Fandom: Difference between revisions

Line 19:

Fandom had previously replaced entire pages with advertisements without consulting the users involved. Among them are paid advertisements from corporations such as McDonald's to remove part of the historical data of their products for promotions.<ref name=":1" />

At the end of 2024, Jonathan Lee, part of the Weird Gloop platform staff, published an article about why they were helping several groups of editors migrate from Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Jonathan |date=2024-10-10 |title=Why we're helping more wikis move away from Fandom |url=https://weirdgloop.org/blog/why-were-helping-more-wikis-move-away-from-fandom#why-ditching-fandom-is-cool-and-based |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Weird Gloop Blog |quote=If a wiki community is unhappy, and they have a better option somewhere else, they should be able to leave and take their stuff with them. We won't prop up the old wiki, Weekend-at-Bernies style, abusing the dominant Google position that the wiki editors built up while they were on our platform.}}</ref> Lee explained the advantages of migrating to independent host servers, noting that after the migrations, the number of edits increased significantly compared to their counterparts on Fandom in the case of the RuneScape and Minecraft wikis. He explained that one of the main problems with the platform was that users had no control over the content they published. Each wiki hosted by Weird Gloop has several clauses and memorandums in agreement with the editorial team, where there are protocols in place in case the community leaves.

At the end of 2024, Jonathan Lee, part of the ''Weird Gloop'' platform staff, published an article about why they were helping several groups of editors migrate from Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Jonathan |date=2024-10-10 |title=Why we're helping more wikis move away from Fandom |url=https://weirdgloop.org/blog/why-were-helping-more-wikis-move-away-from-fandom#why-ditching-fandom-is-cool-and-based |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Weird Gloop Blog |quote=If a wiki community is unhappy, and they have a better option somewhere else, they should be able to leave and take their stuff with them. We won't prop up the old wiki, Weekend-at-Bernies style, abusing the dominant Google position that the wiki editors built up while they were on our platform.}}</ref> Lee explained the advantages of migrating to independent host servers, noting that after the migrations, the number of edits increased significantly compared to their counterparts on Fandom in the case of the RuneScape and Minecraft wikis. He explained that one of the main problems with the platform was that users had no control over the content they published. Each wiki hosted by Weird Gloop has several clauses and memorandums in agreement with the editorial team, where there are protocols in place in case the community leaves.

Lee explained that giving editors the right to leave and transfer their content to another platform entirely helps prevent the host from going through [[enshittification]] processes, as it forces the host to strive to provide a better service in the event that users are dissatisfied with the service they have, rather than maintaining dead projects as Fandom does when a large part of the community decides to migrate en masse after policy changes.

=== Privacy ===

When you create an account on Fandom, your information and data is shared with more than 300 advertising and media partners.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-20 |title=Fandom and the multimillion dollar business of monetizing volunteer work |url=https://frisk.space/posts/fandom-and-the-multimillion-business-of-monetizing-volunteer-work/ |access-date=2025-08-20 |website=Frisk.space}}</ref> Additionally, the data provided by users is used for training AI models, including posts in discussions as well as content provided to pages. In addition, user-generated data is used to train AI models, including posts in discussions and content provided to wiki pages. In 2025, Fandom confirmed to ''Inc Magazine'' that it had trained an AI model called ''“FanDNA Helix”'' using more than 50 million pages and user-generated posts so that advertising companies could target ads based on user consumption habits.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sherry |first=Ben |date=2025-02-18 |title=How Fandom Uses AI to Turn Your Obsessions Into Gold |url=https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/how-fandom-uses-ai-to-turn-your-obsessions-into-gold/91145315 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250312182852/https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/how-fandom-uses-ai-to-turn-your-obsessions-into-gold/91145315 |archive-date=March 12, 2025 |access-date=2025-07-20 |work=Inc Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Anti-competitive practices===

In a blog post published in 2025 by editor Violet, who had previously worked on moving Death Battle Wiki to the non-profit Miraheze, he explained that one of the reasons for moving the wiki to a different host was due to Fandom's attempts to remove links or mentions to wikis on different platforms, explaining that this has led to a lot of internal discussion regarding external links, where editors are forced to promote dead wikis that are still hosted on Fandom instead of independent options that are actively maintained.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Leaving Fandom |url=https://deathbattle.miraheze.org/wiki/DEATH_BATTLE!_Wiki:Leaving_FANDOM |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Death Battle Wiki! via Miraheze |quote=Aside from this dodgy language being used to try and justify their anti-competitive practices, this also actively hinders our own editing by preventing us from providing external links to wikis that have migrated out of Fandom and are being actively supported, which means we are not "organically sharing" accurate information for franchises acknowledged by the show like, say, Terraria, Bendy, and Guilty Gear.}}</ref>

In a blog post published in 2025 by editor Violet, who had previously worked on moving Death Battle Wiki to the non-profit host ''Miraheze'', he explained that one of the reasons for moving the wiki to a different host was due to Fandom's attempts to remove links or mentions to wikis on different platforms, explaining that this has led to a lot of internal discussion regarding external links, where editors are forced to promote dead wikis that are still hosted on Fandom instead of independent options that are actively maintained.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Leaving Fandom |url=https://deathbattle.miraheze.org/wiki/DEATH_BATTLE!_Wiki:Leaving_FANDOM |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Death Battle Wiki! via Miraheze |quote=Aside from this dodgy language being used to try and justify their anti-competitive practices, this also actively hinders our own editing by preventing us from providing external links to wikis that have migrated out of Fandom and are being actively supported, which means we are not "organically sharing" accurate information for franchises acknowledged by the show like, say, Terraria, Bendy, and Guilty Gear.}}</ref>

==Incidents==

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 Fandom had previously replaced entire pages with advertisements without consulting the users involved. Among them are paid advertisements from corporations such as McDonald's to remove part of the historical data of their products for promotions.<ref name=":1" />
-At the end of 2024, Jonathan Lee, part of the Weird Gloop platform staff, published an article about why they were helping several groups of editors migrate from Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Jonathan |date=2024-10-10 |title=Why we're helping more wikis move away from Fandom |url=https://weirdgloop.org/blog/why-were-helping-more-wikis-move-away-from-fandom#why-ditching-fandom-is-cool-and-based |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Weird Gloop Blog |quote=If a wiki community is unhappy, and they have a better option somewhere else, they should be able to leave and take their stuff with them. We won't prop up the old wiki, Weekend-at-Bernies style, abusing the dominant Google position that the wiki editors built up while they were on our platform.}}</ref> Lee explained the advantages of migrating to independent host servers, noting that after the migrations, the number of edits increased significantly compared to their counterparts on Fandom in the case of the RuneScape and Minecraft wikis. He explained that one of the main problems with the platform was that users had no control over the content they published. Each wiki hosted by Weird Gloop has several clauses and memorandums in agreement with the editorial team, where there are protocols in place in case the community leaves.
+At the end of 2024, Jonathan Lee, part of the ''Weird Gloop'' platform staff, published an article about why they were helping several groups of editors migrate from Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Jonathan |date=2024-10-10 |title=Why we're helping more wikis move away from Fandom |url=https://weirdgloop.org/blog/why-were-helping-more-wikis-move-away-from-fandom#why-ditching-fandom-is-cool-and-based |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Weird Gloop Blog |quote=If a wiki community is unhappy, and they have a better option somewhere else, they should be able to leave and take their stuff with them. We won't prop up the old wiki, Weekend-at-Bernies style, abusing the dominant Google position that the wiki editors built up while they were on our platform.}}</ref> Lee explained the advantages of migrating to independent host servers, noting that after the migrations, the number of edits increased significantly compared to their counterparts on Fandom in the case of the RuneScape and Minecraft wikis. He explained that one of the main problems with the platform was that users had no control over the content they published. Each wiki hosted by Weird Gloop has several clauses and memorandums in agreement with the editorial team, where there are protocols in place in case the community leaves.
 Lee explained that giving editors the right to leave and transfer their content to another platform entirely helps prevent the host from going through [[enshittification]] processes, as it forces the host to strive to provide a better service in the event that users are dissatisfied with the service they have, rather than maintaining dead projects as Fandom does when a large part of the community decides to migrate en masse after policy changes.
+=== Privacy ===
+When you create an account on Fandom, your information and data is shared with more than 300 advertising and media partners.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-20 |title=Fandom and the multimillion dollar business of monetizing volunteer work |url=https://frisk.space/posts/fandom-and-the-multimillion-business-of-monetizing-volunteer-work/ |access-date=2025-08-20 |website=Frisk.space}}</ref> Additionally, the data provided by users is used for training AI models, including posts in discussions as well as content provided to pages. In addition, user-generated data is used to train AI models, including posts in discussions and content provided to wiki pages. In 2025, Fandom confirmed to ''Inc Magazine'' that it had trained an AI model called ''“FanDNA Helix”'' using more than 50 million pages and user-generated posts so that advertising companies could target ads based on user consumption habits.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sherry |first=Ben |date=2025-02-18 |title=How Fandom Uses AI to Turn Your Obsessions Into Gold |url=https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/how-fandom-uses-ai-to-turn-your-obsessions-into-gold/91145315 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250312182852/https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/how-fandom-uses-ai-to-turn-your-obsessions-into-gold/91145315 |archive-date=March 12, 2025 |access-date=2025-07-20 |work=Inc Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>
 ===Anti-competitive practices===
-In a blog post published in 2025 by editor Violet, who had previously worked on moving Death Battle Wiki to the non-profit Miraheze, he explained that one of the reasons for moving the wiki to a different host was due to Fandom's attempts to remove links or mentions to wikis on different platforms, explaining that this has led to a lot of internal discussion regarding external links, where editors are forced to promote dead wikis that are still hosted on Fandom instead of independent options that are actively maintained.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Leaving Fandom |url=https://deathbattle.miraheze.org/wiki/DEATH_BATTLE!_Wiki:Leaving_FANDOM |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Death Battle Wiki! via Miraheze |quote=Aside from this dodgy language being used to try and justify their anti-competitive practices, this also actively hinders our own editing by preventing us from providing external links to wikis that have migrated out of Fandom and are being actively supported, which means we are not "organically sharing" accurate information for franchises acknowledged by the show like, say, Terraria, Bendy, and Guilty Gear.}}</ref>
+In a blog post published in 2025 by editor Violet, who had previously worked on moving Death Battle Wiki to the non-profit host ''Miraheze'', he explained that one of the reasons for moving the wiki to a different host was due to Fandom's attempts to remove links or mentions to wikis on different platforms, explaining that this has led to a lot of internal discussion regarding external links, where editors are forced to promote dead wikis that are still hosted on Fandom instead of independent options that are actively maintained.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Leaving Fandom |url=https://deathbattle.miraheze.org/wiki/DEATH_BATTLE!_Wiki:Leaving_FANDOM |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Death Battle Wiki! via Miraheze |quote=Aside from this dodgy language being used to try and justify their anti-competitive practices, this also actively hinders our own editing by preventing us from providing external links to wikis that have migrated out of Fandom and are being actively supported, which means we are not "organically sharing" accurate information for franchises acknowledged by the show like, say, Terraria, Bendy, and Guilty Gear.}}</ref>
 ==Incidents==