User blog:Daiku/Leaving Wikia

Okay, guys, I don't know if you've heard this or not, but the folks over at Custom Bionicle Wiki decided that they'd be better off as an independent wiki than one under Wikia. They're having a vote for whether or not to strike out on their own, and they've invited Bioniclepedia to join them. Right now, there's just one voting page including both wikis, but we'll probably be getting a separate vote here on BP soon. But what I'm writing about is this: I think that leaving Wikia would be a big mistake for this wiki, and none of the problems we have with Wikia are big enough to warrant leaving.

BS01 is probably one of the biggest factors when it comes to this. For those of you who don't know, Bionicle Sector 01 is an independently-run Bionicle wiki that has official ties to BZPower, the largest Bionicle fansite on the web. Bioniclepedia was originally founded by a user who was banned from BS01. By now, you're probably trying to figure out what BS01 has to do with Wikia. In its present state, Bioniclepedia has two advantages over BS01 when it comes to attracting new editors: It's part of the vast Wikia network (which is how I got here) and it comes up first on a Google search for "Bionicle Wiki" (which is how Panakalego found BP). Most of the rest of our users get here from word of mouth, but BS01's got that, too. If we go with CBW and go to an independent namespace, we'll lose both of those advantages. And although we've been improving by leaps and bounds, BS01's still got the edge when it comes to reputation and organization. When presented with a choice, why would a random Bionicle fan choose Bioniclepedia over BS01?

Now, let's address the problems I've heard from supporters of BP leaving Wikia, who shall remain nameless. I also want to say to those nameless users that although I'm doing my best to represent your views, it's been a couple of days since I heard them, and I may forget something. Don't assume I'm trying to straw-man you.

One of the problems is the ads on the Main Page. They're quite distracting (and they're designed to be!), they push the Main Page down, and there have been more of them being added. And while they may be annoying, they're also only on the Main Page. I don't know about everybody else, but I'm only on the Main Page every once in a while, so it really doesn't bother me. Not a big enough reason to leave.

There's also the fact that we can't do IP checks. I'll admit, this is a really annoying problem, and I get frustrated with it as much as anybody. I don't understand why Wikia won't let Administrators do IP checks. But regardless, we don't have that many times that we have to make IP checks on users (I can only think of a handful in the past year), and we can ask one of the staff members to do it if it's really important.

A third thing is our inability to add the extra features we want to our wiki. I was never able to get an example of what we wanted that we don't already have access to (Although that might have been because we had to end the discussion short). We've got a whole bunch of little sidebar things that you can pick and choose, and the Wikia staff adds features like Edit Patrolling and Blogs without us having to do any work!

So now, the conclusion. Sure, there's some things that are annoying or frustrating about the way Wikia operates. But it's a small price to pay for the hosting, help, and publicity it can provide and has been providing us. You can vote for us to leave if you want, but it's doubtful that we'll get near as much traffic as we have here. We'll be able to make IP checks, but there won't be any vandals around to check. We'll have a nice clean Main Page, but nobody will look at it. We'll be able to put whatever extra features we want on, but nobody will be around to use them. There isn't enough room in the Bionicle Wiki community for two independent wikis, and I don't think we'll be able to displace BS01. Maybe the strength of Custom Bionicle will keep us up as well; maybe it won't. I can't predict with certainty. But I've put a lot of work into this wiki, and I know that there's people who've put many times more work than I have into it. I don't want to see us lose all that work by setting up an independent database that nobody will see. Wikia's made us what we are, and they can help us get better. Let's vote to keep Bioniclepedia where it is.