User blog comment:MisterWoodhouse/Fandom is upgrading to a modern version of MediaWiki/@comment-5785681-20190628202301/@comment-20644-20190629185157

I would strongly challenge this statement: "Search Engine Optimization is what advertisers want, not what editors want."

Poor SEO means fewer people will view the content you create. Does more people on the site mean more ad revenue? Totally, and we're a business so we of course want to grow our audience. But I don't think most editors would share the opinion that best practices for bringing in more people to view the content you're working hard to create is something that only advertisers care about.

And in the case of categories, SEO was taking a big hit so we identified it as an area where we could improve SEO. Keep in mind that the most basic version of categories is a nearly two decades old part of MediaWiki, from a time when SEO best practices were not as established. Elements of categories that are an issue now weren't an issue back then, so we made some changes.

That doesn't mean we won't hear feedback about how to implement or evolve some of those changes, though. The introduction of Dynamic Categories is very much meant as a v1 version, with more opportunities for changing it later. We likely won't do so until the new platform, but Dynamic Categories was never meant as a one and done release.

Our goal with a change like that is ultimately that more people are able to read and enjoy the content that you're creating.