User blog comment:Craiglpalmer/Wikia is now Fandom powered by Wikia/@comment-5645428-20161004160217

I think everyone is exaggerating the severity of this whole rebranding issue. Surely, people would understand that Wikia/Fandom's marketing executives would have enough experience and insight to come to such a major decision. I guess not, considering that people see themselves as the greater intellect in the matter and then whinge that Wikia/Fandom never listen to their most highly knowledgable opinions. As if branding is something a business's consumers should be deciding on. Be realistic.

Changing a brand name does not indicate a change to the product. Wikis remain wikis because functionally they are still encyclopedic databases. The company Wikia has extended its services from just wiki-hosting to include the writing of pop-culture entertainment articles under the Fandom alias. Why not incorporate it into the parent brand name to increase consumer awareness? Here we go, complaints about 'hijacking' a word to use for branding. It is true that words can be property, but that is nothing new. And the negative connotations? People are still going to use wikis for being wikis, not because of a brand name that they have a pre-meditated negative impression of. That for them then becomes a false assumption that they will quickly grow out of after realising that a brand is just a brand. Its name does not determine the function or quality of the product.

I do agree that 'Fandom powered by Wikia' sounds dumb. Indeed, a ton dumber than the fair and simple 'Wikia' that was primed for SEO before it was even a big thing. Other than that, changing the brand name is far from something that should call for an outcry as witnessed below. It has its benefits which have certainly been considered by the company, which is why this is happening at all. Basic marketing. Even websites can get something out of a facelift every few years.