Forum:CT:Proposal to enable article comments

This CT is a proposal to enable the article comments feature here on Star Wars Fanon, which many people here have been expecting since I have reached out to a number of you about this over the last few weeks in order to gauge support for this proposal.

Article comments are a comment box and a discussion area at the bottom of articles. The feature offers a more intuitive way of commenting on articles. My hope with the enabling of this feature, if this CT passes, is that more readers will be engaged by having a clear place with which to comment on an article, even if it’s as simple as “I love this story!” That will go a long way to improving our community situation, since it will show authors that people are, in fact, paying attention to their work. After all, isn't that what an author wants?

What do I mean by intuitive? Quite simply, article comments are easier than article talk pages for leaving a discussion. Let me give you a rundown of the steps it takes to leave a message on an article talk page vs. article comments:


 * Talk page: 1) Know what a talk page is (remember that most people who come to SWFanon, this is their first wiki experience). 2) Click “Talk.” 3) Click “Leave message” or “Edit.” 4) Enter a subject header. 5) Write your message. 6) Sign your message. 7) Click “Publish.”
 * Article comments: 1) Write your comment in the clearly-visible box. 2) Click Post comment.

That’s seven steps vs. two. There is no reason not to have an easier process. “This isn’t how wikis were designed” is not an argument, it’s an observation of how something was made over 10 years ago. The rest of the Internet uses an interface similar to article comments. Let’s join them. Websites either evolve or they die. Right now, we’re dying.

But I want to use talk pages!

That’s fair enough, and I want you to be able to continue using them if that is what you are most comfortable with. Because of that, we will be using CSS to re-add the talk page link to both skins (Monobook and Wikia). Article comments doesn’t get rid of talk pages, it just removes the link from pages&mdash;but the talk pages are still there. This CSS code will re-add the talk page link in Monobook and Wikia, so you will be able to use article comments, talk pages, both, neither, or one or the other. This lets you do whatever you want. It offers choice.

If you want to see how article comments work, check out the Michael Lars page on the Alternative Saga Wiki and leave a comment. It doesn’t have to be on-topic, I can always delete it later. Just feel free to use it as a test page for comments.

This CT will last for one week, until October 15, 2012, unless more or less time is required. All relevant matters of the voting policy apply. Please be civil.

Support (1)

 * 1) As the proposer. - Brandon Rhea (talk)  20:07, October 8, 2012 (UTC)