User blog comment:Salubri/Should Blogs be done away with and Should Forums be repurposed./@comment-1268838-20101001164929

Starting off, Narutopedia and the Bleach Wiki are like night and day when it comes to their policies, but in this respect, I can understand why we might consider emulating them. However, I find the situation a tad ironic. Narutopedia allows a certain extent of speculation on their site, particularly in a lot of their trivia points, yet they don't want to run their site on "fan-based criteria." I am not bashing them or anything, but I have a point: here, we have done an excellent job of keeping the articles themselves safe from fan content, which is the most important part of any encyclopedia.

That being said, the forums and blogs have not really proven to be an issue in that respect. Most of the best blogs, as you said, involve a description of content. I don't think there's anything wrong with offering your opinion, so long as it follows the "crack theory" rule that encompasses us; if you can back your arguments with the material, then it still holds the possibility of being relevant. We're all obviously fans of this series, so I believe that a bit of interaction like that is necessary for promoting self interest. Other blogs are useful for highlighting technical issues and important news, like you mentioned.

As far as the forums go, it is just as you said. The only time I ever see them even used is when a huge or unnecessary discussion is brought up on a talk page. The forums are maintained pretty well as far as combining duplicate threads, but they are rarely used. So I agree with you completely about them being useless; I don't know how they can be repurposed, but I'm sure there are plenty of possibilities.

All in all, I suppose my point is the same old "if its not broke, then don't fix it." If people don't want to follow the fanon policies then they can find someplace else. As it stands, the balance is pretty stable.