DGTL12002 Week 2

Trustworthiness of the site

Is Wikia a trustworthy site? With Wikia being what it is, it is difficult to give a distinct yes/no answer. This is because, like most platforms of social media, Wikia isn’t controlled by a single editor, small group of editors or even a whole office of them. Wikia is monitored by more users than I can count, and I can count pretty high. Not only does each of Wikia’s individual wikis (of which, at the time of me writing this, has exactly 349,343 of) have its own team of editors that manage the site, but anyone can visit and any time and add, delete or edit anything they want to. Of course, this means that, when discussing trust as in how trustworthy of a source it is, Wikia can be about as reliable as Wikipedia. This mean that it is up to the editors of the individual wikis and even the general community of the site to monitor the content and check that the Game of Thrones Wiki doesn’t describe it’s titular TV series as a show about 30 year old high-school students who feel the need to sing about every single little thing they happen to see. Trustworthiness therefore varies from wiki to wiki depending on how watchful the editors are, but whether they’re really slack or wiki Nazis, something’s bound to slip through the cracks every once in a while.

User interface and customization

In terms of interface and customization, Wikia offers a basic template for users to begin with. It involves a simple navigation bar at the top of the page as well as a search bar. All its wikis also share a similar layout, with a page heading at the top of the page, followed by several sub-headings that further break down the subject. And then of course there’s the basic stuff you’d expect like a link to Wikia in the top corner and all the copyright information, as well as links to other popular wikis powered by Wikia. Beyond this, the editors of the wiki can edit the wiki to their hearts content, with the option to change colours, the look of the navigation bar, etc. and even, to an extent, the layout of the content. Users also have the ability to add in images, videos and even other interesting features such as a poll or perhaps even a quote of the day feature.

References

Wikia, 13 June 2013, http://www.wikia.com/Wikia