The Sims Wiki:Miraheze migration

Want to help?

If you're interested in helping out with the migration but don't know how to edit wikis, don't fret! The very least you can do is donate to Miraheze, our hosting provider. This will help ensure that the lights stay on for us in the future!

The Sims Wiki is joining forces with Miraheze!

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. There are no as of yet formal plans to migrate. However, the idea for having this Miraheze wiki set up and ready to go is that 1) we'll have the domain name registered so that trolls can't steal it; 2) we will have time to test our templates and our designs here on another MediaWiki installation; and 3) when Wikia goes over the tipping point, we will be ready.

• Migrate templates Done
• Migrate system messages I think we're mostly done
• 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!)
• 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 Done
• Create localized help pages (a lot of them! you can find some guidance on mw:Help:Contents and wikipedia:Template:Wikipedia help pages)
• Import project pages
• Import the forums
• 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.

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 Done
• 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 Done
• Decide on policies (at Forum:Merging with the Customized Sims Wiki)  In progress

Differences between Wikia and Miraheze

Aspect	Wikia	Miraheze
Software	Wikia uses MediaWiki version 1.19.24, which went out of support in May 2015. Wikia heavily customizes their version of MediaWiki, to the point where a version upgrade will be extremely difficult.	Miraheze uses MediaWiki 1.41.0 (5498056) and constantly updates its software, as seen in Special:Version. It strives to upgrade to the latest stable release of MediaWiki whenever possible to ensure that all communities are able to enjoy new features to the wiki software.
Skins	Wikia only offers one skin for desktop, called Oasis, and one for mobile, called Mercury. Wikia used to offer Monobook, but this was removed in May 2018.	Miraheze offers six skins by default that users can enable as they please in Special:Preferences. The Sims Wiki has opted to use the Vector skin as its default skin, which is the same skin used on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. In addition, Miraheze utilizes the MobileFrontend extension, which delivers a rich, easy to use interface on mobile devices.
System messages	Wikia does not allow free editing of the MediaWiki namespace, only allowing a select whitelist of pages that can be edited by administrators. Changes to any other system message must be reviewed by Staff. Wikia cites "security issues" as the reasoning.	Miraheze allows all wiki administrators to edit the MediaWiki namespace freely by default, allowing for virtually unlimited and unhindered customizability of the site's appearance.
JavaScript pages	JavaScript code that is submitted to community JS pages (which load JavaScript code for all users on the wiki) must be reviewed by a review process before they take effect. This process can take several days. Only JavaScript pages in the MediaWiki namespace are freely editable by administrators. In the userspace, users may only edit the common.js, Wikia.js, or global.js pages; edits to any other JavaScript pages in their userspace are denied.	Miraheze does not enforce any restrictions on how administrators can edit the community JavaScript pages on the wiki. Changes made to these pages take effect immediately after being saved. Users can edit any JavaScript pages in their userspace freely.
Advertisements	Wikia uses banner advertisements, usually injected at the sides of articles or at the very top of page. Inline advertisements have also been reported.	Miraheze does not have advertisements whatsoever, and rely on a donation model for funding.
Extensions	Wikia offers around 18 extensions by default, and around 13 extensions upon specific request. Wikia does not allow local administrators to customize the extensions they can and cannot have. Extensions not on their list of extensions are generally rejected and not installed.	Miraheze offers over 150 extensions that can be enabled by local wiki managers simply by checking a checkbox. This is in addition to the large number of extensions already enabled by default (too many to count). New extensions can be requested.
Namespaces	Wikia offers the standard 16 editable namespaces that ship with MediaWiki by default, along with the "Forum" and "Forum talk" namespace for wiki-style forums. Custom namespaces can be created, but only by request, and limited to a maximum of three.	Miraheze offers all of the standard namespaces and the wiki-style forum namespaces, and allow for custom namespaces to be created using a web interface. There is no limit to the number of custom namespaces that can be created.
Files and images	Wikia doesn't offer any sort of shared file repository, so if you want to use an image, you have to upload it on the wiki you want to use it for. If you want to use the same image on multiple wikis, you have to upload that image to every single wiki you want to use it on. Wikia offers no real support for Ogg files; as such, playback of these files depends entirely on the web browser or on third-party plugins installed on the user's system (as Internet Explorer and Edge don't support Ogg files, they are unable to play these files). Multiple files can be uploaded at a time, but drag-and-drop is not offered, so users must click on every individual file they want to upload. Wikia does not allow MP3 files to be uploaded, even though the patents for this file format expired in April 2017.	Miraheze allows users to use files hosted on the Wikimedia Commons, granting access to over 50 million+ free to use images, videos, and other media files, all without having to reupload them on the wiki. Miraheze also runs its own repository called the Miraheze Commons. Miraheze uses the TimedMediaHandler extension to play Ogg files, allowing everyone to be able to play these files. Drag-and-drop is offered on Miraheze, so users can upload multiple files simply by dragging them into the wiki editor. Miraheze allows MP3 files to be uploaded.
Editing	Wikia offers two editors: VisualEditor and their classic editor. Although their VisualEditor was developed in collaboration with Wikimedia, it frequently has bugs and issues and often doesn't load correctly, even on modern browsers. Additionally, the VisualEditor was forcefully rolled out to all wikis, without community input. Their classic editor remains usable but is no longer being actively developed. Their raw wikitext editor, called the "source editor", uses the 2006 editing toolbar, which was removed from mainstream MediaWiki releases and is horribly outdated.	Miraheze offers the 2010 WikiEditor, which is also being used on Wikipedia. Their version of VisualEditor was developed directly by Wikimedia and is in active development. VisualEditor is also an optional feature that local wiki communities can choose on their own accord whether or not to enable.
Footnotes	If <ref></ref> tags are added to a page without <references /> or {{Reflist}} at the bottom of the page, a cite error message will be shown. When editing and previewing a section with <ref></ref> where <references /> or {{Reflist}} does not exist in the same section but elsewhere in the article, a cite error message will also be shown, even though said message will not actually appear once the page is saved. This can confuse inexperienced users.	If <ref></ref> tags are added to a page without <references /> or {{Reflist}} at the bottom of the page, the contents of the footnotes will appear at the bottom of the page. When editing and previewing a section with <ref></ref> where <references /> or {{Reflist}} does not exist in the same section, the footnotes will appear below the previewed page content. The cite error message will still be shown if <ref group="n"></ref> tags are used without a corresponding <references group="n" /> tag.
Accounts	Wikia's accounts are global across all Wikia wikis. When a user registers for an account, an entry is created in the account creation log only on wikis where the user first registered their account in, meaning that if a user creates their account on Wiki A and then visits Wiki B, the account creation log on Wiki A will record their account creation, but not Wiki B. Users can see which wikis they've contributed to at Community Central.	Miraheze's accounts are global across all Miraheze wikis. Miraheze uses the CentralAuth extension that Wikimedia also uses. When a user registers for an account, an entry is created in Special:CentralAuth that lists the date and time their global account was created; this global account is what users log in to, and will be connected to any local account on individual wikis that belong to the owner of the global account. If a user visits a wiki while logged in where they do not have a local account on yet, the CentralAuth system will automatically create a local account on that wiki for that user to use. These local account creations are logged in the account creation log on every wiki where a local account was created. A user's global account status, along with any local accounts they have attached to that account, are listed in Special:CentralAuth and is publicly viewable by anyone.
Staff	Wikia employs full-time paid staff that are not selected by the Wikia community at large. Staff members say they only intervene with local wiki communities in certain circumstances, such as ToU violations, although they have been known to take actions outside of that scope, including forcibly enabling extensions without community input, changing URLs for SEO purposes without notification, and even removing local wiki administrators that object to forced changes. Wiki communities are not considered to have control over their own site; if they migrate, they are not permitted to redirect the old site to the new one. Wikia Staff may appoint new administrators after removing old ones if a wiki community migrates, as is the case with the Runescape Wiki. Wikia Staff will find ways to forcibly continue to run a wiki even if the old community leaves.	Miraheze does not employ any full-time staff. Most staff members focus on the technical, behind-the-scenes operations of the wiki farm and generally do not involve themselves in on-wiki issues. Stewards generally fulfill many of the roles that Wikia Staff taken on; they are also unpaid and are elected by the community at large. Because Miraheze is a non-profit, there is no reason for them to trap communities inside their ecosystem.
Attitude	Wikia has been known to adopt aggressive tactics as of late to remove content that they or their advertisers do not agree with. As such, "free speech" is much more limited on Wikia due to pressure from advertisers not to host content they disagree with. They have been known to employ SEO tactics, sometimes against community consensus or without notification, to boost search engine rankings for their own benefit or to inject more advertisements into their pages.	Miraheze is a non-profit and doesn't run ads, so there is no pressure from advertisers to police the service outside of illegal content. Miraheze Staff focus on the technical, behind-the-scenes aspects of the wiki and leave each individual wiki community to decide upon their own policies on how they want to operate.

FAQs

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 pronounce it differently, and no one pronunciation is correct.

Usually, people pronounce it "MY-RA-HEZE" ( Listen) or "MI-RA-HEZE" ( Listen). 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, e.g. sims>k6ka.

What about fanons?

Fanons will continue on the Miraheze wiki. If you are a fanon author, we highly encourage you to consider moving your fanon to Miraheze. We have not yet decided whether or not fanon should be migrated automatically, or only with author consent. Fanon will never be removed from the Wikia wiki without the author's consent regardless of what happens.

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.