User blog:Gardimuer/Say goodbye to "User talk" pages

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110926183960/central/images/thumb/c/cf/Messagewall-fullscreen.png/350px-Messagewall-fullscreen.png (Click for full image) This is not a talk page. Seriously. Say goodbye to them now while you still can, because I guarantee you will miss them when they're gone.

Wikia's latest in mandatory "improvements" will be to make all user talk pages function like blog comments. All talk pages will be rebranded as "Walls".

And by the way, if today were April 4th, I would be laughing. I would be laughing so hard .

Wikia update: "Communicate Easily with Message Wall"

Features of this "improvement"

 * "It’s not a wiki page." - In other words, you can't edit the page itself. You can only edit the comments on the page. Say goodbye to clever talk page headers or adding an archive list to the top of your talk page. Also note that you will no longer be able to view the source of a talk page section, so it will be much more of a hassle to demonstrate wikicode for people during conversations.


 * "Newer conversations are at the top of the page; archiving is automatic." - This means that you no longer have the freedom to regulate what is on your talk page. You will not be able to control when things get archived, because it will be done automatically by some kind of unintelligent program.


 * "Messages are separated into conversations." - Since this separation is automatic, presumably you no longer have the ability to move misplaced comments to sections where they belong.


 * "Messages are signed with your preferred name." - You no longer get to use clever personalized signatures on your comments. Instead, the comment will be tagged with your user name or whatever "aka" name you have set in your profile.


 * "Wiki Activity will show messages grouped as conversations." - Prepare to be confused about which talk page has been edited when you see a long stream of "conversations" labeled "Hi" in the Wiki activity feed.


 * "Wiki notifications appear in a new menu." - (Example) Golly gee, it's just like Facebook!


 * "Your current talk pages will be archived." - Italic emphasis to indicate that it will be archived automatically whether you want it or not, and probably at a really inconvenient time when discussion is still ongoing.

An important caveat

 * This will only affect user talk pages. Article talk pages and forum pages will be left unmolested... for now. However, Wikia says they "hope to improve those communication features in the future," so you'd better pray this talk page "improvement" goes down in flames before they start liking it so much that they apply it to everything.

In conclusion, welcome to Wikibook. Enjoy your stay. Please check your brain at the door.