Forum:Boycott Wikia's New Style

Boycott list
In protest of the proposed Forum:Wikia's New Style (especially the new uncontrollable ad placement proposal), I'm starting a boycott of Wikia wikis, starting in the month of July.

By boycott, I mean I will not contribute to any Wikia wiki for all the month of July 2008.

Who will join me?

Put your signature below

 * I'm in --Fandyllic (primarily an editor on WoWWiki)
 * Also in --Taylor Karras talk contributions 03:05, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Count me --MattyDienhoff (Sysop - Half-Life Wiki)
 * Short Notice! Blast Em!--[[Image:AndeLeg.jpg|20px]] Arav (talk ) 06:26, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Pierlot McCrooke 06:36, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * [[Image:Darthtomsig.png|163px]] My page iChat What I've done 19:55, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * If the ads are eventually implemented within the content area. GHe (Talk) (Wikia Janitor)

Why the Boycott?
By request below...

Wikia needs a more concrete idea of who is displeased by the way they conducted their announcement and implementation of "Wikia's New Style". A list of boycotters gives them an easier way to see a list rather than wading through an unruly talk page and figuring out who was actually mad (even though almost all the responses were negative).

Solutions
These solutions are not attached to the list of boycotters and are only proposed by me (Fandyllic).


 * 1) Give at least a month longer to implement any new multi-wiki changes (the current start date is June 17). I would not start this "new style" implementation until at least mid-July.
 * 2) Get a consensus that Monaco skin is ready to override older entrenched skins, especially Monobook, on all wikis. Wikia should give a pilot list of larger wikis (lets say those with 5000 or more articles; for the benefit of the advertisers) to transition immediately so they can get some feedback, but give the rest of the wikis more time (say an extra month) to transition their editors and users to Monaco-only.
 * 3) * Personally, I have no problem with Monaco, but I know some Monaco variants are not quite done or ready for prime-time (speaking for WoWWiki only).
 * 4) Redo the "Wikia's New Style" page to be more honest. The Changes to Monaco section has an outrageously misleading graphic that compares article area between various skins, but conveniently seems to exclude the area taken up by advertising and counts it as "article area." New Monaco, definitely doesn't have more article area than old Monaco with the new advertising scheme. How can ads take up a big chunk of initially visible "content area" and not reduce "article area?"
 * 5) Give more ad positioning control to editors. I know this reduces the "consistency" advertisers want, but if editors could choose between a couple of high-profile areas (top banner vs. top-right square), it would allow editors to set what they think would be better information presentation. Advertisements can seriously reduce the quality of info presentation and the worse we make that, the less popular Wikia wikis will get.
 * 6) Why not put ads on talk page "content area"? This wouldn't push aside helpful article info, but it may please advertisers to increase opportunities for ad impressions. Giving this additional area may allow giving back more ad positioning control to editors.

Lastly, remember Wikia owns the wikis, but not any content due to GFDL, so a determined group of editors could move their wikis to another site, especially if it uses the MediaWiki engine.

Comments
What exactly are you trying to achieve here? AdmirableAckbar 11:01, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I, too, would like to know the answer to that, not that you can tell me if you not editing. So because your not giving (logical) ideas on what to do, things are going to go ahead with out you, and that will be that. Clever - Kingpin13 11:15, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Boycotting instead of giving ideas helps nothing. Drewton  ( Drewton's Holocron ) 12:07, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I feel it's very easy to say "I don't like this, lets boycott it" without actually helping to solve the problem... by doing this, you might actually be making the problem worse... Wikia will change anyway, they have to change. The best thing you can do is jus accept the fact that Wikia will change and think of ways to make that change easier, come up with a solution that everyone can live with... --Jedimca0(Do or Do Not, There is No Try) 14:26, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Also, it's not as bad as some people think. There are actually some really good suggestions being suggested in that forum. --Jedimca0(Do or Do Not, There is No Try) 14:41, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Okay, I added some proposed solutions. By the way, complaining about someone not having solutions when you don't offer any yourself is pure hypocrisy. --Fandyllic 17:05, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I did offer solutions, ideas and talked to many people about this in IRC, so please, don't think I'm just here to complain... I'm just trying to get a discussion going because I feel that's the only way we're going to get a real solution, one that everyone can live with. --Jedimca0(Do or Do Not, There is No Try) 17:57, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

I won't join the boycott for several reasons. One, I am not obsessed with making the main page fancy, so Wikia's New Style doesn't scare me. Two, I could only stop editing for a day if I had to or if I played games, but the latter can't prevent me from editing for even a few days. Three, I'm an admin on nine wikis at Wikia. Four, people get used to things. Five, as long as the ads don't generate pop-ups, I'm fine. MarioGalaxy2433g5 { talk /contribs/Logs} 21:21, 10 June 2008 (UTC)