User blog:SirPercyMcCuddles/An Important Announcement

If you have read the most recent issue of the Tri-State Gazette, then you already know the wiki's admin group has been working on setting up a message board for our community to communicate better. Currently, blog comments are filling up our Recent Changes page and making it difficult to watch the rest of the edits to the encyclopedia, which is our primary purpose here.

As RRabbit42 said, "Lately, the blogs have turned into a kind of message board or something like Twitter. It is not uncommon to see 100 blog comments each day, but the blogs are especially busy on the weekends. There can be up to 300 comments per day on a weekend." Also, the quality of the comments have gone down. What was meant to be a place to gather feedback has morphed into something more like a chat room. From RRabbit42's article, "While it's good to see people being active in the blogs, some of the blogs devolved into "X is better than Y" or have drifted completely away from the original topic, like those for the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. A few of them also get a series of tiny little comments that should have been combined into one comment."

With all this in mind, the admin group has created the Phineas and Ferb Wiki Community Message Board. Before I give you the address, please know that we are still testing it. In fact, that's why I've been asked to write this blog. A few days ago, several users were contacted anonymously about being good candidates for what we are calling a "closed beta test". In computer terms, a closed beta test means that a small group of preselected users will be allowed to test a program in order to work the bugs out of it before it is made public.

A couple more things to think about before I give you the address. First, the blogs are not going away, but once the message board gets up and running, they are going to start being monitored more and users who misuse the blogs will be asked to switch to the message board. Topher has asked me to help with this. Second, the message board will be able to be read by anyone, but unregistered users will not be allowed to post. This is so that we can get up to speed on how the board works before all of you storm the board.

Okay, are you ready for it now? You can see the board at phineasandferb.freepowerboards.com. If you received a cryptic message the other day, then click on the Register link in the Menu on the left side of the page. You will need an email address. If you don't have one, you can sign up for a gmail.com account for free. Once you've filled out the registration form, you will need to wait for a moderator or admin to approve your registration for the closed beta test. Keep an eye on your email. You should be approved in about an hour or less.

If you haven't been selected for the test, but would like to be considered, leave a comment below and if we need more testers, then we'll pick some more. Once the test group is full, then try and be patient. We're planning for the board to go live in less than a couple of weeks.