Forum:Wikia blog articles

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Good morning! Wikia is launching wiki blog articles today. Wiki blogs are a new type of article that have a single author and can be voted and commented on. Some examples of how we expect Wikia communities to use these are fan fiction, personal opinion articles, community announcements, Top 10 Lists, Q&A, etc. Naturally, how all this is used comes under your own wiki policies, so it's up to the community what people are allowed to write about. In addition, the update introduces a new banner on user-related pages that includes an avatar and user links.

You can learn more about how to use blogs on your Wiki at Help:Blog article.

You are one of the first wikis to see this feature, due to your stronger focus on the users of the wiki. As you try it out, we want your feedback! We'd love to know how we can improve it for you :)

Thanks, Kirkburn (talk) 11:20, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

(Cross posted at User blog:Kirkburn/Wikia blog articles!, leave comments at either location!)

• This is a disgusting and shocking new feature which I refuse to use and have any sort of interaction with. Why are we forced to have this feature? I'll be speaking with Wikia staff about asking us if we want in future, as I sure as hell do not. -- ^{(talk) (contributions)} 17:29, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

...Some examples of how we expect Wikia communities to use these are fan fiction...
—Kirkburn

;_; I think I'm going to love this.--Nightmare975 17:30, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

• Tom, chill the you-know-what out. If you don't like it, then don't use it. You don't have to get worked up over something that's optional for you to use. That said, while I could see some use for this, I'm worried about the abuse that could be carried out with something like this. It could turn it into social networking and people could begin using this more than they do articles. Really, I think the only two options would be to not have this feature, or to set up a strict set of rules for the use of it. - Brandon Rhea ^{(talk) (contribs)} 17:46, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
  • I'd go with allowing only fan-fiction.--Nightmare975 17:47, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

That's redundant, though. Fan fiction can be posted in the article namespace. - Brandon Rhea ^{(talk) (contribs)} 17:57, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

This would be great for some Production Notes I've been planning for my photonovel. Sort of like John Jackson Miller's blogs on farawaypress.com. Drewton ^{(Drewton's Holocron)} 18:02, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

• That's actually not a bad idea. We could always restrict this to Behind the scenes purposes and such. - Brandon Rhea ^{(talk) (contribs)} 18:04, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Production notes sound good. How about for rants? About ten people have rants on here that could be moved to the blogspace. --Victor^talk 18:15, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Special:CreateBlogPage and Special:CreateBlogListingPage are the two new Special pages added by this, right? We could use this for role-playing, although I believe that there are better sites for role-playing, especially since this is an encyclopedia and not a Forum/ Blog. In addition, how do we remove comments from vandals? Is there a way to limit this function to Autoconfirmed users. Also, can Blog pages be protected in the same way as other pages? We should also modify What Star Wars Fanon is not. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 18:19, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

• Allowing comments is optional, I believe, and perhaps administrators can delete comments, although blogs are "personal" so only an admin and the creator may edit their blog. --Victor^talk 18:24, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I actually like the behind the scenes idea, perhaps we should vote on this, to make it a part of the MoS?--Nightmare975 18:37, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

• No role-playing whatsoever. This is meant to be an encyclopedia, not a role-playing site. If you want role-playing, go to SWRP.Com. - Brandon Rhea ^{(talk) (contribs)} 18:41, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Remember, it's entirely up to you how you use it - I'd absolutely expect you to want to enact policies about it, just like for any other namespace. If it doesn't work for your wiki, there's no requirement to have it :) It's good for us to find out what uses you might make, and if there's tweaks we can make which result in it being more suitable for that purpose.
Some answers to questions: I think most questions should be answered by the help page. Also, vandal comments can be removed via copying their direct link (which you can see on the RC list and the user contribs), and adding ?redirect=no to the end. It's nor perfect, but we're still working on it. Kirkburn (talk) 18:46, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Edit: I just created Blog:Recent posts which shows a list of all recent posts on the wiki. Kirkburn (talk) 18:52, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

• Are we supposed to not be able to edit our own blogs? Or are you still working out the kinks?--Nightmare975 19:02, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

You should be able to edit your own posts ... you're having trouble doing so? Kirkburn (talk) 19:10, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

• It says I don't have permission to edit User_Blog posts.--Nightmare975 22:01, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I dunno. We'll see how it works out. -- Joe Butler (Obi Maul12) ^(Chow) 21:54, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I created a blog policy proposal at Forum:Blog policies. --C3PO the Dragon Slayer ^{6,000,000 forms of communication | Dragons I've Slayed} 22:25, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I'am for It 100% go go!Master of mind ^(Talk) 19:20, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Avatar Problem

There seems to be an error that prevents me from uploading a custom avatar, as the 500 error screen appears every time I try. --DanMat6288 ^(Talk) 01:00, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Has this continued? Kirkburn (talk) 12:06, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I tried it just now. Although the same problem occured again, I checked the extention this time and saw "bmp." It must've been due to file size, because I re-saved the avatar as a png file and managed to upload it this time. Problem self-solved; sorry to bother you. --DanMat6288 ^(Talk) 14:38, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Editing your own blog posts

This is indeed intended to be possible - we'll get it fixed :) Kirkburn (talk) 12:06, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

This should now be fixed, and we've added a menu to the avatar image (mainly so admins can remove bad images). Kirkburn (talk) 14:42, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, but I can't use Special:RemoveAvatar, since it says that only Wikia staffmembers are allowed to use it. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 16:34, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Will look into that :) Kirkburn (talk) 17:10, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 17:11, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Beware, editing your own blog posts may break the comments section atm - we'll get this fixed. Kirkburn (talk) 17:45, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Okay, this should now be fixed, and you can switch comments/voting on and off from the edit window of a post :) We've added two tickboxes just above the edit summary. We've also fixed a bug with Squishy Vic's user blog page. Kirkburn (talk) 14:24, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Note, if you got affected by the comments bug, just edit the blog post and retick the boxes. Kirkburn (talk) 15:56, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Blog listings

How does Special:CreateBlogListingPage work? I created Blog:Michaeldsuarez with hopes that it would only show blogs in Category:Blogs by Michaeldsuarez and Category:Force Maverick Saga blogs. However, it shows all blogs instead. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 14:38, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

It does indeed, how odd. Will look into it. Kirkburn (talk) 15:42, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Alright. I hope that the problem will be fixed. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 15:44, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Fixed! Slightly related, please note that due to how the blog listing extension works, it does not update immediately (if new posts are created, for example). Either you can wait a few hours, or you can add ?action=purge to the listing page's URL. Kirkburn (talk) 16:34, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 16:39, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Bugs

Any news bugs been spotted over the weekend? We have a list of improvements to make already, but any feedback is useful to know, so we can ensure we're working on the stuff most useful to you. Kirkburn (talk) 13:00, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Can you please give Administrators the right to use Special:RemoveAvatar? --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 13:39, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Yup, that is on the list :) Kirkburn (talk) 14:18, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

This should now be fixed. We've also set the "box" version of the blog extension to float right by default (like an infobox), and fixed a few other things (and we've more stuff coming up on the list). Kirkburn (talk) 16:53, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Another update: lots more bugs fixed and a few tweaks. One of the more noticeable changes is the addition of an article-style footer to blog posts, so it can be shared more easily, problems can be reported, and it's more consistent with the rest of the wiki. Kirkburn (talk) 15:48, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

• I seem to be unable to make comments on blog postings. - Brandon Rhea ^{(talk) (contribs)} 21:52, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

In what way? The option is not available to you, or comments fail to post? I just tested on my original blog post - it seems okay. Blog posters have the option of turning comments on and off, so perhaps you are seeing this? Kirkburn (talk) 13:32, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

No, the option is not available to me on any blog, even on the ones that have been commented on and on my own where I allowed comments. - Brandon Rhea ^{(talk) (contribs)} 16:09, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Is there any special reason why it is only affecting you so far? --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 16:17, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

And I'm supposed to answer that....how, exactly? - Brandon Rhea ^{(talk) (contribs)} 16:22, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure; I thought that maybe that you were using some type of special software that may have prevented you from using the blog correctly. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 16:27, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

I'll see about getting that looked into on Monday. Very strange, especially since you are an admin. o_O Kirkburn (talk) 16:19, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Brandon, can I ask what browser and OS you are using? Kirkburn (talk) 13:46, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

• Firefox, Windows XP. - Brandon Rhea ^{(talk) (contribs)} 14:06, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

What version of Firefox, and do you use any special extensions (especially those that might block JS?). Kirkburn (talk) 15:41, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

It's working now. Whatever you did, thanks. - Brandon Rhea ^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:17, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Glad to hear it :) Please do report it if you see it happen again. Kirkburn (talk) 15:01, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

I deleted some comments off of User_blog:Nightmare975/Going_ons_and_whatnot... and now the entire page won't function properly. Is it just my computer? Drewton ^{(Drewton's Holocron)} 14:02, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

• No, it's happening to me too. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 14:03, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Strange indeed - I'll report it, and get it fixed. Kirkburn (talk) 14:22, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Adding ?action=purge to the URL fixes it, but it shouldn't be happening in the first place. Will see what we can do. In other news a bunch of updates went out today, including some affecting comments (paragraph spacing fixed) and bloglists (added ellipsis to summary ends, fixed link spacing, extended summaries). Kirkburn (talk) 15:26, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Alright, thanks. Drewton ^{(Drewton's Holocron)} 16:14, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Some example usage

You might be interested in some of the ways it's being used at Wikia Gaming - see w:c:gaming:Blog:Recent posts. I've written a game review, and Richard has done a top 10 list. Kirkburn (talk) 13:53, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Kirkburn, I am a member of Halopedia, and they have had blogs over there since I joined. I know how to use them and I have used them several times on diferent subjects. Just letting you know that I've used blogs before and I know what to do with them here. Nothing really major. SPARTAN-A984 19:59, 22 December 2008 (UTC)