Who here has been using the Walking Dead community app on their phone? If you're one of the app users, then you know: Before, it was just a more convenient way to view your articles and content on mobile. But we've added something more! Since around the time the current season started, app users have also been able to talk about the show, comic series, games, etc. directly in the app, via Discussions. We've been amazed by how many users have become active in those conversations - many new users have even signed up to your community just so they can participate in Discussions.
Many of them pay return visits to the app. Even though they've previously only been reading the articles you’ve written, and most likely didn't know there's a forum here on the wikia, they're now actively talking about the show and contributing to your community. Some of them might go on to add content to your articles and stick around as valuable editors.
You can read and post to Discussions on the web as well: Walking Dead Discussions on the web. This web version isn’t "discoverable" right now, meaning it isn't linked anywhere on your wikia. You can only find it through a URL shared from the app, or by following the link here. So you can choose whether you want to discuss Walking Dead here in the forum or in Discussions (why not both?), even if you don't use the app.
Moderation features: The Wikia Community team has been handling the (very few) problematic posts and users so far, but we've now added features to Discussions that allow your mods and admins to delete/restore posts, in the app as well as on the desktop version. Very soon, we'll also add the option to view all posts by a user. In addition, admins and mods will be able to delete all posts by a user (very useful, of course, if you're dealing with a spammer). This will at first only be possible on the desktop version - but that's where most moderation happens, anyway. We're also planning to add a "close discussion" option for mods, and an option for regular users to flag a post as inappropriate. That last one will be exciting, because it's something we currently don't even have here on Wikia's regular forums!
Walking Dead mods can now moderate Discussions much like you already moderate conversations on the wikia itself. Having good moderation in Discussions will help create a very positive impression of your community with those who have so far only been active in the app - this is a great opportunity to attract new editors for the desktop community as well!
We've already seen several regular users in Discussions who seem like promising candidates, if you're not planning on moderating Discussions yourself. Admins can assign the new app mods to the discussion moderator group to give them the necessary rights. Maybe there are even users of the current forum among you who'd like to become active in Discussions as well?
Right now, it's a bit challenging to message app moderation candidates directly. The app users don’t always confirm their email addresses, and so won’t get notified about Message Wall posts. But if you spot someone you'd like to contact about the moderator role, let Wikia staff know, and we'll help you contact them!
Let us know what you think! We're still working on adding more features to make Discussions more fun and convenient to use (such as topic categorization, search, link previews, etc.) For that, we can really use your opinion. How do you like Discussions? What's better than the current desktop forum, what's worse? What are you missing? Please share your thoughts here, and if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them!