Wikia Gets a Major Revamp

Wikia, the for profit wiki project created by the co-founder of Wikipedia, is getting a big revamp today with the launch of the so-called Wikia 2.0. The new site comes with a fresh new look, at least for the common pages, and a number of new features that should make it more appealing to a larger audience.

One of the touted new features is social web integration, hardly innovative, but a good move nonetheless. In fact, you'll notice the Facebook Connect button right on the homepage.

But it goes deeper than that, Wikia wants to make the whole experience more social in order to promote engagement and get users to stick around for longer.

On the old site, only about one percent of editors stuck around a project for a longer period of time. Tests of the new Wikia have pushed the number to two percent.

This is also due to things like 'game mechanics,' sharing and updates on what other users are doing. There will be real-time streams and notable editors will also be able to distinguish themselves with 'achievement badges.' Top editors will also be highlighted enabling others to see what they've contributed to.

On the technical side, there is also a brand-new WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get) editor which should make it less daunting for users who may want to contribute but don't know the somewhat complex wiki syntax.

All of these changes have one purpose in mind, get more people contributing and get them sticking around for longer. Wikia also wants to be more appealing for those interested in more mainstream topics.

Wikia has 35 million visitors each month, yet only about two million registered users. Wikia contributors have 165,000 wikis around any number of topics, mainstream or obscure, since the site launched in 2004.