Re: [Semediawiki-user] Wikia

[Robin P. <Ro...@sl...>]

If you are logged-in on a Wikia site, you see paid ads only on the main 
page. Not much of a bevy.

And yes, this could be a good forum for discussing that subject, because of 
one important point: Wikia sites are using SMW, whereas Wikimedia sites are 
not (yet). Familypedia has over 900 properties, for example.

Bobby asks "Why then should we let a commercial company control the 
"library" instead of a non-profit?  " - maybe because that company does it 
rather well. But it's hardly "control": anyone can try to do it better 
without any ads, and can even download the whole of a Wikia site as a 
starter (subject to proper acknowledgment under CC-BY-SA on every page). 
Just get volunteers to donate to the server costs and maybe also the amount 
and types of support and development that Wikia staff provide. You may be 
able to siphon off some of Wikia's 2 million registered users!

Robin F Patterson
Plimmerton, Porirua City, New Zealand
http://genealogy.wikia.com/wiki/User:Robin_Patterson
http://newzealand.wikia.com/wiki/User:Robin_Patterson
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bobby S" <bo...@gm...>
To: <sem...@li...>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 4:18 PM
Subject: [Semediawiki-user] Wikia


> Perhaps this isn't the forum for this, but I wanted to pose it to you
> all anyway to spark some debate and discussion. I understand this may
> not be popular with some...
>
> Why isn't Wikimedia or some other non-profit organization creating the
> "library" as Jimmy Wales likes to describe Wikia?  Aren't the sites on
> Wikia knowledge and information just like Wikimedia's sites?...while
> you could argue that Wikimedia's sites are more easily classified as
> educational, the sites on Wikia do have information that educates on
> specific topics.
>
> Why then should we let a commercial company control the "library"
> instead of a non-profit?   I understand some will argue that the fact
> that Wikia is copyleft means they are the good guy in the fight, but I
> would argue that they have no skin in the game to make their content
> easily accessible for other purposes and make their content easily
> digested without a bevy of ads in order to pay for the servers.
>
> Wondering what your thoughts are on this topic.
>
> Bobby