Forum:Duplicate wikis

Hello, I'm Atarumaster88, an administrator over at the Star Wars wiki, Wookieepedia, and I thought I'd notify this community about a recent Wikia development that concerns you. While I'm not much of a Starcraft player, I do enjoy the occasional game and this website. :-)

This latest forum by Wikia on Central basically tells us that staff will no longer deny any wiki requests that meet the terms of use.

Quoting their original post:

"Hi everyone, Today we are making a change to our wiki creation process and I want to take a moment to let you know what to expect. Wikia has always been a place for people to document the topics which they are passionate about. Until now, the wiki request process has involved Wikia staff members evaluating each wiki request and accepting those which they believed would attract and sustain a healthy community. The new wiki creation system puts the power back in your hands and allows almost all requested wikis to be created. Starting later today, all requested wikis will be automatically created and ready to edit within minutes. Users will be given a link to begin work on the new wiki before leaving the wiki request page. Wikis which might have been turned down in the past because they were of a personal nature, about a small group, or about a topic which we believed might not have enough of a broad appeal to warrant a full wiki, will now be given an opportunity to shine. Does this mean that Wikia will allow more than one wiki for a given topic? Yes, Wikia will no longer restrict wiki creation to one wiki per topic. While we strongly encourage everyone to improve existing wikis rather than creating new ones on the same topic, we will allow wikis on any topic (subject to our Terms of Use). If a user would prefer to document a topic differently than an existing wiki, then we encourage that approach. Each wiki will have an equal chance to create compelling content and succeed in its own way. Links between related wikis are encouraged so visitors can make their own choice about which communities to join. What if someone copies content from my wiki to another wiki on the same topic? Text added to Wikia is typically available under a free license which means anyone is welcome to reuse that content as long as they provide attribution back to the original creators and as long as both wikis use the same license. While it's fine to seed a new wiki with existing free content, Wikia does not encourage copying of large quantities of text or creating mirrors of existing Wikia sites. What should I do if I see a wiki on a topic which violates Wikia's Terms of Use? The first step is to talk to the wiki's admins about your concerns. It's likely they will change their behavior once they understand Wikia's guidelines. Serious violations should be reported to Wikia staff using Special:Contact.""

- Wikia staff member Kyle H

As you might guess, I'm entirely displeased with this idea, as it will no doubt result in hundreds of useless craptastic spinoff wikis using Wookieepedia, or Starcraft Wikia, or whomever's content which has been clusterscrewed to fit the aims of the founders of said spinoff wikis. I.e., someone could make a Zerg Wiki which covers much of the same topics as your wiki does, and Wikia would do nothing to stop it. Nor would they stop the Zerg Wiki from using your content. This discourages collaborative efforts on wikis and negatively impacts the coherency, organization, and cohesiveness of Wikia's wikis. I personally think it's a shameless ploy for more wikis to be created, therefore leading to more ad revenue for Wikia (MONEYMONEYMONEY$$!!$1$!), but I have no proof for that particular accusation. Anyway, leave your comments for Wikia over on their Central forum, regardless of your opinion on the matter. I've already done so. Atarumaster88 ( Talk page ) 16:33, 25 March 2009 (UTC)