Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5610178-20161009233707/@comment-168424-20161013221515

Chaujiu wrote: Balofo wrote: Chaujiu, my friend wikia's business plan is very clear: monetize voluntary work. Just like the Olympic games, they exploit poor people as volunteers while getting all the ad money sitting idly.

Basically: editors(quasi-slaves), paid wikia staff(maintain the tech stuff), owners(get millions monthly without doing anything.

It's a genius scheme and will never change since fans are oblivious to the fact they are being explored. So... One friend has decided to TRY to make a profit--not saying they have or will yet--and this somehow bothers you? I'm also a little confused on the whole "using us to make money" part too, now that I really think about it. They make money off of our work so that we can KEEP working on the things we love. It's not like they do nothing and make money. Wikia has a team of developers constantly working on new features and generally making sure things work and that everyone gets along nicely.

Besides, with the number of people using AdBlocker these days, AdSense doens't really net as much as you'd think. Wikia has partnerships with major franchises, knowing full well that they can showcase the dedication a fandom has to their craft, and in the end, this benefits everyone. It allows for the franchise to gain visibility in the massive sea that is pop culture and give it an edge by providing reliable and accurate information in a convenient place. Other people can see the love and tears that go into the original media and the same response from the fans too. A lot of people respect that, and when you get to that point, more people are encouraged to do more for a specific community. It's not as much as the individual franchise itself makes, but it allows for feedback, whether its praise or complaint. That's always been what Wikia provides for its community. The fact that they need to make a little money off of us to keep this site running is absolutely no problem by me.

Running a website is expensive, and I can only begin to imagine the amount of server space Wikia needs just to host all of its various communities and keep them running smoothly. That in itself is a full-time job, and that means you need to pay people to maintain everything. So honestly, stop complaining. It's a small price to pay for a well-maintained series of websites. Most people are aware of this and don't even care anyway.

While all of what you say is true to some degree, there are alternatives to Wikia and Wikia does have competition. Some of the competition is better, meaning non-Wikia wikis being better than Wikia ones. So, Wikia still has to convince users that they are better than the competition, not just be a wiki host.