Forum:Onepiece.Wikkii.Net External Links

Overview
This forum is concerning the matter of the various Onepiece.Wikkii.Net external links that have been repeatedly removed since I revisited here. I wish that this matter didn't have to come to this but because of a lack of response, it has come to this. For those that maybe new to the matter, here is a history lesson.

Prior to wikia's current skin format, it used to be something like that of Wikipedia's. However, the big wigs at wikia decided to change it per case study or something. In response to this, a group of editors banded together calling themselves the Anti-Wikia Alliance in opposition to the new skin choice. Part of the response the alliance had was moving content to new wiki hosting sites since wikia won't concede. Thus was the creation of Onepiece.Wikkii.Net at Wikkii.

In order to help "promote" the site and get possible editors on board, I previously placed several external links on certain articles to their respective articles on the Onepiece.Wikkii.Net. While I was at Onepiece.Wikkii.Net busy fixing things by myself in order to make it presentable, there was a discussion between DancePowderer and Yatanogarasu deciding that these links be removed via bot because of the association they had with the Anti-Wikia Alliance. They were thus removed without as much of a complaint because the associated parties were not around to complain.

Now when I returned to this wikia to check how things were doing, I noticed the links were all removed. So I decided to put them back. However, they were removed once again. So I put them back again. And then there were removed once again. It apparently became clear that no matter what I did, they seemed to be constantly removed as if they were viewed as vandalism. So I frustratingly tried to place them back with an explanation that they were of a legitimate site. It was then however that Yatanogarasu came around and informed me of the decision to remove them via what I personally see as a back alley agreement.

So I've talked to them via talk pages to reinstate the links. As it is a simple matter, I did so in hopes of it not becoming a full fledged site wide forum that might drag in others outside of the matter. However because I have not yet received a proper response from DancePowderer from which I assume is the originator of the removal based on Yatanogarasu's info, and because it really seems that everyone wants a forum on the matter, I've decided to open the matter as such.Mugiwara Franky 10:45, February 28, 2012 (UTC)

Arguments For

 * 1) It is true that Wikkii was proposed as an alternate to Wikia by the Anti-Wiki Alliance. However, the site itself is not directly a part of the Alliance. It is simply a wiki hosting site that gives service as any other wiki hosting site. It is not a part of the Anti-Wiki Alliance, just one of the many site proposals given by the alliance to people who wished to move their wikis elsewhere.
 * 2) There is actually some still ties between the two sites apart from me Mugiwara Franky. While it is mostly content transferred from here to Onepiece.Wikkii.Net, there is actually content from Onepiece.Wikkii.Net that was transferred here. Example: The random featured template used here was developed by actually me. I implemented it in Onepiece.Wikkii.Net on November while MasterDeva implemented a similar format in this wikia on December. I had no idea my design was copied nor was I asked permission. However seeing this means that there is something between the sites being shared both ways and not just one way.
 * 3) The links promote Wikkii and not Wikia of course. However that is to be expected as they are "external" links. They generally promote things they link to and those things happen to be external to Wikia. If you wish to promote Wikia via an external link, you simply look no farther than what is in front of you.
 * 4) There are several other external links that have been allowed without much hesitation because they are relevant to the articles. Why should the Onepiece.Wikkii.Net external links be excluded?
 * 5) Hody Jones has an external link to Idée_fixe_(psychology). Speculative to some but relevant to Hody's article given the character's nature. Why should the link to his page in Onepiece.Wikkii.Net thus be excluded when it is an actual article about Hody?
 * 6) Sanji has an external link to a a rather outdated fansite. Why should the link to his page in Onepiece.Wikkii.Net thus be excluded when it is not just a single fansite page.
 * 7) The Thousand Sunny has an external link to a german wiki article on it. Why should the link to its page in Onepiece.Wikkii.Net thus be excluded when it is written in English.
 * 8) Monkey D. Luffy has an external link to a stub of an article. Why should the link to his page in Onepiece.Wikkii.Net thus be excluded when it is more than a stub.
 * 9) The links are meant to provide access to people who may want a similar article but with a skin format similar to wikipedia. Big width, right aligned, and not smushed in the middle. As a bonus, those who may come to Onepiece.Wikkii.Net may also help out in the wikkii. A thing that it desperately needs since its creation. It's a long shot of course but still a shot.

Argument Against

 * 1) Quote:I've been thinking about this for a while. What do you think about getting rid of the Wikkii links on the characters' and other pages? I mean, aside from MF being a former member, we have virtually no ties to Wikkii. Also, considering Wikkii is part of the anti-wikia alliance (ask Roranoa zoro if you want to know more), it might just seem bad taste. I don't know. Personally, I don't think we should have them. What do you think? 05:48, July 9, 2011 (UTC)"

Discussion
I have posted my arguments for their reinclusion and the arguments I could currently find for against them. This is not a vote I ask for. This is a request from a former editor to reinstate something that maybe considered his last edits here.Mugiwara Franky 10:45, February 28, 2012 (UTC)

I see no problem with having the external links to wikii, it's essentially the same as linking to the german/catalan etc. one piece wikias. We're not in competition with wikii, it should be viewed mainly as a partnersite and thus we should have links to them and they to us. 10:57, February 28, 2012 (UTC)

Seconded.

Like Pandawarrior said, we are not in competition between the two communities. Therefore I don't think that the external links should be shunned. I agree with what Mugiwara Franky said, as other external links are allowed there is no problem with having links to one particular site when it is related to One Piece, after all both the sites are One Piece fan bases. So, yes, I support the reinstating of the links. Blackened D. Soul   Talk   12:04, February 28, 2012 (UTC)

I'm sorry to say this, but I'm against adding external links to the wikki one piece wiki. I'm sorry because I know how it's frustrating running a wiki by yourself alone. Regarding the reason why the wikki was created in the first place, it was on the spur of the moment for the mandatory new skin, now you can still use monobook in your personal skin and we can add a skin switch button in the interface like I did in my wiki (see top bar).

Some of you said that we are not in competition, that's not really true because if I were to made another English wiki (even here to Wikia) because I refused to go along with some site-decisions (case like this actually happens) why would you have to support me? The most reasonable choice in this case is trying to merge the two wiki. If you have two or more wikis on the same argument in the same language you will only just split the viewers and the editors just to have the same content with only slightly differences, that's not advantageous at all. So having more version of the same wiki is always bad, although in the case of the Wikki we cannot merge the two wikis and I personally understand the reason behind the original protest (and somewhat I support them). Other reasons: The whole reason the the Wikki's wiki existent is to protest against Oasis, for a viewer that's not really important it's a matter more important to us editors. If you wanted to use this wiki to increase your SEO then you should read this article, the external links are not followed by the crawlers anyway.
 * The Wikki content was originally copied and it's still been copied from this wiki, although I can imagine that sometimes it's re-formulated or that there is original content there (obviously) this is a copyright infringement since the wiki's license is CC-BY-SA, so you have to credit the original editors by adding a notice somewhere linking back to the source, something like this, it's our work that you are using after all. You can copy whatever you want, but if you do that you have to credit the original editors (but in case the content is too small or you renew it)
 * You said that there was some content here copied from your wiki, though I don't know if that's template can be really thought as "original" since tons of wiki have something similar (is like saying we copied the infoboxes form other wikis, these are common templates and have many similarity. The code was probably copied as you said, but since it's something pretty simple there isn't really a "creator", we can still credit you of course). There can be content copied here, but since we have a large community the most of it is surely original.
 * You want to add here the links to Wikki, but I don't see any links back on your wiki.
 * You found some links to other fandoms, I think there shouldn't be any links to fan-sites but in really special cases. This is to be fair to anyone, there are literally tons of sites on one piece so if someone add a link to his site then why everybody else shouldn't? This can degenerate in too many and not interesting external links. I think there should be only official sites in that section, like Wikipedia (ok that's not really official) and official One Piece sites. The interwiki links are not the same, because they add a link to the same article in a different language. They have the same purpose of the interwiki links in Wikipedia, to navigate through the same wiki network (Wikia in this case). I am not against adding links just to Wikki, but to any fandom sites.
 * There is already a link to the wikki in the main page, I think that's enough. I don't see a reason to add a link to every article on the wiki.

I agree with Leviathan 89. It almosts seems like spam to have a link to the same external site on every page. I think the one on the main page is enough. It's not like we link all of our articles or forums to related entries on Arlong Park, and we promote that about as much as we do the wikkii, with a link on the main page, and ok possibly 1 or 2 links in forums. Also, it was never really a community decision. You just added the links and no one seemed to mind at the time since a few of us were on the fence about changing over. I'll admit even I was unsure. The only other English wiki sites we have links to that are not on the main page are to characters on the Dragon Ball and Toriko wikis on the crossover pages, and most of the externals, save for a few, are to Wikipedia. All of those links are purely for the sake of providing more information to the reader. I really don't believe in being promotional of external sites like this. Preferential treatment seems unfair. 14:49, February 28, 2012 (UTC)

Agee with Leviathan and DP. They mentioned all the important reasons, but this one stands out in my opinion: "Preferential treatment seems is unfair". The wikki page doesn't seem to offer anything different from the wiki(a), compared to the "foreign language" wikias. 15:02, February 28, 2012 (UTC)