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

{{For|the Wikia community portal wikis in various languages|Wikia Community Central}}

{{For|those Wikia wikis who left Wikia to re-establish as an independent wiki or on another wiki farm|category: Ex-Wikia}}

{{For|sub-categories of Wikia wikis by official language portals|category:De.Wikia|category:Es.Wikia|category:Fr.Wikia|category:It.Wikia|category:Ja.Wikia|category:Nl.Wikia|category:Pl.Wikia|category:Pt-Br.Wikia|category:Ru.Wikia|category:Sv.Wikia|category:Zh.Wikia}}

[[File:-Wikicities, hosted by - mini-banner.png|left|frame|original [[:Category:Wikicities|Wikicities]], 'hosted by' banner|alt=]]

[[File:WikicitiesLogo.png|left|frame|another [[Wikicities]] logo|alt=]]

'''<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]] (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/>

[[Wikia|Wikia.com]] (and now Fandom.com) uses a heavily modified and customized creation of the [[:Category:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]] [[:Category:Wiki engine|wiki engine]] software, to the point of making it unique.  It is visually different from conventional 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 dynamic [[:Category:Advertising|advertisements]].  The fundamental 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 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).

[[: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 vandals.

From its [[:Category:Founded in 2004|creation in 2004]], all wiki sites hosted on Wikia 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 2013; when it was deemed that 'open edit' was not compliant with the 'Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998', commonly known as [http://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 wikis 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'.

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 overwhelming vast majority of Wikia wiki sites are currently released under one primary [[:Category:Wiki license|wiki license]]: 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>

[[File:Wikia Gaming logo 250px.png|left|frame|Early Wikia Gaming portal logo|alt=]]

*[https://www.Fandom.com/topics/games Games]

*[https://www.Fandom.com/topics/movies Movies]

*[https://www.Fandom.com/topics/tv Television]</div>

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 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 administrators 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).

In respect of data for [[wikiFactor]] (wF) figures, originally found at <tt>/Special:PopularPages</tt> and subsequently at <tt>/Special:MostVisitedPages</tt>, this is now unknown 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]].

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 realize this when they add pictures.

Wikia ''currently'' uses the following types of adverts on pages:

*A large square advert in the [[sidebar]] which may often be a video advertisement;

*On large pages, a tall skyscraper advert is placed inside the end of the sidebar;

As of September 2012, Wikia 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|Skins]]===

Wikia subsequently introduced a third new '[[:Category:Oasis|Oasis]]' skin, 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 disdain.  This new Oasis skin became compulsory for all users.  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 skin would later be retired and replaced with 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 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>https://WikiSiteName.Fandom.com?useformat=mobile</tt>, with subsequent pages retaining the default desktop rendered display.

In December 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>

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 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.

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

{{WikiApiary-farm}}