This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments or questions on this topic should be made in a new Senate Hall page rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record. Toprawa and Ralltiir 21:53, December 6, 2010 (UTC)
Wikia is giving the WoWWiki more content area. Although Wikia is using statistics as an excuse, the real motivation is more basic: the WoWWiki threatened to leave Wikia. The WoWWiki is Wikia's largest and most popular wiki, so Wikia can't risk losing it.
Wookieepedia has nearly the same amount of leverage that WoWWiki has. Wikia can't afford to lose Wookieepedia due to Star Wars' large fandom. If we use this leverage and threaten to leave, Wikia will give Wookieepedia more content area and a better skin as well. I'm not suggesting that we actually leave; the treat to leave would simply be leverage.
Thoughts? --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 21:31, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- really don't believe threatening would do us any good, rather have a civilized discussions with Wikia-folks about this. Will babble more after some sleep... --Tm_T (Talk) 21:49, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- Then start a petition instead. I'm just suggesting that we bring something to the bargaining table. We can't just say, "Give us a wider content area, or we'll sit on our hands." Wikia will only listen to us if we have an impact their profits. Remember, Wikia is business, and we have to treat them as a business. If we treat them as shepherds instead of businesspersons, then they won't take us seriously. You can't negotiate without leverage. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 22:10, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- You also realize that we lose any said leverage by announcing that we wouldn't really be leaving? Empty threats don't amount to much. Toprawa and Ralltiir 22:03, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- I announced my intentions since I'm not planning to be the messenger. I'm an Encycloedia Dramatica sysop, so they have a convenient excuse not to listen to me. This is just the drawing board, not the actually declaration of grievances. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 22:10, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- You're hurting any chance of this scenario potentially ever succeeding by publicly announcing the ruse in this very thread. WoW Wiki only has leverage because the real threat exists: Wikia genuinely believes they're going to leave and fears losing them. All they have to do is read this thread and realize Wookieepedia isn't really going anywhere. It would be very easy for them to call our bluff, especially since they now know it's a bluff. But regardless, there are better ways of going about this, per Tm. Toprawa and Ralltiir 22:18, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- Alright. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 22:31, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- You're hurting any chance of this scenario potentially ever succeeding by publicly announcing the ruse in this very thread. WoW Wiki only has leverage because the real threat exists: Wikia genuinely believes they're going to leave and fears losing them. All they have to do is read this thread and realize Wookieepedia isn't really going anywhere. It would be very easy for them to call our bluff, especially since they now know it's a bluff. But regardless, there are better ways of going about this, per Tm. Toprawa and Ralltiir 22:18, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- I announced my intentions since I'm not planning to be the messenger. I'm an Encycloedia Dramatica sysop, so they have a convenient excuse not to listen to me. This is just the drawing board, not the actually declaration of grievances. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 22:10, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- Also, we don't really care about the fixed width. The generally accepted advice for the new skin here is: it's awful, but make it decent enough for anons who don't want to register and tell everyone else to use Monobook. NAYAYEN 22:25, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- It can't look decent on pages with a bunch of header templates and infoboxes (eg. The Force Unleashed II). Anons will comment on how everything looks squeezed, and telling readers to register defeats the purpose of allowing anonymity. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 22:31, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- The main style of those header templates is set in skin CSS files. It may well be (I don't know for sure because I'm not privy to it) that slimmer, Oasis-friendly versions will be formed that way. As for the anonymity, I was of the view that "DarthBob" would be more anonymous to someone than an IP address which can identify me more easily. But as Tope and Tm have said above, it would be better to ask Wikia than threaten them (with a threat that doesn't exist). They'd be more easily persuaded if we showed that higher resolutions are more common here and so (given that Wikia used that for their official reason) ask them to change it accordingly. NAYAYEN 22:56, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- It can't look decent on pages with a bunch of header templates and infoboxes (eg. The Force Unleashed II). Anons will comment on how everything looks squeezed, and telling readers to register defeats the purpose of allowing anonymity. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 22:31, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
I don't think it's right to cry and moan and threaten to leave Wikia, we should be more mature than that. The huge space they gave WoWWiki is nice, but we shouldn't be jealous. Wikia should allow us to choose the width we choose, but it's not that big a deal. Just nicely ask them to give us the same ability. Don't go to them and cry.
Also, it should be noted that over 15% of our readers use the screen resolution that this new skin is designed for. Having it bigger would mess their screens up. That percentage is going to be important to decide the size we will use, and if it's not small enough, it might not be a good idea. --Willy105 23:08, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
- Alright. It was a bad idea on my part. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 23:57, October 21, 2010 (UTC)
For the record, WoWWiki already moved away, but under the Creative Commons license Wikia can retain the content. That's why you still see the Wikia version. If Wookieepedia left Wikia, all it would do is duplicate the content elsewhere, while everything that's currently at starwars.wikia.com would remain at starwars.wikia.com. - Brandon Rhea 
(talk) 00:26, October 22, 2010 (UTC)
- I know. That's why happened when transformers.wikia.com (now tfwiki.net) and Illogicopedia left Wikia, and they both out-competed the old Wikia versions. In fact, the Illogicopedia were able to convince Wikia to change illogicopedia.wikia.com to wackypedia.wikia.com, plus they convinced Wikia to lock wackypedia for months due to the lack of sysops to prevent vandalism. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 00:40, October 22, 2010 (UTC)
- And then, when Wookieepedia is no longer a fan project and public support is on LFL's side, LFL will strike with a copyright lawsuit for the numerous copyvios here. SinisterSamurai 01:56, October 22, 2010 (UTC)
Also, leaving Wikia is a pain. You have to host and do everything yourself, and have to deal with not having viewers due to Wikia attracting viewers from their other Wikis. Plus, all the cool tricks we can do with the Wikia engine. And of course, always having to live with the bizarro alternative reality counterpart left behind here if we leave. --Willy105 01:21, October 22, 2010 (UTC)
- This thread is not about leaving Wikia; this thread is about discuss possible methods for securing a fine-looking layout for the wiki. My suggestion won't work as discussed earlier. --Michaeldsuarez (Talk) (Deeds) 01:49, October 22, 2010 (UTC)
- And so I declare this thread be ended now. Wookieepedia is not going anywhere. -- Riffsyphon1024 06:52, October 22, 2010 (UTC)
- Here's the thing, though: Is it necessarily an empty threat? Depending on who we persuade to leave, we could potentially guarantee that big sites like TFn and even Starwars.com recognize the new location. Something to think about, at least. -- Darth Culator (Talk) 11:55, October 22, 2010 (UTC)
I think Wookiepedia's layout is just fine with the smaller space. It looks great and less empty. Especially the front page, with the Quotes, Feature Articles, and Trivia looking great with the appearance that they have more meat to them.
Although the only thing I don't see as OK is how in articles, the font size of the header is the same size of the header that comes after it.
Like This
Part 1
It makes it hard to see those sections, and you might miss them when scrolling down. --Willy105 12:53, October 22, 2010 (UTC)
It happened
It already happened, WoWwiki left Wikia. Since removing content would Wikia treat as vandalizing, it would only end up by punishing wowiki admins and undoing all removals, WoWwikis current state remains on old URL, but wowwiki admins will probably cease to support it. --TakeruDavis 13:55, November 5, 2010 (UTC)
- Now there's a lapse of logic. Removing content is vandalism? In that case, looks like all our admins are vandals. Karohalva "Tact: the ability to describe someone as they see themself." 23:05, November 6, 2010 (UTC)
- That was meant for massive removing, like deleting whole WoWwiki would be. --TakeruDavis 12:45, November 7, 2010 (UTC)