User blog:MisterWoodhouse/Our first update on the new platform

Hello, all!

Since we announced the new platform and the Community Contract governing our work on it, our teams have been very hard at work building the foundation for Fandom’s next chapter: our new home.

The new platform will be unifying Fandom and Gamepedia. That’s right. We’re going to be one big, happy, modern MediaWiki platform. Our internal teams have been referring to it as the Unified Community Platform (UCP).

The UCP will be a modern wiki platform, the best of both worlds between Fandom and Gamepedia, that puts powerful tools into the hands of its editors, facilitates deep community engagement, and dynamically presents all the best information on all your fandoms to all the fans. We will be able to support new extensions you’ve been clamoring for over the past several years. We will be able to build awesome new features that enhance your wikis. We won’t have to worry about the issues presented by an ancient codebase or maintaining two different wiki platforms. It will take the best of both wiki platforms and mix them with more than a dash of new work to create a truly incredible wiki experience.

I’m sure you have a LOT of questions about what that means, so let’s tackle some of the big anticipated ones, then talk about timeframe and sequence.

Big Questions
What is going to happen to Gamepedia as a brand and a domain?

This is the #1 question we anticipated this announcement would prompt. We have not yet reached an answer on this internally, but we felt that disclosing the Unified Community Platform plan now was best for the community, as it allows us to have a more thorough two-way dialogue about changes and enhancements. We’re not rushing to an answer because a right answer is better than a quick answer. To be clear, the decision to unify the platforms is separate from any branding decision for Gamepedia.

When we have an answer on this, it will be announced.

What is happening to my account on Fandom and/or Gamepedia in this unification?

We are working on unifying the user account tables, which means that all of the Fandom and Gamepedia user accounts will exist on the same database that powers authentication. We are currently working on how to deal with users who have accounts on each platform and/or username conflicts.

What is the new design going to look like?

Design work is moving apace with new platform and new feature work, but we are not yet ready to show off any new design mockups yet.

Is this why you did Project Crossover?

No. Project Crossover’s initial goal was to allow communities to join forces and stop competing for readers and content, which has led to some really incredible new wiki teams. While the initiative makes platform unification easier, it began before platform unification was decided. Project Crossover is still voluntary.

Timeframe and Sequencing
Since the MediaWiki upgrade announcement, the big question from many of you has been “When can we expect this to happen?” While we still don’t have a date to share, I can tell you that the platforms will be unified in 2020, with UCP-specific enhancements arriving later in the process.

The UCP will go live to the public in early 2020, with the ability to create new, simple wikis on it. Next will come the migration of Fandom and Gamepedia to the UCP and enabling the creation of complex wikis (which involve lots of extension requirements).

When Fandom and Gamepedia migrate onto the UCP, they will be on their existing skins. While Fandom and Gamepedia will have feature parity to pre-migration states, we will not have the full planned feature set at launch, as many of the new features being worked on are being developed in concert with the new design.

The Road Forward
I know that we’ve given you a lot to think about with this blog. For a lot of you, some emotions are going to be running high. We will be sharing more specifics in a follow-up blog on the UCP one week from today, and will address feedback on today’s blog at that time. A third blog will come at a later date, focusing on the technical side of some work already completed, but written in a way that doesn’t require a background in software development to understand.

As with all announcements, we are happy to take your questions about what we’ve discussed today! If you have a staff question about another topic or need support, please contact our support desk.