There's a new "Google Jail" for independent wikis

ppizzaiolo about 6 hours ago 15 commentsRead Article on weirdgloop.org

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Discussion (15 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

remedan•41 minutes ago

I enjoy the this extension that redirects search results from Fandom and other such terrible hosts to their higher quality indie alternatives.

https://github.com/IndieWikiBuddy/indie-wiki-buddy

skhameneh•about 1 hour ago

For a while, Fandom was having annoying ads and content that would get past my ad blocker. But a recent update has caused them to block users with ad blockers.

I've been looking for explicit alternatives to Fandom for some content and it's annoyingly sparse.

Just the other day I saw some meme about how if we saw as many ads taking over sites like we do now, that was a sure sign of having your machine getting infected with a virus.

Generally I've found a good portion of websites that block users with ad blockers tend to be the worst offenders with aggressive ads...

rao-v•about 2 hours ago

As a bandaid solution we probably just need a good base domain for game wikis attached to a somewhat trustworthy foundation (that won’t sellout to Fandom in a week). Agree that wierdgloop.org is not … great

copper-float•30 minutes ago

What's wrong with weird gloop? The RuneScape wikis are very high quality, same with the Minecraft wiki. Cook and others running are transparent and seem to have good intentions.

cookmeplox•21 minutes ago

I think you can love what we're doing with the wikis, but also be candid that it's not an optimal reader-facing domain name. It was never really intended to be that - it's literally just named after a random item in RuneScape I discovered

But it ended up being the only reasonable place we owned where we could put Fortnite, Overwatch and Valheim wikis that wouldn't get crushed by this new Google jail situation. Of course the alternative is what the parent comment suggests ("probably just need a good base domain for game wikis") - but you have to get THAT domain out of Google jail first. Chicken and egg.

fakwandi_priv•about 1 hour ago

What’s wrong with wiki.gg?

josephjrobison•about 2 hours ago

The bar has been raised on all web content for Google to index, esp new domains like you say but even some subdomains.

That answer is quality content (higher than AI or human medians), links and pr and social activity and mentions, and then user experience.

microtherion•about 1 hour ago

And yet, I have to dig my way through pages upon pages of AI trash sites for many Google queries. Somehow THOSE don’t seem to have a problem getting indexed (Maybe they run a sufficient number of ads?).

watwut•about 1 hour ago

Google search results dont care about content quality. And did not for years already. It killed good quality blogs and sites long before the AI slop came in.

miladyincontrol•about 2 hours ago

I dont know about this, I've been heading a wiki for a rather specific niche that was made about 1.5 years ago and it easily got most top results for it's focus in just a few months.

It sounds like the issue isnt for "independent wikis" but for wikis competing with an existing domain already hosting one on the topic, in this case fandom.com's.

cookmeplox•41 minutes ago

What's the wiki? I'm always interested to get more data points on this, because it has definitely applied to wikis for brand new topics that aren't competing with anything on Fandom (it's not the same as the normal "duplicate content penalty" that people talk about)

nephihaha•about 2 hours ago

Google has been removing blogs from its searches for years now. You have to search for them specifically. All part of the de-democratisation of the web.

LoganDark•35 minutes ago

Anyone remember when "Fandom" was called Wikia? It really started going down the gutter when it started TikTokifying itself by trying to act as an entertainment hub. It was supposed to be a neutral resource for people to build community-driven knowledge bases but it turned into some real gamified garbage. I've never really been comfortable with the concept of addressing a "fandom" as one whole anyway, even in general, so the new act is just complete crap to me.

ButlerianJihad•18 minutes ago

Fandom probably hosts more copyrighted images and media than the Internet Archive does.

Entertainment studios can often turn a blind eye to use of their properties when it's by fans, for fans, and promotes those franchises. They are not sending C&D to people making avatars, or cosplaying, or memeing their screengrabs into notoriety.

It is weird to think that the WMF and Wikia/Fandom had a common founder and origin.

KingMob•about 2 hours ago

This is a shame because Fandom is frequently terrible, but also consumes all the oxygen.

nephihaha•about 2 hours ago

It depends on which part. It is certainly heading down the same route as Wikipedia with all the problems that entails. You're usually better off on a smaller Fandom wiki as it won't have beeb taken over yet.

The James Bond wiki is particularly bad, but Memory Alpha seems to be better run.

einpoklum•1 minute ago

> It is certainly heading down the same route as Wikipedia with all the problems that entails.

Can you elaborate on what that means? i.e. what aspect of Wikipedia, and in what way Fandom is heading there?

leonidasrup•about 1 hour ago

Courts should review past decisions

Field v. Google, Inc. (2006)

https://www.practicalecommerce.com/Search-Engines-Indexing-a...

Authors Guild v. Google, Inc. (2015)

https://www.flaglerlawgroup.com/a-new-era-for-fair-use-court...