The Sims Wiki:Miraheze migration

This page exists to help keep track of The Sims Wiki's migration from Wikia (who irritatingly insist on being called "FANDOM" these days) to Miraheze, a non-profit, open source wiki farm network.

Why migrate?
Wikia has a long history of being problematic, ranging from their infamous "Featured Video" feature being rammed down people's throats without their permission; their malicious and questionable tactics of forcing the Portable Infobox markup onto communities; a site design that has long been criticized by its editors; an increasingly reader-centric site design to the exclusion of editors trying to maintain the content of the wikis they edit on; and a rebranding to a name that neither reflects the scope of what wikis are nor is supported by serious editors trying to maintain knowledge bases of whatever they are writing about.

There are numerous wiki hosting services out there, albeit none as large, notable, or powerful as Wikia is. Still, Miraheze appears to be our best bet.

Advantages of Miraheze

 * A skin that doesn't suck. Miraheze offers the Vector skin, the same skin that's used on Wikipedia and most other Wikimedia projects, which see more traffic than Wikia's wikis and are used by more people on a regular basis. The Vector skin offers a nice, large, wide layout that's easy on the eyes, allows for plenty of space for page content, and isn't inundated with oversized icons that look awful.
 * No ads. Wikia is a for-profit company that relies on ads for revenue. Miraheze, by contrast, is a non-profit organization that does not run ads; instead, they rely on donations to sustain themselves. This means that their goals will be more in-line with what its users and readers want, since having a bad reputation amongst their users equates to decreased donations. With this, we believe that Miraheze will be more willing to listen to what we want, whereas Wikia cares more about its advertising revenue and will sacrifice user desirability for profit.
 * Better software. Miraheze is committed to maintaining the most recent version of MediaWiki, the software that runs Wikia and Wikipedia. While Wikia has heavily modified their version of MediaWiki and are still technically running an obsolete version of the software, Miraheze maintains a closer relationship with the MediaWiki developers themselves, and they are more committed to keeping the software up-to-date, so we are able to enjoy the many leaps in technological advancement that Wikipedia enjoys that Wikia can only dream about at this point.
 * Access to 50 million+ free-to-use files. Miraheze allows for the use of the InstantCommons functionality on all wikis, meaning that you can use any file currently on the Wikimedia Commons for free and without having to upload a local copy, simply by linking to it like you would any other file. This means that we can save on the amount of local files we have to maintain, and Miraheze can save on server space as we won't have to reupload files we want to use from Commons here. Miraheze also offers their own Miraheze Commons that can also be used as an image repository, accessible anywhere on all wikis without having to duplicate uploads.
 * Free and open source. Miraheze's source code is open, and is hosted on Github. Free and open source code means that anyone can study it, fork it, and reuse it, which ensures that Miraheze cannot control its users the same way a company running proprietary, closed source software can.
 * Vast customizability. Miraheze allows wikis to easily toggle on and off a large selection of extensions with the click of a button; add and remove user rights and even create custom ones; create custom namespaces with just a few clicks; and customize the wiki's Javascript and Cascading Style Sheets settings. All without having to send in a support ticket.
 * Direct access to great support. Miraheze maintains both an IRC channel and a Discord server that allows users to directly contact and chat with other members of the community in real time. While Miraheze Staff take care of the behind-the-scenes work, Stewards are volunteer users that serve a similar role as Stewards on Wikimedia—they are available to handle emergencies and help resolve disputes, but are non-intrusive and generally only act when the local community is unable to resolve the situation on their own. Unlike Wikia Staff, stewards are selected by the Miraheze community at large, and the community can call for a steward's access to be revoked through a vote of no confidence. Additionally, bug reports filed on Miraheze are much more open and can be seen by anyone (except for security-sensitive ones). Bug reports are filed through a platform called Phabricator, which Wikimedia also uses. This means that anyone can view bug reports and they are organized more publicly and openly, unlike Wikia which relies on a difficult-to-navigate email support system.
 * It's all community. Miraheze is run by volunteers, not a corporate board of directors. What the volunteers do is more in touch with what the Miraheze community as a whole wants, because said volunteers edit here, too. Wikia is a for-profit corporation that doesn't need to listen to its users, and as recent events have shown, it doesn't want to. If Miraheze tried to adopt this mindset, it would have been a failure from the very beginning. Learn about how you can contribute to the Miraheze family!

Things that need to get done
Currently, the plan is to stay on Wikia while we work on the migration behind the scenes as much as possible. We thus have some time to test things like templates and our designs, and update things like our templates to work with any changes to the wiki here.


 * Migrate templates ✅
 * Migrate system messages ✅
 * Migrate Javascript and CSS ✅
 * Make sure migrated Javascript and CSS work on the new wiki ✅
 * Make sure our templates work on the new wiki
 * Upload all the images that cannot be found on Wikimedia Commons from the Wikia wiki to here (which is a lot!)
 * A dump file of all the images on the Wikia wiki was created on March 5, 2019. That has all been uploaded. ✅
 * We need to continue uploading new images uploaded to the Wikia wiki in order to keep things in sync.
 * Ensure all interwiki links continue to work (since some interwiki codes have been modified on Miraheze that aren't backwards-compatible with Wikia)
 * Figure out what to do with comments on the Wikia wiki (can't be migrated into the Comments extension here)
 * Migrate edit filters ✅
 * Create localized help pages (a lot of them! you can find some guidance on mw:Help:Contents and wikipedia:Template:Wikipedia help pages. Help:Contents and Help:Directory has some redlinks you can fill in.)
 * Create TemplateData for templates
 * Set up a system for people to confirm and link their Wikia identities
 * Import a database dump from the Wikia wiki into here; we'll need to contact Staff for help with this.
 * ✅ A copy of the Wikia wiki's database, dated January 18, 2020, 19:28:28 UTC, has been imported to Miraheze.

At all times we need to make sure that we are not violating the terms of the CC BY-SA license that we use by making sure we provide proper attribution to our edits. This can easily be accomplished by exporting and then importing the page histories of our Wikia wiki correctly, and by providing a URL if that is not possible.

The Customized Sims Wiki merger
In April 2019, The Customized Sims Wiki agreed to merge with The Sims Wiki on Miraheze. Here's what needs to get done:


 * Import their pages ✅
 * Move their pages into their custom namespace ✅
 * Update our templates to accommodate this new namespace (similarly to how it accommodates Fanon)
 * Create the categories for their pages
 * Upload all of their files ✅
 * Decide on policies (at Forum:Merging with the Customized Sims Wiki)
 * Update their pages to use our infoboxes (currently most of them use a plain table without much styling)

Other things to do

 * Get in touch with news agencies revolving around The Sims series, like SimsVIP, asking if they'd be interested in helping to cover the migration.
 * Start drafting messages to be posted on highly frequented discussion boards like The Sims Reddit to let people know about the migration. We need to interact with the community directly to get the word out.
 * Losslessly compress images on the wiki so that the site loads faster. You can use FileOptimizer for some very impressive compression rates, or use EZGIF's online tools for PNG and JPG. Remember to compress losslessly; do not use lossy compression as this affects image quality!
 * I contacted the Runescape Wiki and asked for advice. They suggested getting in touch with the SimGurus since they are likely to be on board with the migration and will have more of an interest with interacting directly with the community. We are part of the Sims Community and it is important that we get them on our side.

When is the migration going to take place?
We are not entirely sure. The current plan is to stay on Wikia for now, but to continue working on the Miraheze wiki to ensure a smooth transition. A rough timeline is a migration in 2020, with 2019 being used as a year of preparation for the big change.

What do we do with the old Wikia wiki once the migration has completed?
Wikia won't allow us to close the old wiki, nor will they provide means to let us redirect pages from the old wiki onto the new. This means that migrating our readerbase will be difficult.

We may need to take cues from other wikis that have migrated and see how they managed to do it. The Sims community is very widespread, so this will be a difficult process. We'll need to see if other websites are willing to update their links to point to the Miraheze wiki, and we'll have to contend with the fact that there will probably always be some links still pointing to the Wikia wiki, given how we've been there since 2005.

While Wikia won't let us replace entire pages pointing to the new wiki, we might be able to discreetly point to our new wiki, though how we'll be able to do this is up for debate.

What is Miraheze?
Miraheze is a wiki farm, just like Wikia. They run the hardware and software for a multitude of different wikis, and provide support for the communities that they host. The main difference between Miraheze and Wikia is that Miraheze is a non-profit organization, funded entirely by donations, while Wikia is a for-profit enterprise that relies on advertising revenue.

We highly encourage you to donate to Miraheze to keep the service running! By doing so, you not only ensure that The Sims Wiki will continue to exist independently of Wikia, but also all of the other wikis that have migrated away from Wikia to Miraheze.

How do you pronounce "Miraheze"?
People [//meta.miraheze.org/w/index.php?title=Community_noticeboard&oldid=34889#Pronouncing_the_name_of_the_wiki_farm pronounce it differently], and no one pronunciation is correct.

Usually, people pronounce it "MY-RA-HEZE" or "MI-RA-HEZE". Both are considered to be correct. Any other pronunciation, as long as it makes logical sense, is probably also okay.

You guys are using the same name. What should I use to distinguish between the two wikis?
When referring to the Wikia wiki, you can use "The Sims Wiki on Wikia". When referring to the Miraheze wiki, you can use "The Sims Wiki on Miraheze".

Will my Wikia login credentials work here?
No. You will need to create a new account on Miraheze. Login information cannot be transferred from Wikia to Miraheze.

Miraheze has a global account system like Wikia, so you only need to create one account to be able to access all of Miraheze. If you created an account on another Miraheze wiki, you can use it here on The Sims Wiki without having to register for another one.

Will my Wikia contributions be carried over?
No, unfortunately. This is a difficult decision we've had to make. Since there are thousands of users that have edited The Sims Wiki, we cannot be 100% sure that all of the usernames used on Wikia are not already being used on Miraheze. To avoid issues with edits being attributed to the wrong users, most edits that have been imported from Wikia are not attributed to any Miraheze account. Your username is still listed on those edits, but they will not link to your userpage. They will appear as sims>Username or as imported>Username (e.g. sims>k6ka or imported>k6ka).

What about fanons?
Fanons have automatically been imported to the Miraheze wiki. We strongly encourage fanon authors to move to the Miraheze wiki and continue their fanon there.

Sorry, what is this wiki's name again?
We are The Sims Wiki.

Yes, that's right. A WIKI.

Suck it, "FANDOM".

Timeline

 * 2 February 2019 - The Sims Wiki on Miraheze was created by K6ka, initially to protect against registration by trolls.
 * 21 February 2019 - The Sims Wiki:Miraheze migration is created to help coordinate migration efforts.
 * 24 February 2019 - Fanon and Game guide namespaces recreated.
 * 17 March 2019 - Beginning of large-scale file uploads from the Wikia wiki. Proves to be a long and tedious process.
 * 7 April 2019 - The Customized Sims Wiki agrees to merge with The Sims Wiki.
 * 8 April 2019 - www.thesimswiki.com becomes live and points to the Miraheze wiki, marking the first time the wiki had its very own domain name.
 * 12 April 2019 - All pages from The Customized Sims Wiki are imported to a subpage of The Sims Wiki:The Customized Sims Wiki and await further migration to their permanent homes.
 * 13 April 2019 - All files from The Customized Sims Wiki are uploaded to the wiki.
 * 1 May 2019 - Most file uploads are completed. Newer files uploaded to the Wikia wiki will need to be uploaded to the Miraheze wiki as an ongoing task until the migration.

Credits
The Sims Wiki would like to thank the following for their contributions to the migration:
 * Roza
 * TheTimMan
 * K6ka
 * LiR
 * SimDestroyer
 * MrC
 * Lost Labyrinth
 * Jawusa
 * M.M.A.A.
 * Stjn
 * Tks4Fish
 * Ferret
 * Miraheze Staff and Stewards