There are numerous websites online offering tools to build wiki-sites. The websites range from offering enterprise solutions to offering personal spaces for individuals. The present paper will provide an overview of Wikia, and which provides the capabilities for building a wiki, based on preset categories (Wikia).
Wikia has an initial feel of being directed toward individual users, rather than organizations. Such feel is supported through the examples of pages provided at Wikia’s home page. The factors contributing to the selection of Wikia can be seen through the easy-going style of the homepage, and the omission of a premium plan for usage, although as it turned out they are present. The process of creating your own wiki starts with a simple registration procedure. In such procedure, in addition to the indicating some personal information, the user has the possibility to name the wiki, provide a URL, which will end with wikia.com, select a language for the interface, and choose a category from a list of about 17 pre-set categories. The choice of category is stated to aid the search process within the content of the created wiki.
I decided to devote the website to the sports of boxing, where the category of sports was selected. The creation process of the wiki can be divided into small simple stages. As in the majority of wiki sites, the tools provided are based on WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing, i.e. the manipulation and the editing of the content is instantly formatted into the webpage. The initial step consists of providing a description of the wiki, through writing a short introduction. The intro provided a description of the contents of the wiki, its target audience and the overall purpose of the website. The next step is choosing a theme for the wiki. The selection for the theme is rather poor, being limited to choosing a color palette only from 12 preset themes. Providing a few starting names for the pages to be created, the construction process moves to editing the content of the created wikis. The last step is preceded with the choice to select a premium or a basic plan, for $4.95 and Free respectively. The difference is only in removing ads for visitors in the premium version. Other than that there are no restrictions in terms of storage, bandwidth, or tools.
Generally, the wiki has the feel of a personal space rather than an enterprise solution, which is certainly reflected through its target audience. Among the top created pages are those devoted to popular TV series and video games. The number of tools provided is sufficient for such purposes, including text formatting options and options allowing the insertion of photos and videos. The video s can be linked to supported websites only, including such popular services as YouTube, Vimeo, and others. Among the useful tools, which also reflects the target audience of Wikia is its social tools, having the option to comment, link, and “like” in Facebook, any created page in the wiki.
It can be concluded that Wikia is a useful source for those who want to create a personal space that reflects their interests which they want to share with others. The capabilities provided to users are sufficient for any content editing tasks, and there are no apparent reasons for switching to other premium plans. Personally, I will use Wikia to share a particular interest with another groups, collaboratively posting news, stories, and interesting links, and receiving feedback on them through comments. Analyzing such website is an example of the way collaborative work can be used for leisure, collaboratively creating content for the web.
Reference
Wikia. “Welcome to Wikia”. 2011. Web.