Paving the way to Wikia's future

Sarah Manley July 15, 2010

Wikia’s growing quickly. Each month, we’re getting 33 million visitors from around the world, and have a total of 2 million registered users. Across Wikia, there are some 4 million pages of content, in over 130,000 communities. That’s a whopping 30% increase in user activity from last year. This is all thanks to you -- dedicated Wikia users. Your passion and knowledge helps drive this incredible growth, and we think that's awesome!

We’ve added new features that make wikis easier to start, simpler to edit, and more fun to use. The rich text editor allows anyone to contribute to a wiki even with limited knowledge of wikitext. Facebook Connect makes it easier for people to log in, contribute, and share their favorite content. And while it used to take days to get your own wiki -- now it just takes 20 seconds.

But we want to make Wikia even better! We love being the best place for gaming and entertainment information, but our goal is to be a place that attracts the widest possible range of people to read, write, and connect. Wouldn’t it be cool if everyone knew what a “wiki” was? And you didn’t have to use “Wikipedia” to explain? We plan to get there by making Wikia the most fun way to build a website with your friends.

We’ve nabbed some great web talent including experts in user experience, visual designers, front-end engineers, and community advocates, from the most community-focused companies out there. We’re using their experience along with a ton of feedback from user testing and brand surveys to create a bigger and broader Wikia.

Here’s where we’re going:

A fresh look. A clear layout with improvements to the reading experience so more people can enjoy the amazing rich content created by Wikia's communities.
Increased discoverability. Introducing visitors to rich new content and making it easier to find and explore new topics.
Easier customization tools. We want everyone to be able to make beautiful wikis -- not just those who know CSS and JavaScript.

What’s next? We’re brimming over with awesome ideas and we're eager to put them into action. So over the next few weeks, we’ll be heads down sketching out possible new looks for Wikia and working on new functionality. We know this post may raise more questions than it answers, but we're very excited about what's next and wanted to let you know. Stay tuned!

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Retrieved from "http://community.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Sarah_Manley/Paving_the_way_to_Wikia%27s_future"

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"A fresh look. A clear layout with improvements to the reading experience so more people can enjoy the amazing rich content created by Wikia's communities. "
Little did we know! :(

September 30, 2010 by MontagnaMagica
August 19, 2010 by TurtleShroom
The complaints against the new changes seem to be trivial since this change is coming down for everyone as a whole (though some of the complaints I DO agree with).
Rather than be upset about it, why do we not wait and see what will REALLY be affected? We haven't even begun Beta testing and have nothing more to go off of than a screenshot. The new changes may open the door to a whole BUNCH of future changes that we will be able to integrate.
We are a Wikia (that ANYONE can edit), which means we should be able to adjust to changes as needed and move forward. Let's try to come up with ways to use the new stuff we are given to make things better than they currently are.

August 17, 2010 by M1shawhan

Considering past major changes have broken a LOT of pages and caused a LOT of work, I think it's fair for people to ask questions and express concern BEFORE the changes are made to the site as a whole.

August 18, 2010 by Bzero
We could end up breaking wikia with the changes, and cause lots of chaos.

August 19, 2010 by ToShootToKill
Sounds like a bunch of glass-half-empty vs. glass-half-full people.
Anybody ever heard, 'you catch more bees with honey than vinegar'?

August 20, 2010 by Peteparker
>We could end up breaking wikia with the changes, and cause lots of chaos

I agree - chaos

October 26, 2010 by Toothless99
Actually they have bots to deal with that and they can just block
Also the fact that when Monaco came this stuff all happened and HEY LOOK its all be fine up till when they change the new skin
Now if they made a new skin every 3 months and put up the harshest rules ever THEN I'd accept that statement, but theyre not

October 26, 2010 by Technobliterator

Just keep it as it is. The new layout looks absolutely appalling, its not 'beautiful'.

August 17, 2010 by ToShootToKill

Agreed. -† TurtleShroom™! Jesus Loves You and Died for You!! † :) :) {{subst:template:TSSIGNATURE}} 22:09, August 19, 2010 (UTC)

August 19, 2010 by TurtleShroom
agreed

October 26, 2010 by Toothless99

@Dennyboy1997 - you're allowed to use Monobook for yourself. It just can't be the default wiki skin. If you'd rather not use Monaco, feel free to switch to Monobook under the skin section of your own preferences. =)

August 8, 2010 by Brandon Rhea
Can we get Monobook back?!? I HAAAATE Monaco!

August 8, 2010 by Dennyboy1997
Not good. The Kingdom Hearts wiki has already had the RTE removed due to the fact that it makes a bloody mess of articles. It adds lines and such. If the improvments are going along the lines of that, then there will be trouble.

August 5, 2010 by The Inexistent
holo

July 30, 2010 by A Wikia contributor
A bot or some pretty simple javascript could do that^. I wouldn't think wikia would need to do that on their end for you, probably something you can rig up yourself.

July 24, 2010 by A Wikia contributor
That last thing sounds like something a bot could do: marking stale short page with a deletion template. I wouldn't consider it dead weight though, but more like opportunities (to say something very optimistic).

July 23, 2010 by Brambram
Agreed. All of the "Stale Pages" should be put up for deletion if they're not large enough. Kinda getting rid of some dead weight on wikis.

July 23, 2010 by TDAwesome15
Cool

July 23, 2010 by AidanRiot
One more thing I would like is a button to delete all the unused files. It keeps stacking up and it takes forever to delete them one at a time. :/

July 23, 2010 by Webkinz Mania
history
@Brambram Yes there are limits in place on how many wikis somebody can make in a time period.

July 22, 2010 by Joeyaa
"And while it used to take days to get your own wiki -- now it just takes 20 seconds. "
...And that's a good thing? :D Is there even a limit of maximum wikis you can 'create' within a week?
Anyway, I'm really exited about the fresh look and easier customization tools, but I do hope it will stay as flexible as monaco currently is.

July 22, 2010 by Brambram
WOW! that is a lot of ppl. I am looking foward to the new ideas

July 22, 2010 by Anon....
Maybe allow people to have the option to change their usernames without registering a new account. Also, in the editing box, maybe have people have the option to use whatever font they choose instead of this old school font. Looks too old and not modern.

July 20, 2010 by Rocketman2462
Posting comments at the top and bottom makes sense, and I favor it. You may see a post and want to comment right away, or you may want to read comments, and when you get done want to comment, and not scroll all the way up to the top.

July 20, 2010 by LordTBT
About the new comments style: The place to post a comment should be on the top or the bottom, not both. Top is prefered for me.

July 20, 2010 by Krazy Rabbit
This is great stuff! I absolutely love Wikia.

July 20, 2010 by Bentendo