Board Thread:New Features/@comment-26522807-20160208225359/@comment-11733175-20160225222343

@V1ct0ri0u5 "good enough" is incredibly subjective, and doesn't take account of the huge variety of needs wikis can have. Sure, if Wikia has what you need you're never going to to notice anything wrong or want anything different.

But after a while, you start noticing problems, that some things aren't the best idea in the world or that there's improvements to be made somewhere else. You might have an idea on how to improve the software. With Wikia, if that idea or improvement is with their software, lets say you had an idea on how to improve oasis, then chances are they'd listen to you and think about adding your idea or implementing your improvement. But if that change is part of MediaWiki itself? Not such a simple story.

You might submit a ticket in WMF's issue tracker, and a helpful developer or volunteer might decide to implement it. But they work to a completely different schedule to Wikia, so chances are they won't unless your idea aligns with their aims, in which case you're down to the helpful volunteer. If it gets past there, you then have to convince Wikia it's something they should have. If it's in an older part of the codebase, you might be in luck. If not, chances are you'll never see it on Wikia.

Things like documentation pages for modules are tied into later versions of MediaWiki. There's a new version of Gadgets, which could solve the entire user-generated JS issue in late stages of development now. And many more besides, even down to the simple magic word mentioned above. I doubt we'll ever see those features. If you think Wikia might do them in their own way, think again - it is almost guaranteed to be problematic from day one and barely improve from there.

1.19 is now years behind the current version. Think how much you might learn in a couple of years, things you might change in your daily life. Now imagine all those lessons and changes being added to MediaWiki, times however many developers WMF employ. That's what we're missing out on and always will.

And just in case you want to leave Wikia and go elsewhere? Your SEO is now tied to Wikia and your traffic will never recover. The original version will stay on Wikia and act as a competitor for your new site. Small wikis may die from vandals and lack of maintenance, but after a point you're undeniably stuck.