is that they can't be reused I've reported the problem to the ads channel, Dantman [...] Dantman: I'm back to being confused... what content is being covered up? I thoguth it was something above the anoucement box  My understanding might be a little skewed by the limited area of the screenshot, perhaps it's just shoved so far down that even on his huge monitor the stuff on the side isn't even visible  what's the point of such a bland 300px+ height box there anyways? yeah, I think that's it, it's low, not covered it's got an animation that shows the game, he just got it at a bland moment
 * sannse looks again
 * sannse hopes this type of ad will look less overwhelming with the new look
 * Dantman rolls eyes... sannse need some coffee?
 * sannse is accepting all coffee donations for sure :P
 * Apparently they've been doing that for awhile despite my solid belief that Wikia had never made use of any ad type bordering on the extreme... then again, they have ads in the content area. ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) Oct 20, 2010 @ 06:39 (UTC) 06:39, October 20, 2010 (UTC)
 * So... how long will that ad space be used here, week/month/year/forever? If not forever, how long of a break will we get from it, and how do we prevent getting rewarded with it again. S im A nt 17:16, October 20, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, takeover ads usually are only used when someone is willing to pay a substantial amount for them, so it's only a rare few events that it would be used. To be honest, Oasis almost looks like it was designed to support takeover ads (I thought they wouldn't do them for Monaco), I suppose the effect might not be as bad with the new skin (not that it's ever desired). ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) Oct 20, 2010 @ 17:31 (UTC) 17:31, October 20, 2010 (UTC)
 * What I want to know is, why us. I am curious if wikia staff gave these ad buyers, user data "collected" from multiple wikias and we were picked; or if they just looked at some arbitrary thing such as page views. Also, it would be interesting to have a list of other wikias that have or had this "issue." Edit: Either, A. Vanquish only paid for a couple days of ads, or B. My complaining & publicizing helped kill that ad. I hope it is the second one. S im A nt 18:21, October 20, 2010 (UTC)