by michal frackowiak
on 19 Oct 2012 11:51
We often see popular community-driven sites that go far beyond the free (or even paid) plan limits or need a specific "pro" feature. Admins often ask us to upgrade their sites to actually allow them to develop their sites and in numerous cases we gladly do it.
But in the end we believe that community wikis require a different approach, which should not only provide all required features to grow, but also accelerate their growth.
Today we would like to announce a new category of sites at Wikidot:
Community Sites!
It is a new kind of sites that combine the best things we have at Wikidot:
- Free!
- More capable than Pro Plus!
- Extra promotion - we will help your site get more popular
- Direct support from our team!
In the past we have been working closely with admins of many popular sites and we wish to somehow standardise the way we contribute to popular, high quality wikis. Also by our personal involvement and support.
Large wikis play crucial role in growth of Wikidot itself. But we realise that large sites with hundreds of members have very specific needs. We have been adding features to help managing large number of users, pages or files, or even purchasing extra servers to handle traffic during special events. By introducing Community Sites we would like to continue these efforts.
Community Sites have all premium options enabled by default, including custom branding, user profiles within a site, advanced web statistics. But some options are unique to Community Sites: there is no Master Admin (all admins are equal) and the site is protected against removal. The access cannot be set to "private".
Sounds good? The trick is that not every site can become a Community Site. Only active sites with quality content can join. But in return we will do our best to help the sites grow.
We want Community Sites to be an alternative to both free and paid sites and we hope we can boost growth of already popular sites and help develop new ones. We definitely want Community Sites to become flagship wikis of Wikidot.
To learn more about Community Sites check our the Frequently Asked Question page. If you think your site qualifies for a Community Site, please apply and we will get back to you with more details!
PS. You can submit ideas for Community Sites too, and if you convince us your idea is the next-big-thing, we could help you build it.
Great!
Shane Smith ★ Wikidot Freelancer (Hire me!)
— Sites: My Website, Personal Blog
— Projects: STE Editor, Wikimated, Wikidot 101 (Video Tutorials), Wikidot SubReddit
And what about those sites that are large, or will be large, but have no need for these community features? Can they expect to be de-prioritized as wikidot shifts its already stretched resources (including manpower) to this new effort? What if I do pro plus so that I can get more personal support? Does this mean that even at pro plus I'd have to wait a week to be responded to? What about the other things wikidot has committed to, like the granting of a certain number of wishes? Not to be negative, but this reads to me like "you will be more important to us if you are a .community site." I'd like to feel like I can count on wikidot to support me as much as any other site, regardless as to whether I run a wiki or not, since I have put a HUGE investment of time and effort into building a site here. I mean, I've worked my butt off for the last four years but now I'm hearing that no matter how hard I work, these other sites will be the 'flagship.' Everybody's site is VERY important to them, large and small, community or now. I think Wikidot's efforts should go into supporting what they already have going, and improving that, rather than this shift towards some new thing.
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You raise a valid point, and I understand what you're saying.
In Wikidot's defense, however, I'm sure that the team values all site owners, particularly Pro account holders without whom Wikidot would not be here today.
Community Sites are yet another type of plan that Wikidot is introducing, so naturally it has some of the existing features, as well as some new ones… and it also lacks others.
Pro+ account holders have some notable benefits over Community sites:
Shane Smith ★ Wikidot Freelancer (Hire me!)
— Sites: My Website, Personal Blog
— Projects: STE Editor, Wikimated, Wikidot 101 (Video Tutorials), Wikidot SubReddit
i am be happy to joint wikidot.com but i don't know that i do to next time
Your site is a web-spam site and will be trapped soon by the spam-bots.
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org (Open source), Wikidot-Handbook.
Sie können fragen und mitwirken in der deutschsprachigen » User-Gemeinschaft für WikidotNutzer oder
im deutschen » Wikidot Handbuch ?
Eric, thanks for raising this point. But rather than replacing paid plans, we are trying to fill a gap that is definitely there.
Every site is important to us and this is why we are extending our plans. To help our users. Especially those who want to keep things "free", but need some extra spin.
As Leiger said (thanks!), the Pro Plus still has benefits over other plans. It is much more business-oriented and gives you more control over your content.
As far as "flagship" is concerned — at some point we would like to select a group of sites we would like to expose a bit more and point to as "great Wikidot sites". Actually we are already doing it by promoting sites on our main page and including links in footers on various Wikidot sites. Although we would see Community Sites being promoted, this does not mean we will stop promoting great Pro sites. We need some time (and more Community Sites) to figure it out.
As I said, every successful site is our success too. This does not limit to Community Sites, but all sites we have!
Anyway, we are not deprecating any sites nor any plans (including the paid ones). There is no need to worry, really.
I hope this clarifies things a bit. Cheers!
Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalf.me
So my sites won't get taken over because I have a paid pro plus account correct? I just wan't to make sure nothing will happen to my wiki's.
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A site will only become a community site if:
Shane Smith ★ Wikidot Freelancer (Hire me!)
— Sites: My Website, Personal Blog
— Projects: STE Editor, Wikimated, Wikidot 101 (Video Tutorials), Wikidot SubReddit
Forgive me, sometimes I make my "points" more forcefully than I intend to. I meant to express concerns, not rant and rave. I did not mean to imply that Wikidot does not care about all its sites. I do sometimes feel a bit alienated as a non-wiki site, but that is all. My concerns were addressed and I'm happy with that.
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Having a guess, I'd think that the majority of sites on Wikidot aren't even wikis. Your site isn't quite as alienated as you might think :)
My personal website, blog, and a few other sites that I manage are only edited by me - so they are most certainly not wikis.
Shane Smith ★ Wikidot Freelancer (Hire me!)
— Sites: My Website, Personal Blog
— Projects: STE Editor, Wikimated, Wikidot 101 (Video Tutorials), Wikidot SubReddit
I agree with Shane. The sites I build for clients are all dataform based and are business websites, not wikis. You are not alone..
Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.
Strathview - Wikidot-based intranet, knowledebase and website development and management