Forum:Moving forward

With this wiki in spot-ridden limbo, and the message on the main page still scaring the newbies... I'd like to talk about moving forward. Firstly, I'd like to offer to create some alternative themes. It's something I've done for a few wikis now, mostly just because I like making them. I could make a set of three or so alternatives, and see what looks best. Of course, anyone else can make these... but I'd like to get the ball rolling.

Secondly, it would be good to clarify the future direction of this wiki. I've had this discussion on a couple of wikis so far, and in each case I've said that we would not be happy with any plan to remove content on forking. A change in focus sounds like an interesting idea, but my concern is in removing content from this wiki to drive traffic to another.

And finally, I see that moving pages has been disabled. I'll remove that restriction, and ask that you don't break this wiki's features in that way. This includes any code to disable uploads at any time.

In general, I accept that this wiki is going to fork, but hope that we can make it a smooth one... and that we can break out the limbo stage now and start moving this wiki towards its future. Thanks -- Sannse (help forum | blog) 23:48, November 22, 2010 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, the move page and upload restrictions only needed to be present while we were running a dumper tool to get a more complete database dump than MediaWiki offers by default. That dump is complete will be complete tomorrow and so the restrictions would have been removed presently anyway. I ask that you please refrain from interfering in our wiki before finding out why things are the way they are. One more day of not moving pages is not going to harm anything. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 23:55, November 22, 2010 (UTC)
 * Please refrain from creating unnecessary pages, this topic is already being discussed at Forum:The future of GuildWars@Wikia--Łô√ë [[Image:Gigathrash_sig_G.jpg|Roar.]]îğá†ħŕášħ is hosting a Card Creation Contest! 00:01, November 23, 2010 (UTC)


 * The move restriction will be lifted when we have imported the text dump at the new server, which will hopefully be tomorrow. As Felix said, please refrain from interfering without at least attempting to learn why things are they way they are.
 * Also: "I accept that this wiki is going to fork, but hope that we can make it a smooth one" It would have been extremely smooth if you had left us alone to do what we need to do.  It's not our fault that the move is taking longer than we had hoped.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 01:18, November 23, 2010 (UTC)


 * Bah, it won't be today. Believe me, we're just as frustrated as you are that this is taking so long.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 01:51, November 24, 2010 (UTC)


 * Sannse, if you could kindly could let us handle things on our end, that'd be neat. On your end of things, you could kick your graphics designers to come up with decent default textures for Theme Designer, that would go a long way towards not making the spots the best easy choice (sadly). -- ◄mendel► 01:36, November 23, 2010 (UTC)


 * the message on the main page still scaring the newbies -- the problem is that Oasis is scaring the old hands, and we'd rather that they not give this wiki up for dead. We're talking to our readers in the in-game chat, and that's the feedback we're getting, sorry. -- ◄mendel► 02:03, November 23, 2010 (UTC)


 * The move log shows that almost all moves this year have been made by admins (and TEF, who stopped editing on Wikia in protest), so there is no practical impact to the move restriction, as any admin could lift it if necessary; and it is not a permanent fature, but there will be a definite end to this. We need this restriction to ensure the proper operation of this community's projects.
 * I have noticed that the editing activity for the month of November is significantly down compared to earlier months; you can hardly blame this on the main page message, which has been up all of 12 days now. I like to think that it is owed to the initial problems editors have been having in adjusting to the new skin that is "hiding" many of the tools that our editors have grown used to on our old "Monacobook" look.
 * The future direction of the wiki will be clarified in the future. This is a direct consequence of you complaining about decisions being made on other wikis while the old community was still there; you generally suspect them of wanting to do all sorts of bad things to the wiki, so we are definitely not going to decide anything until the dust from the fork has somewhat settled -- few us us look forward to being blocked or demoted because you are getting paranoid. And in fact you are fueling this fear with concerns about possible removal of content on this wiki, which means that we wouldn't be free to do this if we thought it sensible for whatever motive since you would suspect it was being done "to drive traffic away", and likely block first and ask questions later. If you want decisions now, you would have to grant us the trust to make decisions that benefit the future community here; if you cannot extend that trust to us (which is likely), then you will have to be patient until such a time where you can trust that the remaining community is here to stay. (Or you could run the wiki yourself, of course.)
 * As has been mentioned, we have been collecting ideas on this Wiki's future at Forum:The future of GuildWars@Wikia, and this collection has already motivated some editors (who would otherwise have restricted their editing to one wiki, a choice that everyone already has made re: gww: in some way) to not leave the Wikia community, but be a part of this new future potential. If you suggest that the content of this wiki should not change (thinking "it'll drive away traffic, you vandals"), then you will ensure that our editor community here at Wikia will shrink much more than would otherwise be the case; and since this wiki is highly dependent on complex templates, DPL, and SMW, and absence of editors trained in these crafts would certainly mean that the content suffers (which is what you want to avoid in the first place).
 * I hope I managed to address all your concerns and am looking forward to your response. -- ◄mendel► 15:28, November 23, 2010 (UTC)