Board Thread:Wiki discussion/@comment-3308937-20140206012804/@comment-5624107-20140212220846

inimally related to the editing experience, existing purely for social interaction

Is not that the reason Talk pages exist? For social communication? As for not relating to editing. That's a plus. Wikia editing is based on HTML markup, something that not everybody grasps, hell, I've been on wikia wikis for 2 years now and some templates and the like on this wiki and others still make my head spin. Most users edits come almost exclusively from article page comments, as those types of edits are the easiest to make. Message Walls function almost exactly the same way, removing a barrier in front of newer users from participating, too often I worry that the reason forums don't receive more participation is because new users look at the mess that is a talk page and go lolwut, and don't participate because they simply don't understand how. Now are message walls perfect? No, as you mentioned, replies in message walls and forum posts were designed by Satan, however, I am a strong believer in the idea that ease of use should always come first, and I believe it's a given that message walls are easier to use