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[Sasha Ehrenstein]

Do you think we should organize a raid against Wikia with the intent of convincing people to move here and showing them what Wikia has done?

[Twibbles]

I wouldnt call it a raid, Communial Advertising Compaign would be a better name for it. I think the best way would have to be through a short youtube montage of points, sort of a pro-wikii video, Then posting a couple of links using alternative ips (So they do not get your real IP, With it they can track you to a rough geological location, etc) on a couple of major wikia sites that have the posibility to be convinced, also some forums and other places and then linking to that as well. We could try a cross Link Signiture advertising, Post legitament outsourced stuff to a forum where the signature of the user or of a reply is an image intended to catch the eye and link to the clip. there are lots of possibilites. The Cross Link is actually a very effective way that is techniqually legal, your not spamming or causing any harm to the wiki on purpose your linking them to a legitament related thing that then may have the chance of turning them antiwikia.

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

Yeah, I think that's actually a better idea.  If we were to actually do a "raid," using proxy IP addresses would also be good just since they'd get banned fast.

I can work on setting up a Wikkii Youtube channel.

[Sove]

TOR is an easy way to anonymize your IP address, but Wikia blocks the exit nodes. They don't seem to be blocking all open proxies, though. After all, they need to allow people from high internet censorship countries to edit in some way.

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

There's a thing with MediaWiki where it can block open proxies, but there's a significant risk that their ISP will shut them down.

[Sove]

Proxy providers are not responsible for its users' actions, it's not likely their ISP would shut them down.

It's quite likely Wikia would temporarily use DNSBL methods to block open proxies until thing calm down. Those measures are quite effective, I had to implement those when a certain user from here had a stupid tantrum (about copyright stuff. I told him what he needs to do, but he didn't listen, instead chose to vandalize the wiki and act like a general idiot) in a wiki I'm hosting. All vandalism stopped after that.

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

Would you be able to send me directions for how to use DNSBL?  We used ConfirmAccount after getting attacked by a German Nazi who claimed that we were writing about "Communists and Jews" but we had trouble with him for a long time using accounts he already made to impersonate people and plagiarize objectionable content.  In general, I don't think it's necessary for people in good faith to us proxies.  The ability to monitor the IP addresses of people applying for accounts helps somewhat, but the last IP address this guy used didn't show up on any proxy lists.

[Sove]

$wgEnableDnsBlacklist = true;
$wgDnsBlacklistUrls = array( 'xbl.spamhaus.org', 'opm.tornevall.org' );

Those are the ones MediaWiki suggests and they work just fine for me. Spamhaus limits you to non-commercial use and a maximum of 100,000 queries a day, unless you use the paid service.

[N64Dude]

I Know Wikia Annoys us But don't raid them you can get done for it. 

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

What do you mean by that?

[N64Dude]

You could get IN BIG Trouble

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

I suppose they would globally bock you...

[Twibbles]

I think N64 is suggesting it is Illegal and W*kia will come after you. Depending on what we actually do it can still be legal, there are many companies online atm which use some of the techniques I discribed. And some use Spambots to achieve them. I do not support spamming a wiki or disrupting a wiki, however sharing resources that are relevant and that may link back to wikkii is ok. For example I right a very detailed article on a forum somewhere, with a sig containing links to wikkii or anti w*kia and then link to it on a wiki as something to be looked at, some members may see it and then follow the link.

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

Yeah, an actual raid would be immature.  However, what you describe would be good.

[Tepi]

What did wikia do anyway?

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

They forced a terrible skin on all wikis that made it look like a blog, is nearly unusable, and fills everything with advertisements.  While that is maybe not so bad, the totalitarian measures that they took to prevent people from leaving to better hosts are absolutely unacceptable.  Any administrator/bureaucrat who made any mention of a move was removed and replaced, even founders of wikis, and Wikia continues to maintain mirrors of all wikis that moved in order to try to screw them over for moving and to divert traffic away from them, only to take credit for themselves.

[Tepi]

yeah i tried wikia before wikinet, didn't like the format at all. I didn't have any trouble when I asked to close it though. You are right that all the closed pages still appear on a google search, wow what a waste of space...

[Tepi]

While a wiki founder may request that their project be closed, particularly if it doesn't yet have any other editors, if the topic is of general public interest Wikia generally prefers to leave dormant wikis available for adoption by new users.

Wikis that remain inactive for several months, without any interest in adoption, may be merged or closed by Wikia Staff, but there is no urgency or set schedule for doing so, since inactive projects do no harm to active ones.

In the case of complete closure of a wiki that previously had content (that did not violate the Terms of Use), the database of content would be made available for download.

If some or all of a wiki's contributors decide to move, and copy the content to a new a location, Wikia, Inc. will decide whether the Wikia is to be closed or whether it will remain open as before. Most wikis with useful content or the potential for content remain open. As a courtesy to future editors and to the Wikia staff involved in deciding if the Wikia in question is to be closed and/or merged with an existing Wikia, please do not blank pages or list them as "Moved" (especially the main pages)

[Twibbles]

Basically all you posted is their nicer version of what actually happens. W*kia will ban isers globally just for even mentioning moving (Ive seen it happen). 99% of any wikis that move or ask for closure tend the wiki will not be deleted.

Many people have reported trouble getting their database, the reason being is that W*kia tends to keep the wiki open so in their eyes it is not "complete closure of a wiki".

Most of the changes to W*kia tend to be against the communial wishes (e.g. Skin changes, forced extensions, etc)

[Roadsguy]

So... spam a site all over the place?