Wikia After 20 October 2010[]
I plan to stop contributing to Wikia wikis after 20 October 2010 because this no longer seems like a good place for wikis. Wikia's new direction includes some interesting ideas and is probably an excellent thing for small communities looking for a place to gather and which use wikis for only a fraction of their interests. However, the company keeps evolving away from support central repositories of encyclopedic knowledge that anyone can edit. (Wikipedia, which shares founders with Wikia, is not moving in this direction.)
There are really only two core ideas behind a wiki: (1) anyone who wants to shares in keeping it accurate and useful and (2) anyone who wants to can browse its contents. The new changes at Wikia are not geared to make either of these things better. In some ways, they make both things harder: (a) the new skin, mandatory for non-registered readers, can now look so different from custom skins that support for both requires contributors to logout to view how their edits; (b) the fixed width prevents wikis from taking advantage of large screens to show tables and galleries; (c) the size of the fixed-width discourages the use of sidebars (a frequently useful tool for wikis); (d) Wikia seems to be removing features that actually aid people in communicating about the core functions; and (e) Wikia is forcing an easier-to-contribute system that generates awkward Wiki code (fine for sites without wiki-code gurus, but bad for sites lucky enough to have them).
There are a lot of good ideas behind the new skin, many of which are implemented in technically and visually slick ways. Limiting design makes it easier for Wikia to support more Wikis. Providing clearly identified space for ads makes it easier for Wikia to make money, which is good for communities as it ensures stability here. It also probably means better support for existing features and ultimately, for new ones.
Unfortunately, the new changes will make my job as a contributor more difficult. It also makes me feel that I am contributing free labor (in the form of valuable content) that is used to support Wikia and its advertisers. Why should I contribute here when, for the subjects that are of interest to me, there are other wikis out there that better support the fundamentals of wiki-ness? Why should I continue to donate my time to Wikia when Wikia is returning less to me than before?