Forum:The Howling, getting a little out of control

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"a forum where all contributors to this wiki can solve problems and create fixes for continuity holes, speculate, discuss trivia, and offer up theories on continuity and other points of trivia, rather than engaging in these discussions in articles or on article talk pages." Is The Howling's description.

I'm thinking of specifying it a little more to be "with regards to articles on this wiki", as there seems to be an increasing trend of using The Howling as a general forum with posts for example:

Who do you want to play the doctor
What would YOU like to see in Series 6?
Saddest moment in Doctor Who?
Favourite least favourite RTD stories

The original idea for the Howling was to stop people pondering on the talk pages of the articles (or on the articles), but all parts of this wiki should still be used towards the view of working on elements of this wiki. It's basically the same reason why we don't allow fanfiction here, there's other places for that, and for the forums there's plenty of other Doctor Who Forums out there; Gallifrey Base, Doctor Who Online are two that come to mind.

I don't spend a huge amount of time in the Howling so I'd like to hear others' opinions on this, would the deletion of the more general forum-esque type topics like those (though not limited to) above make for a better experience? --Tangerineduel 14:44, July 21, 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, the general forum stuff would be best kept to websites completely dedicated to forums. For us it can just make extra work and can also sometimes clog up the recent changes which is kind of annoying. It it's just a poll type question like "Which is your favourite Doctor?" then that shouldn't be there. That's not included in the list above, so shouldn't be there. It doesn't come under fixing continuity holes, nor is it speculation about anything, it isn't a discussion of or trivia itself. (other than the debate as to which is the most popular Doctor) and it isn't a theory on continuity. Polls and such shouldn't be there. The Thirteenth Doctor 20:38, July 23, 2010 (UTC)

I'm in two minds about. I think it good as it is, as it lets people express their views and ideas about the Doctor Who universe with other Doctor Who fans, and have general discussion about the Doctor Who Universe, even if if it polls. However it does get annoying on the recent changes list. What we could do is open up another section in the forums, where people can have a general discussion.

The Howling would then become a place to ask question, such as Wookipedia's Knowledge bank ([1]). This would have strict rules about general discussion not being allowed etc. The new page in the forums could then be protected, or changed, so it does not show up in the recent changes, like the templates and any page beginning with 'Tardis:' Mini-mitch 22:06, July 23, 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry guys it was me who was responsible for like 98% of those forums I won't post another like that ever again sorry again for screwing up the howling that way . Winehousefan, 09:27, July25, 2010 [UTC]

How about another forum for this type of discussion? ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 09:04, July 26, 2010 (UTC)

I'm somewhat against having a general discussion forum.

Having the forums on this wiki is for discussions and other stuff relating to this wiki, other general stuff can go elsewhere. People should be coming to this wiki to read, edit and be involved with creating this wiki, if we had a general forum I just worry that people will come just be on the forums, as I've said there's other sites for that.

The Knowledge Base idea has merit, but we've got a lot of 'unknowns' and other elements which usually have lots of answers even if you stick to canon and my concern is it'd just turn into the Howling 2.0. Even with rules it still might devolve into something of a heated discussion over which bit of canon answers a question adequately. (I'm sure we could all come up with questions that would have multiple answers). --Tangerineduel 14:22, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

If you not keen on the general discussion forum, is it possible to create a new member thing, (like a rollback, admin etc) specially to monitor and control the Forums? These Users could have the power to delete pages that are against the Forums rules, etc general discussion etc. This would be done after telling the User that created the page on their talk page - that the page they have create in The Howling (for example) is against the rules of the Howling and will be removed? Mini-mitch 15:48, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

Nup.

Those things are standard across all wikis. While the Forums might be a different namespace it's still part of the wiki, the wikia doesn't treat or 'see' the forum as being any different to any of the other pages. --Tangerineduel 15:10, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

Hmmmm, well it was worth asking anyways. If we were able to get The Howling as it should be, would User be able to put the {{delete}} tag on pages in The Howling that are against The Howling rules? We could then state clearly that if they want to ask questions like Who do you want to see in Series 6 etc to go to either Doctor Who Question and Answers wiki or 'Start a blog on their User Page, and ask people to contribute to it or go to a website like DigitalSpy that has a section for general discussion about Doctor Who? Mini-mitch 16:25, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

One thing I don't think we've looked at using yet is user blogs... perhaps if we set the rules down on the Howling page that these types of discussion are frowned upon, but users are more than welcome to talk about them in their user blog. Of course, this wouldn't appeal to IPs, but may make some of them more likely to sign up... --The Thirteenth Doctor 18:04, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, Mini-mitch I think definitely we can put delete tags on forum posts that don't conform to the forum rules.

I had forgotten about DW Questions and Answers Wiki! That's an excellent place to direct people.

As for blogs, that's also a good idea, but I think, if we were to put that in motion we'd need to adopt some blog policy rules, over on the Harry Potter Wiki, they've recent been working through their blog policy, (see: W:c:harrypotter:Forum:Blog policy proposal, redux for their policy), much of it is already in our Tardis:User page policy, I think it would be useful to have a separate policy for blogs (or maybe add to the user page policy with a section on blogs). --Tangerineduel 14:34, July 30, 2010 (UTC)

So if we can get a set of rules together, and a blog policy, would this mean we're going a head and reverting the Howling to how it should be?

Are the admins for Doctor Who: Questions and Answers okay with us redirecting User there? I think The Digital Spy Forums ([2]) are still a good place to redirecting people, but its up to you. Mini-mitch 15:03, August 2, 2010 (UTC)

We already direct people towards the Doctor Who Fanon Wiki or Doctor Who Expanded (it's on the user page policy), so I don't think there should be any issues.

As for forums, I think a list popular forums might be better such as; Gallifrey Base, Doctor Who Online, Digital Spy etc. We'll either have this list of links on The Howling page at the top, or maybe as a sub-page of Tardis:Resources.

I'll post a blog and forum policy shortly, based on the things discussed above. Once that's in place then we can start to figure out what need fits within the purview of The Howling. --Tangerineduel 14:44, August 2, 2010 (UTC)

See Tardis:Discussion policy for the policy that covers the forums, blogs and article talk pages. I've also updated the into into Forum:The Howling to be a bit more specific. --Tangerineduel 16:39, August 2, 2010 (UTC)

So will the topics that are currently in the Howling and irrelevant, be deleted? Mini-mitch 17:47, August 2 2010 (UTC)

Yes, however have some restraint in placing delete tags on the forum posts is needed, some useful discussion does come from fairly flimsy premises at times. Of course many of the less than useful posts will be deleted. (Sorry that was a very backwards way of answering your question). --Tangerineduel 17:09, August 2, 2010 (UTC)

I'll put the post I feel should be deleted up for deletion, and let you decide if they are needed or not. Mini-mitch 17:55, August 2, 2010 (UTC)

I'm also doing a general tidy up, e.g. of all forums that have only one or two replies, and that are more that a year Mini-mitch 18:18, August 2, 2010 (UTC

One thing I'd say is, if the conversations are still ongoing, as in within a week, and you put the delete tag on them, before an admin deletes them, allow the users to give a reason for it not to be deleted. If they are able to explain how it fits in with the policies then the page shouldn't be deleted. --The Thirteenth Doctor 18:02, August 2, 2010 (UTC)