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

'''<big>Wikia</big>''', currently branded as '''<big>Fandom</big>''', and originally known as '''<big>Wikicities</big>''' (until 27 March 2006), is a [[:Category: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>  [[:Category:Wikicities|Wikicities]] was founded 18 October [[:Category: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|Angela Beesley]] (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 [[:Category:Founded in 2016|2016]], the entire Wikia wiki farm 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 [[:Category:Founded in 2021|2021]], the current Fandom CEO is [[Perkins Miller]].<ref name=About/>

'''<big>Wikia, Inc.</big>''', now '''<big>Fandom, Inc.</big>''', is a [[:Category:Wiki company|company]] registered and {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated}} in the [[:Category: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, [[:Category:San Francisco|San Francisco County]], [[:Category:California|State of California]] 94104, United States of America.<ref name=Terms/>

[[Wikia|Wikia.com]] (and now Fandom.com) uses a heavily modified and customised creation of the MediaWiki [[:Category:Wiki engine|wiki engine]] software, to the point of making it unique.  It is visually different from conventional [[:Category:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]] sites (such as [[:Category:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]]), in that it has its own exclusive [[:Category:Custom skin|custom skin]], and most notably, is embedded with a range and variety of graphic and dynamically animated [[:Category:Advertising|advertisements]].  The fundamental {{Cambridge-Dictionary|business model}} of Wikia / Fandom is the offering of [[:Category:Free MediaWiki wiki farm|free hosting]] for an individual or [[wiki community]] to build a free content [[WhatIsWiki|wiki]]-based website, on virtually any [[:Category:Wiki Topic|subject]].  New wiki sites can be created instantly at https://www.wikia.com/Special:CreateNewWiki.  Hosting of wiki sites, 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).

[[:Category:Wikia staff|Wikia staff]] and helpers have global [[sysop]] powers throughout <u>all</u> Wikia wiki sites, as well as several types of automated detection and [[block]]ing tools to help deal with [[vandal]]s and [[spam]] on individual wikis.  This can be helpful for [[:Category:Wikis with a strong viewpoint|controversial]] wikis like [[Liberapedia]] which tends to attract [[vandal]]s.

From its [[:Category:Founded in 2004|creation in 2004]] (as Wikicities), all Wikia-hosted wiki sites had unrestricted editing privileges for all [[editor]]s, known as '[[:Category:OpenEdit|open edit]]'.  This meant, that whilst Wikia welcomed [[user]]s to register for an account and create their own [[username]], anonymous folks were equally welcome and able to [[edit]] without the need to create an account and / or log-in.  As was the norm throughout the developing [[wikisphere]], individuals from this latter group became known as an [[IP editor]], due to them being identified by their [[IP address]] from the [[edit history]] of any wiki page they had edited.  This 'open edit' ethos continued as a fundamental basis until July [[:Category:Founded in 2013|2013]]; when it was deemed that 'open edit' was not compliant with the 'Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998', commonly known as [[Archive.org:20200315142421/http://www.COPPA.org/|COPPA]], which became effective 21 April 2000, and is overseen by the [https://www.ftc.gov Federal Trade Commission] (FTC).  As a result, in order to comply with COPPA, all new Wikia wiki sites were required to implement all users to register for an account before being able to edit, known as '[[:Category:LoginToEdit|log-in to edit]]'.  Those existing Wikia sites created before July 2013 are also required to convert to 'log-in to edit', thus effectively ending one of the founding wiki fundamentals of being 'open to all'.

[[:Category:Wikia people|Registered Wikia users]] with new 'talk' messages on <u>any</u> Wikia wiki will get a [[talk page]] notification about that message on ''any other'' Wikia wiki where they have a tab or window open.  If a user has different [[username]]s for different Wikia wiki sites, then logging into a different account for one can change the account for all.

The overwhelmingly vast majority of Wikia wiki sites are currently released under one primary [[:Category:Wiki license|wiki license]]: specifically, the [[:Category: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>

===Wikia portals===

Wikia wiki sites are grouped under differing portals, or 'hubs', as displayed in the bottom centre of every page within individual wikis.  In line with the current Fandom branding, these presently include:

===Wikia backup===

The entire Wikia project consisting of all Wikia wiki sites used to be available as a globally combined backup file [https://wikistats.wikia.com/w/wi/wikiaglobal/pages_full.xml.gz here].{{PermanentDeadEL}}  Individual Wikia wiki sites ''may'' also backed up, and their database backup files will be available near the bottom of their relevant <tt>/Special:Statistics</tt> page, as explained on their [[WikiaSite:Help:Database download|database download help page]].  However, whilst <u>all</u> Wikia wiki sites have a Statistics page, complete with the 'Database dumps' section containing appropriate placement for their backup file links, those Wikia wiki sites which show 'unknown' for where the actual URLs are expected definitely have <u>not</u> been backed up!  Local [[administrator]]s do have the option to request a new, or updated dump.  The reality is that a vast proportion of Wikia sites do not have individual dumps available, and for those sites that do have live URLs to their backup files, they are invariably outdated, typically by many months, though some are outdated by many years (mid-2017 is frequently found to be the last time any backup was created, as of December 2022).  Originally managed internally by Wikia, and found at <tt>[[Archive.org:20120514120806/http://WikiStats.Wikia.com/|WikiStats.Wikia.com]]</tt> ''or'' <tt>[[Archive.org:20130429155454/http://Dumps.Wikia.net/|Dumps.Wikia.net]]</tt>, as of 2018, Wikia backups are provided by [https://aws.amazon.com/s3/ Amazon S3] from [https://aws.amazon.com Amazon Web Services, Inc.] (AWS).

Because all Wikia wiki sites are powered by [[:Category:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]] (albeit an outdated but extensively modified and customised version), they all have a <tt>/Special:Statistics</tt> page, which provides a standardised set of statistics specific to individual Wikia wiki sites.  These include page count statistics (content pages, all pages, and uploaded [[file]]s), edit statistics (total number of [[edit]]s since creation of specific wiki, and average edits per page), and [[user]] statistics; though it should be noted that the sources used in the third section are inconsistent.  Specifically, active users, [[administrator]]s, [[bureaucrat]]s, and bots correctly report data for their actual wiki; whereas the registered users output reports ALL registered users of ALL wiki sites throughout the entire Wikia project!

In respect of data for determining [[wikiFactor]] (wF) values; originally found at <tt>/Special:PopularPages</tt>, and subsequently at <tt>/Special:MostVisitedPages</tt>; this is now unknown and unavailable, because Wikia globally disabled the required page to output that metric.  In order to preserve the individual wikiFactor value for separate Wikia wiki sites, it would be helpful to update the <code>|wikiFactor URL=</code>&nbsp; field in the {{Template|Size}} template with the last known 'good' archived URL from either [[Archive.org]] or [[archive.is]].

====Wiki age====

The exact [[:Category:Wiki age|date of founding]] of individual Wikia wiki sites was previously available at <tt>/Special:WikiStats</tt> (long since globally disabled on Wikia).  Current alternative methods to determine the age of a Wikia site can be sought at <tt>/Special:AncientPages</tt>, or by examining the earliest edit version of revision history of its [[Wiki main page|main page]] at <tt>/Main_Page?dir=prev&action=history</tt>.  The latter example may also be a good place to discover the [[founder]] of the individual Wikia site.

===List of wikis===

====Ten largest wikis====

===Closure of Wikia wikis===

Unlike other [[:Category:Wiki farm|wiki farms]], 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>

==Problems between Wikia and its users==

For those registered [[:Category:Wikia people|Wikia users]] having problems logging into Wikia, a solution is to disable scripts from Wikia, then clicking on the 'sign in' link which will send you to [[WikiaSite:Special:UserLogin|sign-in webpage]].

Wikia offers [[:Category:Free MediaWiki wiki farm|free hosting]] for a community to build a wiki website powered by a unique and heavily modified version of [[:Category:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]], in return for the display of [[:Category:Advertising|advertisements]].  Registered [[user]]s have complained that they have little say over the placement, or the content of advertisements their wiki site displays.

Logged-in users do not have to see the advertisements unless they choose to.  Users may set their preferences to see advertisements on Wikia in order to see how a page looks to logged-out and / or non-registered Wikia users.  A prominent advertisement is placed at the top right hand side of most pages, but when there is also a picture on the top right hand side of a page, the layout for users who see the advertisement can be poor especially on short pages.  Logged-in users may not realise this when they add pictures.

Wikia ''currently'' uses the following types or formats of adverts on pages within Wikia wiki sites:

*On various content pages, Wikia also sells 'Sponsored links', which are a section of links that look like an 'External links' page content section, but are placed below the category bar;

*Wikia places a floating social bar at the bottom of the screen for anon users — a square advert may pop out of the left of this bar;

*''Occasionally Wikia may make use of take-over adverts which replace the background image'';

*''They rarely show up, but have been more common recently; Wikia has tried placing {{Wp|in-text advertising}} in page content occasionally''.

As of September 2012, Wikia Inc. was worth an estimated US$13.93 million to the advertisers, with a daily page view of more than 6,358,000; since all three links have nearly the same figures, it must be for the whole of Wikia.

===[[:Category:Wikia skin|Wikia skins]]===

Following this change of skin, previously,{{When}} registered [[user]]s of Wikia who understood how to use their wiki preferences could choose which [[:Category:Wikia skin|skin]] they used (this facility was obviously unavailable to [[IP editor]]s).  This option was however, subsequently changed, so not even registered users were able to change the skin on their <u>own</u> wiki site.

Wikia subsequently introduced a third new skin called '[[:Category:Oasis|Oasis]]', which became widely unpopular with registered [[user]]s.  [[WikiaSite:community:User blog:MarioGalaxy2433g5/To the people complaining about the new look|To the people complaining about the new look]] documented user {{Cambridge-Dictionary|disdain}}.  This new Oasis skin became compulsory for all users and wiki sites.  Because of this change, many Wikia users [[:Category:Goal abandoned|have now left]], often [[:Category:Ex-Wikia|taking their wiki site]] and community members with them.  Oasis would later become the only skin available to users of all wiki sites on Wikia.  This caused heavy criticism, with some users criticising Fandom, then Wikia, for taking away their choices of skin.  This Oasis skin would later be retired and replaced with [[#FandomDesktop|FandomDesktop]].

Wikia also supports a [[:Category:Wikis with a mobile-view site|mobile-view]] specific skin, designed to be used on [[:Category:Smartphone|smartphones]] and / or [[:Category:Tablet|tablet]] computers.  This mobile-specific version is automatically displayed when any Wikia wiki site is opened on such devices; although there is the option to also view the conventional desktop version using the then [[#Oasis|Oasis]] skin via a link at the bottom-centre (footer) of every page (and vice-versa to view mobile layout from a desktop version).  It should be noted that using this footer link effectively changes the default of all pages to the mobile view.  There is a way to view a mobile page as a 'one time option', by manually manipulating the wiki site URL with <tt>?useformat=mobile</tt> at the end of the URL, i.e., <tt><nowiki>https://WikiSiteName.Fandom.com?useformat=mobile</nowiki></tt>, with subsequent pages retaining the default desktop rendered display.

In December [[:Category:Founded in 2014|2014]], Wikia introduced yet another skin called '[[:Category: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 'Fandom' branding now well-established, 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.

The [[Anti-Wikia Alliance]] (AWA) wiki site was founded on [[:Category:ShoutWiki|ShoutWiki]] to provide ongoing support and advice to the users of a number of former Wikia wiki sites who are now hosted either independently or on another [[wiki farm]].

In late [[:Category:Founded in 2016|2016]], at the same time as the global rebrand from Wikia to Fandom, its parent company, Wikia, {{Cambridge-Dictionary|incorporated|Inc.}} also launched a [[:Category:Non-profit|non-profit]] sister site [https://wikia.org Wikia.org].  '''Wikia.org''' also acted as a [[wiki farm]], and used the identical custom-modified MediaWiki software as Wikia.com.  However, the most obvious difference was a lack of [[:Category:Advertising|advertising]].  Wiki sites hosted on Wikia.org continued to use the [[:Category:Wiki Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike|Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported license]] (CC-BY-SA 3.0), so whilst Wikia, Inc. 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.

Wikia.org was subsequently [[:Category:Goal abandoned|retired]] November 2021.<ref>[https://community.fandom.com/wiki/Help:Wikia.org_domain_migration Help: Wikia.org domain migration]; ''Community.Fandom.com''; [[Wikia Community Central (en)]]; accessed 14 January 2023.</ref>

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