User blog comment:Craiglpalmer/Wikia is now Fandom powered by Wikia/@comment-20644-20160930175246/@comment-25356303-20161001011727

"I'm sure many of you have described Wikia by comparing it to Wikipedia in some way. Some of you think that's a good thing because of how it automatically relates to wikis, but that's not great from a branding perspective when that brand is looking to grow even further than it already has."

I'm sure that the vast majority of traffic to Wikia is to the articles on individual wikis, not the Fandom editorials, Discussions, etc. Thus, people are most likely going to continue comparing Wikia to Wikipedia, because it is by far the most efficient way to get across the site's actual purpose.

"And for those who do think fandom is a negative word, which is a small minority of people, then the positivity of the Fandom powered by Wikia brand can help change their minds."

I don't know where you're getting the statistics for this. If you're polling, say, Tumblr, of course a lot of people are going to have a positive or neutral opinion of the word. However, if you poll a more self-aware website that discourages that type of content, you're going to get the exact opposite reaction.

I appreciate that you're still replying to the criticism on this blog, but I don't think the negative connotation with "Fandom" is ever going to go away. Wikia, a wiki hosting service, doesn't have the capability to become ingrained in popular culture like many other companies. Most people will associate the content they read with the wiki it came from, not Wikia. For example, Wikipedia is well-known among the general public but the Wikimedia Foundation is not.