After a series of unfortunate technical issues, here's my blog:
Wikia is a website that enables users to create wikis based
on practically anything they want. Often they are themed around popular TV
series, movies, games or books, acting as online encyclopedias for their
specific topic. But the list can stretch further than this with wikis based
around cooking, to music, to toys and much, much more.
As an extra feature, anyone, even users without an account,
are able to edit the information on the wiki as they see fit, resulting in what
could arguably be described as a ‘Wikipedia’ like sight, but focused entirely
on one particular topic.
Due to its wide range of topics, Wikia has something for
everyone. Like many other social media platforms, and perhaps even more so, it
is impossible to narrow the site’s target audience down to a single age group,
class or social group. It’s more the job of the wiki’s themselves to focus on
their specific target market, and Wikia makes it easy for users to find a wiki
that will interest them with the inclusion of a search bar and a rotating
roster of popular wikis from across the platform displayed on Wikia’s homepage.
However, this doesn't mean that Wikia is a database of
absolutely everything users will ever want to know about their topic of choice.
The level of content and ease of navigation can vary greatly from wiki to wiki.
While Wikia provides all wikis with a search bar, some wikis utilise other
forms of navigation better than others. This can make it difficult for users to
find the information they want. An example of poor utilisation of navigation in
a wiki is seen in the The Keyhole, based on the popular Japanese game
series Kingdom Hearts. It seems like the editors have given up creating pages
as of lately, with many less important areas such as enemies or collectable
items from later games not having a page, but instead just a link to that
topics corresponding page on a similar, independent wiki. This somewhat
detracts from the wiki in terms of the user being able to find the information
they want.
The TARDIS Data Core on the other hand, based on the long
running television series Doctor Who is so in depth with its information and
navigation, that the user could easily find their way to a page about “Tom’s
Bakery”, a bakery that made a brief appearance in the background of one panel
in one comic book in a mini-series, something that most wikis wouldn't even
bother to include. This level of inconsistency across the platform can hardly
be blamed on Wikia itself though, but the editors of the individual wikis. To
blame Wikia for this would almost be like blaming Facebook for a series of
dodgy pictures someone might have posted on their account, and we wouldn't do
that would we? I wouldn't, but then again I don’t have a Facebook page so yeah.
I’m getting off topic now, so I’ll end it here.
References
Wikia, 13 June 2013, http://www.wikia.com/Wikia
The Keyhole, 13 June 2013, http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/The_Keyhole
Kingdom Hearts Wiki (April 2006), 13 June 2013, http://www.khwiki.net/
TARDIS Data Core, 13 June 2013, http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Doctor_Who_Wiki
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