Forum:Fresh start for user pages

Forums: Yew Grove > Fresh start for user pages

This page or section is an archive. Please do not edit the contents of this page. This thread was archived on 4 December 2019 by Masuta Who.

Greetings!

We would like to share some important news about user pages on the RuneScape Wiki.

User pages are an important part of the wiki experience at Fandom. They are used to advance and promote healthy wiki editing by identifying contributors across a wiki and providing a personal workspace for users of a wiki. Also, they allow users to personalize a wiki, share some information about themselves, and generally feel like part of a wiki's community. Many users actively use their user pages to share small tidbits of information about themselves by adding userbox templates, while others create subpages for sandbox testing, wiki projects, and more.

Of course, as a wiki ages, it will naturally gain a significant amount of user pages. The RuneScape Wiki has existed since 8 April 2005, nearly 14 years ago, and its first user pages have existed for just as long. That is a wonderful and truly impressive feat. An immeasurable amount of people have contributed to the wiki since its creation to help the wiki grow into what it is today. An equally immeasurable amount of user pages exist on the RuneScape Wiki because of this success.

Some of the RuneScape Wiki's user pages have not been edited for several years, while others contain templates intended for content namespaces, dead links, and other problematic elements. Considering the sheer amount of user pages on the RuneScape Wiki, we believe that it would be beneficial for the wiki's user pages to have a fresh start of sorts. Therefore, we will soon be removing all user pages, including subpages, on the wiki. We believe that this action will rid the wiki of unused, outdated, and problematic user pages, while having a minimal impact on active users.

We understand that this action may seem quite extreme as some users have very developed user pages. However, any user will be able to request the restoration of their own user pages by contacting an administrator directly or requesting administrative help. Furthermore, we would like to remind users that there are dozens of different userboxes and even a dedicated user infobox to help grow user pages.

Thank you.

Masuta Who (talk) 16:15, March 29, 2019 (UTC)

Discussion

Comment - I think that sucks. You are erasing history, and the truth is you are doing it out of spite, and you know it. You will probably delete this message too, but that's okay. It's really sad that people who generated so much income and increased the traffic to these wikis for so long are to be blipped away, just because they made a choice to move. It's cowardly. Whiskey Straight (talk)

We believe that this action will have a positive impact on the wiki moving forward. Of course, anyone can request the restoration of their own user pages if they wish to. --Masuta Who (talk) 00:24, March 30, 2019 (UTC)

But like... for what purpose? --Scuzzy Beta 01:05, March 30, 2019 (UTC)

I second that question. I'll admit that I haven't edited my own user page in a while, but I'm curious as to what overall benefit there is supposed to be to outright deleting users' pages. Trunkuza (talk) 16:18, March 30, 2019 (UTC)

I third this question (and who's "we"?) - Rawny (talk) 14:42, March 31, 2019 (UTC)

Oppose (for the record) - "The Yew Grove is a place where community members can discuss larger changes to the wiki...". Great discussion, almost 24 hours before change implemented despite no support. And your reasons for why user pages should be removed can be found on every wiki ever. Yet I don't see other wikis doing this. Do you believe all wikis should purge user pages every 10 years or so? If not, explain why this wiki is a special case. This obviously means it would have warranted a discussion. I also noticed you removed "Forum:Leaving Wikia" with no discussion. So glad you know best, and that you respect others' opinions. Thanks for at least making a notification though, and not deleting talk pages. I'm inactive so idk why I care, but that's my 2 cents.

1. REDIRECT User:Fewfre/signature.css

Yeah, don't worry, FANDUMB is just being a supreme dictator here. You have no control over anything they do anymore, and anyone with half a brain knows this "thread" was a farce from the beginning. If they remove this comment I'm just going to find a way to get this wiki deleted if it KILLS me. https://i.imgur.com/7kyt1iT.gif --WINE OF GOOD HEALTH _{(Actually Stinko)} 19:08, March 30, 2019 (UTC)

Comment - If this is what we're calling a forum it's incredibly clunky. I haven't even looked at my userpage in years but I know I'm with the lick of folks on here who're offended that something just got up and deleted without warning. I don't think I'd have even noticed if I hadn't been checking my e-mail. killic33 (talk) 17:49, 30th March, 2019 (UTC)

Comment - This is really sad to see. User pages are expressions of personality and creativity, serving as little get-to-know-me snippets and bridges between usernames and the people behind them. The RuneScape wiki was my first real online community when I was growing up, and the first place where I really felt like I was part of a group *ever*. I was inspired by many of the people who taught me things, played the game with me, or just hung out with me as friends. Almost all of these people, me included, have moved on in life and all that remains of those times are old pages, chat logs, and screenshots. Going and just deleting EVERY USER PAGE is such a ridiculous thing. It goes against the whole idea of a wiki in collecting and preserving knowledge and building a community focused around it. I see this decision as a great loss to the individuals and their contributions that helped build this great resource. It feels like an utter dismissal of all of this site's history and makes this whole wiki (and Fandom in general) look very bad. --

Ameobea10^{Talk • Contribs • #}

03:55, March 31, 2019 (UTC)

Oppose - Who is 'we' referring to in 'we would like to share...'? Are you working for, or being paid by Fandom Masuta? Some transparency would be nice. Either way, this isn't how the Yew Grove is supposed to function. What happened to going with community consensus and waiting for discussion? This doesn't seem like a fair way to manage a wiki. Rune14 (talk) 04:39, March 31, 2019 (UTC)

I am 1000% sure Masuta is a FANDUMB shill. Even though they claim to play RuneScape, I do not believe they are terribly knowledgeable, so why the hell are they an admin here? https://i.imgur.com/7kyt1iT.gif --WINE OF GOOD HEALTH _{(Actually Stinko)} 14:10, March 31, 2019 (UTC)

Comment - Not a fan with this course of action. I don't think this reflects community consensus or is in the interest of editors, both past and present. I'm also interested to know if this was called for by company staff or was just unilaterally decided upon by admins. Techhead7890 ^{Talk Contribs} 07:02, March 31, 2019 (UTC)

Oppose Despite not being an active user either, I also wholeheartedly disagree with this. There's no good reason to delete quite literally every userpage on the wiki ever. It's not like you can clutter a wiki, at least not on the userpage front. Judging from the other comments here, this was done entirely out of personal preference with no regard for what the community actually wanted and is, frankly, and abuse of admin power. --I told my Pepapku to use Tunderbalot on the Mariwak Ghist but alas, I died instantly. (talk) 08:24, March 31, 2019 (UTC)

Strong Oppose - Even though I have never actually made any edits here, I feel that this would be a bad idea. Doing this sort of thing would completely demolish transparency. And lack of transparency isn't a good practice, unless it would be extremely detrimental to do otherwise. ― C.Syde (talk | contribs) 09:21, March 31, 2019 (UTC)

Comment - Please list the "we" who decided to do this, and show the conversation where it occurred. Whiskey Straight (talk)

Oppose - Firstly stop acting like a dictator and secondly this is one of the dumbest moves I've seen a wiki do, and considering FANDOMs forced changes that's saying something. At least with those I could see that it was done to increase monetization while hindering user experience. But this? This is just useless and does nothing but piss people off. With the forked wiki existing taking 90% of users with it leaving only those who don't know about the forked wiki, FANDOM staff and a few people like me here to see the ship sink this place is already in dire straits and heavily outdated, but actions like this will only make this place die faster instead of saving it. Also if this was meant to clean up ties to the forked wiki you've still got a long, long way to go. Hasaan5 (talk) 12:04, March 31, 2019 (UTC)

Oppose - As per the points raised by Whiskey Straight, Scuzzy Beta, Fewfre, killic33, Ameobea10, Rune14, Techhead7890, Trogdorbad, C.Syde65, and Hasaan5 - Rawny (talk) 14:42, March 31, 2019 (UTC)

Oppose - Thanks for the warning...like there was one. Wtf Also, I want know know who is "we", I think you meant "me". This just really ticks me off.--Elven Core (talk) 00:56, April 1, 2019 (UTC)

Oppose - Deletion is a blunt force instrument that is not congruent with the philosophy of wikis in general. I echo what others have said and repeat that such action should not be taken. However, given that it's already happened, I'd suggest it be reverted ASAP. Lego6245 (talk) 16:48, April 1, 2019 (UTC)

Oppose - Very disappointed to see this happen: hope it will be reversed, following the community consensus and Fandom's admin guidelines. --xensyria^T 18:17, April 2, 2019 (UTC)

Several users here asked who exactly Masuta Who meant when he posted "we" above. I've addressed that and several other points in this thread. Mira Laime  (help forum | blog) 22:44, April 2, 2019 (UTC)

Strongly Opposed - I am VERY disappointed with this decision, how do I request to get mine back? NobleKorhedron (talk) 23:10, April 3, 2019 (UTC)

Comment - I haven't been very active in a while on the wiki and hadn't gone to my user page in many a year but how is this being driven by someone who joined in the past couple months? As many above have noted, this isn't in the spirit of nor tradition for what this site is about --Gentleway (talk) 14:40, April 5, 2019 (UTC)