Stop Using Fandom 2024-06-16 fandom is a wiki website (allegedly) if you are unfortunate enough to browse a fandom wiki without an ad blocker, you will experience what i like to call "attention assault" upon opening a fandom page (for me, it was the hollow knight wiki), you will note the very subtle aroma of a 1/3 page banner ad, placed ever so daintily at the top of the page. my ad was for furniture - ah yes, just what i wanted. a multi-thousand-dollar furniture purchase to go with my video game bug lore. i have been using fandom for 1 second and i already want to leave ... as i scroll down, i'm assaulted by an auto-playing video ad for dog food. i do not have a dog. in the top-left corner of the video sits a little "1/2", indicating the presence of a second ad. another dog food ad. actually, exactly the same dog food ad. this "content" is in the middle of the hollow knight fandom wiki. when i scroll down, the video shrinks into the bottom-right corner of my screen and stalks me around the website, begging for attention. after the ads finish playing, a 60 minute video called "honest trailers" starts. this must be the actual video that i've been sitting through ads to witness. "honest trailers" is not hollow knight related - it's two guys vaping & reviewing the new mario movie trailer. they're arguing about whether chris pratt is a good FIT to voice act MARIO after about 5 seconds (no, i'm not kidding), another ad break occurs. it's the same dog food ad. AGAIN. ... scrolling further down, i reach the end of the wiki page, and there are two banner ads waiting, as if to bid me farewell after my arduous journey through this shit-ass website. - one 1/3 page footer ad for Ubisoft+ - one 1/4 page sidebar ad for sunscreen i don't need sunscreen. i need fandomscreen. . \ | / '-.;;;.-' -==;;;;;==- .-';;;'-. / | \ ' [0] some fandom history from the very beginning, fandom was about profit: 2004: jimmy founds wikicities 2006: wikicities renamed to wikia 2006: random venture capital firms invest $4M 2006: amazon.com invests $10M 2012: venture firms + amazon invest $11M 2014: venture firms invest $15M 2016: wikia renamed to fandom 2018: enormous private equity firm acquires fandom grand total: $40M and what, dear readers, do venture capitalists want when they invest $40M into something? returns. at all costs. let the enshittification begin. > but wait, what does fandom actually _do_? what valuable service does fandom provide to the world? fandom generates enough money to retain a staff of 300+, and rent several offices, including a very beautiful building in downtown san francisco. as far as i can tell, this is fandom's business model: 1. users write wiki content on fandom 2. fandom displays your content on a wiki page 3. pelt fandom visitors with ads 4. $$$$$$$$ YUM YUM YUM, MONEY!! $$$$$$$$$ many fandom communities noticed fandom degrading. at first, it was the ads. huge, annoying, irrelevant ads embedded directly in the content. obtrusive ads obviously suck, but hey, adblockers are a thing, so maybe ours users could j... INTRODUCING: THE MCDONALD'S GRIMACE SHAKE PROMOTION CONTROVERSY! in 2023, mcdonald's paid fandom an unknown[1] amount of money to temporarily replace the mcdonald's wiki main page + grimace article with advertisements promoting the grimace shake. the grimace shake. i can't make this shit up. fandom set the precedent that companies could pay them and make user content go *poof* ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢱⣆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⣿⣷⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣷⣧⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⡀⢠⣿⡟⣿⣿⣿⡇⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⣳⣼⣿⡏⢸⣿⣿⣿⢀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⣰⣿⣿⡿⠁⢸⣿⣿⡟⣼⡆ ⢰⢀⣾⣿⣿⠟⠀⠀⣾⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⢸⣿⣿⣿⡏⠀⠀⠀⠃⠸⣿⣿⣿⡿ ⢳⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣿⡿⡁ ⠀⠹⣿⣿⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢠⣿⡞⠁ ⠀⠀⠈⠛⢿⣄⠀⠀⠀⣠⠞⠋⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ fandom shall burn wikis aren't quite like other websites. - wiki software is largely open source - wiki content authors are often technical - users don't care where wikis are hosted three simple ingredients. one predictable outcome. mass exodus. the runescape[2] and minecraft[3] communities acted first, migrating their treasured wikis to their own domains. many other wikis followed. hollow knight (yay bugz!) terraria animal crossing stardew valley EVE Online Factorio dota2 ... AND MANY, MANY MORE[4] over 300 wikis have migrated away from fandom, and i can only hope that this trajectory accelerates. nothing makes me happier than passionate communities showing everyone that a better world is possible. if you want to help, 1. download Indie Wiki Buddy indie wiki buddy tells you when a fandom page has an alternative community-led wiki. it's a great plugin that will help you support and discover independent wikis. 2. if you must use fandom, turn on your ad blocker 3. if you own a wiki on fandom, move it off! my offer: if you are a fandom wiki owner & you would like to move your wiki content elsewhere, i will offer you my expertise at $0/hour. i know lots about servers, software, and maintenance. just email me - let's get you out of fandom's ecosystem. stay weird stay independent fuck venture capital long live the human internet LUV, JES [0]: sun ascii by jgs [1]: fandom is a private company & doesn't have to disclose such petty details as "how much money did mcdonalds give us to tear out user content and replace it with marketing" [2]: https://runescape.wiki [3]: https://minecraft.wiki [4]: https://getindie.wiki/listings
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last updated 2024-06-16T00:00:00.000Z