Stop using Fandom

Update! As of 11/8/2023 Fandom has changed their policy regarding forking. You can no longer link to the new wiki site from the main page for two weeks like I described in the video. Once you fork, all admins are removed and no links to the new site are allowed anywhere but the forking discussion page. Seems Fandom has started to respond to the recent exodus from their website. Let's see if they make any changes to their platform that actually make it better. Also, please consider installing the Indie Wiki Buddy extension! It not only helps the Hollow Knight wiki community, but all the other wikis mentioned throughout this video! getindie.wiki/

browsing fandom without an adblocker is like trying to drive down an interstate with your windshield covered in dead bugs and rotted leaves

Fandom: "Wikis belong to the community!" Also Fandom: Removes the work of the community because a fast food chain paid them

Not only is Fandom loaded with ads, but it is also unfriendly to old computers as well. Back in 2022 I did not have much money, and I was using a Dell Inspiron Mini 10V netbook as my main laptop. One day I was with my friends and tried to load a wiki that was hosted on Fandom. The netbook got really bogged down by all the ads and the video playing following me as I scrolled. The site ended up overloading the netbook to the point of the system fatally crashing. After that the netbook did not boot up, and I had to completely re-install the OS when I got home. The hard drive in the netbook failed soon after. Hated Fandom ever since that happened. RIP the Inspiron mini 10V's original hard drive 2009-2022. You will be avenged.

We call this enshittification, which happens to all tech companies. Once they get enough market share, they start making profits from their market share by making the service worse for the users, and it is harder for the users to move to another platform as they are now dependent on their platform.

The most annoying thing fandom does for me is randomly reload the page and reset position to the top. Drives me nuts.

Fandom is like a parent trying to monetize their child's talents and then not understanding why the child hates them so much

I don’t like how fandom keeps asking me if I’m a kid or adult each time I go to a new page, it’s so annoying

Ever heard about LyricWiki? It used to be an independent wiki, but a DMCA claim made them migrate to Wikia. Wikia gladly took the content, made aggressive cross promotion with other music wikis (Glee, K-Pop groups, bands), then they launched an app with the content. Years later they rebranded to fandom, and suddenly started to censor the content to be "family-friendy" (read: advertiser-friendly). This lead to friction between Fandom and community, as the latter didn't like staff messing with the content. Fandom then closed the wiki to editing to have free reign, and lastly they just deleted all of the around 2 million content pages that were collectively created over 14.5 years, because they thought it was too expensive to maintain the wiki themselves. They didn't allow for a content dump. All those centuries of combined work is lost forever to the shareholder's greed. Disgusting company.

The pushback to fandom is so nice. I hated using fandom. Especially on mobile. It would jump and sputter trying to load ads and making everything almost unreadable.

I'm a developer for the Terraria Calamity Mod, and I can tell you first hand: Fandom is TERRIBLE. Please, do not use them. Ever. Even the process of switching from them to our own site (and for base Terraria too!) has been a complete mess, with them straight up refusing to take down pages that spread misinformation. Nowadays, the community has protested it so much by repeatedly vandalizing it day to day that they've just been forced to stop trying to fix it and allow the community to use it as a shitpost palace. Don't use Fandom.

i'm genuinely surprised the blaseball wiki didn't get included here. they managed to get the fandom wikia deleted because they left it in such a bad state after migrating to self hosted

The most annoying part of Fandom for me was always the sidebar. So many times when I've found myself on a Fandom wiki site, I've clicked the top of the sidebar, expecting to get to the main page of the wiki like on every damn other wiki. But no, it sends you to the Fandom main page.

I love the ending. There really is no “but they do do something well” that that transition implies.

the ai generated answers is geniunely the funniest, most out of touch thing i have ever witnessed. they're really putting mandated misinformation on a WIKI SITE 💀

I like hearing how these wikis also work together to get away from Fandom as a group. Love fandoms actually sticking together as a unit to make a better experience for all of the fans.

The most annoying thing about Fandom for me is when I get the urge to look up some obscure information on a video game or movie when I'm not on a wifi connection. I'm not using half of my monthly data to load a page full of videos unrelated to the single paragraph of text I was actually looking for.

I absolutely burst out laughing at the "now, I've been pretty mean to fandom in this video..." part at the end, it's absolute genius.

I remember when Fandom took over a lyrics wiki and immediately shut it down for its content not being "advertiser-friendly". A ton of fan translations of foreign songs completely lost. Wayback machine doesn't have them.

Another thing you can do is get an extension that removes fandom from search results so you'll never accidentally click on a fandom wiki again.