User blog comment:Ciencia Al Poder/Portable Infoboxes, the first step into Wikia taking control over our content/@comment--20170510200248/@comment-168424-20170510223030

My translation…

DaNASCAT wrote:

The decision to convert WikiDex to Portable Infoboxes does not represent a change in how we approach conversion with other communities. As always, wikis are allowed to freely add and customize and what lives in the content area as long as it fits in the framework of the Terms of Use. However, we don't guarantee that the tools you use won't change over time.

The "framework of the Terms of Use" as usual being vague enough that Fandom interprets it as they see fit, so "freely add and customize and what lives in the content area" is not quite what most people think.

DaNASCAT wrote:

The old style of infoboxes represents outdated coding, and we no longer code in a way that make them a viable option. This is because Portable Infoboxes, used to great success on most of our top communities, help ensure that content displays well on mobile devices.

There is no "old style" per se, what they really mean is wiki text-based infoboxes. Also, if the community is making the infoboxes, "we" means Fandom staff and not the community. For the most part PIs are a great success, but only when the community accepts them. Also, "great success" depends on who's talking. Most readers shouldn't notice the difference, but PIs please Fandom, so that is likely the measure of success.

DaNASCAT wrote:

In large and highly visible communities, we do extensive testing around Portable Infoboxes to make sure that they perform to the standards that readers expect. As long as that happens, admins are almost always satisfied with the conversion process. We first started working with WikiDex, using our standard outreach process, in November. Over the last 5 months, we performed as much testing as we could to ensure that Portable Infoboxes did not result in a loss of functionality. Every opportunity was given to provide actionable feedback to tailor the final draft to the community's needs. The community was also asked to guide the introduction of Portable Infoboxes, which we think is an important step in conversion.

Clearly the "standard outreach process" didn't go so well. The key part of this is WikiDex had the misfortune of being considered one of the "large and highly visible communities" which means they were important to advertisers who drive Fandoms decisions. I also wonder what it means to "guide the introduction of Portable Infoboxes". It sound more like the community was asked how to make sure the resistance was minimized. Classic euphemism.

DaNASCAT wrote:

Unfortunately, a broader community discussion was prevented by the actions of a handful of local admins by removing invitations to even attend discussions. Through the actions of a tiny fraction of users at every step of the process, it became clear that the only objections they had to Portable Infoboxes were an opposition to Fandom, not to Portable Infoboxes, a sentiment these admins have publicly expressed many times in the past. We told the admins months ago that we settled on a May 1st date for conversion, that we would continue working with them on any actionable feedback they gave us, and we would take actions we felt were necessary to make sure that WikiDex readers are given a modern content experience.

What percentage of the total admin group did "a handful of local admins" represent. I suspect it was more than half. I've heard WikiDex has over 30 admins… was it really a handful? Big hands?

DaNASCAT wrote:

WikiDex had no active technical blockers to conversion, so apart from minor stylistic changes, all previous data shows currently. There are communities where there would be some data display loss if we simply converted them over to Portable Infoboxes. As always, we will continue to proactively work with the admins of those wikis to find solutions to those issues so we can collaborate on converting to Portable Infoboxes.

This is all probably completely true, but something can be perfectly "functional" and still look bad. As some other admins have said, they are very sensitive to small issues, since especially on communities like this, the admins have worked long and hard to achieve a specific look.

DaNASCAT wrote:

WikiDex is a unique situation, based entirely around the actions and attitudes of a handful of admins, and it does not represent our approach to other communities. Unfortunately this has also now led to the blocking of Ciencia. On Tuesday morning, we discovered two accounts were changing the infoboxes back to a non-portable state without giving a clear explanation. Both accounts were only two days old, which caught the attention of our Spanish Community team because WikiDex admins typically do not allow new users to edit important content like infoboxes. We investigated these accounts and discovered that they were operated by Ciencia. The accounts and their actions led to a temporary ban from the platform.

This explains a ban, but doesn't really explain the demotion. It would be nice to get some explanation for that.

DaNASCAT wrote:

In the end, we had a choice on WikiDex between catering to a small subset of angry users who will never like what Fandom does (and proved that they are willing to vandalize in order to make a point) and thousands of visitors who use mobile devices to view WikiDex. These are visitors that this small subset of users tried to force a bad mobile experience upon. The choice was clear: we went with the experience that benefits readers.

So much spin. This all sounds just like what was said during the Oasis Wars. Again, what helped then was not banning users and demoting admins, but showing that Fandom will work just as hard to make the wiki better that doesn't require forcing unwanted change. As someone who left Fandom for a long time (9+ months) after the Oasis Wars, I came back because of the actions of some good Fandom staff members who know how to show the best of what Fandom is.

This incident does not show the best of Fandom. It shows a Fandom that doesn't really respect community, but decides for a community when they resist, rather than proving they can make things better without forcing change that Fandom has convinced itself is for the good of the community while branding resisters the dreaded label "a handful of local admins". I was one of them. Things like this are what create forks for Fandom wikis.