User blog:DanzxvFan8275/Discussions

Before I start, I tried to send this before, but I accidentally pressed the wrong button, so it deleted everything I wrote. So, this is not as much in-depth as my last one. Sorry about that. Anyway, enjoy the blog.

Greetings.

Now, Discussions, which has been a feature on FANDOM since November 2016, is now across over 80% of FANDOM communities, including this one. Most communities have striving Discussions, as it is liked more than Forums. However, this wiki does not really approve of Discussions. They're not very active at all. Although I was somewhat invested in Discussions, I haven't done much with it. However, after thinking about it, I think Discussions is a great feature, and I kind of want it to be more active. So, this blog is about Discussions, and why I think its features are better than Forums.

First, the categorization on Discussions is much more efficient and modern. On Forums, it was categorized via boards. However, Discussions combines Forums and Categories and makes it better. Forums could only be categorized in one board. However, Discussions could be categorized in several ways, and in a much better way than Forums. It's also easier to get to a category, as it is on the sidebar, as well as the other posts and content. As with Forums, it's very spaced out, with some seldom used space.

Second, Discussions is compatible with mobile devices. Discussions can be easily used via mobile apps or websites. Forums can take many seconds to load, which can be annoying and can even crash your phone. However, Discussions are easy to load, and are very modern, with barely any bugs. FANDOM studies show that most users on mobile devices are used to post on Forums or Discussions. The percentage of users who use Forums have sent many bug reports, which is not a good sign. On the other hand, the users who post on Discussions have experienced significantly fewer issues. This is a good sign, as this shows that activity could go to Discussions.

Third, there is a new and improved way to report content - it's called Reported Content. On a Discussion post, there is an icon with three dots. Click that, and there is an option called "report post." This will show up in a categorized and organized section. This is very useful, as users who actively check Discussions will find some reported content. However, they are not discussion moderators or administrators, which means they can not lock a post or block the user. If they report it, a discussion moderator/administrator can deal with it. However, this can mean that we can possibly miss misconduct. Sure, there were none yet, but what if there was? No one would know, and that troll could go on to deface the entire Discussions content. That would be horrible.

Now that I've listed that, I'm going to talk about two other things. The first is about the future of proposals, the second is about a new usergroup dedicated to discussions.

Proposals. Proposals are set in the blog namespace. THe problem I have with this is that blogs do not have a notification system. The only way to find out when a user made a new blog is to regularly check Special:WikiActivity and Blog:Recent posts. However, FANDOM is currently working on a new tool in Discussions - this will be to highlight Discussions in a similar way to how Forum posts are highlighted. There is a bell icon next to the notification icon, which is where Discussions one follows are shown. Once the Discussion highlighting feature is implemented, proposals might be switched to Discussions. If it is, the highlight feature will attract more users, as more users will see proposals. This will create a larger community, and proposals will become active as ever.

Global Discussion Moderators. About two weeks ago, FANDOM launched a new user group called global discussion moderators. These are users who have discussion moderator and blocking tools on every community to help Discussions become more popular on communities where Discussions are seldom used. Global discussion moderators are users who have a lot of experience in Discussions, and have played a major part in helping Discussions become a major aspect of their respective communities. Now, before you say "I don't want users who haven't been here before to take total control of our Discussions." Well, my answer - they won't. Global discussion moderators are just on a community to talk to local discussion moderators and administrators on how their Discussions can improve. They do not outrank local moderators, and moderators and administrators will have the final say. They are just here to help Discussions become more active and better. They will not majorly change anything, and they will not change the guidelines to make them run it. I think this group could really help us, and I'm thinking of request help on Community Central. If we're fine with that, I will.

And that concludes this blog. Discussions will get better, so if there's something you don't approve of, don't worry - it'll be fixed in the future.