You cannot add a comment to the article.

• 

  In no particular order:

  Let the redirect be "opt in" rather than "opt out" 

  The feedback on this has clearly been divided - some love it some hate it. The way it was rolled out smacks of some idea monger with a "God complex" paranoid that nobody would notice this new feature. It is hubris how Danny has reported on the vote counting but I seriously doubt that any sincere criticism is being listened to. (Danny if you are only the messenger and not the architect then please deflect the criticism to the architect.) If the My Home page popularity wanes under an opt-in system then that means that it simply is not (yet) delivering what users want even if it is delivering what Wikia management want.

  At the very least let an opt-out checkbox for this automatic redirect appear on the My Home page itself rather than burying it in the Misc tab of the preferences page. This was nicely handled for the Activity feed (see praise below).

  Make this page/tab my regular LZ at this community

  If I am alowed to have my cake and eat it too then a superior alternative to the present day redirect would be to store for each wiki community each logged in user's preferred "landing zone". ie. the page and/or tab to redirect to whenever the target.wikia.com URL is used to navigate to the "target" Wikia community. (TIP: If your wiki uses SMW then you might start thinking of ways to use semantic data at the Main_Page to achieve this as a stop-gap measure until such time as the Wikia engineers figure out a more systemic solution.

  Candidate LZs (landing zones) might be (for a user registered as najevi):

  • Main Page (doh!)
  • Special:My Home
  • Special:RecentChanges (traditionally my favorite - as a contributor)
  • Special:Mypage
  • Special:Mytalk
  • User blog:najevi (is there a Special:MyBlog ??)
  • Special:CreateBlogPage (might do as a substitute for the above if unknown)
  • Special:Contributions/najevi
  • Special:PrefixIndex/User:najevi
  • Special:Watchlist
  • can you think of any other useful LZs ?

  When only the best will do

  A generic solution whereby the each user specifies their preferred LZ on a per community basis by editing a semantic annotation at their User_page. It would be trivial to make this a form based interface.

  That semantic property might have a default annotation of MyLandingZone::Main_Page and the user is free to specify any URL they wish (including external URLs). Th is is very feasible for SMW enabled wikis. A page in the User_blog space is better for this only because those are read only to other users. Those wikis could then use javascript to disable the redirect and use a redirect base on each user's opt-in specification. (At least this will be my next semantic project at w:c:vsk)

  Model page layout after the Special:WidgetDashboard page

  By this I mean let the 4 sections (Activity feed, My contributions, Hot spots and Community corner) be tiles or boxes that can be rearranged on the page and even removed from the page. It is nice how the choice is given for Activity feed to be based on either recent changes or a user's watch list. A fair compromise might be that the My contributions, Hot spots and Community Corner each have show/hide links to the right of the section title.

  Other ideas for these tiles might be:

  • Recent activity (already there)
  • Watchlist (already there as an alternative to RA)
  • Top content sub menus
  • Contributions (already on page in RH column)
  • Forum index
  • Community portal (not quite the same as Community corner)
  • Community news (really just a section from the main page but it could also be a blog feed for blogs in a specific News category.)
  • Featured article (ditto)

  The recurring theme here is to reuse existing content (via tranclusion) rather than duplicating content. I imagined that this might be the perfect application for several custom WikiPage widgets however featuring such custom widgets in a Special:WidgetDashboard type of page is problematic right now.

  
  

  Use DIV tags for each section

  This would become necessity if the abovementioned show/hide idea is implemented but for now the My contributions and Hot spots sections are merely ad-hoc paragraphs rather than identifiable divisions. (Yes, my motive is to single them out for Stylish filtering at my browser - I mean what choice have I been given but to clean up what Wikia staff choose not to?)

  Contributions tab is already in plain view

  It beggars understanding why a section titled My contributions appears within 20 or 30 pixels of a tab titled "Contributions" ... am I the only one who finds this amusing? (The same can be said for the "Watch list" link at top right being within 200 or 300 pixels of the "Watch list" section when that is selected for the Activity feed area.)

  Downplay the "scorecard" please

  It bothers me that an unwarranted emphasis is placed on quantity/number of articles/edits and that this is unilaterally shoved in the face of every visitor to a wiki regardless of the maturity of that wiki. I am quite sure that when wikia started out they did not boast the number of communities currently hosted because that would have been small initially and nobody wants to join a fledgling wiki hosting service that "might not stay the course". Well if those on Wikia staff who can remember those early days would now put yourself in the shoes of younger wiki communities just starting out then you should understand that making it an option to emphasize such figures is better. (Yes, this is easy enough to hide via MediaWiki:Monaco.css or Special:MyPage/monaco.css with thanks to Danny and Chris for Help:Customizing_Monaco#Customizing_My_Home_and_the_user_masthead.)

  
  

  Allow MediaWiki:Welcomecreation to function as intended

  This was written about elsewhere. Essentially if this MediaWiki message has been defined at a wiki then let that page override any redirect. This only affects a new user who has just created a Wikia account while browsing a wikia community.

  
  

  November 5, 2009 by Najevi

• 

  Heh, interlanguage links need to be set up manually, too.

  October 29, 2009 by Anne Behnert

• 

  Great idea! I'll do it immediatly. Unfortunately this method is only unidirectional, unless all wikis complain.

  October 28, 2009 by Gifh

• 

  Yes, RC would be such a special case. You could still set up an interwiki area in MediaWiki:Community-corner.

  October 28, 2009 by Anne Behnert

  history

• 

  Ok, thank you. I thought something like "Special:RecentChanges", that as a matter of fact, owns interwiki link, and is very comfortable for my translation work.

  October 28, 2009 by Gifh

• 

  @Gifh: I've asked uberfuzzy about that above. Answer was, afairc, that normally Special pages don't check MediaWiki parts for interwiki links or categories, and that MyHome was built for speed.

  October 28, 2009 by Anne Behnert

• 

  Actually, CPW changed their use of MyHome. It's now the secondary main page.

  October 28, 2009 by Zapwire

• 

  Don't know if it is already said: it would be useful if MyHome contains interwiki links for other languages's MyHome on the same wiki.

  October 28, 2009 by Gifh

• 

  @Toughpigs who wrote:

  Those are great examples, but that's all that I've found so far -- so I wasn't aware that there was a lot of energy around customizing My Home yet. What would you like to do with the page, if you had the ability to add more?

  I refer you to the customization suggestions made at Forum:MyHome and Wikia's Privacy Policy

  Forums: Index → Watercooler → Toughpigs/My Home -- new feature launches on Wednesday/@comment-Najevi-20091023230352

  Wikia's forums are a place for the community to help other members.
  To contact staff directly or to report bugs, please use Special:Contact.

  
  Hey everyone,

  I just wanted to give those of you who don't watch the blogs a quick heads-up regarding two new blog posts today:

  1. My Home -- new feature launches on Wednesday: We are going to be releasing MyHome throughout Wikia tomorrow, and
  2. Changes to Wikia's Privacy Policy: We're making some changes to Wikia's privacy policy to clarify some of the practices that our ad networks use and provide our users with an opportunity to opt-out of behavioral advertising.

  If you have any questions about either, please either reply in the appropriate comments section, or add a note below:

  Contents 1 MyHome 1.1 Possible to customize the activity list? 1.2 Community corner 1.3 Recent activity 1.4 Number of edits at the current wiki 1.5 What is the shortest URL to the main page? 1.6 Title displayed in browser tab and browser banner 1.7 Disable by default 1.8 Other languages version? 1.9 Images 2 Where to post 3 Masthead 3.1 Dashboad 3.2 Inaccurate highlighting 4 Privacy Policy 5 Comments

  MyHomeEdit

  Please comment on the blog post -- My Home -- new feature launches on Wednesday.

  Possible to customize the activity list?Edit

  The my home thing is nice. I was thinking that for high traffic wikis it might be even more relevant to some users to have the option of seeing activity filtered by direct membership in a category or categories. ~ Phlox 16:51, September 23, 2009 (UTC) (moved from separate forum page)

  
  

  Community corner Edit

  This a handy area for displaying messages targeted at users who have already created an account. I just finished tweaking w:c:vsk:MediaWiki:Community-corner to feature page create buttons for various types of page that are needed to grow that wiki. It also proves a useful place for showcasing certain widgets that have been tailored to the community. (e.g Tips and Wiki Page)

  Compared to the screen space dedicated to the Recent Activty/Watchlist area the Community corner is a little narrow. --najevi 04:38, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  Recent activity Edit

  This feedback is from somebody already very familiar/comfortable with Special:RecentChanges so keep that bias in mind.

  • Basically I think that too much white space is wasted with the Recent activity section of the My Home page
  • I am a little concerned that the My Home page might eventually make redundant such pages as: Project:Community portal, Special:RecentChanges, sub-menus under the Top content navbar link, Special:Contributions/USERNAME and to a lesser degree the main page of the wiki .. to name the few that I have noticed on first look.

  I wonder if enhanced Show/Hide style buttons might be incorporated to allow:

  1. More than one type of information to be displayed in that left hand column. e.g. transcluding the content from already existing community-oriented pages such as"
     • Recent activity (already there)
     • Watchlist (already there as an alternative to RA)
     • Top content sub menus
     • Contributions (already on page in RH column)
     • Forum index
     • Community portal (not quite the same as Community corner)
     • Community news (really just a section from the main page)
     • Featured article (ditto)
  2. Each user to show/hide those sections that are of interest to them.
  3. The enhanced aspect of the expand/collapse links for this idea would be that each user get's to save in a browser cookie exactly which sections of the My Home page appear expanded by default.
     • This way those of use who want to keep tabs on Recent changes can be taken to a page that looks much like the existing My Home page while those of us who would rather focus on Community portal or Forum content are free to do so. (e.g. For users who are new to a wiki I would prefer to see their My Home focus on Community portal content and perhaps Featured article content whereas long-time contributors are free to customize that page to focus on whatever tickles their fancy.)

  Now if existing content from already existing pages is transcluded into the above named collapsible sections on each Special:My Home page then the good work that has been invested in those existing pages can be leveraged rather than being partially duplicated or otherwise made redundant.

  Extending the above idea a little further and inspired by the Special:WidgetDashboard page, suppose the My Home page was constructed from widget-like building blocks. Some of those blocks would look best in the wider LH column while some (like the current set of widgets) would look best in a narrow column such as we have on the RH side.

  --najevi 04:38, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  Number of edits at the current wiki Edit

  What is the virtue of displaying this number in super large font at the top right of the user_masthead? It is displayed in modest font at the left beside the user name and avatar. Shouldn't that be enough? --najevi 07:58, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  Agree - That giant text is what has made me look here (central) for this latest un announced (unless you live at central) change (improvement ?). All that gigantic text is likely to do is encourage users as happens on some forums to create lots of useless posts to clime the edit count league table ! in a battle of one-upmanship that will just swell the recent changes lists and reduce productivity of serious editors who patrol recent changes.

  thats my take on it (bad move the small version was sufficient) - BulldozerD11 02:28, October 1, 2009 (UTC)

  If you are sysop on that wiki, you can put this in MediaWiki:Common.css to hide the big number:

  #user_masthead_scorecard {
  	display: none;
  }
  

  --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) ^-WikiDex 18:17, October 1, 2009 (UTC)

  Thanks for that suggestion Ciencia Al Poder. I might try that latter - BulldozerD11 20:57, October 5, 2009 (UTC)

  What is the shortest URL to the main page? Edit

  By main page I mean that page which is accessed via the navigation bar link that uses the magicword "mainpage" in MediaWiki:Monaco-sidebar. Typically this is the link just below the search box but of course that can be customized.

  I ask this because before the advent of My Home the very brief vsk.wikia.com would take users to the main page. (replace vsk with rappelz or central or whatever your Wikia hosted community is named). From this week however that short and succinct URL takes registered (logged in) users to their My Home page rather than to the main page.

  The shortest link that I can come up with for the main page at the above mentioned wiki is vsk.wikia.com/wiki/Virtual_Skipper_Wiki

  • that's more than twice as long as the former URL

  I could live with vsk.wikia.com/index or maybe vsk.wikia.com/wiki/main or similar but I tried: main, mainpage, home, index, project with and without the wiki/ prefix but none of those URLs lead me (a registered user) to the main page!

  • If I log out then I can use vsk.wikia.com to reach the main page and of course I am grateful for that.

  It just occurs to me that users ought to be given the option for the xyz.wikia.com URL to take them to either the main page or to the My Home page.

  • edit: OK, I just found a checkbox on the Preferences:Misc tab where a user can disable the redirect. I did not read about this checkbox in the announcement or within the default text displayed in the Community corner. That might be a good thing to add! viz.

    Disable my redirect to My Home

  --najevi 08:22, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  Ouch. I just tried that and you are right. I am in the habit of telling people "vim.wikia.com" (particularly since I knew I was going to change "/Main_Page" to "/Vim_Tips_Wiki" in accordance with recommended SEO procedures), and now that short URL goes to some weirdness. I can get used to the new exciting world of avatars and BIG ICONS (by ignoring them), but if Special:RecentChanges ever stops working, so will I. JohnBeckett 09:31, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  Ahh, thank you! So vsk.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page is the shortest URL to replace vsk.wikia.com

  • It's still twice as long as the old URL so if the engineers can dream up something shorter then that would be a good thing.

  --najevi 09:56, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  
  Note the edit bullet added above.

  I just noticed that www.wikia.com and central.wikia.com both redirect to www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia however help.wikia.com suffers from the auto-redirect to help.wikia.com/wiki/Special:MyHome

  It is probably not wise for a new user to be taken to a My Home page at Wikia's central help wiki.

  I don't have a problem with the default state of the Disable my redirect to My Home checkbox being cleared. It is a convenient way to put a new Wikia feature "in the face of" users. A simple instruction added to the default text within MediaWiki:Community-corner informing users of this checkbox is all that is needed to remedy the situation however ...

  ... I have discovered that this preference takes effect for all wikis that I visit.

  That is cool for informed users because we now know that we can follow the link to My Home because it is prominently displayed at the very top of each page. It might be convenient if the user could specify that they want to redirect to My Home only at specific wikis. Is there any way for a preference to be set on a per wiki basis? --najevi 12:42, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  Of all wikis, Central is where I would prefer a redirect to MyHome very much.--AB 01:19, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

  Title displayed in browser tab and browser banner Edit

  I was just now reading and commenting on Toughpigs' blog announcing the My Home feature. I happened to have some other My Home pages open at the same time at various wikis but for my user name. It occurred to me that seeing MyHome or My Home on a page (or its tab or window header) for a user other than myself is just a little disorienting. If instead I saw Toughpigs Home then that would better aid my navigating of the 11 or so tabs that I happen to have open in my browser at the present time and suitably differentiate between My Home page and Your Home page, etc.

  Not a terribly big issue but something to think about. --najevi 11:18, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  Toughpigs' blog page says "My home" in the title because it's part of the blog post title. That's not a bug. If "My home" were called something else, you could visit a page which start with that name and have the same problem. --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) ^-WikiDex 11:41, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  Ahh yes - I see that now. Thanks for setting me straight! --najevi 12:46, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

  Disable by defaultEdit

  Could it be possible to disable the redirect by default on the wikia clubpenguin? A rollback (me), sysop (Seahorseruler), and bureaucrat agrees it should be disabled by default (but still can be enabled) or is lame/brain-dead. --Zapwire ^{(Talk|contribs)} 13:49, September 26, 2009 (UTC)

  I agree with the above. The redirect to Special:MyHome should be disabled by default. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk) (Deeds)} 20:06, September 26, 2009 (UTC)

  As could probably be gathered from the blog comments, I also agree that the redirect should be disabled by default. -- Porter21 ^(talk) 20:52, September 26, 2009 (UTC)

  Where have you guys been? Wikia doesn't disable "new" features by default. They never have. -- LordTBT ^Talk! 06:44, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

  It's not about disabling the feature, it's about disabling the redirect. -- Porter21 ^(talk) 09:20, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

  If you want people to disable the redirect themselves then advertise how to do so in the MediaWiki:Community-corner message. It is highly unlikely that the default state of the Disable my redirect to My Home check box will be changed because it really is the best way to draw attention to this redirect feature. If you think about it, it is a good thing to have your registered users to become familiar with the various customizations they can make in their Special:Preferences? So this is just another opportunity to direct them to those user preferences. --najevi 13:10, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

  Just because it's the best way to draw attention to the feature does not mean it's the best thing to do. I don't really see how having people rummaging around in their preferences is going to help especially new editors. Plus I have yet to see a solid reasoning for forcing the redirect on users by default, while I have given reasons why I don't consider it to be good numerous times. KyleH was so friendly to explain the reasoning behind the feature itself (which I have no problem with), but all the few people I have seen argumenting in favour of the forced redirect have provided no other reason than "it's that way, live with it". Which is not an argument, it's simply a statement of apathy. -- Porter21 ^(talk) 18:40, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

  Other languages version?Edit

  We like this new feature, is it possible to allow italian Memory Alpha to handle it? Thanks! Gifh ^(talk) 00:15, September 29, 2009 (local)

  Talking 'bout that one; could this be globally activated on all Dutch Wiki's? Translations are already online on Messaging. Mark (Tedjuh10) - ^Talk 19:09, October 1, 2009 (UTC)

  Is it possible to allow Russian language? Thx.Strizh 16:49, October 9, 2009 (UTC)

  It would be great to see it active on Russian Wiki's! You can help by translating it here! As soon as this is done, it will soon be enabled on Russian Wiki's! Mark ^{(Talk) • (Contribs)} 16:59, October 9, 2009 (UTC)

  Done.Strizh 21:55, October 9, 2009 (UTC)

  Done also for italian version! Nice procedure, I'm hopefully! Gifh ^(talk) 13:50, October 10, 2009 (local)

  Thanks for the translations! MyHome will be activated for ru and it shortly. If you both (Gifh and Strizh) are interested in further translation of upcoming (or not yet translated) features into your language, feel free to add yourself as "language contact" at Wikia:International. --Avatar 11:19, October 13, 2009 (UTC)

  ImagesEdit

  Not sure what is being followed here, the blog or this forum post, but here's my idea: Currently, clicking an image causes it to appear in a floating box. You can only close out of the box with the X. Clicking the image AGAIN imo should take you directly to the page. -- LordTBT ^Talk! 22:30, September 29, 2009 (UTC)

  Where to postEdit

  Hi guys -- LordTBT asked a very good question above. I think it makes sense to have all of the conversation in one place, so I've really just been following the blog post, My Home -- new feature launches on Wednesday. If you have more comments, please post them over there. Thanks! -- Danny (talk) 16:42, October 2, 2009 (UTC)

  Yes would be a good idea but " Wikia management" have created this multiple places for the same thing by adding "Blogs" in addition to the forums section (as was pointed out by several users when the idea first emerged, that it would cause confusion for every body. IIRC). I also recall some users are expresing 'issues' with the simplified blog editing windows inability to preview posts etc, which makes the forums a better medium for detailed discussions which was the idea originally when it started. Blogs are for quick 'notes' or thoughts or is wikia trying to move more traffic to the blogs feature. ?

  I will add that some of my earlier 'bugs'/ grips with updates to the system have been fixed. As central is so mixed up as to were to post things i will add it here as I am not spending time trawling threads for the right one (or what appears to be the right one to be then told its else were this week) ;)

  • Auto suggest now offers the multiple words again (Great fix - very usefull, makes adding links a lot easier (as it was))
  • it appears that images can now be renamed by moving them (again very helpfull fix/upgrade)
  • Think there was another id found but I forget what it was now.

  So I take back some of my earlier criticisms about backward steps with these upgrades (posted somewhere on the forum section), and Wikia does listen and fix the bugs - well done. Cheers.

  - BulldozerD11 21:24, October 5, 2009 (UTC)

  Masthead Edit

  Dashboad Edit

  A tab for Special:WidgetDashboard on my own masthead would be handy.--AB 00:44, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

  Inaccurate highlighting Edit

  When I'm on a (talk) subpage in my user namespace, the masthead highlights my user (talk) page as selected. Maybe this could get some rework?--AB 00:44, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

  Privacy PolicyEdit

  Put questions here.

  October 23, 2009 by Najevi

• 

  Please see: Forum:MediaWiki:Welcomecreation - has been bypassed

  Forums: Index → Watercooler → Toughpigs/My Home -- new feature launches on Wednesday/@comment-Najevi-20091023162836

  Wikia's forums are a place for the community to help other members.
  To contact staff directly or to report bugs, please use Special:Contact.

  
  

  I had not noticed this before today but it seems that the controversial redirect to the My Home page has replaced the intended display of the MediaWiki message MediaWiki:Welcomecreation

  That is probably OK for a vast majority of wikis that never defined/use MediaWiki:Welcomecreation however at one of the wiki's I have developed that new account welcome message provides a link that prompts a new user to make their first edit right away. As you know a user's first edit triggers the creation of a user page based on MediaWiki:Welcome-user-page. I had used this initialization for a Semantic MediaWiki feature at w:c:vsk however I now see that this is routinely being bypassed. This has affected only a half a dozen new accounts so far so it's not a huge problem to rectify.

  • Is it possible to have the MediaWiki:Welcomecreation message take precedence/priority over the My Home redirect for those wiki that have that defined this MediWiki message?

    Of course this would only affect the page displayed after initial account creation. Any subsequent visits to the wiki would redirect the return visitor to their My Home page.

  • A suitable (and perhaps preferable) alternative would be for the initial creation of a user page to be triggered at the time of account creation rather than waiting for a user's first edit. (Heads up: as SMW and SF becomes more widely used this type of request for initialization of a user page may increase.)

  Yes, I realize this is a request for Special:Contact but I reason that if I could go for so many months without noticing this problem then it is quite possible that it has escaped the attention of some other wiki developer/maintainer as well.

  --najevi 00:15, October 23, 2009 (UTC)

  The MyHome feature was enabled a month ago, and Danny said that after a month Wikia could change something about it based on their usage statistics. Maybe you can add another objection to the redirect in the blog, although I suspect that Danny will continue ignoring us. --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) ^-WikiDex 15:03, October 23, 2009 (UTC)

  October 23, 2009 by Najevi

  history

• 

  Some feedback, it would be nice to see removed categories/images as well.

  October 15, 2009 by Anne Behnert

  history

• 

  @Anne Behnert: See this comment. Most registered users don't care about recent changes. They have an account to have a userpage and a blog. Maybe they are users from one wiki, but get a link to another wiki in a forum and want to visit that. What they would like to see? Obviously the main page!

  Remember that people that reach the wiki following the url http://xyz.wikia.com are users that probably visit the wiki for the first time, and they want to see the main page the first time.

  People that really want to see MyHome will reach it using the different links placed all over each page, not changing the location bar in their browser to get http://xyz.wikia.com.

  October 12, 2009 by Ciencia Al Poder

• 

  @Ciencia Al Poder: You're overlooking the fact that MyHome only works for logged in users. Visitors usually don't have an account.

  That being said, I've grown fond of the feature. As a Wikian, the main page tells me nothing, and I would have gone to the RC anyway.

  October 12, 2009 by Anne Behnert

• 

  @Toughpigs

  I just noticed inserting a blog listing is already possible; that's the customization I was looking for.

  The most recent news posts are usually not the most commented on, especially when they're fairly new. Hence I'd rather have a seperate listing for blogs and reserve Hot Spots for content people can actually work on (i.e. non-blog pages).

  October 10, 2009 by Porter21

  history

• 

  Mmm... I don't like the fact that the quick widgets tab isn't available anymore... Should really be put back.

  October 9, 2009 by MarkvA

• 

  Yeah, that was a great idea. Thanks!

  October 9, 2009 by Toughpigs

• 

  I see you took my "My Page" > "My Home" suggestion. =)

  October 9, 2009 by LordTBT

• 

  I do not think that helps new users. There only the last changes are and not for which the Wiki go and other important things, which are to be normally seen on the main page. GBC

  October 8, 2009 by BobaCartman

• 

  @Uberfuzzy: w:c:de.zelda:MediaWiki:Community-corner

  October 8, 2009 by Anne Behnert

  history

• 

  @Anne Behnert example wiki where this is not working?

  October 7, 2009 by Uberfuzzy