Talk:Fandom (website)

Note: On this page the project name "Wikicities" that had been used before March 27, 2006 has been replaced by "Wikia", as this is the correct name now.

Accessing Wikia content from Wikipedia

A blue link to a page on Wikia can be made by means of two templates, {{wikia}} and {{wikiapar}}. Instructions about the use of these templates can be found on their respective talk pages. Note that these templates should be used only in the "External links" section.

I don't think I should make any significant edits to this page myself, but the list of Wikia section is never likely to remain up to date. We're already getting a few new wikis a day. I suggest the following be used instead, which gives just the most visited wikis, rather than all of them. Angela. 20:41, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

A list of all existing Wikia can be found at Wikia:List of Wikia.

The five most visited Wikia, as of 13 January, 2005 [1], were:

• Doom, for fans of the Doom series of computer games
• Peace Elements, an inter-mystical cyber merging and gathering for atheists, artists, buddhists, dervishes and the terminally trans-spiritual.
• Delphi, information about Borland's Delphi development tool and language
• Creatures, about Creatures, the artificial life computer program series
• UniversityWikiNodeWiki, a common communication space to for users of University wikis.

Shutdown?

Why was Wikia shut down the day I wrote this message??? --SuperDude 05:24, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It wasn't, as far as I know. It had more hits than normal that day, but I'm not aware of any downtime on April 25th. Angela.

I'm showing downtime right now, as well. Main wikia and subdomains, as far as I can tell. 64.126.24.10 19:43, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Is it down again today? I can't create interwiki links there, nor visit my Recentchanges page. -- nae'blis _(talk) 18:02, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Clarification questions

Please answer the following questions to help clarify some aspects of the article:

• The article currently says that Wikia offers hosting. One key aspect of hosting is that you can switch host. Does Wikia provide for full database dumps of all information needed to move to another host, including their user and password data so the community membership and GFDL history information required for such a move will be available to the owners of the project being hosted by Wikia?
• The Free content page at Wikia says both that the content must be "available for reuse under a free content licence" and that "all of the content on these sites is licensed under the GFDL". Which is correct? Must it be GFDL or can it be any free content license?
• Can the owner of a project hosted by Wikia also use a public domain non-license or other licences in addition to the GFDL?
• If a project chooses to leave Wikia, would Wikia continue to host it, effectively becoming a competitor to the project it formerly hosted?
• For example to provide context for these questions, consider what would happen if the Wikimedia Foundation, a local linux user group or group of open source software authors had initially hosted at Wikia and then wanted to move to their own server.

The answers should help to clarify what description is appropriate - seems pretty unlikely that hosting, at least without lots of qualifications, is accurate from what I've seen, since the owner lacks much of the control which is generaly associated with a hosting situation. Jamesday 18:11, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

The article currently says that Wikia offers hosting.

Yes, but we host communities, not websites, which does lead to some differences. What Wikia is not states we are not a hosting site.

One key aspect of hosting is that you can switch host.

One key aspect of hosting is that one person owns the site and has responsibility for that hosting agreement. This isn't the case within Wikia.

Does Wikia provide for full database dumps of all information needed to move to another host, including their user and password data so the community membership and GFDL history information required for such a move will be available to the owners of the project being hosted by Wikia?

The content is available for download. User data is not. This would obviously be a huge security risk and privacy violation. I don't believe password information would ever be necessary to comply with the GFDL.

The Free content page at Wikia says both that the content must be "available for reuse under a free content licence" and that "all of the content on these sites is licensed under the GFDL". Which is correct? Must it be GFDL or can it be any free content license?

There are exceptions (see Desencyclopedie:Copyrights), but generally, the text of all Wikia is GFDL. Sister projects of Wikia, such as Memory Alpha and Uncyclopedia are cc-by-nc-sa.

Can the owner of a project hosted by Wikia also use a public domain non-license or other licences in addition to the GFDL?

Owner? A common misconception, but Wikia don't have owners. Any user is free to multi-license. Any community member is free to encourage others to do the same.

If a project chooses to leave Wikia, would Wikia continue to host it, effectively becoming a competitor to the project it formerly hosted?

It depends on what the wiki is, whether the whole community want to leave or only part of them, whether there is any demand to keep it open, the reasons for leaving, whether the community asked for the old one to be closed, and so on. Wikia itself can't be a competitor if there is no community on the wiki. Our aim is to support communities, not to cause ill feelings by competing with them.

For example to provide context for these questions, consider what would happen if the Wikimedia Foundation, a local Linux user group or group of open source software authors had initially hosted at Wikia and then wanted to move to their own server. The answers should help to clarify what description is appropriate - seems pretty unlikely that hosting, at least without lots of qualifications, is accurate from what I've seen, since the owner lacks much of the control which is generally associated with a hosting situation.

They can copy the content. They can't take the user passwords. They can request the old wiki be locked/removed/left open/redirected/whatever and Wikia would consider that request, but not be bound by it. The most important points to note are that there are no owners of individual Wikia, and what Wikia offers is really not a traditional form of hosting, but a means of supporting communities who want to make use of wiki technology. Angela 03:14, July 15, 2005 (UTC)

Need Help to expand

I Have a Wiki called the Ultimate In Living Color Guide wiki. And i'v been looking for a way to make it larger(like the star wars wiki or unencyclopedia)I only have one wiki running(My other wiki the mets one i closed)and i would like to expand it how can i expand it and how can i get it to be recognized. Also I am having trouble putting up my logo for my wiki metlover21 4:55 14, Febuary 2006

This question has been answered at Wikia. Angela. 04:27, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Uncyclopedia?

This article lists Uncyclopedia as the most visited Wikia, but the Uncyclopedia article says that Uncyclopedia is hosted by Wikia, but not as a Wikia. So is Uncyclopedia a Wikia or not?--Alhutch 02:02, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

No, it isn't a Wikia. It's a sister project of Wikia. We don't currently have accurate public stats on the most visited Wikia, so this section can't be verified anymore. It should probably be removed. Of the wikis we're tracking via Google adsense (which isn't all of them, but probably includes the top 5), the top 5 for February were Star Wars, Dofus, Muppet, Furry, and Doom, but those stats need a password. Angela. 00:56, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the list since it was unverifiable (and innaccurate). Angela. 05:48, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Financial conflict of interest?

Could someone please comment on the notion presented in this comment: Wikia income from Wikipedia. Yes, I am the author of that comment. Just want to know what the community actually thinks. Are the numbers right? Is there a conflict of interest, or not? --MyWikiBiz 14:41, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

• Undoubtably it's all part of Jimbo's sinister plot to earn money from Wikipedia. I, for one, think the accusation is baseless. Just because Wikia is (probably) the largest and most popular wiki hosting in the world and there are a lot of links from Wikipedia to the hosted wikis (like Wookieepedia) doesn't mean it was sanctioned or endorsed by Jimbo in any way. - Sikon 15:27, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm not asking about whether it was sanctioned or endorsed (of course it wasn't a deliberate scheme). Nonetheless, a non-profit entity is inadvertently helping to financially power a for-profit company, both of which have key personal sitting in both places. I'm asking if that constitutes a conflict of interest, or not. I think it does, but I also think that the Wikipedia community's reaction is that Wales "deserves" this kind of financial support, for all he's done to personally create and nurture Wikipedia. It's not a bad argument, in some respects. But, I think that certain claims of "conflict of interest" that are being leveled with such indignity against PR firms (the action against Kellen Communications, for one) and content-for-pay firms like MyWikiBiz.com ought to be examined in light of other inherent conflicts of interest that are apparently allowed to stand (though not officially sanctioned or endorsed). Similarly, is there a conflict of interest when a PR firm like Schwartz Communications does pro bono work for the Wikimedia Foundation (pre-publicity of Wikimania 2006 event), but was allowed to create and edit its own article in Wikipedia, which is strongly discouraged in WP:Autobiography? If pro bono assistance is all that is required to get a "pass", then maybe I need to emphasize my previous voluntary donations to the Wikimedia Foundation's various fund drives. --MyWikiBiz 16:00, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Whether or not this constitutes a conflict of interest (whatever it is), nothing can stop users from posting external links to whatever sites they like, including, but not limited to, Wikia. I think the people running Wikia and Wikimedia can decide what's good and what's bad for them better than us ordinary users. We shouldn't be concerned. - Sikon 16:18, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I'd say that 1.5% clicking on an ad might be overkill, but I don't know Wikia's ad stats to be sure. But, I have to ask - isn't that true of any site? Questions of verifiable content aside, should we avoid linking to Geocities pages? To official sites for software? Should people avoid linking to Wikipedia because we try to guilt visitors into making donations? Should websites be charging Wikipedia for providing content for them to link to? Bandwidth, servers and staff aren't free, after all. $15,000 probably covers how much time has been spent dealing with vandals that come over from Wikipedia to Wikia. :-)

For what it's worth, at WikiFur, users inbound from Wikipedia are some of our most "interested" visitors as measured by number of pages viewed (~10 vs ~8 for google search results and ~7 for all references combined). I suggest that the vast majority of links to Wikia are valid ones, if following them is more likely to lead to content that you want to look at than a google search.

That tool is a severe underestimate, by the way. I always use interwiki links when linking to Wikia, and it does not appear to count them. GreenReaper 16:55, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the input, GreenReaper. To answer your question, "isn't that true of any site?", I would say it's true of any site where the co-owners of the for-profit site are also board members of the not-for-profit site. It's time that the community either stand up against this kind of conflict of interest, or grow up and admit that conflicts of interest are not necessarily going to cripple the mission of Wikipedia. Many of us can be reasonable and intelligent contributors, even when we have a personal or financial interest in the article mainspace. Obviously, by their existence and the traffic behavior that you speak of, outbound Wikia links are "helpful" to the average Wikipedia user. But, to say they don't carry with them a gross conflict of interest is nothing but naive. --MyWikiBiz 17:19, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

When Jimbo or Angela start using their influence in decisions regarding the suitability of links to Wikia sites, or start treating such links preferentially in comparison to similar sites (that is, other wikis or community sites that have similar free content policies) then it might become an issue. Until then, even if it is a conflict of interest, I don't see an actual problem. It's just something to be aware of.

There are a lot of links from Wikipedia to Wikia because the more-developed Wikia sites are usually great places to find detailed information on the topics that they cover. Often the only reason the content is not in Wikipedia to begin with is that Wikipedians themselves would vote (or have voted) it out for lack of general-purpose notability. It's not as if people don't go the other way, either: every other WikiFur article links to Wikipedia at least once, and often more than once, because Wikipedia is a good source of general-purpose information.

Of course, I have my own conflicts of interest, and I suspect most Wikipedians do, too. I founded WikiFur, co-founded the Creatures Wiki, and I've also contributed significantly to articles such as Stardock and Galactic Civilizations II which relate to my work. That doesn't make them bad articles or bad wikis, though, and likewise I don't think Wikia is a bad thing, even if it is intended to cover its costs through commercial means (I very much doubt that they are actually doing so yet). GreenReaper 18:37, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Name on Wikia

I want to create a wiki, but someone has taken my name on the wikia site. That user has no contributions. Can I get my wikipedia name on wikia?--God Ω War 04:22, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

The question is, no contributions where? There are 2000 Wikia sites, and each share the same user database. A user may quite legitimately be on a totally different wiki and still be using the same name as yours here. I'm afraid you're probably going to have to choose another nickname. GreenReaper 04:58, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Now we use the Wikipedia article talk space for Wikia's (for-profit) customer support? How long before MySpace starts using its Wikipedia talk space as a customer support forum? It boggles the mind. And MyWikiBiz.com has an unacceptable conflict of interest? Hah. --MyWikiBiz 13:20, 19 September 2006 (UTC)