User blog comment:Salubri/Brand New Feature (Message Wall)/@comment-3134619-20120202012141/@comment-3134619-20120202014604

I guess it would help if I gave some examples of issues I have with it, then? Okay...

Well, for one, the fact that it shows a person's "nickname" on the Wiki Activity, period. The whole "nickname" thing was a useless additive to begin with; when you look at the Recent Changes, what you see are people's registered names, not their "nickname". Making a chatting feature that features "nicknames" as part of the main display only incites confusion: I know you by Arrancar109; if you were to, say, suddenly assume the nickname "Gromit" (where did that come from... o.o'), and I went to the Wiki Activity and suddenly saw someone named "Gromit" going around and leaving admin-esque messages on someone's Message Wall, the first thing I would assume would be that there's some new jacka** going around acting like s/he owns the place. When they turned this on on Community Central, I suddenly had no idea how to find the admins, because CC admin talk pages were some of the most edited pages on CC, and the first names I saw on Message Walls were their nicknames, not their registered names. Basically: I know you by the name you registered by. That was how Wikia taught me how to know people, and suddenly throwing in nicknames and giving them the limelight threw me off and bothered me greatly.

Another problem I have with Message Wall is the fact that the messaging system is too linear; if you were having a conversation with one person, then another person joined in and you wanted to respond to their statement, you can't shift the message bubble over to show that you're talking to them, specifically. Not everyone will know to do something like "@*insert name*"; this could lead to misunderstandings and arguments if someone says something dismissive/rude and doesn't attach it to a particular person.

The main problem I have with Message Wall, though, is the very idea of it being used on information based sites; it's been said a million times before, but I'm going to say it again, anyway; this is a site about information, not chatting. If you want to talk, take it to the chat rooms they were so kind as to give us; talk pages should be saved for suggestions and corrective editing, and no matter what Wikia says about this not being about chatting, way too many people use Facebook at the like for this to not become an issue. Giving people a stark editing system like the ones talk pages have gives users the basic idea that they are supposed to take it seriously; anyone who does otherwise is either a vandal or doesn't know better. But Message Wall...? It's just catering to the general, txt spk "zomg, lookit, eye'm nt usin' prpr engrish!" idiot populace.

Now, will we get used to it? Of course; we're humans. The reason humans have gotten as far as we have is because we are masters of adaptation. That doesn't, however, mean that it's something that should be done.