Would anyone be for (or against?) an external forum being run for this site? At first this would be a trial run using a free host just to see how things go. I'd like to see how much support this receives before doing anything.
Why is this being considered?
There are some pretty bad limitations to the forum aspect of Wikia/Fandom which can be a problem when they obstruct what we wish to do.
- There exists a bug with board creation that means any new categories we add might not be visible, while existing boards might disappear completely. (This is a very interesting bug that I've found no solutions to; the "existing" boards seem to disappear completely and no direct links to them will work.)
- While the Wiki is a powerful tool, it lacks the staff and user options of a conventional forum setup. It's the bare minimum of a basic forum with basic tools.
What would happen to on-site forum?
Nothing. If things go ahead, a new article titled WolfQuest Wiki:Forum would be updated with a link to the external forum along with the creation of a new announcement containing a link to the updated article.
Beyond that, this forum would still remain operation as there are no plans to discontinue it. I realize this isn't very convenient for people who may not want to bounce from one site to another in search of support and so we won't be forcing anyone to use our external forum. Even if it is successful, we will still support this on-site forum. :)
Would I need to sign-up?
No. The plan with this external forum is to be as guest-friendly as possible, with imposed restrictions intended to help prevent spambots. Creating an account -- while not mandatory -- grants elevated privileges and freedom from spam prevention.
What rules would be in place?
The WolfQuest Wiki:Policy would extend there.
Clarification
This change only applies to and affects the WolfQuest Wiki; it has no impact on the community forum at wolfquest.org/bb. That is an official resource run by the WolfQuest Team (Eduweb); the Wiki is a non-official resource run by the WolfQuest Community -- our forum thread:
http://wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=81714
~Neamara Contact | Blog | Contributions • 14:36, May 12, 2017 (UTC)