The comment sections

[Antvasima]

I am seriously considering removing the comment sections for the profiles.

We currently have over 2000 edits a day to monitor, with over 80% of them being nonsense in the comments.

We don't have the manpower to deal with it, I am getting burned out from dealing with it, and it distracts us from the main task, which is monitoring the edits.

I think that shutting them down would make our job much easier, and shifting the talk to the forums would also make moderators (we could appoint some new ones) far more useful to lessen the workload of the admins.

Basically, we have reached a tipping point where the wiki is dangerously overloaded, and it all risks to collapse unless we take this step.

I think that limiting interaction to the forums and personal message walls would lessen the workload extremely, and also encourage people to strictly bring up relevant issues, such as content revisions. The Marvel wiki for example, has 17 times as many visitors as we do, and the admins still seem to have an easier workload.

The staff, and regular members, will still be able to talk with each other through the personal message pages, or within the forums.

I think that disabling the comment sections is at least an idea worth trying for a while, as currently virtually all the energy of all the admins currently goes into dealing with them.

As an initial tryout regarding whether or not this will lessen our workload, I initially suggest that the comments section should be disabled for the next two months, due to the massive influx of visitors during the holidays.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

I think this is a good idea, Ant. I mean for crying in God's Hell, look at Tifa's page. All i see is people calling BS all the time on her page just because they don't take she is on the same level as Cloud and such.

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you.

 

[Azathoth_the_Abyssal_Idiot]

Though Salavtore isn't supposed to be here (tsk tsk), he does bring up a very good point. I think we could easily get by with just disabling comments for the most popular, flooded pages. Hell, like 95% of the comments that clutter up the activity feed are from DB pages, OPM pages, or something relating to a more recent Death Battle.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

I don't mind the disabling of comments on the more popular pages like Goku and such.

 

[Thebluedash]

Well I don't really mind the comment section too much, but I understand that moderators and admins actually have to read a lot of the nonsense comments so it really depends on what the admins and moderators think.

 

[Antvasima]

It doesn't work like that. We can either disable all of the comment sections or none within the wiki features. And going through 5700 pages to dissble or enable them individually would not have been realistic anyway.

Also, all talk pages combined are a massive drain on our energy and resources, not just a few. I think that this would let us more easily spot and focus on the most relevant discussions only, through in the content revision forum, and similar.

 

[Azathoth_the_Abyssal_Idiot]

I swear, there have been days where almost all the activity in the feed was comments from Tifa, Whis, Beerus, Goku, Naruto, and Saitama. I think simply removing the comment function for "hotspot" pages would go a long, looooong way.

@Ant

Really? I could have sworn there was a way to disable comments for specific threads and pages.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, we don't seem to have that option within the wiki features.

Edit: Not as far as I am aware, no.

 

[Azathoth_the_Abyssal_Idiot]

Well, we don't seem to have that option within the wiki features.

We could possibly message the wiki staff about it. Like I said, there are really only maybe a few dozen pages which make up the majority of the comments that clutter the activity feed.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

Well, we don't seem to have that option within the wiki features.

I just checked mines over at FC/OC. We only have the option of either enabling or disabling ALL comment sections.

 

[Antvasima]

Yes, CrossverseCrisis is correct, but speaking as somebody with around 32000 edits in sum total, ALL of the comment sections have together been a massive problem for me.

 

[Thebluedash]

I found this thread not sure if it would help http://community.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:516519, it's about disabling comments for certain pages

 

[Antvasima]

Well, again, with almost 5700 pages, even if we get that script to work, the workload would constantly just shift elsewhere. To do something before I get a burnout and have to leave the wiki, we most likely have to try something more widespread than that.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

@Antvasima: Man, that would have been a WHOLE lot of work to do if we really went through with this.

 

[Antvasima]

Yup. We would have to constantly block any new page that becomes a hot spot. It would be far too much unnecessary trouble.

It seems easier to just hit the "Off" button. At the very least it should be worth a try for a while to see if we get less of a workload?

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

Yup. We would have to constantly block any new page that becomes a hot spot. It would be far too much unnecessary trouble.

Ugh, i can already imagine that in my head.

 

[Azathoth_the_Abyssal_Idiot]

Yeah. However, I am still a bit nervous that a massive influx of comments could be replaced with a massive influx of talk threads, which could be even worse.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, I think that it is worth trying out at least. The situation right now is turning unmanageable.

Also, forum threads are more easily moderated, and overviewed according to topic.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

Yup. We would have to constantly block any new page that becomes a hot spot. It would be far too much unnecessary trouble.
It seems easier to just hit the "Off" button. At the very least it should be worth a try for a while to see if we get less of a workload?

Perhaps so. I mean i'm really curious on what would happen if we just went through like say, 2 weeks minimum with no commet section what's so ever. Like all we would have is forum threads and i think blogs too(?).

 

[Antvasima]

My hope is that our work would turn easier. It is worth a try at least, I think.

 

[DontTalk]

Hm... I have the feeling it will instantly get very silent here, if we are doing that. Not sure if I would mind that or not.

One question: If we disable the comment function wiki wide that would only concern pages, blog posts wouldn´t automatically be effected as well, right?

Lastly I definitely want to hear Lord Kavpenys opinion on this, but that should be a given.

 

[The_Everlasting]

I feel as though this would be going incredibly overboard, mainly because I don't see how people will note things about a character's stats that are either incorrect or just started out of confusion. If we do this they'll likely just go onto the forums and spam it there.

 

[ImagoDesattrolante]

To be honest, I think this is a good idea to try.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, the blog posts are not affected, Lord Kavpeny was initially reticient when I talked with him about it, but if I understood correctly then accepted it if the rest of you are okay with it, given that I, not he, am the one who constantly have to take the brunt of the damage from this. In addition, I think that the amount of forum posts would give less of a workload than currently, and be more easily overviewed, given the content revision forum.

 

[The_Everlasting]

I feel as though the issue is that it would not exactly solve the problem, it would just transfer it somewhere else, and we'd have to make forum threads for the most minor of details.

 

[Antvasima]

I dunno. The talk pages would stil function, but in the Marvel wiki and elsewhere they don't tend to be used as excessively/redundantly as our comment sections, given that they are not as instantly open to public display.

Basically, all that I am saying is that we could try this for a little while, and see if it works out. If it does not, it is easy enough to click the "ON" button again.

 

[The_Everlasting]

Wait, does this get rid of existing comments?

 

[Sheoth]

This is either a very good thing or a very bad thing.

It will either work in our favor and the amount of BS being spammed in the comments will vanish entirely and give the staff an easier time managing.

Or there is the other possibility, that the talk pages of the staff and the forums will be flooded with people asking for revisions. Or worse, that people will simply go about changing stats around without any permission from the staff because they didn't know who to turn to (however this seems more unlikely).

So this could either be a very good or very bad idea. However, to determine how effective it is, I would have no problem shutting off comments for a few weeks.

 

[Antvasima]

Or just for a few days if things start to go south fast.

Anyway, I don't think that this will get rid of the existing comments, just hide them, until we activate the function again, but it might be best if somebody checked it up before we implement it.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

So we're pretty much in agreement to just disable the comments for at the very least a few days(at around 3), right?

 

[Antvasima]

Yes, we can try it out, and if nothing bad happens, we can extend it. I really hope that it does work, because currently the wiki is nearly unmanageable.

However, it would be good if somebody could please confirm that the previous comments will not permanently disappear, just be hidden. I vaguely recall reading that they won't be though.

 

[Darkness552]

Pretty late to this discussion

Most major wikis take out the comment sections, and it is annoying going through back logs and having to check every single comment so i agree with taking out the comment sections

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you.

 

[Antvasima]

I have now received information that turning the comment sections off will simply hide them: http://community.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:952066

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

Alright. Now before you make this move Ant, has any member of our staff up to this point still go with this decision yet?

 

[Antvasima]

Schutzendunkelziel, A6colute, Unclechairman, Illuminati, and KamiYasha among the active members. (DarkLK usually seems uninterested in interfering with how this wiki is run.)

We can wait a while longer to give them time to respond, if they wish to.

 

[CrossverseCrisis]

Schutzendunkelziel, A6colute, Unclechairman, Illuminati, and KamiYasha among the active members. (DarkLK usually seems uninterested in interfering with how this wiki is run.)
We can wait a while longer to give them time to respond, if they wish to.

I see. Well DarkLK can somewhat be taken out idk, Ziel is still busy until the 7th of December where he is free, idek how often A6colute goes on here, so that leaves us with Unclechair, Illuminati, and Kamiyasha then.

 

[Kavpeny]

@DontTalk

My opinion...well... I am of the mind that the comments section should exist, or at least not be disabled because they are "too much to deal with". It would be far simpler, and probably more efficient, that the staff remember that they are not obligated to reply to comments, and can thereby ignore all comments which are not inflammatory or against the wiki's rules. Let regular members answer comments.

Additionally, I find that comments are by far the simplest and most direct way of addressing concerns and resolving queries. Removing them might lead to excessive spamming of message walls and the forum section, with pointless content => same amount of work, just in a different domain.

I remember back in the day (when I was a new member to this site and VS community as a whole) how much I used to rely on the comments section of pages to get answers. I believe it to be an essential feature, and a boon to members not entirely adept at navigating the wiki. I fear that staff members, being experienced in wiki matters, might have forgotten the importance of comments to relatively inexperienced members over time.

Lastly (and this is quite likely), removing the comments feature will remove comments section from all pages. Given how many questions pertaining to a page are included in the comments section (including repetitive questions and important questions), it would render all past explanations (including critical ones) given by the entire staff to date completely and absolutely null and void.

 

[Kavpeny]

^ as everyone can surmise, I am against the notion for the reasons listed above. However, despite those reasons, Antvasima's suggestion is logical in nature, with its own merits (which he has listed in the intial post).

I would like to add that it will be christmas vacation soon, which will likely lead to a massive increase in visitors/edits, so if we are disabling comments, now would be an optimum time to do it.

Lastly, Antvasima has more experience as a bureaucrat and managing this wiki. If he feels the idea is worth trying out, I am entirely willing to defer to his experience.

In this instance, I am neutral, and will adhere to whatever the rest of the staff decides.