Talk:Anti-Wikia Alliance

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All questions and new solutions to the Dantman Monaco port should go here.

''Wanna say a few words why? Please express your feelings.'' __NEWSECTIONLINK__

All Monaco help files which a wikia staff member redirected recreated here
I asked admin air777 to ask the shoutwiki staff to upload the Monaco help files which a wikia staff member redirected on wikia:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3MLj1JyAiwoNGZhZWJkMmItYTQzZS00YjMyLWIzMzAtY2E3NzRhZWM1YzYx&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

I think it would be a good idea to have a home for these here.

Anno1404 22:36, 16 December 2010 (UTC)
 * The Club Penguin Wiki Network would gladly help out. Just let us know. We'll set up a site. Power to the People! (MAKE a effort) 01:10, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Update: an shoutwiki admin wrote:
 * We won't be importing the old help pages used by Wikia, we'll instead write our own help pages as soon as time permits. Some of the images aren't necessary either (Wikia logo comes to mind) and I have the header button images on my laptop.
 * This is incredibly unrealistic and I don't think it will happen anytime soon, if ever.
 * So we should probably just continue to transfer the pages here.  —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) Admin.svg 15:42, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Newsletter/Draft
I am planning on sending this out to the 43 former wikias which left later tonight, if you have anything you would like to add be bold and add it, or have any suggestions, please let me know. Anno1404 22:07, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Greetings
I am a former (prior to being banned) Admin from the Talisman Online Wiki on Wikia, which successfully moved to Curse.com (along with Wowpedia, GWiki, and PVX Wiki). While I understand your reasoning to a point, there also comes a time where you have to say enough is enough. Wikia has shot itself in the foot with this change. They have lost their credibility with most major gaming companies, so I would guess that the Gaming branch of Wikia will continue to see a decline. The remaining wikis on Wikia will either adapt to the changes that Wikia has forced, or they will also fork to other hosts. The loss of WoWWiki's community, as well as the backing from Blizzard was a major blow to Wikia, and I believe it will not be the last as more of the larger wikis get fed up and leave. For myself however, there is no further planned involvement with Wikia, I am happy with the move to Curse, and am focusing on continuing the work on the Talisman Online Wiki, and I'm sure that Talisman Online@Wikia will simply fade into the obscurity that it enjoyed prior to my adoption of the site. Like Blizzard, Miracle Castle (the publisher of Talisman Online) has fully supported our move and corrected the fansite links on their website. I do not see any need to further campaign against Wikia, their bottom line will show the rewards of their callous treatment of their volunteer communities one way or another and my time and energy is better spent supporting my community (tiny though it is) as well as providing support for other Curse.com wikis (I am now a contracted member of the Curse.com team). I wish you all luck but would seriously recommend you do the same... focus on supporting your communities wherever they are, and let Wikia continue to dig it's own grave. --Wynthyst 08:18, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for visiting and taking the time to comment.
 * A lot of editors still want to leave and are in the process of building their wikis on their own. The founders of this alliance were wise enough to foresee the need for a list of departing wikias who could help each other. At this point, I see this site as a way to help departing wikias and give advice and viable options to those who still want to leave.
 * I am very thankful for this site, long after wikia was instituted and I was indefinitely banned, I found out about the new monaco skin available to wikis, and because of this, we are able to work together too merge two former wikias into one.
 * I respect your desire to focus your energies on building your site alone. I hope you can see the merits of some editors wanting to expand that circle of assistance, to help other communities too.
 * I will let you focus solely on building your site, and will not post future newsletters on your site.
 * Congratulations on your move. Visiting your site I noticed it is one of the best designed sites, in the top three. I only wish your community the best. Anno1404 08:34, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the compliment on our site, and should other gaming wikis be looking for a new home on a full blown gaming network, they should feel free to contact me. My above comments were meant more as a caution to you and your alliance against taking further steps to intentionally disrupt Wikia (the inclusion of the code in the newsletter that you admit will get you banned on wikia). It really serves little purpose. I do applaud your wish to be a resource of advice and support to other communities considering a move from Wikia. My suggestion would be to use other means (email where available) to contact the leaders of those communities who are voicing their concerns about wikia and beginning discussions regarding the possibilities of leaving. Continuing to monitor the status of the wikias that have been "left" by their communities only furthers to strengthen their numbers, rather than allowing them to fall into disrepair and eventual obscurity. It's clear that Wikia's position and policy has changed greatly since Jimmy Wales' interview that you quoted in the newsletter and it is also clear to me that they will actually consider legal action against people they believe are intentionally trying to "damage" them since they have no intention of allowing anyone to "take their content with them when they leave". Or rather you can take a copy of it, but you have to leave the original behind. I'm just suggesting caution. As for the "rest" of my community.. it consists of 3 friends of mine and me. I don't believe for a second that Wikia cares one wit that we left, and they have 1800 more pages about the game Talisman Online than they did when I started, but that's all they will ever have. --Wynthyst 15:23, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Excellent points, you seem like a really good admin, I will take your great advice to heart sir. Anno1404 19:42, 18 December 2010 (UTC)


 * I support Wyn's comment: the new changes are no longer new &mdash; those who are willing to stay and adapt are doing so; those unwilling to suffer have moved or are trying to do so. The biggest weapon in AWA's arsenal is to make it easy for those groups to find a new home, move their data, and get their new site into shape. Any energy spent dissing Wikia takes time away from Allies in the alliance. 75.36.181.33 20:44, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree, thus the newsletter. We have been actively working to help editors find that new home. I got indefinitely banned, not for dissing wikia, but for letting communities know that shoutwiki has wikia, giving editors an alternative.
 * RE: "it is also clear to me that they will actually consider legal action against people they believe are intentionally trying to "damage" them"
 * Wow, any examples? If you come across them, I would be very interested.
 * it is heartening to see over a month since the new skin, and communities continue to leave. Anno1404 20:55, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Incorrect info
The information you have on the alternative wiki hosts seem wrong?

---

It also seems biased towards shoutwiki. I guess that's okay seeing as this wiki is hosted there, but please don't disparage other hosts unnecessarily.

eg, Wikkii is not 1GB space, its unlimited. And not 10GB bandwidth, it's unlimited.

You also say about Wikkii "First edit on the wiki main page was only in June 2009, so may not be there in the long term. (Many of these sites don't last)"

But you also recommend Shoutwiki which was started April 2009, a whole TWO MONTHS before. That doesn't make sense.

And what about these really big wiki hosts you don't list, like Wikihost.org, Wikidot.com, atwiki.com, bluwiki.com, editthis.info. They all have been around for AGES compared to Shoutwiki and Wikkii but you don't suggest them.
 * you can add all of that information --including warning about shoutwiki too. We welcome it. Anno1404 05:28, 21 December 2010 (UTC)


 * We can add the info from http://editthis.info/wiki/wiki_hosting_comparison_guide. Perhaps we can also add the info about the MW version used. AWAMember (Talk page, Mail me). 19:12, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Monaco Is up!
See http://blog.shoutwiki.com/2010/12/merry-christmas/ --Hockeyben 00:14, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Christmas
Kinda funny, for Christmas shoutwiki gives us Monaco skin, and wikia gives us some lame contests. (talk • contribs) Admin.svg 04:32, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Here is the link http://community.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Sarah_Manley/Happy_Holidays_from_Wikia. --Hockeyben 20:44, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

The only difference I have noticed between shoutwikis and wikias Monaco is the recent activity menu, and there is no create a page tab. Hockeyben 04:20, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

UserScript?
Here is a userscript/userjs to redirect hyperlinks to the wikis left by AWA members to their new sites Script You may edit and use. (unsigned editor)
 * thank you.  —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) Admin.svg 16:24, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

Oasis on Sickapedia
For all Oasis haters, here you go. Space! Wait, whut?! 00:32, 24 December 2010 (UTC)
 * awesome! maybe we should add that to the Mediawiki:sitenotice? thoughts?  —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) Admin.svg 16:26, 24 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Great! This is perfect! (This unsigned comment was from TheHappySpaceman

Backup of this wiki
Shoutwiki was down yesterday, so I decided to do a backup of these files again, you can too, just add these names to Special:Export.

I think this is most of them. —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) 22:50, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

new user box
The AWA box is older.

—Anno1404 (talk • contribs) 02:34, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

tropicalwikis.com broken
I removed this: !TropicalWikis
 * We listen to your needs. If most of you don't want a new skin we've made, we'll make it optional for those few that might want it, still making it possible for other good skins! Founded by Seahorseruler and Frozen Wind.
 * align=center|

The link is broken.

If the site is added back, only information that should be included is:

"Skin options available", and maybe the date the site went live. Currently it sounds like an ad.  —Anno1404 (talk • contribs)  16:01, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * If you remove the www. part it should work. I've rewrote it for you as well.

|- !TropicalWikis
 * Skin options available, customizations not possible online may be requested
 * align=center|
 * Power to the People! (MAKE a effort) 06:08, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

IMPORTANT NOTICE
ALL DANTMAN MONACO QUESTIONS GO HERE. Thank you, Jeff -- (ChitChat) 05:01, 28 December 2010 (UTC).
 * I moved all dantman monaco questions to the same page. Nice idea. I was considering it myself, and I am glad you jumped on it.  —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) Admin.svg 15:52, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Sharing is caring
Thought id share the wikia i just made here hehehe 11:13, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Removing Shoutwiki's recommended status
Unfortunately, I feel like I have to remove Shoutwiki's recommended status here. The frequent down times and the extremely slow load speeds made me drop it from "recommended" to 3 stars.

Ironically, I would have done this a couple of days ago, but the site was so slow, I was unable to change it.

As this is a wiki, anyone is welcome to revert my changes. But please explain here why. I hope things change soon, so we can re-recommend the site. I will continue to monitor this site. —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) 15:49, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Wikia's view page numbers
From: http://www.quantcast.com/wikia.com

From http://community.wikia.com/wiki/User_talk:Sannse :

According to quantcast, since the new skin it looks like wikias page views are flat at best. The sharp drop in late December gave me pause, then I realized it was probably because of Christmas, and their was a similar sharp drop the year before.

What is interesting is what accounts for the spikes? I think one is the release of Fallout New Vegas. —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) 16:38, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Give us choice or give us a block!
With all the merging I can't figure out who originally added this, but inst it supposed to be give us death? 01:22, 30 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah... (sounds kinda weird the old way)

Time to move awa?
The lag on shoutwiki is just terrible guys.

We can host awa on my server, which is currently used for deadrisingwiki.com. Unless someone has a better place to go. I would rather we host it somewhere else other than my server myself.

We will need to buy a url, but they are only around $10. I will ask the battlestar.com editor if we can be hosted there too.

Of the two bureaucrats: Smiley has left wikia, and Air is on wiki-vacation. I can still message him when we decide where. —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) 18:09, 3 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Guys, sorry, but I have to agree with Anno1404. Shoutwiki has been very slow and unstable recently. How can I promote or advertise the site if it keep showing "Server not found" message?. AWAMember (Talk page, Mail me). 19:21, 3 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I agree. For now, we can move to Anno's hosting. (I also have hosting available on DreamHost, just contact me for more.) Power to the People! (MAKE a effort) 01:18, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I would rather use someone's hosting. It is hard enough dealing with my large communities constant demands with my limited computer prowess.  —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) Admin.svg 18:08, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Use mime :) Power to the People! (MAKE a effort) 23:18, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Galleries showing pictures without file: like wikia
This is so big! Every wiki which wikia leaves should know about this, it will save hundreds of hours! I worked on it for months, AND THE SOLUTION IS SO EASY! (thanks to otherworldbob) I also posted this on the recent fork of this site,, but I find it will save editors so much time, I need to post it here too.

In the

UPDATE: SOLUTION!!!!

SOLUTION which works!:

In: \includes\parser\Parser.php

Change: $tp = Title::newFromText( $matches[1]/*, NS_FILE*/ );

To: $tp = Title::newFromText( $matches[1], NS_FILE );

Original post:

—Anno1404 (talk • contribs) 22:11, 3 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Wikia intentionally broke galleries so things like that would happen on people moving from Wikia. One of the incompatible changes was the File/Image namespace omited. Another incompatible change is that the widths parameter should have the "px" appended to it, but Wikia made it optional, so if you have galery widths="150" you need to change it to widths="150px" in order to work in other wikis. See  --Ciencia Al Poder 17:34, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

If wikia brings back monaco
If wikia decides to bring Monaco back, will any of you return? I will not, they have shwon their true colors and i want nothing to do with them. 23:11, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
 * fascinating thought, where in gods name are you getting this idea though--please share. Kind of annoying if you read this somewhere and didnt post the relevant info here!  —Anno1404 (talk • contribs) Admin.svg 10:38, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
 * no i was posing a hypothetical questions - probably should have mentioned that. Anyway on another, similar, note the while Anti Wikia Alliance makes it seem your against wikia, not the skin. Not that I care, i hate Wiki (both the site and the skin). 07:52, 6 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I think only the mass exodus may force them to return the Monaco.
 * As for AWA - we are against the wikia`s ways of doing business, such as: Applying a new crappy skin with a lots of ads place AND making it mandatory for unregistered visitors DESPITE the massive complaints, Denying the possibility to change the dafault skin for a guests, A lot of prohibitions in their Customization policy preventing us from making the good-looking articles. For example you can`t move the "Recent Wiki Activity" to the left fr the whole wiki, only for yourself. You can not move or block the ads. But this way they are not making the article look good. There are more things prohibited. See Terms of Use. Mainly the are to make sure ads are present and located where the Wikia (NOT you) wants.
 * If you are tired of this management and their ways of business, then we are here to help with the moving out of there. AWAMember (Talk page, Mail me). 12:31, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

well i moved long ago and am very happy, all i have to look out for is angry wikia users who want to vandalise my wiki so their crappy unrealible one seems better. 23:06, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Skins
Once Shoutwiki has Vector skin they will have 3 good skins to wikias 1. (Monaco, Vector, Monobook) Vs Just Monobook. All S.W. really needs to do is improve site performance (Its been better over the last couple days). --Hockeyben 19:54, 7 January 2011 (UTC)
 * You are a great cheerleader for shoutwiki. Please keep us informed of all new events.  —Anno1404 <small vertical-align="center">(talk • contribs) Admin.svg 16:12, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Embrace, extend and extinguish
Embrace, extend and extinguish

Also posted here: Why_we_left

Ciencia Al Poder a fellow Anti Wikia Alliance member and a co-creator of one of the core extensions, LinkSuggest described Wikia as using a Embrace, extend and extinguish strategy to prevent or make it more difficult to take the content of wikia to another wiki hosting provider.

"Embrace, extend and extinguish," also known as "Embrace, extend and exterminate," is a phrase that the U.S. Department of Justice found was used internally by Microsoft to describe its strategy for entering product fields which had widely used and open programming, advancing the programming but applying copyright, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors.

Although built on the free and open Mediawiki software, Wikia regularly creates extensions and skins which programming can only work on Wikia. Finding the source coding for Wikia extensions and skins are difficult if not impossible. Unlike Wikipedia, which lists links with all coding for all of its extensions in use, Wikia does not list links to their products.

This forces Wikia editors to remain on Wikia to keep all features that their community has grown accustomed too.

Contacting wikia extension creators

So, since most of the editors who are the most angry about Wikia's new skin are experienced veteran editors with some programming experience, I am wondering if some of the extension creators are disgruntled too? I am interested if there is a memo floating around or some external emails in which Wikia explicitly states that wikia extensions and skins should be intentionally so wikia centric, that it makes it difficult for editors to leave wikia.

I was thinking we could contact these extension creators, all listed here:

Thoughts? —Anno1404 <small vertical-align="center">(talk • contribs) 16:12, 14 January 2011 (UTC)


 * 1) We may contact the creators and ask if they can publish their extensions available for everyone.
 * 2) I still do not fully understand the point of "Embrace, extend and extinguish". Wikia had changed the extensions and now they do not need some parameters for using. Why must wikia publish this extensions? The text states "using those differences to disadvantage its competitors". If you like it or not - this is the way the business is running. A company can and will use its advantages over their competitors. If one doesn`t like it - one if free to go away from this provider.
 * And what exact inconveniences may be when you are trying to use the content on other sites? It is not a very big problem to add the px yourself. Not working extension? Yes - do you really expect them to work outside wikia?
 * Nobody forces you to stay on wikia or prevents you from moving. AWAMember 20:03, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I got a full understanding of the concept when I read the full wikia article. I strongly suggest reading it. I like it a lot.
 * Mediawiki extensions are built to work on all wikis. See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension_Matrix
 * The skins are the biggest problems, as you know we have an entire shoutwiki site dedicated to figuring out how to make Monaco work on all wikis. It took shoutwiki months to fix monaco.
 * The way the skin is made specifically for wikia causes a barrier to leaving. Whether intentional or unintentional.  —Anno1404 <small vertical-align="center">(talk • contribs) Admin.svg 20:39, 14 January 2011 (UTC)


 * 1)We now have Monaco-port. So the skin should not be the main problem for leaving.
 * 2)...wikia extensions and skins should be intentionally so wikia centric...
 * Once extension is modified for a particular site, it becomes site-centric. Same with wikia - I do not think they made it to make the leaving more difficult. They have modified it for their site. And of course, you will not find this modification on external hostings. I guess the same will be with SW - a SW-specific extension(s) will be unavailable on other sites and may be a barrier for leaving.
 * 3) What do you want to ask the extensions creators?
 * AWAMember (Talk page, Mail me). 07:37, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

AWA potentially the wikileaks of Wikia?
I am interested if we could become the wikileaks of Wikia? Maybe setting up a page here asking disgruntled editors to email us at a certain place?

This leads to all sorts of questions,


 * 1) would shoutwiki allow such a page,
 * 2) is it very possible wikia would threaten shoutwiki?
 * 3) Do we need to move the site to create a Wikia wikileaks?
 * 4) Should we actively search for discontent on wikia and solicit disgruntled editors?

Thoughts? —Anno1404 <small vertical-align="center">(talk • contribs) 16:12, 14 January 2011 (UTC)


 * We do not need any troubles for Wikia so I guess staying on SW or leaving to a separate host make no difference as they can find us anywhere.
 * Instead of saying "wikia may be bad for you" let us just help people to move from there.
 * AWAMember 20:19, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't want to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Don%27t_stuff_beans_up_your_nose This is not an issue of them finding us.
 * We can continue to help people move from wikia. We can focus on both. Nothing increases peoples interest in a project like a scandal.  —Anno1404 <small vertical-align="center">(talk • contribs) Admin.svg 20:42, 14 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I am not following the "Don't stuff beans up your nose" idea. Do we tell someone not to do something?
 * If you want a scandal you have to add more "Why I left Wikia" stories. The more stories we have the more people will know about it. AWAMember (Talk page, Mail me).

Unsolicited emails being sent from "wikiavisitor@yahoo.com"
Unsolicited emails being sent from "wikiavisitor@yahoo.com"

—Anno1404 <small vertical-align="center">(talk • contribs) 16:13, 14 January 2011 (UTC)