User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/How we're testing the fandom.com domain migration/@comment-34425563-20181008035811/@comment-26213507-20181008165630

The problem is not that people can't use .wikia.com to get to a site, but rather, that onlookers will see the name "fandom" in the URL and misinterpret the site as being fan-fictions based off of the source material. Not only is the word "fandom" informal, but it's widely used everywhere to describe cult fanbases and sometimes even toxic ones. When new users see the URL, they might be turned off, just like with the rebrand.