Hi DanTMan, As always, a pleasure. :)
I can answer the js part for the user menu ... it used to be non-js and it will be again for exactly the reason you're saying. This came up internally from both Splarka and Christian. Christian will be looking into it for a release in the near future (and the comment in the js file that tells people how to get separate js files for debugging purposes). For the community stuff, I'll let Bill address that one... he's much more eloquent that I am. Thanks, John Q. DanTMan wrote: > I've been on Wikia for awhile, but it's starting to look a little > different than it used to be. I started in August of last year and Wikia > kept going up with the things it was making and the support given by the > staff members. > But I'm starting to see a decline in some of the nice things on Wikia. > > The first issue would be with the new stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love > the new skins. I'm working on setting up the Wikia ACG wiki so that > they're ready for a complete change to Quartz on almost all (Probably > not for larger wiki like Yu-Gi-Oh! if it joins) of the Wikia ACG wiki. > But there are some issues that I don't like. > I'm fine with a large reliance on JS to add nice features and > everything. But not when the reliance is without a fallback that is > needed to keep important core functionality of the site. For the main > point, the user menu I'm talking about. If you are to disable JS you > cannot drop the menu down. I'm fine with users without JS not being able > to mess with the Widgets and stuff. But if the dropdown contains the > very important userpage, talkpage, and preferences links cannot be > accessed by someone with JS disabled then there's a big issue. It isn't > that hard to do. A simple class can be added to the menu and the JS > script that sets up the menu can remove that class. And that class can > have some CSS associated with it to add an old CSS dropdown menu. The JS > will still be there, but if JS is off then users will still be able to > get to the important pages. > It's kinda ridiculous when a newer user not knowledgeable about special > page naming or listing with JS turned off can't get to their preferences > to change their preferences to Monobook because they can't get around > Quartz because they need JS to get to their preferences to workaround > the fact that they have no JS. > > The other issue is with the staff. Not the staff themselves, but I'm > expecting that someone higher up has been starting to go in more of the > business direction. The staff used to be nicely active in the IRC > channel and issues were always swiftly dealt with. But now we see fewer > in the IRC, and there are long times where we are without any in there, > the responses are starting to lag, and valuable com team staff are > starting to disappear. > But by all means, don't forget that there is a community willing to > help. If the staff absolutely must be taken off some time, then it's ok. > But if that's the case, then find a way to let the global Wikia > community autonomously deal with the issues on it's own. We used to have > one of those ways; It was called Global Sysops and finalized as > "Janitors". Great creation, let issues be dealt with, without needing to > bother the Staff about every issue. But it looks like that's been > halted. Datrio got janitor for testing, and GHe got it for spamfighting. > But it stoped there, it didn't look like anyone else was hunted out for > service to Wikia and decided to be given the flag to help out more. Even > with the Staff and GHe as Janitor we still have long times inside of IRC > where there are big issues, and there are no Staff or Janitors around to > help solve the issue. > Even Wikipedia has created methods of dealing with community issues. > ArbCom, Sysops (Similar to having Janitors on Wikia), community > discussions on issues rather than bringing it all before a staff to have > one of them handle it, etc... There are plenty of ideas that can be > adapted from even Wikipedia's methods to help give the community a bit > more autonomy to cope with a lack of staff. > > _______________________________________________ Wikia-l mailing list [email protected] http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l
