Talk:Wikia Move/Archive 1

Questions & Answers
'Wow, this is...huge-- (Talk) (Contr.) 21:25, 10 September 2007 (CDT)
 * What do you guys think about it?--[[Image:Marcopolo47 signature new.jpg]] (Talk) (Contr.) 21:26, 10 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Umm ok, not the smartest of times to set the database to read only, eye of the north was just released. How long will the database be read only? Can we get links to the new owners? -- Xeon 21:33, 10 September 2007 (CDT)


 * I'm currently working close with Wikia to get a copy of our sites set up on our new server. Once they've got it running, I'll set the DB to read only, make a new dump, they'll import it, and we'll switch over the DNS. The only downtime should be the minimal DNS switching time. Gravewit 21:34, 10 September 2007 (CDT)
 * I think it's awesome! It sucks how many times I came on GuildWiki seeking some insight and found the servers down. Although there weren't many times when this happened, I must have luckily been searching for things unexpectedly during those down times. All I can say is Bravo! The work you've done here, and allowed us, the community, to contribute to any and everything the site has to offer is just awesome! No word can better describe what the two guys did. Awesome! All I can say is, don't try and fix a system that is not broken. When the Builds section went down, I almost cried... but then I thought "Hey! These guys are forcing me to be creative and actually go throw the list of skills at the trader before buying them all!" so for that, thanks. Stimulated my brain. And I guess that's that. Thanks for everything! --MagickElf666 21:35, 10 September 2007 (CDT)
 * If (when) you change the DNS, the propagation time for some areas can be up to 48 hours. So you're looking at about 2 days downtime for some people, even if it's up and running fine at the new place. Biscuits [[Image:Biscuit.png]] 04:27, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Actually you could work around that by keeping the old one up and running but editlocked, and provide a link to the IP of the new one until the DNS has resolved for everyone. Biscuits [[Image:Biscuit.png]] 05:40, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

So for the general user here, does this mean anything? Sure, it's hosted by a different company now; but like previously mentioned, it's still the same editors and sysops. Does the licensing change at all? Will we still have advertisements on the site? Are Gravewit and Nunix still in charge of adding extensions and whatnot to the servers?

That's a pretty big pile of questions there, but in the end, I'm just curious to know if anything at all changes in the way we edit. Any changes in policy because of all this? -- Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> .cнаt^  21:36, 10 September 2007 (CDT)


 * To the average user, nothing will really change. The ads will point to Wikia's ad code, and users will be able to take advantage of their new skin, but that's about it. Gravewit 21:38, 10 September 2007 (CDT)


 * I am glad you guys get a break. Readem (talk *contribs ) 21:36, 10 September 2007 (CDT)

Wikia is monopolizing. Seriously tho, horrible timing for guildwiki....--Alari 21:39, 10 September 2007 (CDT)


 * I agree. Could've at least waited 'til a while after EotN was released.  Maybe the end of September or something.  You can't set a site to read only when there's tons of new data to add.  Bad timing indeed o-o the imperialist

Srry to ask but i really dont know, Wth is wikia? --The Gates Assassin 21:40, 10 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Wikia gaming network They recently took the EQII wiki I sometimes contribute aswell.--Alari 21:43, 10 September 2007 (CDT)

Will Wikia censor or change any additions that we add?--Gigathrash 21:54, 10 September 2007 (CDT)


 * This will not happen. Gravewit 21:55, 10 September 2007 (CDT)

Will this change make any difference with our current situation with the official wiki? Any changes to fansite status, etc... or does that all stay the same as well?

And a bonus question. Does the URL change at all? Because I'd like to know before I have to do a Google search for my own userpage. :P -- Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> .cнаt^  22:03, 10 September 2007 (CDT)


 * As far as I know Anet isn't going to blackball us or anything. Wikia now owns all of the URLs, as well, which will be kept the same. Gravewit 22:09, 10 September 2007 (CDT)

Wikia's Guild Wars related wikis
Just curious ... will this DB dump overwrite Wikia's existing (tiny) English wiki for Guild Wars, or sit along-side it as an additional wiki on their network for Guild Wars? --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 21:46, 10 September 2007 (CDT)


 * We will be moving to our own servers within Wikia, and let the communities discuss how to take care of merging the sites, should they want to. We're going under the assumption that GuildWiki will take over the existing Guildwars wiki. It is not going to be a mandate, however. Gravewit 21:48, 10 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Hi. I'm one of the founders of Wikia. I'm pleased this community is joining us. Wikia's old Guildwars wiki has been moved to old.guildwars.wikia.com. Because the two wikis use a different license, the content can not be merged. The old wiki was not very active and I'm encouraging anyone who was editing there to join this one instead. The old content will be kept in case anyone who used to be involved in that wiki wants to see it, but this wiki will take over the primary guildwars.wikia.com URL. Angela 12:26, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

Wikia's other content-similar wikis
GuildWiki is the big one, no doubt. But the other GameWikis projects probably have parrallel projects already active on Wikia as well -- I know there's one for Warhammer Online. Amusingly, I very recently blogged a bit about that one. Maybe EA Mythic knew something about the future of GameWikis that the rest of us didn't? (Don't answer that.) At any rate, there seems to be potential for issues and territory wars and general wagging of epeens. Has any thought been put into figuring out how we are going to resolve those potential conflicts? I have a feeling it is not going to be in anyone's interest to have parallel Wikia projects running in the future. --Bishop 03:46, 11 September 2007 (CDT)


 * There's always the chance that it'll turn out much the same as GuildWiki and GuildWarsWiki... both side-by-side. Most contributors on one are on the other as well, and the two both provide information in their own way (GuildWiki's been here longer, so more info, but GuildWarsWiki is more connected to ANet, so more questions answered). Other wikis won't have such benefits to set them apart, but it's still not going to turn into a turf war, I don't think. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]] Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> .cнаt^  03:54, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Will be any changes in the licenses? It would be cool if they changed to a Guild Wars Wiki-compatible license, so some data could be shared freely between them. It's a bit tiring having to patrol for copypasting TT__TT. Mithran 15:19, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * No, the users here have made their contributions under the by-nc-sa license. In order to keep that content, the new site will also need to operate under the by-nc-sa license.  If they changed the license, it would be the same issue as on GWW - the old content not being compatible with the new license and it would need to be deleted. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 15:43, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

Ads
(discussion was mostly about blocking ads, only one unanswered question about ads vs BY-NC-SA)

Big news tonight
Hey guys ! That move is big news ! Yes it is. At least for me. I'm the founder of the french guild wars wikia, as some of you might already know by seen my user page. I know wikia very well, i think. But, since you said it's will be like Memory-Alpha, your "new" wiki will not be a wikia like mine. I mean, your domain name wont be somethin like fr.guildwars.wiki.com isn't it ? Will it be the same as right now ? If not, that mean we will have to adapt somes thing in our french wikia because there was a sort of linking system to here.

Anyways, i hope been on your own server will prevent the bigs slowdown we experience often on the french wikia and wellcome to our big familly. TulipVorlax 01:03, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

Wee!
Wikia's going to need to update this page; we just rolled the Star Wars Fanfic wiki off the top ten biggest Wikis list. :P We also shoved the Muppets and Star Trek Spinoffs down a notch. -- Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> .cнаt^  03:59, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

OK
What does this mean? Does it effect me in anyway at all? --The Gates Assassin 05:44, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Umm.. Did you read the article? most of it is explained there. -- Xeon 05:58, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * =) K so not at all. --The Gates Assassin 13:39, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

Wikia?!
Wikia's wikis are as slow as heck, you'd think you are on dialup they are so slow. -- Hawk Skeer  10:28, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Very much agreed. -- Ab.Er.Rant [[Image:User Aberrant80 Sig.png]] (msg Aberrant80) 20:58, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Holy crud, I thought that you were exaggerating, but that has to be the slowest site I've ever been to (aside from GWG :p ). I suspect that people will just go to the official GW wiki if the new guildwiki is that slow. 141.233.30.23 21:26, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * I agree. To me, it's even more important than the copyright and money issues. If the 'new' GuildWiki is going to be that slow, I'll move to GWW. --Toxik 08:20, 12 September 2007 (CDT)
 * They have said multiple times that GWiki will be hosted on its own servers, meaning it won't be sharing any resources with the rest of Wikia. Theoretically, that means it should run just as fast as it does now. &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] 14:10, 12 September 2007 (CDT)
 * That will be proved when its done getting moved. Till then I'm not too happy about this, and I'll probably go to the Official wiki just for a speed boost. Btw I AM on dialup, I was speaking from previous Wikia experience on my DSL. If you think that site is slow on your fast connections, just think how it does on dialup lol. -- Hawk Skeer [[Image:Hawkicon.png]] 21:09, 12 September 2007 (CDT)

URL?
I'd assume the URL will change to some queer wikia one instead of the current one (a somewhat dumb question i knowPheNaxKian 13:36, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Gravewit already mentioned this; we keep our URLs and everything, it works just as if we got a new server. So URL stays the same, Wikia just owns the server now, from what I understand. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]] Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> .cнаt^  14:02, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * ahhh ok-must have missed it-as long as i know i won't have to fath about finding it again =)PheNaxKian 15:39, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

Termination due to breach of contract
GuildWiki text is released by the site contributors under the by-nc-sa creative commons copyleft license version 2.0. Clause 4(c) enjoins you, that is, gravewit or any corporation that runs guildwiki, from distributing this work for private monetary compensation. As you are very clearly going to go ahead with your plan, you are in breach of license, and pursuant to clause 7(a) your right to redistribute my edits, and probably edits of others of like mind, are terminated. As I retain perpetual original copyright on my contributions, and lacking another active licensing agreement, I hereby declare that my contributions may not be sold to Wikia corporation. As a personal favor to you, I shall let the matter lie with all my contributions deleted from the database dump you hand over to Wikia. There are not that many edits to filter in my case. 193.52.24.125 14:24, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * errrmmm i by no means claim to be a lawyer but i belive in the first link in the Guildwiki copyrights thing it says that while everything you submit is yours and you recive copyright for it, by submiting it to Guildwiki you permently license it to them (i belive that's what it says) which i think means basicly they gain any of the copyright rights.....however it does mention for but it also says that the only way they can't distribute it (which this basicly is i supsoe) is that it's never used for a commercial puprpose- which i don't think this is-i think you have a bit of a problem with your argument-don't you think they would have thought these things through-really?PheNaxKian 15:39, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * If what Mr 193.52 is saying is what I think it is (forbidding you to sell his contributions) then forbid what happens if Skuld, Entropy, Gem, Karlos etc. did the same the imperialist
 * Skuld intended to do exactly that, actually. Unfortunately he, Karlos, Gem, and many others of us can't do that, because we've dual-licensed our contribs as GFDL, so they could be used on the GWW. =\ -- Dirigible 16:46, 11 September 2007 (CDT)


 * I haven't yet :P But I haven't made very many contributions to the wiki so its not like i'd have an impact...  And someone needs to archive this page, its 39kb :O the imperialist


 * Sweetness, that means that I CAN :D.--Gigathrash 16:47, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * No, this is to important to archive, most of the topics are still being discussed from the original posts, will have to live with the length till all of this is settled down. -- Xeon 20:59, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * I have only recently begun to contribute so my words may not count for as much as others who have posted much more. I percieve the wiki in general as a public domain space and feel greatfull that this site was hosted for so long, and for free. (Meaning no dues or registration fees) I have written only a few articles with the no intention of retaining any kind of copywrite. What I have added thus far I release to the 4 winds and the 5 gods.


 * My hat is off to those who have posted all the material I have read and used to learn how to play a video game better than I would have without it. Moreover, I also understand that the entertainment I gain in the virtual world is not without its price in the realworld. Hosting web sites is not cheap and I am truly thankfull that this site will continue to grow, under management that has become to overwhelming for just a small dedicated group of diehard cadre.


 * In my opinion, if the key individual whos shoulders (and wallet) bore the burden of my entertainment should recieve monetary compensation for his efforts, while allowing the wiki to continure to grow, then so be it! I have absolutely no ill will nor do I begrudge him his due. I say congradulations, and just let me know when I can post again. The community as a whole will live on! -Lefick Sept. 11 2007


 * Well, actually, according to GW:YAV your comments are just as important as something that User:Skuld, User:Entropy, or other large contributors (too many to name) would say. But yes...I also am fine with them selling the site, as long as it all remains here. I'd like to see what Gravewit said about this... [[Image:PaintballerSig.jpg]] The Paintballer (T/C) 17:35, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Some people just have to find something to complain about don't they?--Alari 17:36, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Yup... pretty sad. [[Image:Riven-sig.png]]   20:31, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Some people don't read the whole story do they? -- Ab.Er.Rant [[Image:User Aberrant80 Sig.png]] (msg Aberrant80) 21:04, 11 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Gravewit was not "the key individual" in this wiki by a long shot. He wasn't even first! By an accident of history, he ended up hosting the wiki when the original guild wars proto-wikis merged in the prehistoric days. If you want key individuals, look at LordBiro, Tanaric, Fyren, and Nunix, who (along with Gravewit) did all the initial work. Or look at Rainith, Karlos, Skuld, PanSola, Tetris L, William Blackstaff, Xeeron, Stabber (and his/her socks), Gordon Ecker, etc. who did all the essential gruntwork of laying out the scope of the wiki. Gravewit's efforts, after the initial few monts, amounted to paying hosting costs and making a token appearance every four months. GuildWiki lived with horrible bugs for long periods of time (anyone remember the image naming bug?) because Gravewit was either too lazy or too incompetent to fix it. Eventually he offloaded all the server maintenance to another site contributor (Fyren) who gave his time freely. All this is anyhow irrelevant; it doesn't matter what you or I think of Gravewit's actions. He is legally prohibited from making a profit off the work released by the site contributors under cc by-nc-sa. I don't hate Gravewit, far from it, but it pains me deeply to see him as the sole profiter of this community effort. 193.52.24.125 09:41, 12 September 2007 (CDT)


 * This is pretty much quite astonishing to me considering monetary compensation is being given for this; if anything, the owner has earned money out of this, and I guarantee you, he did not lose anything. The fact remains that he is selling our efforts for his gain.  Under this breach of contract, the owner is liable to get release statements from every user on this wiki, for every contribution, and the database transfer going on right now is pretty much illegal.  You pretty much need to respond to the OP. ~ Lutz 19:43, 12 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Thats like having the entire school clean-up the city, and then the principal getting paid for it. But on a larger, more illegal scale. the imperialist


 * Software piracy is copyright infringement with the person usually giving away the illegal copies doing so for free or at a loss if we take their bandwidth use into account. And we all know that software piracy is wrong. But here we have someone allowing the infringement and profiting off of doing so. I suggest getting a lawyer to look over this and sending an official letter to Wikia to officially inform them, and to threaten legal action unless they pull down your comments.

For posterity, as I expect this will be my last edit on this wiki, I just want to make it clear that I don't suffer any delusions that my above demand will be met. I am realistic/pessimistic enough to think that Wikia will win simply by lying low and riding it out. There are enough users who simply do not care and will happily continue at Wikia. Karlos and Tanaric are not fundamentally irreplaceable, and any legal threats they are now making are hollow. Or so I hope, at least; not because I think gravewit and Wikia hold all the trumps (well...to a certain extent they do), but because I hope Karlos and Tanaric will not be so foolish as to jeopardize their personal lives for a mere fansite for a video game. 193.52.24.125 02:22, 14 September 2007 (CDT)

wikia
scares me. it's one of those overly-friendly communities 0.o &mdash;The preceding awesome-sauce comment was added by Skakid9090 (contribs). 18:29, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * I don't do well with overly-friendly people! D: I'll probably have to erase my entire userpage and leave a flame on my talk page that says that only people from when we hadn't moved yet can post otherwise I won't like you.--[[Image:Gigathrash's sig.gif]] 22:16, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

Like it matters - this wiki has limited value anymore
Does anyone really care? Aside from having virtually no impact to the user. Lets be honest here, the wiki itself has limited value now.

The last add-on to the original Guild Wars series has been released. Sure, there's the upcoming bonus mission back, but that's only four add-on missions, nothing compared to a campaign or expansion. After that notta, nothing, zippo, zilch. In 2-3 years we should see Guild Wars 2; but that should be built in its own wiki. It'll be an all new game with all new game mechanics, only the game universe will continue into that one.

Then consider that ArenaNet now has the official Guild Wars Wiki, which already can open a related page in your browser directly from in-game links. Already, a large percentage of users who originally contributed here have migrated to that wiki. Some have boycotted that one, planning to stay here but the core users who contributed the current content here are now on that wiki which has better extensions to make better interfaces, etc. Many of their articles are less complete, but those are improving daily. For a wiki that has existed for just over six months, that one has grown phenomenally well. And the in-game links and Guildwars.com links ensures that newer users will find that wiki long before they find this one.

Sure, okay, so by buying GuildWiki, Wikia can be sure to be more attractive when GW2 comes out. But ArenaNet has already said that the official guild wars wiki is basically a test bed for better integration into GW2. When Guild Wars 2 does eventually come out, where are new players more likely to go? A wiki which is directly linked from in-game and from the game developers website, or a third party wiki?

If Gravewit got more than several months hosting costs in exchange, he made out like a bandit. And I'm sure he did get more than just that. This sites Alexa rankings are still strong, but between having increasing competition, plus no significant new game content on the horizon for at least 2+ years, he basically cashed in on the big payout at the peak. --76.104.218.101 22:11, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Though ANet has it's own wiki, there's still some valuable content on this wiki that isn't in the official one, though with the lag that the wiki seems it'll be hit with when moved over, that may change. >_> ~ [[Image:GeckoSprite.gif]] Pae 22:21, 11 September 2007 (CDT)


 * This wiki still has a ton more information than the official wiki. It will probably take the official wiki ~1 year to catch up to us, and by that time, this website will pretty much be read only, as there will not be much new content to be added, like you said. These "major contributors" or whatever you call them are still plentiful here. Sure, GWW has an ingame link, but I know a lot of people don't even know its there. Plenty of pages have little information on them, making GuildWiki more desirable. Anyway, this won't really be bad for the wiki, but if there really is lag like people say, then....umm...that'll suck. Gravewit was not in this for the money, as he stated, and even if he did, who cares!? This is still a great wiki, and it still will be strong as ever. We will not falter, and we will not fall. We will stand strong. GuildWiki FOREVER!!!! [[Image:PaintballerSig.jpg]] The Paintballer (T/C) 22:33, 11 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Capitalism trumps morals so in that sense, no, it doesn't make one bit of difference. GWW has ugly skins and color schemes anyways. Thank the gods for User:LordBiro. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 22:40, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * I have a firm guide line when it comes to fansites. Fan hosted always beats official. Has been proved countless times before on other games. See no reason it wont be proven wrong with GW. Guildwiki was first(successful first anyways) and GWW is a mere copycat attempt with fancy decorations.--Alari 22:54, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * If ANet decides to start an offical GW2 wiki the day GW2 is out, preferably earlier, then I'll probably use that one above all else. But in the current situation, despite the benefits of the offical wiki, it's always going to be second fiddle. The most it can ever do is catch up, but I don't think it's possible to catch up and/or pass this one by, not before GW2 comes out at least. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]] Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> .cнаt^  23:16, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * The user that started this conversation is assuming that everyone will buy and pass to GW2 when it's out. I wont. Or at least, i wont if Anet dont change is mind about not permitting to walk with mouse. Even in GW1 i mostly never walk with mouse. I use it only when clicking the ground become difficult like when traversing some doorway in Sorrow Furnace. Aside that i use keyboard to target the nearest (C) followed by attacking with space.
 * I think that somes users that can play GW even though they have some disabilities to use the keyboard or else, might no be able to play that GW2 that will be designed to be more immersive as they said. But, when i think about this a little bit more, thoses peoples might just be too few. TulipVorlax 13:09, 12 September 2007 (CDT)
 * If he's guilty of assuming that everyone will move to GW2, you are also assuming that not many people would. I daresay that at least 50% of active players will move on 2 years down the line. And you're also ignoring the fact that GW2 is going to attract new players, while GW1 won't 2 years down the line. While GW1 may certainly live on for many more years, it's an undeniable fact that it will start to decline drastically when GW2 comes out.


 * And to PaintballerOWNZ, saying "who cares?!" is a rather insulting way of brushing aside the unfairness that long-time contributors are now subject to. And to Alari, well, Guildwiki now is fan-hosted. Once it moves to Wikia, you can't really call it fan-hosted anymore... :/ -- Ab.Er.Rant [[Image:User Aberrant80 Sig.png]] (msg Aberrant80) 20:31, 12 September 2007 (CDT)

I do hope that you know I was not trying to be insulting, but merely saying this. GuildWiki IS about putting up information about GW and doing our best to keep it updated and in useful condition. However, I, personally, and I beleive many others will agree, GuildWiki is also largely about the community. I know that if there were no such thing as talk pages or User pages, I would not be here. The people here are awesome, and I think that THAT is what it's about. Sure, we dont have Phil as the owner, but as long as we are still here as a community, why does it matter? What harm is it doing to them if Phil doesn't own it if we are all still the same? The Paintballer (T/C) 23:59, 12 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Quote For Truth. Hell, even any members we get from Wikia will technically become a part of our community, not the other way around. If we had the same discussion page policies as Wikipedia, comments like this one right here might not even exist; the fact that we can post "this skill sucks!" "no, try this awesome combo with it!" comments is reason enough to stay here. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]] Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  00:45, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Don't forget that Wikia hasn't just bought GuildWiki, they've bought all of the GameWikis wikis. Although Hammerwiki is still relatively small, if it becomes the de facto wiki for Warhammer Online it could potentially turn out to be another massive revenue stream in the future which would more than make up for the decline of GuildWiki. Ultimately, the value of any asset is the amount of money people are willing to pay for it. Wikia is funded by big venture capitalist money, which allows them to swallow up any promising wiki projects that start up. No matter how good peoples intentions are to start with, at the end of the day everyone has a price.-Pendrako talk 04:46, 14 September 2007 (CDT)

Appearance
So, the link seems like it'll stay the same. What about the appearance? Wikia has some pretty bulky content (footer area w/ hubs). ~ Pae 22:21, 11 September 2007 (CDT)
 * See Talk:Wikia_Move--Alari 22:49, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

What if...
What if someone were to offer to host GuildWiki on a dedicated server and domain, without ads? --Toxik 05:28, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * That's what Gravewit did in the beginning, and he had to take donations in order to pay for the hosting/bandwidth costs. With how much traffic the site is receiving now, which is orders of magnitude greater than what it got back then, trying to host it like that would be quite infeasible. &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] 08:56, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * I would like to know how much bandwidth and space we are actually talking about. Any way to get this information from the wiki itself, or is it just the owner who would know? --Toxik 11:56, 13 September 2007 (CDT)

Pretty insignificant but...
Will the yellow bar that says "GameWikis is now a part of Wikia. See Wikia Move for details, and to ask questions." be there forever? It's really annoying me for some reason. <font color="Black">L' <font color="Maroon">yra <font color="Black">V' <font color="Maroon">alo  10:46, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Doubt it. Lord of all tyria 10:52, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * If you have the know-how, you can edit your skin css to block the "siteNotice" element, and it should go away. ;-) Biscuits [[Image:Biscuit.png]] 14:24, 13 September 2007 (CDT)

PvX Wiki
What's going to happen to it? Assimilation, dropping or other?-- 17:21, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * PvX Is ran independently but with inter links back here, Doubt anything will change.--Alari 17:25, 13 September 2007 (CDT)

A for-profit company displaying ads over the content isn't commercial use?
I'm an idiot, so someone explain this to me: A.net "couldn't" buy the wiki and use it in game due to licensing issues -- the content can't be used for commercial purposes. But a for-profit company can make money off the content by displaying ads over them? Really?

Also, how exactly does a non-profit enterprise made up of monies from multiple parties suddenly become the sole property and for-profit enterprise of an individual financial contributor?

I am far from being a lawyer (I'm more of a high school dropout, sort of), but it seems to me that out of pocket financial contributions of donators (excluding monies earned by site via ads)represent various stakes in the enterprise. It is arguable that this enterprise doesn't belong to a single person -- and yet that single person has sold the sum total of assets belonging to the enterprise?

The contract is probably null and void by virtue of being made with a party with no right to sell an enterprise he doesn't own. Lawyers should look into this on all sides. Even if the actual domain name is considered the private property, the essence and workings of the wiki surely is not.

In fact, I wonder if the profits from ad revenues (if any) belong equally to all donating parties. It probably depends on the terms by which the donations were originally made, and what changes were made to the enterprise following the change from a non-profit to profit-making company. (the actual change itself may have been illegal, esp. since what we could call the board of directors by default were apparently not consulted.)--24.206.111.186 18:52, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Karlos's arguement from above topic makes total sense. Gravewit (Phil) basically said he would host the wiki, and it was a non-profit "organization".  He accepted donations for server costs, and (hopefully) used them in the correct way.  He then stopped taking donations.  Oh well, right?  Wrong.  He soon deleted the ledger of donators and how much they donated.  He then put ad's up, to make money for servers instead.  But, ladies and gentlemen, the grand finale!  He decides to sell the website, and all people who helped pay server costs are not being reimbursed.  Gravewit from the wiki policy, and sold the work of others.  Timeout for you.  the imperialist


 * Regarding the issue of whether displaying advertisements is considered a commercial use or not: Xeon has asked that question directly to Gil Penchina, and I to Angela Beesley, the two Wikia guys who seem to be more involved in the GuildWiki move. Neither of them has answered yet; I hope that they're talking with their lawyers and whatnot (even though it seems kind of late in the process to be doing so).
 * Oh, and the CreativeCommons wiki has an article dealing with the NonCommercial clause, which seems to indicate that displaying ads like the wiki currently does is indeed a commercial use, and a violation of the license. Of course, I'm not a lawyer, so it'd be great if the Wikia guys can chip in here with their thoughts. --Dirigible 20:07, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Why would the wikia guys try and prove what they're doing is illegal. And may I point out Gravewit has yet to respond to anything here. the imperialist


 * If the creative commons take on the issue is accurate, then what is happening here is a clear violation of that license. As in the violation is occurring, right now. It's apparent, brazen piracy of copyrighted works; maybe open to takedown notice via the DMCA and maybe open to civil damages.


 * I bet people (like at Groklaw, for example) would be interested in the details of this dispute. Very unusual scenario.--24.206.111.186 20:32, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * People, lets not jump to conclusions, I have informed Gil of the problem on his wiki talk page and emailed him a copy, so i expect a response soon, I expect he is seeking legal advice about the situation but some acknowledgment about him knowing the issue would be nice. Until Gravewit, Gil or Angela post here, they can nothing about shifting the servers. Infact i would rather see them post soon because this silence is irritating. -- Xeon 20:43, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Do I understand this correctly, people are now talking of legal action over a online fansite...? I just can't fathom anyone taking a dispute over a game fansite that far. Some accuse gravewit of greed but the mention of damages above make it seem others are also affected by greed. It's a video game documentation published for free on internet, what effect does it have on the world? It's jsut astounding people take things like this so seriously.--Alari 21:14, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * I have zero meaningful edits on this particular wiki. I simply amused and musing over the implications.  I do believe that protecting the intent of the license is important however.--24.206.111.186 21:18, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * It's not about getting money for damages, or simply starting a fight for the sake of it; the point remains, many, if not all, of the contributors made their edits under the pretense that they were doing it just for the fans; what it's starting to turn into is a way for other people to make a profit. The scale of the problem has nothing to do with it, it's the fact that there is a problem. Wikia stands to possibly make money off of this; Gravewit has probably already made money off of it. And none of them did the vast majority of the work here. To put it simply, the general contributors are slaves; unpaid, doing work for others' benefit. That needs to be cleared up, one way or another. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  21:19, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Ask yourself what are the difference between this, and someone allowing people to download a song from a major record label or two from you. In this case we have more content being transferred, more people having their copyright ripped off and the person allowing the transfer is profiting from it.


 * that's completely irrelavent and a bad comparison. &mdash;The preceding awesome-sauce comment was added by Skakid9090 (contribs). 21:29, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Why ?
 * Fact is, if I download a song, then sell it to a friend, then I'm making an illegal profit. Chances are I'll never be caught, but that doesn't lessen my wrongdoing. In this case, we can see what's going on for the most part, and it is a violation of a law, as it currently stands. Any reason why we should just ignore it? --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  21:32, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * We do work and Gravewit sells it. This is commercial, because I do not believe that Gravewit would have gotten the same amount of money for a wiki he works on only himself. I neither like what's going on here nor do I like the GWW. --[[Image:Warrior's_Endurance.jpg|18px]] numma_cway 17:28, 14 September 2007 (CDT)

An Open Letter to Gravewit
I've posted my feelings on this matter on User talk:Gravewit. &mdash;Tanaric 21:38, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Oh my. The plot thickens. *pops popcorn*--24.206.111.186 21:44, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * FYI Tanaric, I think you listed it as starting in May 2007, when I personally joined in December 2006. Did you possibly mean 2006, or are you speaking of something different? edit: Tanaric fixed it as I typed this.
 * But that aside, the letter is very well-written, and you bring up many good points, as well as information many users haven't seen previously. The more I see, the bigger an issue this proves to be; compounded by the fact that Gravewit has pretty much vanished in the face of all this. After selling GuildWiki in this way, could he have simply left, figuring there was nothing left for him to do here? He already got his money, obviously, no matter the amount. I don't like the idea of anyone threatening to sue over such matters, but the fact remains that this is currently the wrong move to make, and too many laws seem to have been ignored in the process.


 * A question, to nobody in particular. While Wikia owns the servers currently, they technically can't buy the content, nor have ownership of it, correct? If another user were to freely offer a hosting solution, couldn't GuildWiki as we know it simply migrate over to that, leaving Wikia with an empty server? Also leaving behind most of this drama regarding Gravewit and whatnot. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  21:54, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * I can't help but think that "leaving Wikia with an empty server" is not going to happen. Too much time, money, and effort lost (no matter how much that actually was). GuildWiki, even in its declining age, is much too valuable of an asset to simply let go like that. If anything, remember that they have every right to copy ALL of our content to some other server if they want, as long as it is sans ads. That couldn't possibly be difficult for them at all. Hoping for a situation like the Builds Wipe turning into PvXBuilds is idealistic though I too would be very satisfied with such an outcome. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 21:57, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Well I don't mean leave Wikia and start fresh; but under the current license, couldn't we legally take the entirety of GuildWiki's content and simply put it on a different server and URL? Wikia would have basically bought our URL, while GuildWiki simply switched servers and addresses. We'd still be the same place, just in a different location; and Wikia would own our old URL, if they wanted to legally copy as much as of GuildWiki as they wanted, it would be up to them to do so. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  22:05, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Yes, this is totally possible and legal. &mdash;Tanaric 22:07, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * That would be an *awesome* way to stick it to the man. --Macros 22:11, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * The only question there would be, who's the "man" in that scenario. Wikia would still retain the ability to use our information for their own wiki, but it would have to be done via hard work, and under their own power. Legally. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  22:14, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * If you read above, User:Toxik and some others showed some interest in that possibility. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 22:20, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Of course, in that situation, you would probably cause more harm then good to the Wiki as a whole; not every member could be expected to follow to the new location. But under the license, if it's already proven that the edits are made under an incompatible copyright for the Wikia version, someone would need to run through the wiki and delete every contribution ever made under the old license. Wikia would be left either forced to adapt their license to match ours, or ask each and every member to release their contributions under their copyright system. Most people would probably prefer to simply scoot over to the new "old" GuildWiki, which of course would retain the copyrighting of the original. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  22:12, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * (reseting indent)(replying to Entropy's comment) Of course, I wouldn't want to try anything until a bit more is figured out on this end; but should it come to that, and if enough people are on board, I would happily go over to a new server, same wiki. Fyren had server access, and presumably still does; if he could be bothered into an answer, would it be possible to completely copy EVERYTHING, users and content included? I imagine it would be a massive project, but where there's a will there's a way. I would suggest waiting for Gil and Angela to respond, before users end up getting worked into a blood frenzy over this. But adding this to our currently-bare list of options sounds like a very good idea. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  22:30, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * P.S.: If it ends up being that Wikia can't legally buy the domain name, and they manage to get their money back from Gravewit, it would just be a matter of finding a new server for us here. Preferably one that isn't Gravewit's idea. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  22:31, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Enough people are not gonna go out on a uncertain mission to establish runnable servers when they are already available. I don't much care about what gravewit did but I think it is safe to say attempt to counter the url selling will fail for the above reason. --Alari 22:43, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * No, not a counter to the sale; a fix. No matter what happens, in the current situation, Wikia's copyright isn't compatible with GuildWiki; worse come to worse, they'll be forced to remove content that doesn't fit (that being, every edit by a user who didn't already release their edits to public domain). We might end up with a Wikia version of GuildWiki, sans content. Moving won't be an option, it'll be a necessity. Either that, or we start fresh. In which case, GuildWarsWiki will have the distinct advantage of already existing. If enough of the "big players" follow to a new URL, and also considering that users and userpages will switch over as well, I don't doubt that most everyone will follow. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  22:48, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Thats just it tho, you will have to start fresh, and there will be no reason. with GWW, they had the plus of being "official" when they started but there will be no reason to go to a new restarted guildwiki.--Alari 22:51, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * The whole point trying to be made here is, if everything in the wiki was copied to a new location, it wouldn't be "starting fresh". It would function just the same as any old server move; the only difference being the URL change as well (which is a simple fix in the form of a site-wide announcement, "hey, we have moved to this new location, please update your bookmarks accordingly."). That is, assuming the URL sale was illegal, and the copyright is incompatible. Any other situation, say, Wikia making sure we retain our copyrights, and/or any clarifications on the URL, would result in us simply staying here. I have no problem with Wikia. I just don't like the idea of the Wiki being "bought and sold", and shoehorned into a system that it doesn't fit into. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  23:02, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Hell, if we could force ANet to change their license to conform with ours, I'd be more than happy to support a sale of GWiki to GWW than to Wikia. At least that way, we would be benefiting what we know and love (Guild Wars) without any of this stupid third-party debate with Wikia folks..."if you can't beat them, join them" as they say. GWW (despite whatever ANet says to the contrary) was specifically build to siphon off our traffic, and as much as I'd hate to give in to their (perfectly legal but underhanded) scheme, that would be better than giving all of the potential GWiki revenue to someone who's not even related to the game in any way, other than their insignificant little Wiki that already was. Sigh. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 23:13, 13 September 2007 (CDT)


 * We'll need someone to pay for server costs, etc. I agree with entropy though.  No need to get a new server if we could simple move the official one.  We'll get "official" status, they'll have their database updated by alot, we wouldn't be scammed, and everyone would be happy. the imperialist


 * I believe all this is the definition of "Wikidrama". It's just so annoying that something like this would happen in the first place. Why would Gravewit sell something he can't sell? Why would Wikia buy something they can't buy? Did Wikia know before they made the deal? Did Gravewit know? And what the hell happened to Gravewit? He's not doing anything to help his image here, unless he wanted to play the part of the guy who gets paid then vanishes.
 * Between boycotting the official wiki and rebelling against the build wipe, I frankly don't have the time to angrily storm off on the Wikia deal.
 * Official Wiki's got no problems in my eyes; while it's not in my best interest to edit two of the same thing, I don't begrudge the fact that it's there. PvX is doing a good job of supporting build creators, despite the obvious complications. And I have no problem with Wikia in general; it's a friendly community, and they've got enough wiki experience not to go running anything into the ground. But I don't want to sacrifice morals to make this work; I'm willing to stick it out until everything gets cleared up here. I'll leave this wiki when it truly and honestly draws it's last breath. I just don't want to have to see stuff like this speed up the process, I'd like to have an account on GW2Wiki before I have to wrap all this up, here. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  23:48, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * What would you want Gravewit to say? You say that his disappearance and lack of comments here just makes him look bad.  What I see is that Gravewit has wisely decided not to participate in this, as any attempts he makes to defend himself and his position will simply give rise to more drama.  It's much harder to rouse peoples' enmity toward someone who just stays mum than it is against someone who is actively present, and thus a symbol around which they can gather and rebel.  Meanwhile, data is being migrated, and the deal is proceeding as planned.  --Lucielle 2:15, 14 September 2007 (PST)
 * If not communicating is a sign of wisdom, then Gravewit is a genius. And I suppose unabashedly making money off of other people's work does take some devious sort of intelligence. — HarshLanguage [[Image:qswearing_small.png|HarshLanguage]] 04:52, 14 September 2007 (CDT)

Forking a copy of guildwiki will require a sysadmin who can get a full database dump of the text + all images. Just getting that ball of wax out of the servers will consume a chunk of bandwidth. It will surely require gravewit's consent, if not his blessing, or it will be theft pure and simple. I don't think Fyren is ready to martyr himself for such a cause, frankly, assuming he still has his server access. For all intents and purposes, gravewit has the ability to hold guildwiki hostage and there's nothing you can do about it. 193.52.24.125 01:51, 14 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Technically, I don't think Gravewit has any such rights. He doesn't own any of the site's content, and as of a few days ago, he doesn't own the servers. All of the site's content is released under a CC copyright, which does allow other users to take it, providing it's kept under it's original copyright. Gravewit pretty much sold any rights he has to anything here, aside from perhaps a few edits, which are released under the same license as the rest of the site. And frankly, he hasn't done much editing in the actual wiki namespace; he's edited a lot of talk pages, site notices, and occasionally the main page, but his last actual edit to an article was over a year ago. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  02:48, 14 September 2007 (CDT)
 * It's not theft, lrn2license. - [[Image:Candle.jpg|12px]] Krowman (talk • contribs) 11:04, 14 September 2007 (CDT)


 * I think that if a serious attempt was made to set up independant servers, Hammerwiki would support it. - Pendrako talk 04:47, 14 September 2007 (CDT)
 * I think HammerWiki is also included in this deal. The whole of GamewWikis is now owned by Wikia. Biscuits [[Image:Biscuit.png]] 05:05, 14 September 2007 (CDT)

Are We serious
without gravewit this site would never have existed. /support, gravewit.70.21.241.53 12:43, 14 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Says the user whose only contribution to the wiki has been to congratulate Gravewit for selling out every other user's contribs for his own profit... - [[Image:Candle.jpg|12px]] Krowman (talk • contribs) 13:17, 14 September 2007 (CDT)
 * i've read this wiki since b4 i started playing. you guys didnt have to contribute, as i certainly did not. now your mad because he's making profit off a site that he started? i dont claim to know much about this, but at face value i see this as total bullshit that you guys are complaining.70.21.241.53 13:51, 14 September 2007 (CDT)


 * You obviously have no idea what you're talking about. You should read up more on the facts of the wiki's past. Fragments can be found in talk pages throughout the wiki, but Tanaric did a nice job of summing it all up on Gravewit's talk page. Not only would the wiki have existed without Gravewit, it would have flourished at least as well without him, if not even better. It would not have existed without the other founders who were involved with its creation, who made much more significant contributions to the wiki's formation and development. --24.22.225.85 13:54, 14 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Interesting, the gamewikis.org domain has been transfered to Wikia, but the guildwiki.org domain appears to be owned by someone else yet. If Tanaric's history is true, then that domain may not even be Gravewit's to sell. Potentially, the community could get a database dump and build its own wiki around that domain. --24.22.225.85 14:29, 14 September 2007 (CDT)


 * From what I know all Gravewit has done is host the server, someone else would have done that eventually. He then got fyren to do server maintenence after he stopped doing anything at all. Lord of all tyria 13:58, 14 September 2007 (CDT)


 * I think you're a little confused. Sure he paid the server costs, but without US, the COMMUNITY, there would've been no site to use.  Besides, what he's doing is (probably) illegal, under-handed, and immoral.  I spend about half of my free time helping new articles get built up and game updates.  Other people paid for server costs.  Phil only hosted them, and they were paid for by the community, and then by ad's.  So you might want to know what you're talking about before you go supporting the bad guys.  It makes you look stupid. GG. the imperialist
 * "It makes you look stupid. GG. " Ummm if you say someone else looks stupid you must be right!
 * And just to be blunt, many people would find the fact of being so serious about a website "stupid". --Alari 16:44, 14 September 2007 (CDT)


 * I don't think the people who got scammed out of their money and got several hundred hours of their life sold and made no profit, while having the site creater who put the liscence into place directly breaking think this is stupid.


 * Quite. The people who were active here will probably leave in protest over to Official Wiki in no time. Consider it spot-on fortune telling.  —ǥrɩɳsɧƿoɲ  〚 ₮ /ḉ〛 17:15, 14 September 2007 (CDT)

(resetting indent)The only thing preventing me from releasing my contributions into the public domain is the fact that Wikia would be able to use it O_O Wikia Hater

Grinch i remain more optimistic. if these people really care that time they didnt have to put in to wiki they didnt have to support is now being sold, then so be it. wiser heads have always prevailed. The fact that gravewit is seen as a crook is hilarious. i see him more as human. theres not one person here who wouldnt do the same as him. wikia has done sound things for many a wiki, and are they truly "buying" our wiki. more like they're hosting it and taking the ad revs.... another middleman. i still support gravewit because i see the wiki as more than these petty squables. when gww went up,a huge amount of fags left. gem, etc. fuck them. same to the people that leave this time. they care more about their share than actually helping people. guildwiki will never die. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.21.241.53 (contribs).

Black and white. Law is law, licenses are licenses. This site isn't allowed to be sold for monetary profit. As he has ALREADY transferred the information, he's in direct violation of the license. Direct violation of contract/license = breaking the law, which is similar to a "crook". ~ Lutz 01:24, 15 September 2007 (CDT)
 * /support gravewit. &mdash; S h  a  d  y  G  u  y  09:28, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

Still listening
I'm reading the various discussions and trying to determine what if anything we can do to resolve the myriad issues people appear to have raised. There is obviously a great deal of passion and anger some people have and I apologize for our part in that. Some updates:

Penchina 16:45, 14 September 2007 (CDT)
 * We have transfered the DNS of gamewikis
 * We are working on uploading a copy of the information
 * We don't currently have any plans or reason to change the urls - although we may offer a copy of the same content under the wiki URL as a mirror
 * We will keep GW on it's own server to try to improve speed issues
 * We will have monobook for those who don't like the new wikia skins and widget tools, although I think they're kind of cool - I admit I'm biased
 * I will talk to Phil about some of the issues being raised. Obviously as an outsider it's hard for me to fully come up to speed on 2+ years of history - that's my excuse if I appear slow or dim witted, but he and I will have a long conversation SOON
 * I can tell you that our goals are to make all information free and that we view guildwiki as an important part of that effort.
 * A number of people have asked questions about the ads - For now all I can say is that we want to reduce the number of ads without eliminating them, but that I am listening to a number of people who have raised issues about advertising and trying to see what the fair and proper thing is to do here - albeit perhaps at a slower pace than some people would like.
 * For those with concerns - please keep contacting me, for those who are nervous about change - please trust that Jimmy and I are focused on serving the needs of gaming communities and we're committed to giving you the freedom to build the best resource for gamers. We serve over 400 gaming communities today and it's an important part of our vision of making ALL information freely available.
 * You do not get a choice to have the ads or not to have them, those ads are in violation of this site's licensing terms, and need to be removed. - User:Nex(not logging in, in protest.)


 * 'Ello Gil :) Do you have any idea on the "legal-ness" of all this?  Some people have "shares" in GW, and aren't being consulted (I'm not lawyer, I'm just picking this up), along with several sysops going inactive and Tanaric even resigning.  At this rate you'll be lucky if this site even has a community by the time the transfer is done... User:The Imperialist


 * You probably have noble intent Gil. But that doesn't change the fact that you bamboozled by Gravewit into hosting a site that is now in flagrant, willful violation of copyright.  The ethical/legal thing to do is remove the ads in entirety until a solution can be found. You might also check over the contract you have with Gravewit.  Typically there are clauses in contracts providing for warranties for just this sort of problem when selling a domain name. It's possible you could get your money back from the scam artist who sold you this lemon.--24.206.111.186 18:28, 14 September 2007 (CDT)
 * The Domain was given to Gravewit by Tabor Wells, there is no proof at all that he has made money off of the amount of bandwith that is used by everyone who uses this wiki daily. That is a lot of bandwith being used, and he has to pay for it all, 2 cents an ad might not cover all of that, seriously, I don't see that it's worth making legal action out of a FAN SITE, you've taken this way too far, just let them move, and if you don't want to use it anymore, don't, plain and simple, it's a fansite, live with it or go to the official one. 72.196.131.42 19:55, 14 September 2007 (CDT)(edit: Also, everything on this website can be used by Wikia without any cost, sure, he made a little money by selling the domain name and some of his coding(if he had any) but seriously, THIS IS A FAN SITE, why bring legal action against a fan site?)


 * Because he didn't build the entire site, and doesn't deserve all the money. This has already been discussed, however. &mdash;The preceding awesome-sauce comment was added by Skakid9090 (contribs). 22:27, 14 September 2007 (CDT)


 * Wrong. Wikia cannot use this information without written consent from every single contributor no matter how small, because they are a COMMERCIAL site.  Likewise, Gravewit cannot sell this site without written consent from every single contributor.  And yes, that means he must contact every single person to use this site's content. ~ Lutz 16:59, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

Background links
Gil and other parties involved ... to help get caught up on the issues, please see: Of course, once legal and ethical questions began getting raised, Gravewit once again pulled his silent treatment and ignored the community, and has not replied to a single post since then. That has been his standard operating procedure for the last couple of years whenever his actions (or lack of action) has been questioned. That behavior is a large part of the frustration that has triggered the community complaints on this transaction. Past issues have never been resolved, and now he has been paid by you for something which he was really only a bit player in creating and managing. --24.22.225.85 17:38, 14 September 2007 (CDT)
 * This posting to Gravewit's talk page covers the founding of this wiki, and how other co-founders and financial contributors to the wiki have been, for lack of better words, cheated and deceived by Gravewit's actions, including the sale.
 * This post on Gravewit's talk page addresses one of the more vocal user's legal concerns. Especially around the site license, which is explicitly non-commercial.
 * This post on Tanaric's talk page covers a potential route for the community to create their own branch, as Gravewit is believed to have never owned the guildwiki.org domain (even though it was the domain under which this wiki operated for quite some time).

Community Poll
Moved to Wikia Move/Community poll

Cataloging which pages need to be deleted/rewritten
I have been informed that helpfully cataloging which pages are currently in violation of copyright is "vandalizing". As the process will need to occur eventually in order to delete/rewrite all content (on the Wikia fork, even if it's the only version available):


 * when will the license be changed to one friendly to for-profit use?
 * when should the cataloging start occurring? many of the pages on this wiki are breaking the license in the present tense.
 * how should this monumental task be approached? --66.28.139.242


 * Once the license is changed then someone will need to acquire permission from every single contributor to change over to the new license, including all anonymous edits. If someone refuses, can't be contacted or doesn't respond then I don't see Wikia having any choice but to delete their edits and any edits derived from them in such a way that someone else can't simply come along revert the change. With the possible exception of minor changes (like correcting formatting) which will need to be identified on a case by case basis, this would mean reverting all pages to before they were edited by any contributor who hasn't given permission. If they made a new page, this means the page will have to be deleted, since no matter how much work other people did, its still derived from them making the page in the first place. The page can then be remade by anyone under the new license. So the first step will be finding out which contributors will give permission to change the license. Then once they know who those people are, delete everything else.


 * At the moment, there are a fairly large number of contributors (myself included) who released their edits to public domain, as help to GWWiki when it was first starting off. Basically, Wikia will need the same thing from everyone else, which is a much larger task, obviously; in the GWWiki case, it was simply a matter of, if information was released in that way, it was safe to copy; if not, big deal, someone could write the article themselves. The problem here is, the info's already here, but the license is changing, so what we'll probably need to do is go through what can stay, and wipe everything else. Which, like the original poster said, is a monumental task to say the least. --[[image:GEO-logo.png]]<font color="#237d00"> Ĵĩôřũĵĩ Đēŗāķō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  00:14, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

License termination due to breach of contract
According to Copyrights as well as licensing information displayed at the bottom of the page (All contributions to GuildWiki are considered to be released under the CC 2.0 by-nc-sa license (see Project:Copyrights for details).), all contributions have been licensed under the |Creative Commons by-nc-sa license. Usage of said content in a commercial/for-profit environment, including sale or showing advertisements for with the intention of profit is in violation of said license (See |Creative Commons 2.0 by-nc-sa license legalcode Section 4, subsection c: You may not exercise any of the rights granted to You in Section 3 above in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation) leading to termination of the license and any rights granted by it. Continuing to use the content, without explicit re-licensing to permit commercial use, is violation of the copyright of the content's creators and may be subject to DMCA notices and other legal remedies.

To sum it up: If you keep using the database without getting ALL the contributors to re-license to content people may sick their lawyers at you. And no, a "if you don't respond, you agree to relicense" notice won't cut the custard. 84.145.201.229 08:00, 15 September 2007 (CDT)
 * To sum it up: If you keep using the database without getting ALL the contributors to re-license to content people may sick their lawyers at you. And no, a "if you don't respond, you agree to relicense" notice won't cut the custard. 84.145.201.229 08:00, 15 September 2007 (CDT)
 * They are aware, I and others have already brought this up with them. They are allowed to host the content currently if the revenue from the ads does not do anything other then support the Gwiki hosting maintenance costs and they do not link to their company page. They are looking at solutions for this issue. And why are these topics being posted again? They are already mentioned in above sections. -- Xeon 08:12, 15 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Hm... changing of stance slightly from Xeon... Others soon to follow? Hypothetical question: How many individuals would Wikia need to pay off to make this go away..?
 * Addendum: If YOU know all this about what Wikia are "currently" doing, why aren't you sharing that info transparently..? Are you receiving emails direct from Wikia..? Isn't this lack of transparency, "greater good", "its being taken care of" attitude what led to this shitcan in the first place..? The community deserves ANSWERS, OPENNESS, TRANSPARENCY ... and it deserves, for the first time in 2 years, the TRUTH.
 * I never really took a stance except the one i have mentioned on gils page. I dont care who hosts the information as long as they abide by the license details that the information is placed under, the Gravewit issue is now entirely separate, Gil mentioned that he will talk to Gravewit soon but frankly, nothing will come of it because the transaction has already proceeded.
 * Btw my emails were one way, where i was informing him about the issues from this page mainly and encouraging him to update us more, which he acknowledged, not sure if others have written to him as well but it is one of the reasons why he posted that updated yesterday. If you also read my msg to Gil on his page, i have noted the exact same thing there as I have in my last reply. If you are suggesting I got paid to change my stance that "hasn't" changed, grow up, sarcastic remarks and childish comments should be left out of all of these discussions. If you really want me to post the emails, i will but you will just be wasting your time and mine if i have to. -- Xeon 09:27, 15 September 2007 (CDT)
 * Its hardly "sarcastic" or "childish" to pose a hypothetical point, unless you have something to hide. Using the "grow up" gambit is also a lose, as frankly we've seen it all before from Gravewit. What I am saying is, do not post "They are looking at solutions for this issue" etc when you have no more proof of that than you have that G-d exists.
 * Read http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki?title=Talk:Wikia_Move#Still_listening ,he mentions the ad revenue problem and trying to find a solution. Nothing i say will please you it seems, I am just another user that wants the content hosted correctly and publicly, my admin status means nothing in these talk pages Administrate users, not content. People need to give Gil and his team more time to sort things out, legal matters do not take a day or two to work out, especially with the complexity in this case. If you want more details then i suggest you contact Gil, i suggest you use his email method, as that seems to be the fastest way to get a response. -- Xeon 10:31, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

Did Gravewit actually own the domain? Questionable.
What paid for the domains and server's upkeep? The ads and donations. Where were the ads served? Over the top of content that cannot be used for commercial gain. Why did people give the donations? To serve this content that cannot be used for commercial gain.

Who maintained the servers and the community? Unpaid employees.

So how the hell can a person sell something paid for by money that can only be used for non-profit uses -- FOR A PROFIT?

The copyright holders donated their content to the wiki, and the wiki used the content to pay for the domain name. In a sense, these donators are a party to a contract they are not allowed to see; since it is via THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS EFFORTS AND DONATIONS THAT THE DOMAIN WAS PAID FOR, under the assumption of a license that DISALLOWS commercial use of their works. Silly.--24.206.111.186 08:08, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

Pissed off all about this smoke and mirrors play? File a DMCA takedown notice!
Well, since Mr. Gravewit has been rather quiet and only gave no-answers, here's how you can get him to pay attention to the community: File a | DMCA takedown notice. Check the link, there is an very good example notice there, just copy it and fill it out then send it to him, Wika and perhaps post it here too. Sorry, but I don't believe that Mr. Gavewit did not make a bundle of dollars by selling YOUR contributions to Wikia. Maybe letting him feel the legal burn of license violations will make him rethink his actions (or at least proof that he did not sell you out, but "only" broke even.) Interesting fact: Not only is Wikia not allowed to use the contributions for "for-profit" purposes, but also Mr. Gravewit did not have the right to "sell" the database in the first place - once he aims to gain financial gain from the transaction his license with immediately terminates. 84.145.201.229 08:19, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

You've lost already by the looks of it
In every wiki community there is the vocal minority and the silent majority. In every corporation, they know that they should keep their friends close and their opponents closer. Watch this space as one by one those with the axes to grind fall by the wayside. What saddens me is that you don't see the figures.... You're all talking in numbers of "hundreds" of dollars in revenue... Look at the names involved - Jimmy Wales, Wikia, Angela Beesley... You think they are interested in taking over some crappy "hundreds" dollar website?? Christian Nelson has potentially been getting rich from this site for a long time, Wikia are planning on getting richer. And they'll sit you out, maybe even come to financial settlements with a few individuals? And the sheep will say "baa!" and the wiki will continue and you'll all donate your time and effort to making a small number of individuals richer. Suckers? Or victims? YOU decide whether you are one or the other. Take down this site legally until it is resolved. Meantime, put your desire to share your knowledge and hard-earned experiences into the official ANet wiki. As for ANet, a lot of GWiki stalwarts gave them a hard time over the launch of their wiki... maybe they just had better lawyers and more responsibility towards the community than they could, legally, let on that they knew...

You need
To follow this link Starving Artists Law.com

Thanks Sysops
I really am amazed at you guys are standing up and fighting for what you believe in. I think you guys are doing the right thing by providing stable ground in this whole thing. I at least know I can look to you guys for guidance through this whole thing, and I think we certainly do need it. This is the times when we need people like you sysop's, because this certainly isn't going to be easy...

Like my father always says "Problems don't build character, they reveal it." And I am impressed by the amount of integrity and gut you guys have. So keep up the good work and gogo ;) The Imperialist