GuildWiki:Wikia Move

Please feel free to ask question in the talk page.

The Long And Short Of It

I have been hosting GameWikis (on various hosting space) for a couple years, now. There's been some downs, but a lot more ups, then I could've possibly imagined when Michael (Nunix) and I started this thing as a way for us to keep track of where things were in Guildwars without having to dig through endless forum posts. It's been nothing short of incredible, unexpected, and humbling to have so many people dedicate so much of their time to something we put together on a whim. There's (famously) been some server moves in there, ad we're on the verge of another big change. In short: GameWikis is now a part of Wikia.

I have been talking with their CEO Gil Penchina for some time now, and, basically came to the realization that Wikia's gaming section is what I wanted GameWikis to be, but with the resources and people to make it happen much more efficiently than I ever could. The hosting bills (mainly due to bandwidth, which ain't cheap) have continued going up, and with my full-time day job taking up my days, worrying about ad revenue at night just isn't any fun.

Seriously, Though, Why?

As you might know, Wikia's been eyeing us for awhile, now. In the past month or so, I've been talking more with Gil and their people, and seen our hits (and hosting bills) continue to climb, especially in the run up and launch of Eye of the North. Basically, they've got the money, infrastructure, and a growing track record for doing the right thing with communities: letting them be themselves. Wikia will be able to keep these sites running better than I could have. They've got people constantly working on the code, full time, to boot, and as we move forward, I don't think GameWikis staying power would be nearly what theirs is going to be.

First Things First: Are You Getting Paid For This?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Wikia gave me some cash and company stock in exchange for all of the related GameWikis URLs, a data dump of all of our content, and the discontinuation of my hosting of the sites. As you're probably aware, GameWikis has had suitors before. This is truly not about the money.

Does Wikia Own User Contributions Now?

Not any more than I do. The licensing of the site and your content will not change against your will. If you want to delete your account, stop contributing, or call me names in public forums, you are as free to do this as you were before the move. As part of the deal, Wikia has also agreed to make public data dumps of all the openly licensed content available on a regular basis, which is something we've always wanted to do, but never quite got off the ground.

Will I Still Be A Sysop/Bureaucrat After The Move?

Yes. The community as it is will stay more or less completely the same. To you, the users, this should feel like nothing more than another server move. You will still be free to do all of the things you were before, and editorial control continue to rest in the same hands it does now. These hands are probably directly in front of you, even as you read this. I believe you will find that they are your own.

When Is This Happening?

It is, in fact, going on right now. This week, I am working with Wikia to get a copy of our sites working on their servers. Once everything is set up, we'll be setting the sites all read-only and making a new up-to-date DB dump to import onto the new server. The switch time will be noted on the main page of all the sites. Once that is done things will continue on like they always have. With some luck, there will be almost no interruption of service. The downtime should only be as long as it takes for the DNS to resolve to our new server with Wikia.