I think the discussions are in pretty alright condition. Harry Potter FANDOM keeps on reaching the most trending FANDOM every now and then, be it wiki wise or discussion wise. It is a pretty big achievement for the local staff and the contributors. And I would like to make this thing very much clear before I give any more input or feeds, that I am here in good faith. I am not targeting any specific individual as long as I don't mention it specifically. This is a feedback from a discussion user who has been observing and taking active part in discussions for more than 3 years.
Discussion board is a place where users interact with each other and enjoy each other's company and most importantly get to talk about stuffs that they are mutually interested in. That makes this to be a social platform for users to interact(not like other social medias). According to the numbers that I see, there are 160K+ users that have joined discussions. HPW was able to provide a platform to so many potterheads is just fascinating.
Thanks to the moderation team that has always shown right path by moderating this wiki. Occasionally they have been really strict and taken the course of discussion board from moderation to dictatorship but those are some honest mistakes that happens due to changing circumstances. The existence of OT(Off-topic post) and Ask a mod post is the proof that the mods want this wiki to thrive not only by discussing potter-verse topics but by interacting with users on other topics as well.
You can already see that the discussion board is in a good place already.
What does it lack? Nothing can be just perfect but it can always be better.
We lack quality posts. What are quality posts? Posts that educate and inform users that Potter-verse is not just about an orphan boy's adolescent life but about an entire universe that is full of magic. This is the problem. What is the solution? Because no lock is made without a key right?
The solution is very much simple. This wiki has some amazing editors that have dedicated their time and knowledge to make this wiki just the way it is meant to be. I would recommend if these editors can occasionally come to the discussion board and make quality posts about articles, I think we will be able to bridge the gap between discussion users and editors. Many wikis have these issues. Some have practically disowned the discussion board.
What type of "quality posts" do I expect from editors? Truth be told there are no proper parameters for "quality posts". Because for a new potter head, quality posts will be (harrypotter.wikia.com/d/p/3258895044706319151) or probably any post from this thread (harrypotter.wikia.com/d/p/3100000000000115211) but that won't be the same for long term users.
My suggestion is that every now and then articles on the wiki need to be edited, need to be improved but they need to be discussed before doing so. Why not discuss them on the discussion board? with users who might have some really great inputs or coding skills or image editing skills. This will be the best way for both type of users to interact, and the best part is, the wiki will benefit a lot from this. Every regular editor who has created at-least one page on HPW can make a post about it and discuss it with users. And the best part will be that those inputs will be verified by many other users. It won't be mandatory for everyone to participate, but once users start enjoying it, there will be more and more volunteers. And I am talking about discussing for updating articles not while adding new ones(for that editors need to fast and furious). If both sides of users in a way depend on each other, I think this wiki thrive and be a better place. In order to make those posts legit and kinda official we can add some special text to the heading of the posts.
example : "HPW article editorial: "
As far as spam-my posts are concerned, they will never go, especially on a platform this big, not even the trolls but that is why we have the moderation team,to help us maintain perfect law and order, with every moderation tools that they could possibly need.
I would also like to make a suggestion specifically for moderation team workings. Some users might disagree with this but being a user I think this would be appropriate and once again this is just a SUGGESTION not a demand.
Mods have rights to ban users. which makes them really powerful as users. Initially when a user was to be banned, a mod would take a complaint to an admin's talk page and lodge a request for ban. This whole process gave them time to evaluate the ban time and reason for ban. In many cases the ban time would reduce from 1 month to 2 weeks giving the user an opportunity to return back and rejoin the wiki with a fresh start. With these new rights that reduction in ban time does not happen and the users ends up getting banned for a very long time period due to which that user is gone forever. This is reducing our count of active and new users on the wiki. Mistakes are made by everyone but they should be given an opportunity.
I would suggest that mods should not be allowed to ban users for more than 2-4 weeks. If users need to be banned for more than 2-4 weeks(the only cases would be trolls. Because such severe ban cannot be for punishing a user. ) then the mod will have to request an admin to do so. If a mod violates this ban system then there should be punishments for them too( because even mods are humans.) Other than that, on a monthly basis any one mod must create a brief report about the bans that took place in that month and reasons behind the ban. They can also add a few lines about the progress of the wiki and what new has been happening. This way the admins will stay in touch with what is happening on the discussion board and will indirectly be involved in moderation works as well(other than the fact admins are already contributing by making some quality posts). If you read this post properly, then you will see that all the demands made by certain user on rights permission page are being fulfilled and it won't be so incontinent for the admins to make these things happen.
Once again this was not an attack on anyone, merely a suggestion. Be wizard enough to take it as one. Please help the author maintain the decorum of this post and not convert the comment area in a battle ground.
Thank you for being so patient to read my feed/ suggestion and apologies for typos.
Edit: upon reading the below reply I recognised a missing point from my suggestion. The discussion post where the page updates are being discussed should be linked at the end of that article.