Fandom: Difference between revisions

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'''{{Wplink|Fandom (website)|Fandom}}''', formerly known as '''Wikia''', is a media conglomerate based in the United States. The website has more than 50 million user-generated pages, as well as other multimedia databases such as GameFAQs, Metacritic, and Gamepedia. It also owns entertainment outlets such as GameSpot and TV Guide, in addition to owning online video game retailers such as Fanatical.

In 2018, Fandom was acquired by private equity firm TPG Capital. In 2024, the Detailed.com blog, which analyzes web development with regard to SEO, categorized Fandom as one of the 16 companies that dominate global traffic for Google Search, noting that it had been one of the largest domains it had ever recorded with an estimated 800 million visits according to statistics provided by Semrush in the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Allsopp |first=Glen |date=2024 |title=How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results (2024 Edition) |url=https://detailed.com/google-control/ |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=Detailed.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260223042948/https://detailed.com/google-control/ |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>

In 2018, Fandom was acquired by [[wikipedia:Private_equity_firm|private equity firm]] TPG Capital. In 2024, the Detailed.com blog, which analyzes web development with regard to [[wikipedia:Search_engine_optimization|SEO]], categorized Fandom as one of the 16 companies that dominate global traffic for Google Search, noting that it had been one of the largest domains it had ever recorded with an estimated 800 million visits according to statistics provided by Semrush in the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Allsopp |first=Glen |date=2024 |title=How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results (2024 Edition) |url=https://detailed.com/google-control/ |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=Detailed.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260223042948/https://detailed.com/google-control/ |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>

==Consumer impact summary==

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===Business Model===

<blockquote>''"I briefly worked for Fandom last year, and I worked closely with GameSpot and TV Guide. After ten years in the editorial industry I had never seen editorial brands treated so poorly. Fandom is fundamentally a company that ONLY knows how to operate using an army of unpaid volunteer editors and have no clue whatsoever how to manage paid writers and editors. It was an absolute nightmare of mismanagement, and while I was going to bat hard for the editors (like what do I care about Fandom after a few weeks of working there, I literally only care about journalists being resourced well enough to keep their jobs and do great work) my management started drilling down on me pretty quickly. I wound up going on disability because the working conditions there exacerbated a mental health crisis (having to do with the nightmare layoffs at Condé that I'd just gone through), and eventually I left" -'' A former FANDOM Employee in the article [https://gemvidio-navi.neocities.org/Tech/fandom-working-environment Behind the moderation of Fandom Wikis: Controversies, incidents, and toxicity] </blockquote>[[File:Fandom ~~Wiki -~~ Path of Exile ~~Ad Information~~.png|alt=Fandom Wiki Ads Monetization Information|thumb|Using external tools, you can see which ads are being displayed and how much Fandom is paid to display them on the wiki. The people who write the articles do not receive any monetization for these ads, just as Fandom does not tell the people who work on its wikis how much they actually earn from monetizing their content. (Source: [https://forkfandom.com/ ForkFandom] by Jacques Corby-Tuech)]]

<blockquote>''"I briefly worked for Fandom last year, and I worked closely with GameSpot and TV Guide. After ten years in the editorial industry I had never seen editorial brands treated so poorly. Fandom is fundamentally a company that ONLY knows how to operate using an army of unpaid volunteer editors and have no clue whatsoever how to manage paid writers and editors. It was an absolute nightmare of mismanagement, and while I was going to bat hard for the editors (like what do I care about Fandom after a few weeks of working there, I literally only care about journalists being resourced well enough to keep their jobs and do great work) my management started drilling down on me pretty quickly. I wound up going on disability because the working conditions there exacerbated a mental health crisis (having to do with the nightmare layoffs at Condé that I'd just gone through), and eventually I left" -'' A former FANDOM Employee in the article [https://gemvidio-navi.neocities.org/Tech/fandom-working-environment Behind the moderation of Fandom Wikis: Controversies, incidents, and toxicity]</blockquote>

[[File:Fandom ad information for Path of Exile.png|alt=Fandom Wiki Ads Monetization Information|thumb|Using external tools, you can see which ads are being displayed and how much Fandom is paid to display them on the wiki. The people who write the articles do not receive any monetization for these ads, just as Fandom does not tell the people who work on its wikis how much they actually earn from monetizing their content. (Source: [https://forkfandom.com/ ForkFandom] by Jacques Corby-Tuech)]]

In mid-2008, the British newspaper The Guardian published an article about the ''[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/jul/31/wikipedia Transformer Wiki]'' migration, which was the first formal piece of criticism that the company described as “The typical digital sharecropping website is a capitalist's fantasy,” explaining that users who contribute to Fandom wikis do not receive rights, protections, or remuneration for the work they contribute to the website. The model used by Fandom was previously criticized by videographer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqeNnutJUhE Blue Reevie] in 2019, who questioned the ethics of how the company was using unpaid volunteer labor to organize part of its structure. Later in 2024, former volunteer “Frisk” noted that he was concerned about how the company might be violating [https://frisk.space/posts/fandom-and-the-multimillion-business-of-monetizing-volunteer-work/FLSAemail.txt Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor] (FLSA) that dictate how much volunteers can contribute to a for-profit organization, questioning whether it is right for the company to use unpaid persons to moderate and update the content of its website.

In early 2024, editor [https://~~www~~.reddit.com/r/titanfall/comments/1b1qlxl/about_the_migration/ The_Sniperstock] announced that Fandom had removed his admin rights before the fork was fully completed and informed users that Fandom is capable of revoking admin rights from anyone it considers to be moving.

In early 2024, editor [https://old.reddit.com/r/titanfall/comments/1b1qlxl/about_the_migration/ The_Sniperstock] announced that Fandom had removed his admin rights before the fork was fully completed and informed users that Fandom is capable of revoking admin rights from anyone it considers to be moving.

In 2026, the official GTA wiki moved to Weird Gloop; editors of one of the largest video game wikis stated that Fandom was significantly disrupting its internal operations. Editor WildBrick142 stated that Fandom had previously stripped Admin452 of his administrative rights—who had spent a decade building the Saint’s Row wiki—when the company unilaterally decided to create its own wiki for the franchise’s reboot. He also mentioned how Fandom forces the inclusion of intrusive elements to turn the page into a “billboard” rather than a proper informational site.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026 |title=GTA Wiki: Moving from Fandom |url=https://gta.wiki/w/GTA_Wiki:Moving_from_Fandom |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260321134010/https://gta.wiki/w/GTA_Wiki:Moving_from_Fandom |archive-date=21 Mar 2026 |website=GTA Wiki via Weird Gloop}}</ref>

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===Online grooming and sexual harassment (November 2023)===

<blockquote>''"When you're just trying to speak out and get a pedophile off the site, or they say that everything happened on Discord we can't do anything, [...], saying that pedophilia is okay if it's offsite this is just disgusting." -'' @bruhwrecksnoobs in the video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXqWuIcugrY FANDOM Is Disgusting]</blockquote>[[File:Fandom ~~Wiki~~ - Slimebeast ~~Tweets~~.png|thumb|Following the release of his videos explaining Fandom's failure to moderate content in order to protect minors, Howard posted a series of tweets reporting that several Fandom wiki administrators had engaged in inappropriate behavior and that the company had failed to properly address the fact that a minor who had previously contributed to Fandom was being harassed.]]

<blockquote>''"When you're just trying to speak out and get a pedophile off the site, or they say that everything happened on Discord we can't do anything, [...], saying that pedophilia is okay if it's offsite this is just disgusting." -'' @bruhwrecksnoobs in the video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXqWuIcugrY FANDOM Is Disgusting]</blockquote>

[[File:Fandom - Slimebeast tweets.png|thumb|Following the release of his videos explaining Fandom's failure to moderate content in order to protect minors, Howard posted a series of tweets reporting that several Fandom wiki administrators had engaged in inappropriate behavior and that the company had failed to properly address the fact that a minor who had previously contributed to Fandom was being harassed.]]

In 2023, writer and video game developer Christopher Howard Wolf, under the alias "Slimebeast", posted several videos discussing how Fandom had allowed minors to be exposed to inappropriate content and citing concerns that child moderators had to maintain contact with groomers. Additionally, Howard Wolf criticized the fact that Fandom was using under-age volunteers to moderate its platform instead of proper employees to moderate the situation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2023-11-19 |title=Wikitubia has a Minor Issue - Plus CreepsMcPasta Caught in 4k |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bKb6-xr4Qg |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=Slimebeast via YouTube |quote=That mod he referred to WAS THE UNDERAGED MOD THAT DID WHAT HE REQUESTED, proving that Wikitubia having on minors as mods puts them in direct contact with groomers. Imagine EDP DMing a kid mod who has a "duty" to talk to him. |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=7bKb6-xr4Qg |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 '''{{Wplink|Fandom (website)|Fandom}}''', formerly known as '''Wikia''',  is a media conglomerate based in the United States. The website has more than 50 million user-generated pages, as well as other multimedia databases such as GameFAQs, Metacritic, and Gamepedia. It also owns entertainment outlets such as GameSpot and TV Guide, in addition to owning online video game retailers such as Fanatical.
-In 2018, Fandom was acquired by private equity firm TPG Capital. In 2024, the Detailed.com blog, which analyzes web development with regard to SEO, categorized Fandom as one of the 16 companies that dominate global traffic for Google Search, noting that it had been one of the largest domains it had ever recorded with an estimated 800 million visits according to statistics provided by Semrush in the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Allsopp |first=Glen |date=2024 |title=How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results (2024 Edition) |url=https://detailed.com/google-control/ |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=Detailed.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260223042948/https://detailed.com/google-control/ |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>
+In 2018, Fandom was acquired by [[wikipedia:Private_equity_firm|private equity firm]] TPG Capital. In 2024, the Detailed.com blog, which analyzes web development with regard to [[wikipedia:Search_engine_optimization|SEO]], categorized Fandom as one of the 16 companies that dominate global traffic for Google Search, noting that it had been one of the largest domains it had ever recorded with an estimated 800 million visits according to statistics provided by Semrush in the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Allsopp |first=Glen |date=2024 |title=How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results (2024 Edition) |url=https://detailed.com/google-control/ |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=Detailed.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260223042948/https://detailed.com/google-control/ |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>
 ==Consumer impact summary==
@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 ===Business Model===
-<blockquote>''"I briefly worked for Fandom last year, and I worked closely with GameSpot and TV Guide. After ten years in the editorial industry I had never seen editorial brands treated so poorly. Fandom is fundamentally a company that ONLY knows how to operate using an army of unpaid volunteer editors and have no clue whatsoever how to manage paid writers and editors. It was an absolute nightmare of mismanagement, and while I was going to bat hard for the editors (like what do I care about Fandom after a few weeks of working there, I literally only care about journalists being resourced well enough to keep their jobs and do great work) my management started drilling down on me pretty quickly. I wound up going on disability because the working conditions there exacerbated a mental health crisis (having to do with the nightmare layoffs at Condé that I'd just gone through), and eventually I left" -'' A former FANDOM Employee in the article [https://gemvidio-navi.neocities.org/Tech/fandom-working-environment Behind the moderation of Fandom Wikis: Controversies, incidents, and toxicity] </blockquote>[[File:Fandom Wiki - Path of Exile Ad Information.png|alt=Fandom Wiki Ads Monetization Information|thumb|Using external tools, you can see which ads are being displayed and how much Fandom is paid to display them on the wiki. The people who write the articles do not receive any monetization for these ads, just as Fandom does not tell the people who work on its wikis how much they actually earn from monetizing their content. (Source: [https://forkfandom.com/ ForkFandom] by Jacques Corby-Tuech)]]
+<blockquote>''"I briefly worked for Fandom last year, and I worked closely with GameSpot and TV Guide. After ten years in the editorial industry I had never seen editorial brands treated so poorly. Fandom is fundamentally a company that ONLY knows how to operate using an army of unpaid volunteer editors and have no clue whatsoever how to manage paid writers and editors. It was an absolute nightmare of mismanagement, and while I was going to bat hard for the editors (like what do I care about Fandom after a few weeks of working there, I literally only care about journalists being resourced well enough to keep their jobs and do great work) my management started drilling down on me pretty quickly. I wound up going on disability because the working conditions there exacerbated a mental health crisis (having to do with the nightmare layoffs at Condé that I'd just gone through), and eventually I left" -'' A former FANDOM Employee in the article [https://gemvidio-navi.neocities.org/Tech/fandom-working-environment Behind the moderation of Fandom Wikis: Controversies, incidents, and toxicity]</blockquote>
+[[File:Fandom ad information for Path of Exile.png|alt=Fandom Wiki Ads Monetization Information|thumb|Using external tools, you can see which ads are being displayed and how much Fandom is paid to display them on the wiki. The people who write the articles do not receive any monetization for these ads, just as Fandom does not tell the people who work on its wikis how much they actually earn from monetizing their content. (Source: [https://forkfandom.com/ ForkFandom] by Jacques Corby-Tuech)]]
 In mid-2008, the British newspaper The Guardian published an article about the ''[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/jul/31/wikipedia Transformer Wiki]'' migration, which was the first formal piece of criticism that the company described as “The typical digital sharecropping website is a capitalist's fantasy,” explaining that users who contribute to Fandom wikis do not receive rights, protections, or remuneration for the work they contribute to the website. The model used by Fandom was previously criticized by videographer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqeNnutJUhE Blue Reevie] in 2019, who questioned the ethics of how the company was using unpaid volunteer labor to organize part of its structure. Later in 2024, former volunteer “Frisk” noted that he was concerned about how the company might be violating [https://frisk.space/posts/fandom-and-the-multimillion-business-of-monetizing-volunteer-work/FLSAemail.txt Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor] (FLSA) that dictate how much volunteers can contribute to a for-profit organization, questioning whether it is right for the company to use unpaid persons to moderate and update the content of its website.
-In early 2024, editor [https://www.reddit.com/r/titanfall/comments/1b1qlxl/about_the_migration/ The_Sniperstock] announced that Fandom had removed his admin rights before the fork was fully completed and informed users that Fandom is capable of revoking admin rights from anyone it considers to be moving.
+In early 2024, editor [https://old.reddit.com/r/titanfall/comments/1b1qlxl/about_the_migration/ The_Sniperstock] announced that Fandom had removed his admin rights before the fork was fully completed and informed users that Fandom is capable of revoking admin rights from anyone it considers to be moving.
 In 2026, the official GTA wiki moved to Weird Gloop; editors of one of the largest video game wikis stated that Fandom was significantly disrupting its internal operations. Editor WildBrick142 stated that Fandom had previously stripped Admin452 of his administrative rights—who had spent a decade building the Saint’s Row wiki—when the company unilaterally decided to create its own wiki for the franchise’s reboot. He also mentioned how Fandom forces the inclusion of intrusive elements to turn the page into a “billboard” rather than a proper informational site.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026 |title=GTA Wiki: Moving from Fandom |url=https://gta.wiki/w/GTA_Wiki:Moving_from_Fandom |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260321134010/https://gta.wiki/w/GTA_Wiki:Moving_from_Fandom |archive-date=21 Mar 2026 |website=GTA Wiki via Weird Gloop}}</ref>
@@ Line 92: / Line 93: @@
 ===Online grooming and sexual harassment (November 2023)===
-<blockquote>''"When you're just trying to speak out and get a pedophile off the site, or they say that everything happened on Discord we can't do anything, [...], saying that pedophilia is okay if it's offsite this is just disgusting." -'' @bruhwrecksnoobs in the video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXqWuIcugrY FANDOM Is Disgusting]</blockquote>[[File:Fandom Wiki - Slimebeast Tweets.png|thumb|Following the release of his videos explaining Fandom's failure to moderate content in order to protect minors, Howard posted a series of tweets reporting that several Fandom wiki administrators had engaged in inappropriate behavior and that the company had failed to properly address the fact that a minor who had previously contributed to Fandom was being harassed.]]
+<blockquote>''"When you're just trying to speak out and get a pedophile off the site, or they say that everything happened on Discord we can't do anything, [...], saying that pedophilia is okay if it's offsite this is just disgusting." -'' @bruhwrecksnoobs in the video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXqWuIcugrY FANDOM Is Disgusting]</blockquote>
+[[File:Fandom - Slimebeast tweets.png|thumb|Following the release of his videos explaining Fandom's failure to moderate content in order to protect minors, Howard posted a series of tweets reporting that several Fandom wiki administrators had engaged in inappropriate behavior and that the company had failed to properly address the fact that a minor who had previously contributed to Fandom was being harassed.]]
 In 2023, writer and video game developer Christopher Howard Wolf, under the alias "Slimebeast", posted several videos discussing how Fandom had allowed minors to be exposed to inappropriate content and citing concerns that child moderators had to maintain contact with groomers. Additionally, Howard Wolf criticized the fact that Fandom was using under-age volunteers to moderate its platform instead of proper employees to moderate the situation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2023-11-19 |title=Wikitubia has a Minor Issue - Plus CreepsMcPasta Caught in 4k |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bKb6-xr4Qg |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=Slimebeast via YouTube |quote=That mod he referred to WAS THE UNDERAGED MOD THAT DID WHAT HE REQUESTED, proving that Wikitubia having on minors as mods puts them in direct contact with groomers. Imagine EDP DMing a kid mod who has a "duty" to talk to him. |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=7bKb6-xr4Qg |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>