Template:Wikia.com / Fandom.com: Difference between revisions

{{Wiki farm <!--see 'Template:Wiki farm' for full detail and hidden help advice-->

|founder          = [[Jimmy Wales|Jimmy Donal 'Jimbo' Wales]]<br><small>(co-founder & [[:Category:Wikia staff|President]])</small><br>[[Angela Beesley Starling]]<br><small>(co-founder & [[:Category:Wikia staff|former VP]])</small>

|CEO              = [[Perkins Miller]] <small>(Fandom CEO)</small><br>TPG Capital <small>(owner, from 2018)</small>

'''<big>Wikia</big>''', currently branded as '''<big>Fandom</big>''', and originally known as '''<big>Wikicities</big>''' (until 27 March 2006), is a {{tag|Wiki farm|collection}} of over 250,000<ref name=About>[https://about.Fandom.com/about Fandom {{!}} About Us]; ''about.Fandom.com''; Fandom, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}}; accessed 19 December 2022.</ref> [[wiki]] sites.  Known as a '[[wiki farm]]', it is owned by its parent company '''[[WikiaSite:Wikia, Inc.|Wikia, Inc.]]'''<ref name=Terms>[https://www.Fandom.com/terms-of-use Terms of Use | Fandom]; ''Community.Fandom.com'' (originally: ''Community.Wikia.com''); Fandom, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}} (originally: Wikia, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}}); dated 24 May 2022; accessed 19 December 2022.</ref>  [[Wikicities]] was founded 18 October {{tag|Founded in 2004|2004}} by [[:Category:American|American]] internet entrepreneur [[Jimmy Wales|Jimmy 'Jimbo' Wales]] (who had previously founded [[:Category:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]]), and his then [[:Category:British|British]] business partner [[Angela Beesley Starling]] (now known as Angela Starling).<ref name=About/>  Its original tagline was ''"Create. Collaborate. Be Original."''  In 2006, [[WikiaSite:User:Gil|Gil Penchina]] became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and hoped to take Wikia to a new level as he did with [[:Category:eBay|eBay]].  In late 2011, [[Craig L. Palmer]] was appointed as new Wikia CEO.<ref>[[WikiaSite:Forum:Craig Palmer, new CEO of Wikia|Craig Palmer, new CEO of Wikia]]; ''Community.Fandom.com'' (originally: ''Community.Wikia.com''); Fandom, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}} (originally: Wikia, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}}); date 20 October 2011; accessed 19 December 2022.</ref>  In late 2016, the entire Wikia site was rebranded from 'Wikia' to 'Fandom',<ref>[[WikiaSite:User_blog:Craiglpalmer/Wikia_is_now_Fandom_powered_by_Wikia|User blog:Craiglpalmer / Wikia is now Fandom powered by Wikia]]; ''Community.Fandom.com'' (originally: ''Community.Wikia.com''); Fandom, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}} (originally: Wikia, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}}); dated 26 September 2016; accessed 19 December 2022.</ref> and also launched the non-profit sister site [https://Wikia.org Wikia.org].  As of October 2021, the current Fandom CEO is [[Perkins Miller]].<ref name=About/>

'''<big>Wikia, Inc.</big>''', now '''<big>Fandom, Inc.</big>''', is a {{tag|Wiki company|company}} registered and {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated}} in the {{tag|Delaware|State of Delaware}}, [[:Category:United States of America|United States of America]] (corporate number C2935209).  Its registered office is at 130 Sutter Street, 4th Floor, {{tag|San Francisco|San Francisco County}}, [[:Category:California|State of California]] 94104, United States of America.<ref name=Terms/>

[[Wikia|Wikia.com]] uses a unique and heavily modified customized creation of the {{tag|MediaWiki}} {{tag|Wiki engine|wiki engine}} software.  It is visually different from conventional MediaWiki sites (such as [[:Category:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]]), in that it has its own exclusive {{tag|custom skin}}, and most notably, is embedded with a range and variety of graphic and dynamic {{tag|Advertising|advertisements}}.  The fundamental business model of Wikia / Fandom is the offering of {{tag|Free MediaWiki wiki farm|free hosting}} for an individual or community to build a free content [[WhatIsWiki|wiki]]-based website, on virtually any [[:Category:Wiki Topic|subject]].  New wikis can be created instantly at https://www.Wikia.com/Special:CreateNewWiki.  Hosting of wiki, and 24&nbsp;hour customer support is free, in return for advertising placed on the pages; but [[editor]]s and [[user]]s have little say over the advertisements (both content and placement) their wiki site displays.  Support, on both the technical and community aspects of running a wiki community, is provided at [[Wikia Community Central]], now known as Fandom Community Central (or one of its related [[Template:Wikia Community Central|other]] [[:Category:Wiki language|language]] Community wikis).

The overwhelming vast majority of Wikia wiki sites are currently released under one primary [[:Category:Wiki license|wiki license]]: the {{tag|Wiki Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike|Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported license}} (CC-BY-SA 3.0), as explained [[WikiaSite:Licensing|here]].  However, other licenses are available on Wikia; these include the [[:Category:Wiki Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial|Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial]] (CC-BY-NC), as used by [[Memory Alpha]], and the [[:Category:Wiki Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives|Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivative Works 3.0 unported]] (CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0) licenses.<ref name=Licensing>[http://www.Wikia.com/Licensing Licensing {{!}} Fandom powered by Wikia]; ''Wikia.com''; Wikia, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}}; accessed 25 September 2018.</ref>

*{{U|mutante}}, creator of WikiStats at [[S23-Wiki|S23.org]], has a tabular list of Wikia wiki sites (previously at [[Archive.org:20180618144502/https://S23.org/wikistats/wikia_html.php|list of top 250 Wikias]] on the S23-Wiki), now known as [[Wikistats v2.2]] and found at [[WikiStats-WMCloud:wi|410,703 Wikia sites]] (caution: this will take a LONG time to load, and may fail to load), hosted by [[:Category:Wikimedia Cloud Services|Wikimedia Cloud Services]] (WMCS).

Unlike other {{tag|wiki farm}}s, Wikia will generally <u>not</u> [[:Category:Dead|close]] a wiki site if requested by the wikis' creator / [[founder]], and / or community of [[editor]]s.  Wikia prefer to maintain inactive and [[:Category:Goal abandoned|abandoned]] wiki sites in a [[:Category:Dormant|dormant]] state, and actively seek other [[Wikian]]s to '[[WikiaSite:Adoption:Requests|adopt]]' said wiki sites.  This will happen even when the original [[owner]](s) of a Wikia-hosted wiki site copy or '[[fork]]' their entire wiki and [[:Category:Ex-Wikia|re-host]] it; either independently, on another provider, or another [[wiki farm]].  Wikia wiki sites are only usually [[:Category:Dead|closed]] in exceptional circumstances, typically if the content or 'intent' of the wiki site breaches Wikias' [[WikiaSite:Closed Wikis Policy|terms of service]].<ref name=Community>[http://www.Wikia.com/Community_Creation_Policy Community Creation Policy | Fandom powered by Wikia]; ''www.Wikia.com''; Wikia, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}}; accessed 25 September 2018.</ref><ref name=ElectricSky97>[https://Community.Fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:ElectricSky97/Most_Common_Reasons_Why_Your_Wiki_Gets_Closed User blog:ElectricSky97 | most common reasons why your wiki gets closed]; ''Community.Fandom.com''; Fandom, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}}; dated 27 March 2020; accessed 19 December 2022.</ref>

In December 2014, Wikia introduced yet another skin called '{{tag|Venus|Venus}}', making it their fourth default, and causing even more controversy among [[user]]s.<ref>[http://Community.Wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Rupert_Giles/Prototype_for_a_new_article_layout User blog:Rupert Giles / Prototype for a new article layout]; ''Community.Wikia.com''; Wikia, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}}; accessed 13 February 2019.</ref>

With the move to the now current [https://community.fandom.com/wiki/Help:Unified_Community_Platform Unified Community Platform] (UCP), a universal platform that combined legacy Wikia / Fandom together with the recently acquired [[:Category:Gamepedia.com|Gamepedia.com]] wiki farm, and also upgraded the core MediaWiki {{Mw|version}} of Fandom from their long-outdated and obsolete {{Mw|MediaWiki 1.19|v&nbsp;1.19}} to a more recent {{Mw|MediaWiki 1.33|v&nbsp;1.33}}; Fandom, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}} introduced a new skin which is actually based on their much older [[#Oasis|Oasis]] skin.  This UCP became the default and only skin available for Fandom wiki sites; it built upon the Oasis skin, introducing a fluid layout which allowed [[user]]s to expand the skin to take up the entire width of their screen.  FandomDesktop was introduced largely based on a number of complaints from users who did not like the wide margins either side of the Oasis skin, and also brought elements of the [[:Category:Vector|Vector]] / [[:Category:Hydra|HydraWiki]] skin to the entire Wikia / Fandom platform.

In late 2016, at the same time as the global rebrand from Wikia to Fandom, its parent company, Wikia, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}} also launched a non-profit sister site [https://Wikia.org Wikia.org].  '''Wikia.org''' also acts as a [[wiki farm]], and uses the identical custom-modified MediaWiki software as Wikia.com, but the most obvious difference is a lack of [[:Category:Advertising|advertising]].  Wiki sites hosted on Wikia.org continue to use the {{tag|Wiki Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike|Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported license}} (CC-BY-SA 3.0), so whilst Wikia itself will not profit from hosting sites on Wikia.org, there is the potential to reuse content from Wikia.org on another external website (as is allowed under terms of the CC-BY-SA 3.0), and those external sites are able to monetise from said re-hosted Wikia.org content.

 

:''This section requires expansion with info on all of the Acquisitions made by Wikia, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}}; such as [[:Category:Gamepedia.com|Gamepedia.com]], D&D Beyond, Cortex RPG, Muthead, Futhead, Fanatical, and Fandomatic.

*[[:Category:Gaming Wiki Network|Gaming Wiki Network]] (GWN)

*{{WM-Wikidata|Q17459|Fandom (Q17459)}} — www.Wikidata.org, at [[Wikimedia Wikidata]]

*{{WM-Wikidata|Q20466202|Fandom, Inc. (Q20466202)}} — www.Wikidata.org, at Wikimedia Wikidata

*[[archive.is:P6YVo|Web Numbr – Number of active wikis on Wikia (377,007)]] — from [[Wikia Answers|Wikianswers]], via WebNumbr.com, archived by [[archive.is]] on 2013-11-05