Medabots Wiki - We need help!

[SoujiroElric]

Hello everyone. I am SoujiroElric, one of the two admins of Medabots Wiki, and the admin of its spanish version, Medapedia: medabots.wikia.com and es.medabots.wikia.com. We have noticed that Wikia wants to make a new layout, a layout we as admins disagree entirely (and not counting the RTE that screws with the page formatting), so one of our options is to move somewhere else, and maybe have our own host. I don't come here looking to be an affiliate of NIWA or something, hence why I post this here, but instead I come here to look for some directions and suggestions since we're really unsure on what would be our best moves, and I figured this was the best place to look for help.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you very much.

EDIT: The wiki has been created! www.medapedia.net

[tacopill]

What resources do you have available? This helps you weigh out your options.

1) if you were to go independent, would you be able to afford it (for instance, WikiBound pays $190.80 for a two year contract with bluehost.com).
2) if you do not wish to go independent, just want to get out of Wikia, ShoutWiki is becoming pretty
3) Ask around the forums for anyone who may provide free space for you to borrow.

[SoujiroElric]

Thank you for your reply taco

1) if you were to go independent, would you be able to afford it (for instance, WikiBound pays $190.80 for a two year contract with bluehost.com).

$190.80? I just see the $6.95 per month which makes around $166 for two years...

2) if you do not wish to go independent, just want to get out of Wikia, ShoutWiki is becoming pretty

What makes ShoutWiki nice? I saw they use MediaWiki, which is a plus, but what are the advantages?

3) Ask around the forums for anyone who may provide free space for you to borrow.

This would be an excellent option, if someone is willing to host us of course.

[tacopill]

Thank you for your reply taco

You're welcome. And happy to help.

$190.80? I just see the $6.95 per month which makes around $166 for two years...

That's if you sign a 3 year contract.

What makes ShoutWiki nice? I saw they use MediaWiki, which is a plus, but what are the advantages?

I don't know specifically, i just hear it is becoming a popular option with wikia-departing wikis. It may just be a rumor.   

This would be an excellent option, if someone is willing to host us of course.

Just got to ask around. you never know what you will find.

If i figure out my financial situation in time, i will be able to offer you my webspace.

[SoujiroElric]

That's if you sign a 3 year contract.

Now a question regarding independent wikis... How are you supposed to upkeep the costs of a host?

I don't know specifically, i just hear it is becoming a popular option with wikia-departing wikis. It may just be a rumor.   

Might use it, if the first option fails.

If i figure out my financial situation in time, i will be able to offer you my webspace.

That would be fantastic. I will have that option in mind.

[tacopill]

Now a question regarding independent wikis... How are you supposed to upkeep the costs of a host?

Well, most wiki's i know run adds on there site to cover server costs. Not too much; just in the areas people are use to seeing adds,

Might use it, if the first option fails.

Understandable.

That would be fantastic. I will have that option in mind.

Sounds good.

[SoujiroElric]

Please instruct me, since I'm pretty much a newb at independent servers. How am I supposed to pay for one? Using Paypal or something?

[tacopill]

Please instruct me, since I'm pretty much a newb at independent servers. How am I supposed to pay for one? Using Paypal or something?

There are several ways you can do it:

#1) Place google- or flash-based ads on the site. I personally don't know how to do that. Super Mario Wiki and Bublapedia use this method
#2) Get a service that converts text into link-able ads, like ZeldaWiki or WiKiby
#3) Have a paypal option, similar to WikiBound

I am going to see if i can get other people to contribute to this thread.

[Axiomist]

How big/busy is your wiki? TMD offers cheap hosting plans, here and a lifetime free domain name sweetens the deal. Compare your stats to my wiki, and if you are near that or below, then I can say there shouldn't be any problems with using that plan. Don't expect much money from the ads, but if you want me to send you a referral from Kontera, I'll do that, they'll credit me $25 bucks. Which would be cool, and if we stay in touch, I'm thinking to some day get together with several small wikis and split the cost of a more expensive plan on a more powerful machine.

And to pay your initial server costs, you can use a credit/debit card, many will let you send a check/money order, and I'm not even sure about PayPal.

[SoujiroElric]

Please instruct me, since I'm pretty much a newb at independent servers. How am I supposed to pay for one? Using Paypal or something?

There are several ways you can do it:

#1) Place google- or flash-based ads on the site. I personally don't know how to do that. Super Mario Wiki and Bublapedia use this method
#2) Get a service that converts text into link-able ads, like ZeldaWiki or WiKiby
#3) Have a paypal option, similar to WikiBound

I am going to see if i can get other people to contribute to this thread.

How do I get started? And apparently the other admin might be okay with anything I tell him, so when I have the chance and the choices done I'll ask the community.

How big/busy is your wiki? TMD offers cheap hosting plans, here and a lifetime free domain name sweetens the deal. Compare your stats to my wiki, and if you are near that or below, then I can say there shouldn't be any problems with using that plan. Don't expect much money from the ads, but if you want me to send you a referral from Kontera, I'll do that, they'll credit me $25 bucks. Which would be cool, and if we stay in touch, I'm thinking to some day get together with several small wikis and split the cost of a more expensive plan on a more powerful machine.

And to pay your initial server costs, you can use a credit/debit card, many will let you send a check/money order, and I'm not even sure about PayPal.

The plan looks cheap and nice, and I think I can pay it with my card. For 12 months it looks rather nice, too.

I checked the statistics and we're a little bit lower than your wiki, but what do you mean that there shouldn't be any problems? Could something bigger cause problems?

And sure, if we get to have our own host, a referral will help us a lot, and your idea seems rather nice.

[Axiomist]

Well I just meant that I haven't had major issues, so I can vouch for every limit I've passed. I don't think anything bigger would be a problem, I plan for WiKirby to grow after all ya know! WiKirby is still only 9 or 10 months old so being on something so cheap is ideal. Adam has us backed up every night at midnight, just in case we break their server. If we do, I'll just upgrade the hosting plan and have our site back online that same day.

[SoujiroElric]

Ah, that's perfect! It seems like that webhost is great. What wiki engine do they use?

[Axiomist]

You get to choose and install it, as far as I know. If I were you, I'd go with MediaWiki. Bc we know development on that isn't going to suddenly stop.

[SoujiroElric]

Mediawiki? Sounds excellent. I think I'm gonna ask the community right away.

[Axiomist]

Great! I hope everything works out so you guys can happily edit your wikis again. Just an idea, you can put the English and Es wikis on the same site, to save money. You can create a new namespace for the spanish language version of each article. Doing so would allow images to be used on both while only having been uploaded once. So it would be extremely efficient.

[SoujiroElric]

Great! I hope everything works out so you guys can happily edit your wikis again. Just an idea, you can put the English and Es wikis on the same site, to save money. You can create a new namespace for the spanish language version of each article. Doing so would allow images to be used on both while only having been uploaded once. So it would be extremely efficient.

That's exactly what I was thinking to do, and if both wikis agree on moving to an independent host, both wikis will share the same site.

[tacopill]

personally, i would prefer to have two sites, just have one as the "primary" domian, and the other as a "add-on".

[SoujiroElric]

But then is there a way to give the feel of two different wikis? If not, yeah, tacopill has got a point...

[Tucayo]

Well, if you put them in the same wiki, and just different namespace, the main con is that they will be the same wiki

[tacopill]

Yeah, but are you going to have a different language namespace for each regular one?

I mean there are 16 to begin with. Are they going to manage 32?