User blog:D. Cello/Assassinews 10/05 -- Message Wall, Revelations trailer and release info... now with summaries!



As damned ponies march across the green sunlight-bathed landscape of the internet, the ACWiki once more proudly brings news to the world.

Summaries!
A couple months ago, I tried to make a news post with summaries -- I really liked the way it looked and it made easier for users to read exactly what they wanted to read without having to sort through aaall my awesome-scented writing (I know some of you love it, but some of you rather jump to the news -- be it Wiki news, AC news, or both) -- and from this post on, I'll try my best to add summaries to all news ^^ Small posts of course may still not have it, but whenever possible, I shall make your navigation easier.

To the news!

Message Wall
The message wall is now LIVE!

Overview
The message wall was designed as a more practical and easy way to leave people messages than our current talkpages. Assassin's Creed Wiki is one of the first wikis to try it out -- we're part of a very select group -- and as such, we will deal with a lot of bugs, but we will also be able to shape how it will turn out in the end.

You can see your new Message Wall on your profile now -- your old User Talk page has been archived; there’s a link to the archive at the bottom of your Message Wall.

The feature’s still in development, and a few things that aren’t quite done yet:


 * You can't follow a whole wall yet; you can only follow specific threads.
 * Wiki Activity shows the thread title, but it doesn't say whose wall the thread is on yet.
 * Recent Changes and Contributions pages aren't as tidy as they should be; these will be cleaned up soon.
 * Emails
 * You only get the URL — not the thread title
 * You get an email for every new message and reply – but we don't give you the actual content yet. (When it’s finished, you’ll get the full message in e-mail.)
 * Workaround: if this is bothering you, you can disable emails from Wall posts on "Followed pages" in Preferences. It will be better soon, though.
 * A lot of our system messages still say "Talk" instead of "Wall"
 * View Source fails on archived talk page (Note: this is a sitewide bug, not related to Message Wall.)
 * Blocked users can’t post messages -- but right now there isn’t an error message for them. We’ll build a warning message or close the fields.
 * The welcome bot still posts messages on archived user talk pages. We’ll be turning this off for our test wikis for the time being.
 * Anons don't get notifications yet.
 * Monobook users can't delete threads or messages yet. (Workaround in the meantime: add ?useskin=wikia to your URL to access the page temporarily without Monobook)
 * You can't link to a specific reply and have it scroll to the appropriate place.
 * When a page is unfollowed or deleted, it still appears in your notifications dropdown. Deleted messages stay "unread" until you click "Mark all as read". This will work better soon.
 * We plan to auto-suggest links while you’re typing, but this isn’t live yet.
 * Handmade links to the Message Wall appear as red. The link still functions, though.
 * There are no cross-wiki notifications for the Message Wall yet. Be sure to visit your other wikis during this test phase to check for new messages.
 * No thread history. Timestamps don't update to reflect edits either.
 * Managing deleted threads is complicated and messy. We'll make it smoother.

These things will be finished and improved in a couple of weeks. Hopefully they won’t be too annoying in the meantime, but if something about the system is really bugging you, please let us or Wikia staff know -- whichever you feel more confortable talking too (I know, ACStaff is just SO lovely ^^)

As substantial changes or feedback is received, I'll update in following news posts to keep everyone up to date about the progress of this new feature ^^

So go to your (and other users) message wall, test it out, then come back here and let us know what you think!

Feedback
The ACW staff and Wikia people really are interested in the community's feedback, so make sure to post your comments below and help shape this new feature while it still is learning to walk (useful comments people -- no one likes comments like "I don't like just cause I don't like it". Truth be told, someone will make a joke of your comment and you will cry under your blanket at night over the cruelty of internet people with our still warm banfootprint on your ass XD) So let's make this feature something everyone is at least mildy happy with ^^

Revelations "new" PC release date
Assassin's Creed Revelations PC players (like yours truly) will have to wait to play the game -- we get that Ubisoft, we're used to it already -- but at least the wait will be (even) shorter (probably). LAstp sot, I had announced the release date for ACR would be December 2nd. Well, in the meantime between that post and this one, Ubi went back and changed it again to November 29th. So, 2 days earlier ^^ Yey!

Revelations Story Trailer
As the November 15th (or 29th for PC) comes closer, the arc of Ezio Auditore da Firenze comes to an end. Watch below the new trailer of Assassin's Creed Revelations, depicting Ezio's final great journey.

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Now, I would like to adress something: Earlier today, the link to the video was leaked, and Ubisoft contacted us to remove it. And we did. This also marks the first time Ubisoft really contacted the wiki (contact with personal users like me or others of my staff aside). We really could use more of that in the future, Ubisoft, but for other stuff -- reaching out to us only when you need the link you let be leaked removed doesn't smell good. Nudge given.

Final stuff
I like to thank everyone who wished me happy birthday last week. I forgot the thanks bit out of the next post, and when I remembered, the post was already live. So now I'm taking the time to thank you people -- really, you're awesome ^^

Ah, and the Giveaway ends this saturday ^^

So that is all for today! Post your comments below – me and the staff want to hear your opinions! Safety and peace, folks.

Cello out.



"It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it."