News you've all been waiting for
Greetings Minecraft wikiers!
For some months now I've been dropping hints of things to come, and promising details as the time came. Well, the time is here. We have successfully migrated all of our network wikis to our Gamepedia platform. Now it's your turn.
What is Gamepedia?
Gamepedia is our proprietary wiki platform. It was developed by our dev team to help us streamline management of our ever expanding wiki network. A lot of time and resources have been put into this project. Many of you have noticed that MCW has not had a MediaWiki upgrade in some time (we are still running 1.18.6 while the current stable version is 1.21.1). In the past, to upgrade MediaWiki, we had to do it one wiki at a time, testing all extensions for compatibility, etc. This was a massively time consuming process for our team. With Gamepedia, it can be done in one shot network wide, causing little if any downtime to the wikis during the process.
In addition to streamlining the upgrade process, it also allows us to consolidate our user database. With Gamepedia, your accounts will be afforded the security offered by our main user authentication through Curse.com. Not only does this increase account security, but it also allows you to move through our entire network of properties (not just the wikis) with a single username. Many of you have already gone through this process on the Minecraft Forums, so I'm hoping it will be relatively painless here on the wiki.
Furthermore, with a consolidated network, we are able to more efficiently manage extensions, and troubleshoot problems. Sounds great right?
When are you going to see the changes?
While I don't have a specific date yet, the migration is scheduled for the end of August - beginning of September. So I'm bringing this to you now so we can get all the questions answered, and all the complaints heard. We realize change is difficult, and I want to resolve any issues you may have with the general ideas before the time comes, rather than just springing it all on you at once.
What specific changes are you going to see?
Here is where I anticipate the most questions (and complaints) but I want to get it out there so we can talk about it. With the migration, the wiki will be upgraded to MW v1.19.7. This will create some changes in how things work, so the first day or two after the migration will be identifying where these changes are and correcting any problems.
The wiki will also be moved to a new URL: minecraft.gamepedia.com*
WUT? INORITE? You hate it... I hate it, but it's the way it is going to be. You are our flagship community, we value you sooooo much! That being said, Gamepedia is being marketed heavily as a new entity in itself. For us to be a serious competitor to the other gaming wiki networks out there, including Wikia we need the power of your numbers to succeed. While we understand the success of Gamepedia may not feel important to you now, it is what will allow us to continue to provide you with a stable, high volume wiki, and allow us all to continue to grow and do what you do best, provide the ultimate resource for Minecraft players around the world. Minecraftwiki.net will be forwarded to the new URL, so it won't break anyone's bookmarks. You will continue to be MCW, the absolute resource for all things Minecraft. Nothing is being taken away from the content, or the time you have all invested in building this marvelous wiki.
* The language wiki urls will follow the format: minecraft-<language code>.gamepedia.com
In return for this, we are removing the right hand sidebar and replacing it with a single ad block in the upper right corner of the content space. While it creates some conflict with content, it is far less intrusive than the giant sidebar that you've all hated for so long. you don't lose the content space below the ad, content simply flows around it.
How can you best prepare for these changes?
The majority of issues that have arisen as we've migrated the other wikis have been in regards to the user merge process. For those of you who have not gone through the process on the forums, and have not registered at Curse.com, that's the first step. Use the same email address to register there as you use with your wiki account. The entire merge process is based on the email addresses. If they match, the merge will be seamless. Your Curse.com username will become your wiki username and all of your prior contributions will be carried over. What if your username is taken already on Curse.com? Well, as much as we hate it, it is bound to happen to some of you. In those cases, you will be allowed to choose a Display Name that will be seen in signatures, and page histories, while your actual username will be your Curse.com name.
Ok... let the flogging begin!
