Difference between revisions of "Category:Wikia"

Revision as of 14:11, 27 January 2009

Template:Wiki Farm

Description

Wikia is a collection of over 7000 wikis (a WikiFarm) run by Wikia, Inc, founded by Jimmy Wales, one of the founders of Wikipedia, and Angela Beesley in October 2004. In 2006, Gil Penchina became the CEO and hopes to take Wikia to a new level as he did with eBay.

Wikia offers free MediaWiki hosting for a community to build a free content wiki-based website. Hosting is free but users have little say over the advertisements their website displays. Requests for new wikis which have the potential to appeal to a wide audience are welcomed. Support on both the technical and community aspects of running a wiki community is provided. Wikia janitors have sysop powers throughout Wikia and help deal with vandals and spam on individual Wikis when needed. This can be helpful for controversial wikis like Liberapedia that attracts vandals. The janitors also deter vandals though the extent of this can't be measured. If users get a new message on any Wikia wiki they will get a note about the message on any other Wikia wiki where they have a window open. If a user has different usernames for different Wikia Wikis then logging into a different account for one can change the account for all. Different computers react differently.

Bureaucrats are not entirely independent

Wikia bureaucrats can promote an ordinary user to sysop. Bureaucrats can’t afterwards demote a sysop. Wikia central will demote a sysop only if there has been serious misconduct. This leads to a more equal relationship between bureaucrats and sysops. It can also make bureaucrats cautious about promoting sysops as this is a one way step. Caution can be a good thing. Demoted former sysops can feel so humiliated that they stop editing the wiki altogether. Only useful editors are likely to become sysops so driving them away is unwise. Wikia wikis may potentially have cautious bureaucrats and few sysops. The wikis may stay dependent on Wikia janitors and find it difficult to move if they ever want to.

Problems between Wikia and the Wikis it hosts

Now (since late October ’08) there are problems at Uncyclopedia to the author’s knowledge. Uncyclopedia is sensitive about a change in its URL. [1].

Monarco skin

Wikia has a controversial Monarco skin which displays advertisements effectively. Wikia claims Monarco encourages new users by making editing easier. Logged in users don't have to see the advertisements unless they choose to. For example, users may choose to see advertisements on Wikia in order to see how a page looks to other users. When logged in users work unpaid to impove wikis letting them avoid advertisements is very reasonable. Monarco skin has a prominent advetisement at the top right hand side of most pages. Unsually this is acceptable. 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 small pages. Logged in users may not realize this when they add pictures. Has Wikia considered moving advertisments to the left of a page? Can MediaWiki software detect a picture and move advertisements away from pictures? Wikia please note this.

Here is their list, for the fan of WikiIndex to add from!