“Attention assault” on Fandom

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

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  • This misleads new users to outdated or vandalized pages, reinforcing Fandom’s traffic and ad revenue.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.