User blog comment:Rupert Giles/Layout Changes: Breakpoints and Typography/@comment-23989026-20150521002435

Does Wikia have a long-term plan? Do you want Wikia to be known for/home of mobile-friendly wikias? If so, shouldn't you use these changes to achieve that goal. But you seem to have an ad hoc planning process. This blog was written on April 15 and have not seen any further Wikia follow-ups; so I am not surprised that so many communities were unprepared and the upgrade was a PR disaster.

If I was part of Wikia management, I would create a new division - Wikia Mobile - the elite of wikias that meet the mobile specifications - layouts, infoboxes, tables, cleanup insights, etc. The incentive to join this "exclusive club", communities would be rewarded with front page showcasing, listings on Wikia Hub, spotlights, etc (what readers see first when visiting Wikia). As every community would want to be part of this exclusive club, it would be the carrot to make their community mobile-friendly. Wikia gains a reputation as the home of quality, made-for-mobile wikias, targetting your largest audience.

The rest of wikias become part of a mentor program. You have a number of Wikia Stars who want to help. Their role could be weekly blogs (this week > mobile-friendly tables, next week > mobile-friendly infoboxes, etc), forum postings on this week's project (keeping the subject visible to encourage action) with the goal to get more communities promoted to "Wikia elite" (Wikia Mobile). So, for example, by the time that the new infoboxes go live, a high number of communities are already infobox mobile-friendly.

I understand you assess your success by visit numbers (ie: why you have the start a wikia button which increases Wikia's size). But loyal visitors who return to Wikia must be more beneficial long-term. And that is achieved by being more professional looking and gives Wikia a reputation (like Google and Wikipedia have) that encourage users wanting to keep visiting your wikias.