Forum:Adopting a site feature policy

With forced extensions that the community clearly doesn't want, courtesy of Wikia, being a hot topic recently, I feel we should consider adopting a site feature policy, based upon the Wookieepedia equivalent.

Basically this policy will just state that unless a new feature or extension is part of a MediaWiki update, and that means not forced in by Wikia either as part of or separate from a MediaWiki update, the feature will be disabled by default until a forum thread is passed to allow for the feature to be enabled here.

My motive for even proposing such a thing is that I, as well as others, am tired of having worthless extensions shoved down our throats with no regard to how we as a community feel about them. I'm also sick of having to manually disable what we don't want that Wikia won't remove and I'm even more dismayed about how their TOS supposedly states that we're not allowed to disable extensions that we've decided we don't want, and making them optional via gadgets isn't an option because Wikia broke the CSS module both for that and in general (but that's a different issue entirely). No this thread certainly isn't "all about me" but I'm tired of having to deal with this and I know I'm not the only one.

Yes it can be considered a bold move to even discuss this but the truth is some wikis have managed to avoid forced extensions and if we just sit back and let this continue then we'll just keep on reinventing the wheel. I feel adopting this policy would be both a bold yet beneficial step in this and it would give us something to point at should Wikia try to force something upon us much to our chagrin. If other wikis have managed to stand up and get their voice heard, what reason is there that we shouldn't at least try?

So do we want this policy? 01:12, July 3, 2014 (UTC)

Discussion
I support this, from the aspect that we should be allowed some control on what is or isn't forced on us. The TOU has been interpreted far too liberally by some staff to justify forcing us to swallow these changes. On top of that, other wikis (like the previously-cited Wookieepedia) aren't being held to the same standard regarding adherence to the TOU. Honestly, I don't know what good this will do, but I think it's always good for us to show where we stand. -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 01:25, July 3, 2014 (UTC)

Strong support. Even if we're part of Wikia, and even if Wikia owns the hardware and supplied us with the software, we, the community, are the true residents of this wiki. I respect Wikia and their policies, but it's absolutely ridiculous to force medicine down our throats even when 99.9% of the community says no. You're simply upsetting more people that way. Consensus is how we roll, and while there are a few exceptional cases where consensus may be overridden, this is not one of them. And last but not least, other wikis have done this successfully. There is no reason why we, as The Sims Wiki, one of the largest gaming wikis on Wikia, can't do the same. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 01:41, July 3, 2014 (UTC)

Support - If we choose to enable newly created Wikia features, then community consensus would be the best way to do it. Ѧüя◎ґ (talk) 04:18, July 3, 2014 (UTC)

Support - Not all ancillary features (such as the video modules) are good fits for all wikis, even if they are within a broad general category such as gaming. A community should be able to have some control over whether or not to enable a new feature. Dharden (talk) 03:17, July 4, 2014 (UTC)

Support -  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  06:41, July 21, 2014 (UTC)

Conclusion
Based on the responses above, the Site Feature Policy has been created. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 19:08, July 25, 2014 (UTC)