Fandom: Difference between revisions

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'''[[wikipedia: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}}</ref>

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>

==Consumer-impact summary==

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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.

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. |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260215090128/https://weirdgloop.org/blog/why-were-helping-more-wikis-move-away-from-fandom |archive-date=15 Feb 2026}}</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 a user creates an account on Fandom, their 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 collected is used for training AI models, including posts in discussions as well as content provided to 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>

When a user creates an account on Fandom, their 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 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250918153358/https://frisk.space/posts/fandom-and-the-multimillion-business-of-monetizing-volunteer-work/ |archive-date=18 Sep 2025}}</ref> Additionally, the data collected is used for training AI models, including posts in discussions as well as content provided to 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>

===Censorship===

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Since Fandom is a company that relies on advertising to operate, part of the staff has to sanitize content to appeal to most of its brands and partners. This has caused certain clashes with editorial teams that discuss mature topics.

In 2017, Fandom attempted to censor a large portion of the sprites from the mainline ''Shin Megami Tensei'' games developed by Japanese studio Atlus after the company decided that most of the images did not qualify as artistic nudity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-10-07 |title=Image censorship on Megami Tensei wiki by wikia employee |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaten/comments/7bbii9/image_censorship_on_megami_tensei_wiki_by_wikia/ |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=r/Megaten via Reddit}}</ref> Starting in 2021, Fandom would attempt to maintain a much stricter policy for the platform as family-friendly, as well as censoring any content. This caused several wikis to move to other services due to frequent censorship, including the ''South Park Archives'',<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024 |title=Blog:Farewell to Fandom |url=https://southpark.wiki.gg/wiki/Blog:Farewell_to_Fandom |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=South Park Archives via Wiki.gg}}</ref> where much of the scripts, characters, and scenes had to be censored to maintain a more family-friendly approach for advertisers, causing navigation errors as well as errors in the templates.

In 2017, Fandom attempted to censor a large portion of the sprites from the mainline ''Shin Megami Tensei'' games developed by Japanese studio Atlus after the company decided that most of the images did not qualify as artistic nudity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-10-07 |title=Image censorship on Megami Tensei wiki by wikia employee |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaten/comments/7bbii9/image_censorship_on_megami_tensei_wiki_by_wikia/ |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=r/Megaten via Reddit |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230607085202/https://old.reddit.com/r/Megaten/comments/7bbii9/image_censorship_on_megami_tensei_wiki_by_wikia/ |archive-date=7 Jun 2023}}</ref> Starting in 2021, Fandom would attempt to maintain a much stricter policy for the platform as family-friendly, as well as censoring any content. This caused several wikis to move to other services due to frequent censorship, including the ''South Park Archives'',<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024 |title=Blog:Farewell to Fandom |url=https://southpark.wiki.gg/wiki/Blog:Farewell_to_Fandom |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=South Park Archives via Wiki.gg |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250910143107/https://southpark.wiki.gg/wiki/Blog:Farewell_to_Fandom |archive-date=10 Sep 2025}}</ref> where much of the scripts, characters, and scenes had to be censored to maintain a more family-friendly approach for advertisers, causing navigation errors as well as errors in the templates.

Later in 2025, the Siivagunner and Vocaloid Lyrics wikis migrated to different hosts, citing similar concerns where Fandom had removed a lot of content that could be controversial. The editorial team of the ''Siivagunner Wiki'' released a statement saying that part of the reason for moving the wiki to an independent host was due to the deliberate deletion of ''Mysikt Wiki'', another group dedicated to remixes and mashups, without prior notification from Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Forking announcement |url=https://www.siivagunner.wiki/wiki/SiIvaGunner_Wiki:Forking_announcement |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=Siivagunner Wiki}}</ref>

Later in 2025, the Siivagunner and Vocaloid Lyrics wikis migrated to different hosts, citing similar concerns where Fandom had removed a lot of content that could be controversial. The editorial team of the ''Siivagunner Wiki'' released a statement saying that part of the reason for moving the wiki to an independent host was due to the deliberate deletion of ''Mysikt Wiki'', another group dedicated to remixes and mashups, without prior notification from Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Forking announcement |url=https://www.siivagunner.wiki/wiki/SiIvaGunner_Wiki:Forking_announcement |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=Siivagunner Wiki |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260118223334/https://www.siivagunner.wiki/wiki/SiIvaGunner_Wiki:Forking_announcement |archive-date=18 Jan 2026}}</ref>

===Anti-competitive practices===

<blockquote>''"People on the fandom wiki are taking a bunch of new pages from https://jojowiki.com that I and other editors spent lots of time creating just to have it on their site. They aren't explicitly plagiarizing (they tried to before) but the content and layouts are really similar. This time it's FANDOM's own employees getting paid to take our pages and replace words with synonyms. I wouldn't mind if they at least credited us (which they are supposed to do as per our copyright policy), but they have a filter that bans anyone who links to our site."'' - [https://archive.ph/rDtMx @Vishkujo], administrator of the JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia (2021) </blockquote>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>

<blockquote>''"People on the fandom wiki are taking a bunch of new pages from https://jojowiki.com that I and other editors spent lots of time creating just to have it on their site. They aren't explicitly plagiarizing (they tried to before) but the content and layouts are really similar. This time it's FANDOM's own employees getting paid to take our pages and replace words with synonyms. I wouldn't mind if they at least credited us (which they are supposed to do as per our copyright policy), but they have a filter that bans anyone who links to our site."'' - [https://archive.ph/rDtMx @Vishkujo], administrator of the JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia (2021) </blockquote>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. |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260124011402/https://deathbattle.miraheze.org/wiki/DEATH_BATTLE!_Wiki:Leaving_FANDOM |archive-date=24 Jan 2026}}</ref>

===Business Model===

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===Portable Infoboxes (May 2017)===

<blockquote>''"Honestly, what allowed me to never put 100% of my trust to the FANDOM Staff was the fact that they disregard the concerns of their userbase most of the time. They'd introduce certain features and implement them without considering all of the potential flaws that'd persist. Remember the Portable infoboxes? They didn't think of inserting official tabbers in them when they first introduced them. It took several months before tabbers in PIs finally became a thing." -'' [https://archive.ph/UUvUT @QueenPinksweets], former Vocaloid Wiki Moderator (2021) </blockquote>In mid-2017, Spanish programmer Jesús Martínez Novo, who had been working on the WikiDex project since 2006, published a note discussing his experience with the platform as well as the forking of the largest Pokémon wiki in Spanish. Martínez explained that in 2017, Fandom had forced users to abruptly change the code of some of their templates. This decision was not previously consulted with the users who had previously coded much of the site voluntarily, and the company gave them one week to convert the rest of the templates.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Martínez |first=Jesús |date=2017-05-07 |title=Wikia — When the site you spend most of the time goes evil |url=https://medium.com/@martineznovo/wikia-when-the-site-you-spend-most-of-the-time-goes-evil-1ce9d3f79285 |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Medium}}</ref>

<blockquote>''"Honestly, what allowed me to never put 100% of my trust to the FANDOM Staff was the fact that they disregard the concerns of their userbase most of the time. They'd introduce certain features and implement them without considering all of the potential flaws that'd persist. Remember the Portable infoboxes? They didn't think of inserting official tabbers in them when they first introduced them. It took several months before tabbers in PIs finally became a thing." -'' [https://archive.ph/UUvUT @QueenPinksweets], former Vocaloid Wiki Moderator (2021) </blockquote>In mid-2017, Spanish programmer Jesús Martínez Novo, who had been working on the WikiDex project since 2006, published a note discussing his experience with the platform as well as the forking of the largest Pokémon wiki in Spanish. Martínez explained that in 2017, Fandom had forced users to abruptly change the code of some of their templates. This decision was not previously consulted with the users who had previously coded much of the site voluntarily, and the company gave them one week to convert the rest of the templates.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Martínez |first=Jesús |date=2017-05-07 |title=Wikia — When the site you spend most of the time goes evil |url=https://medium.com/@martineznovo/wikia-when-the-site-you-spend-most-of-the-time-goes-evil-1ce9d3f79285 |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Medium |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250910163652/https://medium.com/@martineznovo/wikia-when-the-site-you-spend-most-of-the-time-goes-evil-1ce9d3f79285 |archive-date=10 Sep 2025}}</ref>

This decision caused quite a few problems on the website, as the technology behind Portable Infoboxes was not well-developed at the time, with templates unable to display icons or multiple images. In addition, Fandom would remove administrative rights from anyone who attempted to convert the templates back to their original code.<ref name=":2" />

===Auto-playing videos (September 2017)===

Throughout 2017, Fandom introduced auto-playing to several popular video game wikis, such as RuneScape and Fallout. These videos were inserted without prior consultation with editors, and many of them contained misinformation about the games covered by the wikis. The editorial team had to post notices informing users that they had no control over the videos, which were created solely by Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-09-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/6yc8xt/psa_featured_videos_on_the_runescape_wiki/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/runescape via Reddit}}</ref> Some of the videos contained mispronunciations of in-game items, as well as featured stolen material from game footage. Notably, the videos produced about "Zamik Wizard"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2017-08-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the Old School RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/6ybxly/psa_featured_videos_on_the_old_school_runescape/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/2007scape via Reddit |quote=As you can probably guess, me and my colleagues are pissed about this change. And the worst thing is that we have ZERO SAY about this; it is out of our control. We have even created a template that we have added right underneath these videos to emphasize that these videos were made by the company, and not us, the admins who provide you with actual quality articles.}}</ref> are commonly referred to as a joke by the community due to the poor quality of the video.

Throughout 2017, Fandom introduced auto-playing to several popular video game wikis, such as RuneScape and Fallout. These videos were inserted without prior consultation with editors, and many of them contained misinformation about the games covered by the wikis. The editorial team had to post notices informing users that they had no control over the videos, which were created solely by Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-09-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/6yc8xt/psa_featured_videos_on_the_runescape_wiki/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/runescape via Reddit |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230607163932/https://old.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/6yc8xt/psa_featured_videos_on_the_runescape_wiki/ |archive-date=7 Jun 2023}}</ref> Some of the videos contained mispronunciations of in-game items, as well as featured stolen material from game footage. Notably, the videos produced about "Zamik Wizard"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2017-08-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the Old School RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/6ybxly/psa_featured_videos_on_the_old_school_runescape/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/2007scape via Reddit |quote=As you can probably guess, me and my colleagues are pissed about this change. And the worst thing is that we have ZERO SAY about this; it is out of our control. We have even created a template that we have added right underneath these videos to emphasize that these videos were made by the company, and not us, the admins who provide you with actual quality articles. |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230610003614/https://old.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/6ybxly/psa_featured_videos_on_the_old_school_runescape/ |archive-date=10 Jun 2023}}</ref> are commonly referred to as a joke by the community due to the poor quality of the video.

At the end of 2018, YouTuber Mekkah, who documents the Fire Emblem game series, explained his issues with Fandom after bashing the Fire Emblem wiki hosted on the platform, citing that one of the reasons he dislikes the website's editing model, considering it “parasitic,” was the insertion of videos at the top of pages, some of which contain factual errors and were created by Fandom staff rather than the actual editors, as well as the insertion of clickbait content to increase views.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mekkrah |date=2018 |title=Fire Emblem Wikia is Scum |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W5CQdITi7A |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=YouTube}}</ref>

At the end of 2018, YouTuber Mekkah, who documents the Fire Emblem game series, explained his issues with Fandom after bashing the Fire Emblem wiki hosted on the platform, citing that one of the reasons he dislikes the website's editing model, considering it “parasitic,” was the insertion of videos at the top of pages, some of which contain factual errors and were created by Fandom staff rather than the actual editors, as well as the insertion of clickbait content to increase views.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mekkrah |date=2018 |title=Fire Emblem Wikia is Scum |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W5CQdITi7A |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=YouTube |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=7W5CQdITi7A |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>

===Fandom Shop (September 2020)===

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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.]]

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.}}</ref>

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>

Howard later posted videos explaining the inappropriate behavior of one of the administrators of Wikitubia and The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki, explaining that minors were being exposed, as well as publishing several documents detailing how minors were being harassed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howard |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-26 |title=Pred Concerns on YouTube Wiki & The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXM_LRnWvTE |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube}}</ref> He also reported on Fandom Staff's handling of the situation, which had previously banned a victim of grooming for expressing concern about the safety of minors on the platform.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolf |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-28 |title=Fandom (The Company) Bans Grooming Whistleblower For Whistleblowing |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGGVQwG1Is |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube}}</ref>

Howard later posted videos explaining the inappropriate behavior of one of the administrators of Wikitubia and The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki, explaining that minors were being exposed, as well as publishing several documents detailing how minors were being harassed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howard |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-26 |title=Pred Concerns on YouTube Wiki & The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXM_LRnWvTE |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=EXM_LRnWvTE |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref> He also reported on Fandom Staff's handling of the situation, which had previously banned a victim of grooming for expressing concern about the safety of minors on the platform.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolf |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-28 |title=Fandom (The Company) Bans Grooming Whistleblower For Whistleblowing |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGGVQwG1Is |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=gSGGVQwG1Is |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>

===AI translations (July 2025)===

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===Stowarzyszenie Minecraft Wiki Polska (August 2025)===

In early August 2025, Stowarzyszenie Minecraft Wiki Polska, which hosts the independent wiki for the video game "Minecraft" in Polish, filed a DMCA claim for copyright infringement following the transfer of data from Gamepedia to Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-06 |title=David and Goliath - on Polish Minecraft Wiki taking legal action against Fandom |url=https://frisk.space/posts/pl-mcw-fandom/ |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Frisk.space Blog |quote=Fandom has "aggregated content from the wiki" and by doing so has started to violate the license agreements. We read that "as a result of wiki account transfers, at least 1440 different usernames being pseudonyms of their creators were damaged". By result of doing so, Fandom couldn't fulfill the authorship requirement of Creative Commons licensed used by the wiki (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).}}</ref>

In early August 2025, Stowarzyszenie Minecraft Wiki Polska, which hosts the independent wiki for the video game "Minecraft" in Polish, filed a DMCA claim for copyright infringement following the transfer of data from Gamepedia to Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-06 |title=David and Goliath - on Polish Minecraft Wiki taking legal action against Fandom |url=https://frisk.space/posts/pl-mcw-fandom/ |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Frisk.space Blog |quote=Fandom has "aggregated content from the wiki" and by doing so has started to violate the license agreements. We read that "as a result of wiki account transfers, at least 1440 different usernames being pseudonyms of their creators were damaged". By result of doing so, Fandom couldn't fulfill the authorship requirement of Creative Commons licensed used by the wiki (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250917142505/https://frisk.space/posts/pl-mcw-fandom/ |archive-date=17 Sep 2025}}</ref>

==Lawsuits==

===''Vishal Shah v. Fandom, Inc.'' (September 2024)===

In 2024, Vishal Shah sued Fandom for privacy violations, claiming that the company was sharing IP address information with external platforms, including [[Meta]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Christopher |date=2024-10-24 |title=Users Advance Fandom ‘Pen Register’ Suit Over IP Address Sharing |url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/consumers-video-privacy-class-action-against-fandom-can-proceed |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Bloomberg Law}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Landis |first=Blake |date=2024-10-25 |title=Ninth Circuit Ruling Shows How CIPA Applies to Internet Tracking |url=https://natlawreview.com/article/invisible-data-real-consequences-navigating-ip-consent-dilemma |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=The National Law Review |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Proposed class says Fandom illegally tracked IP addresses |url=https://www.dailyjournal.com/article/376511-proposed-class-says-fandom-illegally-tracked-ip-addresses |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=The Daily Journal}}</ref>

In 2024, Vishal Shah sued Fandom for privacy violations, claiming that the company was sharing IP address information with external platforms, including [[Meta]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Christopher |date=2024-10-24 |title=Users Advance Fandom ‘Pen Register’ Suit Over IP Address Sharing |url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/consumers-video-privacy-class-action-against-fandom-can-proceed |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Bloomberg Law |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260111095257/https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/consumers-video-privacy-class-action-against-fandom-can-proceed |archive-date=11 Jan 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Landis |first=Blake |date=2024-10-25 |title=Ninth Circuit Ruling Shows How CIPA Applies to Internet Tracking |url=https://natlawreview.com/article/invisible-data-real-consequences-navigating-ip-consent-dilemma |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=The National Law Review |language=en |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251112175259/https://natlawreview.com/article/invisible-data-real-consequences-navigating-ip-consent-dilemma |archive-date=12 Nov 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Proposed class says Fandom illegally tracked IP addresses |url=https://www.dailyjournal.com/article/376511-proposed-class-says-fandom-illegally-tracked-ip-addresses |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=The Daily Journal |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251113014243/https://www.dailyjournal.com/article/376511-proposed-class-says-fandom-illegally-tracked-ip-addresses |archive-date=13 Nov 2025}}</ref>

==External links==

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 '''[[wikipedia: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}}</ref>
+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>
 ==Consumer-impact summary==
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 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.
-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. |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260215090128/https://weirdgloop.org/blog/why-were-helping-more-wikis-move-away-from-fandom |archive-date=15 Feb 2026}}</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 a user creates an account on Fandom, their 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 collected is used for training AI models, including posts in discussions as well as content provided to 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>
+When a user creates an account on Fandom, their 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 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250918153358/https://frisk.space/posts/fandom-and-the-multimillion-business-of-monetizing-volunteer-work/ |archive-date=18 Sep 2025}}</ref> Additionally, the data collected is used for training AI models, including posts in discussions as well as content provided to 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>
 ===Censorship===
@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 Since Fandom is a company that relies on advertising to operate, part of the staff has to sanitize content to appeal to most of its brands and partners. This has caused certain clashes with editorial teams that discuss mature topics.
-In 2017, Fandom attempted to censor a large portion of the sprites from the mainline ''Shin Megami Tensei'' games developed by Japanese studio Atlus after the company decided that most of the images did not qualify as artistic nudity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-10-07 |title=Image censorship on Megami Tensei wiki by wikia employee |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaten/comments/7bbii9/image_censorship_on_megami_tensei_wiki_by_wikia/ |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=r/Megaten via Reddit}}</ref> Starting in 2021, Fandom would attempt to maintain a much stricter policy for the platform as family-friendly, as well as censoring any content. This caused several wikis to move to other services due to frequent censorship, including the ''South Park Archives'',<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024 |title=Blog:Farewell to Fandom |url=https://southpark.wiki.gg/wiki/Blog:Farewell_to_Fandom |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=South Park Archives via Wiki.gg}}</ref> where much of the scripts, characters, and scenes had to be censored to maintain a more family-friendly approach for advertisers, causing navigation errors as well as errors in the templates.
+In 2017, Fandom attempted to censor a large portion of the sprites from the mainline ''Shin Megami Tensei'' games developed by Japanese studio Atlus after the company decided that most of the images did not qualify as artistic nudity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-10-07 |title=Image censorship on Megami Tensei wiki by wikia employee |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaten/comments/7bbii9/image_censorship_on_megami_tensei_wiki_by_wikia/ |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=r/Megaten via Reddit |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230607085202/https://old.reddit.com/r/Megaten/comments/7bbii9/image_censorship_on_megami_tensei_wiki_by_wikia/ |archive-date=7 Jun 2023}}</ref> Starting in 2021, Fandom would attempt to maintain a much stricter policy for the platform as family-friendly, as well as censoring any content. This caused several wikis to move to other services due to frequent censorship, including the ''South Park Archives'',<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024 |title=Blog:Farewell to Fandom |url=https://southpark.wiki.gg/wiki/Blog:Farewell_to_Fandom |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=South Park Archives via Wiki.gg |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250910143107/https://southpark.wiki.gg/wiki/Blog:Farewell_to_Fandom |archive-date=10 Sep 2025}}</ref> where much of the scripts, characters, and scenes had to be censored to maintain a more family-friendly approach for advertisers, causing navigation errors as well as errors in the templates.
-Later in 2025, the Siivagunner and Vocaloid Lyrics wikis migrated to different hosts, citing similar concerns where Fandom had removed a lot of content that could be controversial. The editorial team of the ''Siivagunner Wiki'' released a statement saying that part of the reason for moving the wiki to an independent host was due to the deliberate deletion of ''Mysikt Wiki'', another group dedicated to remixes and mashups, without prior notification from Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Forking announcement |url=https://www.siivagunner.wiki/wiki/SiIvaGunner_Wiki:Forking_announcement |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=Siivagunner Wiki}}</ref>
+Later in 2025, the Siivagunner and Vocaloid Lyrics wikis migrated to different hosts, citing similar concerns where Fandom had removed a lot of content that could be controversial. The editorial team of the ''Siivagunner Wiki'' released a statement saying that part of the reason for moving the wiki to an independent host was due to the deliberate deletion of ''Mysikt Wiki'', another group dedicated to remixes and mashups, without prior notification from Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Forking announcement |url=https://www.siivagunner.wiki/wiki/SiIvaGunner_Wiki:Forking_announcement |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=Siivagunner Wiki |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260118223334/https://www.siivagunner.wiki/wiki/SiIvaGunner_Wiki:Forking_announcement |archive-date=18 Jan 2026}}</ref>
 ===Anti-competitive practices===
-<blockquote>''"People on the fandom wiki are taking a bunch of new pages from https://jojowiki.com that I and other editors spent lots of time creating just to have it on their site. They aren't explicitly plagiarizing (they tried to before) but the content and layouts are really similar. This time it's FANDOM's own employees getting paid to take our pages and replace words with synonyms. I wouldn't mind if they at least credited us (which they are supposed to do as per our copyright policy), but they have a filter that bans anyone who links to our site."'' - [https://archive.ph/rDtMx @Vishkujo], administrator of the JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia (2021) </blockquote>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>
+<blockquote>''"People on the fandom wiki are taking a bunch of new pages from https://jojowiki.com that I and other editors spent lots of time creating just to have it on their site. They aren't explicitly plagiarizing (they tried to before) but the content and layouts are really similar. This time it's FANDOM's own employees getting paid to take our pages and replace words with synonyms. I wouldn't mind if they at least credited us (which they are supposed to do as per our copyright policy), but they have a filter that bans anyone who links to our site."'' - [https://archive.ph/rDtMx @Vishkujo], administrator of the JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia (2021) </blockquote>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. |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260124011402/https://deathbattle.miraheze.org/wiki/DEATH_BATTLE!_Wiki:Leaving_FANDOM |archive-date=24 Jan 2026}}</ref>
 ===Business Model===
@@ Line 48: / Line 48: @@
 ===Portable Infoboxes (May 2017)===
-<blockquote>''"Honestly, what allowed me to never put 100% of my trust to the FANDOM Staff was the fact that they disregard the concerns of their userbase most of the time. They'd introduce certain features and implement them without considering all of the potential flaws that'd persist. Remember the Portable infoboxes? They didn't think of inserting official tabbers in them when they first introduced them. It took several months before tabbers in PIs finally became a thing." -'' [https://archive.ph/UUvUT @QueenPinksweets], former Vocaloid Wiki Moderator (2021) </blockquote>In mid-2017, Spanish programmer Jesús Martínez Novo, who had been working on the WikiDex project since 2006, published a note discussing his experience with the platform as well as the forking of the largest Pokémon wiki in Spanish. Martínez explained that in 2017, Fandom had forced users to abruptly change the code of some of their templates. This decision was not previously consulted with the users who had previously coded much of the site voluntarily, and the company gave them one week to convert the rest of the templates.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Martínez |first=Jesús |date=2017-05-07 |title=Wikia — When the site you spend most of the time goes evil |url=https://medium.com/@martineznovo/wikia-when-the-site-you-spend-most-of-the-time-goes-evil-1ce9d3f79285 |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Medium}}</ref>
+<blockquote>''"Honestly, what allowed me to never put 100% of my trust to the FANDOM Staff was the fact that they disregard the concerns of their userbase most of the time. They'd introduce certain features and implement them without considering all of the potential flaws that'd persist. Remember the Portable infoboxes? They didn't think of inserting official tabbers in them when they first introduced them. It took several months before tabbers in PIs finally became a thing." -'' [https://archive.ph/UUvUT @QueenPinksweets], former Vocaloid Wiki Moderator (2021) </blockquote>In mid-2017, Spanish programmer Jesús Martínez Novo, who had been working on the WikiDex project since 2006, published a note discussing his experience with the platform as well as the forking of the largest Pokémon wiki in Spanish. Martínez explained that in 2017, Fandom had forced users to abruptly change the code of some of their templates. This decision was not previously consulted with the users who had previously coded much of the site voluntarily, and the company gave them one week to convert the rest of the templates.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Martínez |first=Jesús |date=2017-05-07 |title=Wikia — When the site you spend most of the time goes evil |url=https://medium.com/@martineznovo/wikia-when-the-site-you-spend-most-of-the-time-goes-evil-1ce9d3f79285 |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Medium |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250910163652/https://medium.com/@martineznovo/wikia-when-the-site-you-spend-most-of-the-time-goes-evil-1ce9d3f79285 |archive-date=10 Sep 2025}}</ref>
 This decision caused quite a few problems on the website, as the technology behind Portable Infoboxes was not well-developed at the time, with templates unable to display icons or multiple images. In addition, Fandom would remove administrative rights from anyone who attempted to convert the templates back to their original code.<ref name=":2" />
 ===Auto-playing videos (September 2017)===
-Throughout 2017, Fandom introduced auto-playing to several popular video game wikis, such as RuneScape and Fallout. These videos were inserted without prior consultation with editors, and many of them contained misinformation about the games covered by the wikis. The editorial team had to post notices informing users that they had no control over the videos, which were created solely by Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-09-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/6yc8xt/psa_featured_videos_on_the_runescape_wiki/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/runescape via Reddit}}</ref> Some of the videos contained mispronunciations of in-game items, as well as featured stolen material from game footage. Notably, the videos produced about "Zamik Wizard"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2017-08-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the Old School RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/6ybxly/psa_featured_videos_on_the_old_school_runescape/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/2007scape via Reddit |quote=As you can probably guess, me and my colleagues are pissed about this change. And the worst thing is that we have ZERO SAY about this; it is out of our control. We have even created a template that we have added right underneath these videos to emphasize that these videos were made by the company, and not us, the admins who provide you with actual quality articles.}}</ref> are commonly referred to as a joke by the community due to the poor quality of the video.
+Throughout 2017, Fandom introduced auto-playing to several popular video game wikis, such as RuneScape and Fallout. These videos were inserted without prior consultation with editors, and many of them contained misinformation about the games covered by the wikis. The editorial team had to post notices informing users that they had no control over the videos, which were created solely by Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-09-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/6yc8xt/psa_featured_videos_on_the_runescape_wiki/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/runescape via Reddit |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230607163932/https://old.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/6yc8xt/psa_featured_videos_on_the_runescape_wiki/ |archive-date=7 Jun 2023}}</ref> Some of the videos contained mispronunciations of in-game items, as well as featured stolen material from game footage. Notably, the videos produced about "Zamik Wizard"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2017-08-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the Old School RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/6ybxly/psa_featured_videos_on_the_old_school_runescape/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/2007scape via Reddit |quote=As you can probably guess, me and my colleagues are pissed about this change. And the worst thing is that we have ZERO SAY about this; it is out of our control. We have even created a template that we have added right underneath these videos to emphasize that these videos were made by the company, and not us, the admins who provide you with actual quality articles. |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230610003614/https://old.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/6ybxly/psa_featured_videos_on_the_old_school_runescape/ |archive-date=10 Jun 2023}}</ref> are commonly referred to as a joke by the community due to the poor quality of the video.
-At the end of 2018, YouTuber Mekkah, who documents the Fire Emblem game series, explained his issues with Fandom after bashing the Fire Emblem wiki hosted on the platform, citing that one of the reasons he dislikes the website's editing model, considering it “parasitic,” was the insertion of videos at the top of pages, some of which contain factual errors and were created by Fandom staff rather than the actual editors, as well as the insertion of clickbait content to increase views.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mekkrah |date=2018 |title=Fire Emblem Wikia is Scum |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W5CQdITi7A |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=YouTube}}</ref>
+At the end of 2018, YouTuber Mekkah, who documents the Fire Emblem game series, explained his issues with Fandom after bashing the Fire Emblem wiki hosted on the platform, citing that one of the reasons he dislikes the website's editing model, considering it “parasitic,” was the insertion of videos at the top of pages, some of which contain factual errors and were created by Fandom staff rather than the actual editors, as well as the insertion of clickbait content to increase views.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mekkrah |date=2018 |title=Fire Emblem Wikia is Scum |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W5CQdITi7A |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=YouTube |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=7W5CQdITi7A |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>
 ===Fandom Shop (September 2020)===
@@ Line 69: / Line 69: @@
 ===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.]]
-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.}}</ref>
+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>
-Howard later posted videos explaining the inappropriate behavior of one of the administrators of Wikitubia and The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki, explaining that minors were being exposed, as well as publishing several documents detailing how minors were being harassed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howard |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-26 |title=Pred Concerns on YouTube Wiki & The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXM_LRnWvTE |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube}}</ref> He also reported on Fandom Staff's handling of the situation, which had previously banned a victim of grooming for expressing concern about the safety of minors on the platform.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolf |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-28 |title=Fandom (The Company) Bans Grooming Whistleblower For Whistleblowing |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGGVQwG1Is |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube}}</ref>
+Howard later posted videos explaining the inappropriate behavior of one of the administrators of Wikitubia and The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki, explaining that minors were being exposed, as well as publishing several documents detailing how minors were being harassed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howard |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-26 |title=Pred Concerns on YouTube Wiki & The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXM_LRnWvTE |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=EXM_LRnWvTE |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref> He also reported on Fandom Staff's handling of the situation, which had previously banned a victim of grooming for expressing concern about the safety of minors on the platform.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolf |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-28 |title=Fandom (The Company) Bans Grooming Whistleblower For Whistleblowing |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGGVQwG1Is |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=gSGGVQwG1Is |archive-date=23 Feb 2026}}</ref>
 ===AI translations (July 2025)===
@@ Line 77: / Line 77: @@
 ===Stowarzyszenie Minecraft Wiki Polska (August 2025)===
-In early August 2025, Stowarzyszenie Minecraft Wiki Polska, which hosts the independent wiki for the video game "Minecraft" in Polish, filed a DMCA claim for copyright infringement following the transfer of data from Gamepedia to Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-06 |title=David and Goliath - on Polish Minecraft Wiki taking legal action against Fandom |url=https://frisk.space/posts/pl-mcw-fandom/ |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Frisk.space Blog |quote=Fandom has "aggregated content from the wiki" and by doing so has started to violate the license agreements. We read that "as a result of wiki account transfers, at least 1440 different usernames being pseudonyms of their creators were damaged". By result of doing so, Fandom couldn't fulfill the authorship requirement of Creative Commons licensed used by the wiki (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).}}</ref>
+In early August 2025, Stowarzyszenie Minecraft Wiki Polska, which hosts the independent wiki for the video game "Minecraft" in Polish, filed a DMCA claim for copyright infringement following the transfer of data from Gamepedia to Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-06 |title=David and Goliath - on Polish Minecraft Wiki taking legal action against Fandom |url=https://frisk.space/posts/pl-mcw-fandom/ |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Frisk.space Blog |quote=Fandom has "aggregated content from the wiki" and by doing so has started to violate the license agreements. We read that "as a result of wiki account transfers, at least 1440 different usernames being pseudonyms of their creators were damaged". By result of doing so, Fandom couldn't fulfill the authorship requirement of Creative Commons licensed used by the wiki (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250917142505/https://frisk.space/posts/pl-mcw-fandom/ |archive-date=17 Sep 2025}}</ref>
 ==Lawsuits==
 ===''Vishal Shah v. Fandom, Inc.'' (September 2024)===
-In 2024, Vishal Shah sued Fandom for privacy violations, claiming that the company was sharing IP address information with external platforms, including [[Meta]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Christopher |date=2024-10-24 |title=Users Advance Fandom ‘Pen Register’ Suit Over IP Address Sharing |url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/consumers-video-privacy-class-action-against-fandom-can-proceed |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Bloomberg Law}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Landis |first=Blake |date=2024-10-25 |title=Ninth Circuit Ruling Shows How CIPA Applies to Internet Tracking |url=https://natlawreview.com/article/invisible-data-real-consequences-navigating-ip-consent-dilemma |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=The National Law Review |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Proposed class says Fandom illegally tracked IP addresses |url=https://www.dailyjournal.com/article/376511-proposed-class-says-fandom-illegally-tracked-ip-addresses |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=The Daily Journal}}</ref>
+In 2024, Vishal Shah sued Fandom for privacy violations, claiming that the company was sharing IP address information with external platforms, including [[Meta]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Christopher |date=2024-10-24 |title=Users Advance Fandom ‘Pen Register’ Suit Over IP Address Sharing |url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/consumers-video-privacy-class-action-against-fandom-can-proceed |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Bloomberg Law |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260111095257/https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/consumers-video-privacy-class-action-against-fandom-can-proceed |archive-date=11 Jan 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Landis |first=Blake |date=2024-10-25 |title=Ninth Circuit Ruling Shows How CIPA Applies to Internet Tracking |url=https://natlawreview.com/article/invisible-data-real-consequences-navigating-ip-consent-dilemma |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=The National Law Review |language=en |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251112175259/https://natlawreview.com/article/invisible-data-real-consequences-navigating-ip-consent-dilemma |archive-date=12 Nov 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Proposed class says Fandom illegally tracked IP addresses |url=https://www.dailyjournal.com/article/376511-proposed-class-says-fandom-illegally-tracked-ip-addresses |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=The Daily Journal |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251113014243/https://www.dailyjournal.com/article/376511-proposed-class-says-fandom-illegally-tracked-ip-addresses |archive-date=13 Nov 2025}}</ref>
 ==External links==