“Attention assault” on Fandom

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Ad-heavy game and pop-culture wikis hosted on Fandom are widely criticized for slow performance, intrusive tracking, and low-quality or outdated content, yet they continue to dominate search results due to strong SEO and brand signaling. Many communities have responded by forking their wikis to independent or nonprofit hosts (such as wiki.gg, Miraheze, and self-hosted MediaWiki instances) and building browser tools to redirect users away from Fandom. The exchange highlights broader concerns about ad-driven business models, venture-backed enshittification, and the difficulty of preserving community-run knowledge resources in an ecosystem controlled by a few large platforms and search engines.

User experience and performance

  • Many describe Fandom pages as virtually unusable without blockers: heavy ads, auto‑playing video, slow load, high CPU/battery, especially on mobile.
  • Even with ad blockers, the layout is considered cluttered and “bloatware.”
  • Some compare it to other ad‑heavy news sites with misleading autoplay videos.
  • A few say desktop + uBlock is tolerable; mobile is where it becomes unbearable.

Search engines and SEO

  • A recurring frustration: Fandom often outranks better community or official wikis (e.g., Minecraft, Terraria, Path of Exile, Warcraft).
  • This misleads new users to outdated or vandalized pages, reinforcing Fandom’s traffic and ad revenue.
  • Several blame search engines (especially Google) for favoring “big brands” and ad partners over quality.
  • Some users mitigate this personally via Kagi filters/redirects or browser extensions, but note this doesn’t fix the broader ecosystem.

Alternatives and tools

  • Numerous examples of communities forking away: Runescape/OSRS, Minecraft, Path of Exile, Guild Wars, Warcraft, Helldivers, Elders Scrolls, etc.
  • Alternative hosts mentioned: wiki.gg, Miraheze (non‑profit), Weird Gloop, self‑hosted MediaWiki, and Docker stacks like Canasta.
  • Tools to escape Fandom links: Indie Wiki Buddy, LibRedirect, BreezeWiki/“antifandom” frontends, browser redirect extensions, and search‑engine redirects.

Ownership, control, and licensing

  • Fandom reportedly refuses to delete wikis when communities leave, forcing permanent “forks” and split contributions.
  • Moderation is said to revert attempts to bulk‑overwrite or redirect content away from Fandom.
  • Content is generally under CC BY‑SA, so scraping and re‑hosting is legal, but community migration and search visibility are the hard parts.

Wikipedia scope vs fandom content

  • Debate over whether Wikipedia should host niche/game content versus maintaining notability and manageability.
  • Some see a conflict of interest with a separate for‑profit fan‑wiki platform; others argue they’re distinct products with different scopes.
  • Concerns raised that strict notability and changing media landscape may eventually limit Wikipedia’s growth.

Business models, ads, and VC

  • Many see Fandom’s trajectory as classic “enshittification” driven by ad‑maximization and venture capital.
  • Counterpoint: running large dynamic sites and moderation is costly; ads or subscriptions must pay for it.
  • Others argue community‑run wikis prove that large, ad‑light or ad‑free projects are feasible at modest cost.