User blog:Roads/Important Info About the Move

This place is now the central place to discuss the move. Like the Omniverse ones (which clogged up the recent posts so bad...), all other moving blogs will be locked and linked here.

Anyway, this move is highly controversial, though mostly out of ignorance of how it's really going to go down. So, I've made this blog giving detailed info about it.

Database Dumps
A lot of people think a database dump is deleting the whole thing. No way! I'm not stupid enough to seriously propose something like that, and I'm surprised at how many people think I am.

A database dump is actually just downloading a copy of the database to import to another site.

...Yep, that's it.

Files
Unfortunately, staff have set a limitation for their wikis: database dumps don't give you Files. These are pictures, though the supported file types can also be videos and music, and some other things as well.

What Site?
We'll be moving to another wiki farm called MyWikis. It, by default, uses Wikipedia's skin, Vector, though with some CSS tweaks we can make it our trademark black and green instead of boring old white.

Why MyWikis?
Basically, it's the simplest, most flexible farm I can find. It also runs MediaWiki, the software used in Wikia, Wikipedia, and many other wiki farms.

Disadvantages, and Overcoming Them
Yes, there are disadvantages. For starters, there's no WYSIWYG editor, chat, blogs, Message Wall, or Forums. But don't worry! We can get a new forum namespace and use them as blogs. That, and talk pages are classic. The WYSIWYG editor helps noobs, but virtually no wiki has it. We can get our own off-site chatroom and link to it from the sidebar.

Why Haven't We Moved Already?
I honestly haven't yet figured out how to get an account. :P But once I do, I'll link to it from the sidebar or something so everyone can figure it out!

=="Move" or "Fork?" Wikia can, but won't delete wikis (unless they have a very good reason, i.e. violating the Terms of Use). Thus this original wiki will remain in addition to the new one.

If I stay, will my stuff be on the MyWikis wiki, and vice versa?
NO! If you stay, your things will be deleted from the copy, though they'll stay here. If you leave, your things will stay on the copy and be deleted from here. Though you can choose to have your stuff on both.

What If I Don't Want to Move?
If you still don't want to move, you don't have to. Simple as that.

So yeah, please thoroughly read through this if you haven't done it yet, and just skimmed. This stuff is important.

---****--- Roads 13:36,5/11/2012