Comments on: Wikia is Growing - Is Anyone Paying Attention? http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/ Startup and Technology News Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:45:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Behind Enemy Lines » Blog Archive » Wiki Round-up http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-663061 Behind Enemy Lines » Blog Archive » Wiki Round-up Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:48:29 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-663061 [...] On to Wikia. According to TechCrunch Wikia is growing at a tremendous rate. The founder and CEO of Wikia, Mr. Gil Penchina, an eight year veteran of eBay, stated at the recent Le Web conference in Paris that the number of new articles being submitted is matching or in some cases even exceeding that of Wikipedia. Assuming this to be correct Wikia has got to be one of the fastest growing consumer generated sites on the web that no-one is talking about. [...] [...] On to Wikia. According to TechCrunch Wikia is growing at a tremendous rate. The founder and CEO of Wikia, Mr. Gil Penchina, an eight year veteran of eBay, stated at the recent Le Web conference in Paris that the number of new articles being submitted is matching or in some cases even exceeding that of Wikipedia. Assuming this to be correct Wikia has got to be one of the fastest growing consumer generated sites on the web that no-one is talking about. [...]

]]> By: pushpendrakumar http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-659921 pushpendrakumar Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:03:47 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-659921 Wikia is not a Wikimedia project. Wikia is not a for-profit arm of Wikipedia Wikia is not a sister project of Wikipedia. Wikia is not a Wikimedia project.
Wikia is not a for-profit arm of Wikipedia
Wikia is not a sister project of Wikipedia.

]]> By: leafar http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-659126 leafar Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:00:46 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-659126 Their growth should be higher than the one of wikipedia to be accurrate. The Internet world has changed between 2002 & 2005 : - # users - # usage of wiki + when people did it for wikipedia it was for the sole purpose of it.... where as on Wikia you do it for money @ least the openserving.com guys. Anyway it's gonna be a good deal. Hope they will manage to have the same ranking from Google. Their growth should be higher than the one of wikipedia to be accurrate.
The Internet world has changed between 2002 & 2005 :
- # users
- # usage of wiki

+ when people did it for wikipedia it was for the sole purpose of it…. where as on Wikia you do it for money @ least the openserving.com guys.

Anyway it’s gonna be a good deal. Hope they will manage to have the same ranking from Google.

]]> By: Sharad http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-658967 Sharad Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:19:29 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-658967 Michael, even though they might not have generate the 2.5M page views per day, just by blogging about them, you sure have come close to that :) @John - Assuming information economy and society works out coherently well - where do you see DRM going? Michael, even though they might not have generate the 2.5M page views per day, just by blogging about them, you sure have come close to that :)

@John - Assuming information economy and society works out coherently well - where do you see DRM going?

]]> By: Eyal http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-658178 Eyal Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:46:58 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-658178 Great comment #16 Great comment #16

]]> By: Michal Frackowiak http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-657386 Michal Frackowiak Thu, 04 Jan 2007 09:01:22 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-657386 Wikipedia vs Wikia popularity (according to Alexa): http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=www.wikia.com The recent spike in Wikia's popularity is due to the openserving.com buzz. Wikipedia vs Wikia popularity (according to Alexa):

http://www.alexa.com/data/deta......wikia.com

The recent spike in Wikia’s popularity is due to the openserving.com buzz.

]]> By: John http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655795 John Thu, 04 Jan 2007 03:35:36 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655795 Wikia/Wikipedia/Flickr/YouTube are like commercial banks for information / media. They store the information, protect it for you with some permanence, give you access to the information, and provide you audience for your work. Banks fundamentally protect your money, give you access to your money, and hopefully give you a little interest on the side. People pay bank fees. Would you pay a wiki a fee to store your information? No, would you be subjected to a small # of ads. Most people would say yes. Its an equitable trade. We are moving to an information economy and society. Time to wake up Permanent Hater. Wikia/Wikipedia/Flickr/YouTube are like commercial banks for information / media. They store the information, protect it for you with some permanence, give you access to the information, and provide you audience for your work. Banks fundamentally protect your money, give you access to your money, and hopefully give you a little interest on the side.

People pay bank fees. Would you pay a wiki a fee to store your information? No, would you be subjected to a small # of ads. Most people would say yes. Its an equitable trade.

We are moving to an information economy and society. Time to wake up Permanent Hater.

]]> By: permanent hater http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655619 permanent hater Thu, 04 Jan 2007 02:54:27 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655619 I don't get people who contribute to a site like Wikia. WTF people? You are just making some 10 executives super-rich by doing all the work yourself. It worked fine with Wikipedia (non-profit, bla bla bla), but I doubt this can scale. I don’t get people who contribute to a site like Wikia. WTF people? You are just making some 10 executives super-rich by doing all the work yourself. It worked fine with Wikipedia (non-profit, bla bla bla), but I doubt this can scale.

]]> By: Andrew Lih http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655614 Andrew Lih Thu, 04 Jan 2007 02:53:38 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655614 Michael (Arrington), As Angela mentioned, it is inaccurate to say it is a "for-profit sister site" as both Gil Penchina and Jimmy Wales have actively discouraged this exact phrase to describe a relationship between Wikia and Wikipedia. There is no formal relationship, and it would be a disservice for Techcrunch to imply a greater than "spiritual" link between the two. If you are reluctant to withdraw the "sister" phrase, at least an update and disclaimer could explain that no financial or organizational ties exist. I'm an admirer of this blog, and it pains me to see it perpetuate something that is already very poorly understood by folks outside the wiki community. Cheers, -Andrew Michael (Arrington),

As Angela mentioned, it is inaccurate to say it is a “for-profit sister site” as both Gil Penchina and Jimmy Wales have actively discouraged this exact phrase to describe a relationship between Wikia and Wikipedia.

There is no formal relationship, and it would be a disservice for Techcrunch to imply a greater than “spiritual” link between the two. If you are reluctant to withdraw the “sister” phrase, at least an update and disclaimer could explain that no financial or organizational ties exist.

I’m an admirer of this blog, and it pains me to see it perpetuate something that is already very poorly understood by folks outside the wiki community.

Cheers,
-Andrew

]]> By: Bill http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655485 Bill Thu, 04 Jan 2007 02:28:13 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655485 Darren - I work at Wikia. We recently acquired armchairgm http://www.armchairgm.com and are working on ways to incorporate some of the ranking features they've developed. Be sure to check out their top users page http://www.armchairgm.com/mwiki/index.php?title=Top_Stuff Darren -
I work at Wikia. We recently acquired armchairgm
http://www.armchairgm.com
and are working on ways to incorporate some of the ranking features they’ve developed. Be sure to check out their top users page http://www.armchairgm.com/mwik.....=Top_Stuff

]]> By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Wikia、成長中。誰か注目してる？ http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655450 TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Wikia、成長中。誰か注目してる？ Thu, 04 Jan 2007 02:20:53 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655450 [...] [原文へ] Wikia [...] [...] [原文へ] Wikia [...]

]]> By: Darren http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655374 Darren Thu, 04 Jan 2007 02:04:20 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655374 I bet most of the people adding content to it are the same people adding the content to wikipedia. There people are just addicted to it I think. I think maybe they need to add more social aspects to the site so users that add to the site get some credit for it. Also then people could rate people on the quailty of the content. Who knows a more social aspect could drive the content to be better than wikipedias. I could imagine the fight to serve ads on the site will be a big one. I bet most of the people adding content to it are the same people adding the content to wikipedia. There people are just addicted to it I think.

I think maybe they need to add more social aspects to the site so users that add to the site get some credit for it. Also then people could rate people on the quailty of the content. Who knows a more social aspect could drive the content to be better than wikipedias.

I could imagine the fight to serve ads on the site will be a big one.

]]> By: John http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655326 John Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:55:09 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655326 Wikia's margin's have to be awesome too. Very interesting. Wikia’s margin’s have to be awesome too. Very interesting.

]]> By: Josh http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655311 Josh Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:52:05 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655311 I am perplexed as Wikia seems redundant, almost duplicative. I can't knock their growth. Good stuff. I am perplexed as Wikia seems redundant, almost duplicative. I can’t knock their growth. Good stuff.

]]> By: ginchy http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655081 ginchy Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:11:49 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655081 "Sure, it’s growing, but are quality articles being written? " Probably not (this being the internet and all), but since the purpose of the site is to make money, quality is irrelevant. cf. YouTube, MySpace, Network Television... “Sure, it’s growing, but are quality articles being written? ”

Probably not (this being the internet and all), but since the purpose of the site is to make money, quality is irrelevant. cf. YouTube, MySpace, Network Television…

]]> By: Harrynack http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655039 Harrynack Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:03:41 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-655039 I agree on the quality. I cant imagine this becoming anything nearly as big as wikipedia. I agree on the quality. I cant imagine this becoming anything nearly as big as wikipedia.

]]> By: John http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654983 John Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:54:00 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654983 Someone above was wondering if there are quality articles on Wikia. I just went to the home page www.wikia.com , chose a couple and hit "random page" on them... looks pretty good to me. http://lost.wikia.com http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Muppet_Wiki http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Miss_Piggy http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Maul http://uncyclopedia.org (this looks like humor but doesn't look work safe) http://www.marveldatabase.com Someone above was wondering if there are quality articles on Wikia. I just went to the home page http://www.wikia.com , chose a couple and hit “random page” on them… looks pretty good to me.

http://lost.wikia.com
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Muppet_Wiki
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Miss_Piggy
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Maul
http://uncyclopedia.org (this looks like humor but doesn’t look work safe)
http://www.marveldatabase.com

]]> By: EJ Henderson http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654975 EJ Henderson Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:52:52 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654975 An even better example: http://web.archive.org/web/20030424173743/www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos An even better example: http://web.archive.org/web/200.....Jeff_Bezos

]]> By: EJ Henderson http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654957 EJ Henderson Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:49:52 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654957 @2 (Anita) I wonder if the same were true about Wikipedia articles in 2002-2003, though. The wayback machine suggests it is: http://web.archive.org/web/20021130190725/www.wikipedia.org/ http://web.archive.org/web/20030228055528/www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Eban @2 (Anita)

I wonder if the same were true about Wikipedia articles in 2002-2003, though. The wayback machine suggests it is:

http://web.archive.org/web/200.....pedia.org/

http://web.archive.org/web/200...../Abba_Eban

]]> By: Anita http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654898 Anita Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:37:54 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654898 Angela - I just saw your blog, which answered my question! I had no idea that <a href="http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" rel="nofollow">Uncyclopedia</a> was a Wikia site ... so I stand corrected. I also liked <a href="http://www.marveldatabase.com/Main_Page" rel="nofollow">Marvel Database</a> and <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page" rel="nofollow">http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page</a>. So now I'm a convert ... where do I invest? ;) Angela - I just saw your blog, which answered my question! I had no idea that Uncyclopedia was a Wikia site … so I stand corrected. I also liked Marvel Database and http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page.

So now I’m a convert … where do I invest? ;)

]]> By: Michael Arrington http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654887 Michael Arrington Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:35:59 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654887 Angela - sure it is. Same software. Jimmy Wales is actively involved in both companies. Only reason they aren't formerly affiliated is that wikipedia is a non-profit organization, and Wikia is for profit. "Sister site" has no legal meaning, but in my opinion it is very descriptive of the relationship. Angela - sure it is. Same software. Jimmy Wales is actively involved in both companies. Only reason they aren’t formerly affiliated is that wikipedia is a non-profit organization, and Wikia is for profit. “Sister site” has no legal meaning, but in my opinion it is very descriptive of the relationship.

]]> By: Anita http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654853 Anita Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:31:04 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654853 Sure, it's growing, but are quality articles being written? I'd love it if someone could point us to 2 or 3 quality wikia pages. I've been forwarded dozens of bad sites, and landed on dozens more from search engines. Most of these were everyday people who wanted to create communities (TV and entertainment in my case), and naively thought that others would contribute. If you know some great Wikia pages, send em along ... maybe I've just had bad experience, but I just don't get the draw of Wikia yet. Sure, it’s growing, but are quality articles being written? I’d love it if someone could point us to 2 or 3 quality wikia pages. I’ve been forwarded dozens of bad sites, and landed on dozens more from search engines. Most of these were everyday people who wanted to create communities (TV and entertainment in my case), and naively thought that others would contribute.

If you know some great Wikia pages, send em along … maybe I’ve just had bad experience, but I just don’t get the draw of Wikia yet.

]]> By: Angela http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654852 Angela Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:30:49 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/wikia-is-growing-is-anyone-paying-attention/#comment-654852 Wikia is not a "sister site to Wikipedia". Please read <a href="http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikimedia" rel="nofollow">Wikia's page about Wikimedia</a> for clarifications. Wikia is not a “sister site to Wikipedia”. Please read Wikia’s page about Wikimedia for clarifications.

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