Talk:Fansites

Feel free to remove dead sites
If you click a URL and the site has an expired domain or won't connect, feel free to remove it from the list right away. Lots of these links may be just click leeches after domains expire. Sites with connection problems can be re-added by looking at the Fansites history and grabbing the old entry and adding it back. As an admin, I don't want bad/dead links in the fansites list, so we should err on removing them and letting a fansite supporter add them back. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 4:06 PM PST 24 Dec 2008


 * So this says remove dead links but the comments on the edit page says don't think of editing until referring to here. Not sure how to proceed but http://www.cosmosui.org/ is dead and if it isn't dead it links to a wow item. --Royalite (talk) 03:15, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

More languages
I was wondering if someone could put Greek pages in the other languages category? Mr.X8 23:48, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Which section?
I was thinking to add WoW Bash to the list, but I'm not sure if it should do under "Social networking" or "Other". Any idea somebody? --Furism 15:33, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Any thoughts? --Furism 17:27, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Other, undoubtedly. --Sky (t · c · w) 17:32, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

New site to add?
What do you guys think about www.datecraft.com? --Zeromethods

May i propose to add www.wowboost.com as fansite/fanblog/news aggregator? --Boostman 09:14, 6 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I say no. It contains information regarding products that are against Blizzard tos. -- 16:22, 6 July 2007 (UTC)


 * And what? WoWWiki is affiliated with blizzard? --Boostman


 * Essentially, yes. It how we get to run competitions like 2007 BlizzCon Invitation, nevermind the fact it's always been against site policy and most player opinions. 19:30, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Category?
There's no category associated with this page. It's protected, otherwise I would have added it to the Fan Sites Category --guttermonkey 16:14, 22 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Huh? It is categorised, and it isn't protected ... 17:49, 22 August 2007 (UTC)


 * He was redirected here from Fansites/Main sites talk page, it has been categorized. -- 19:14, 22 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Aha, makes sense I guess :) 19:32, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

wow comics?
would and such fit here ? 09:42, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, and DL is already there :P 10:40, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Levelling guides
Do we create a section for this? It's a tricky question I know...

For example, http://www.thewowauthority.com/ - not strictly a fansite, but at the same time, not breaking any rules.

My personal view is, yes, we do allow them in their own section (with disclaimer?), but only if the sites are absolutely clean. 21:51, 16 September 2007 (UTC)


 * As long as they aren't being hidden in there with real fansites. 21:57, 16 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I think guide sites that are not free should either be removed, put in their own category below the others or otherwise flagged as such. It's not uncommon that these guides are just stolen or free copies that's being sold over and over. SilverSnake 14:56, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

wowmods - addon update watcher
Could I possibly suggest my site for inclusion in the addons category? It allows people to check for addon updates over all the major sites, with filtering options and an RSS feed. It's here:


 * http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/

RSS:


 * http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/rss/

Worth adding?

-- Fin 23:46, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Looks really good. -- 06:46, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Main sites
I added MMO-Champion to it, given its prominence. 20:17, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

What section should we go in?
Hello, we would like to get mmolecule listed on WoWWiki. We feature WoW News, articles, reviews, guides, forums, comics, and a complete social network for MMO gamers.

Before I added it - I wanted to confirm which category we should be in.

Thanks in advance for any feedback. -- Deeogee 23:42, 20 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Looks like the one you placed it in is would be good. 04:46, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

WoWPlotter now considered a main site?
WoWPlotter.com has swiftly become a popular guide site, with over 1,000 daily users. We've received multiple blog reviews, plugs, and the like. I would like to ask permission to add this to the main sites area, either under the 'Search Engines' header, or, ideally, a new header called 'Quest Guides'. Thanks for your consideration!! -- Pacman420 14:58, 17 January 2008 (UTC)


 * no. -- 02:57, 19 January 2008 (UTC)


 * k —The preceding unsigned comment was added by.

We should re-evaluate Main Sites
I think someone needs to make the argument for the following news sites as they seem weak:
 * Nihilum - They're a great guild, but...
 * WoW Stratics - Have something occasionally interesting, but lots of dups...
 * WoW Warcry - At least half the news seems to be pitching their other non-WoW sites...

We should also see if we can promote up some other sites to Main Sites, if they have good content, but I can't think of any nominations right now. -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 2:45 PM PST 26 Jan 2008


 * Add Searchwarcraft.com and search-wow.com to the list of curious choices for "main sites": Compete.com doesn't even have enough data to rank these, they fall into Quantcast's US-reach <2,000 category, and Alexa ranks them almost 5 million out. Sure, usage isn't the only benchmark, but they are clearly a lot less popular than a lot of sites listed further down the table.


 * Nihilum's website is a lot like Elitist Jerks, or Curse a year or so ago - moved beyond being a simple guild website, and functioning more as a portal or topic-based discussion site.


 * WTB criteria for a "main site". --Timski 15:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)


 * "Main Sites" should be the most popular/all-inclusive sites? Sites with a lot of visitors and a lot of features. I agree that Nihilum, Stratics and Warcry could use a demotion. Perhaps look at other sites to promote instead. Stratics has had a dev chat like a year ago, but other than that they have really bad WoW coverage. Warcry is unimpressive and Nihilum can grow a bit more, like Curse. :) --Leord 04:32, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Kinda related to all this - I'm thinking that the Main Sites should really be included in the main listings too, for simplicity. 22:56, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

How is the Link order determined?
The order of the fansite links does not seem to be of either alexa rating, popularity or alphabetical order. Should we go with highest alexa rating? --Leord 04:08, 10 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Moved this section in under this headline. --Leord 04:36, 10 February 2008 (UTC)


 * The link order is described at the top of this page. Main Sites is by site name though, for common sense. 20:25, 10 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Considering network site names such as Curse or IncGamers, who both have portals for more than one game sould be named after their main name. This would seem most logical, as the sites themsleves often are referred to only their main name (none says "WoW Curse Gaming" do they?). Some other sites have the "WoW" abbreviation as a part of their actual name. Anyway, I notice that WoW Insider is ordered by their "Insider" part of their name though I disagree with this particular choice someone made, as I haven't found any other "Game"-Insider pages. For a logical ordering I would suggest:
 * Blizzplanet
 * Curse Gaming
 * WoW IncGamers
 * MMO-Champion
 * Nihilum (consider temporary removing)
 * WoW Stratics (consider removing)
 * WoW Vault (IGN)
 * WoW Warcry (consider removing)
 * WorldofRaids
 * WOW Insider
 * Basically counting the "WoW" on IG, Strat, Vault and Warcry as a prefix to the site name, and for BlizzP, Curse, MMO-C, Nihilum, WoRaids and WoWInsider, using their names as they are spelled out.
 * Sorry if I'm just being anal, I like paying attention to details. :P Also, consider replying to the otehr questions about modifying the Main page that I didn't start. --Leord 22:07, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

I've done some changes - all satisfactory? :) WOWDB has also been added as it has already shot up in the rankings to around 2,000 - we'll have to monitor how well that does. 22:53, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * To update on this - the Alexa rank of WOWDB has been dropping for a while now (~10,000 at the moment of writing), which may soon necessitate its removal from the Main Sites list. To briefly compare to other smaller sites, wowdigger is now around 60,000 and Goblin Workshop is around 15,000. I'm thinking if WOWDB drops below GW, then it should be off the list (possibly replaced by GW?). 16:05, 19 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Replacing sounds fine, if GW keeps a steady pace --Leord 12:33, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
 * BTW, is WoW Vault really a big player by WoW fans? I know it's IGN and all, but does it really have traffic? --Leord 12:34, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Renaming
Could someone rename WoWUI.IncGamers.com to WoWUI.WorldOfWar.net, and adding the same icon as WorldOfWar.net is listed?

Forgot Sig --Leord 12:43, 5 May 2008 (UTC)


 * On second thought. Don't change the icon for now, just the name and address. We should ask Rushter on what to do with icon. --Leord 12:45, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

WoWmacros.com
Would anyone mind if I add WoWmacros.com to the Fansites page? What are the requirements for a link in the "Main sites" section of the Fansites page?

-- Frolic 23:48, 5 February 2008 (UTC)


 * As sites with significantly higher Alexa rating are NOT in the Main Sites template, I would say "no". The point with this list is to report on the fansites that exist, not (in itself) promoting them. --Leord 04:36, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

WoW-specific sites with high Alexa rankings?
If you see any WoW-specific sites with higher Alexa rankings than the ones in the main sites, please name them with a link to their Alexa ranking here. There are probably general game portal sites with higher rankings, but I'd be surprised if their WoW-specific parts were more heavily trafficked. Also the main sites represent various types of info like lore which may not get as many hits as DB or news sites. -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 2:38 PM PST 14 Mar 2008

Semi-protected...
Is it ok if I add the correct icon to WoW: IncGamers? It is basically the little eye of their Murloc. I can't see it in IE, but it shows in FF. --Leord 04:20, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

The Digital Crusade, not really a blog
I added a link to my news site at the fansites page under " News and general sites" but it got moved down to the "Blogs" section. However, The Digital Crusade is not really a blog, although it's published via Blogger. The Digital Crusade have similar content to WoW Insider and worldofraids, and is updated daily with news, not with personal reflections or columns from the editor.

Edit: I didnt get an answer here, so i moved it up in the "news" section and hopefully putted it in the right order.

-- Stylewalker 09:59, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Digital Crusade has had no updates since August 26, 2008, so someone removed it from the fansites page. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 11:03 AM PST 14 May 2009

Status updates and future removal
I'm going through most of the links and giving status if they are blank, forbidden, not found, redirected, etc. Some sites I'm removing immediately, if the are pure gold-seller or virtual asset selling ad sites. When I've gone through the whole list, I will start listing candidates for removal here and if no one complains, I'll remove them. -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 2:33 PM PST 14 Mar 2008


 * Removed 3 sites for being gold selling places or dead:
 * wow-dir.com (gold sell)
 * wow-store.net (dead)
 * mywarcraftsite.org (gold sell)
 * Also I reccomend looking into the following, removing or changing status:
 * worldofnewscraft.blogspot.com (not updated since Sept 2007)
 * warcraftadvisor.com (seems to only be a site to generate google hits) - DEFINITELY not news site!
 * wow.catacombs.com (not updated since Oct 2007)
 * bestofwarcraft.com (abruptly stopped updating 3 months ago)
 * I haven't checked the rest (yet) but in general, it seems like there are a bunch of sites that follow the system that arcraftadvisor.com has. They make a minimalistic site, that might, or might not look good and fill it with some random content, so it will be linked in google (and since this page is linking the site, they get higher ranking), used ONLY for the adds. I suggest that that type of site should not be here, as it's more in line of trying to get ads sales than being a fansite. Closer to actual gold selling than anything else. If a site makes updates at least a few times a month, that should be minimum requirement to be linked. --Leord 13:19, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

JIM's once-over
I visited all of the listed sites with one goal in mind: see if there's anything there. Here is a list of the sites that appear to have been deleted, discontinued by their host, or reclaimed by virtual real estate. I didn't remove any from the list, since I had only commited to reporting tonight. :-)

04:26, 6 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Patchtimer redirects to the correct place. --Sky (t · c · w) 04:31, 6 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Okay, as long as someone can access it. :-) Whenever I attempt to, it times out.  I removed it and "Entrecard" from this no-good list, since that site seems fine on second inspection.  16:12, 6 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Several of those sites work fine for me and seem to be frequently updated... my own site, Aspect of the Hare, is one of them (I update near-daily) =P Pikestaff (talk) 05:11, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

WotlkWiki?
So, I was figuring on adding the Wrath Wiki site www.wotlkwiki.info into the list. It's become fairly popular since the NDA has been lifted. You think it should go in the main sites part or the other pages listing?

-- Azri (talk) 17:07, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I would say main sites, because it has more traffic than some of the sites there. But I am biased of course.

ChrisC (talk) 22:51, 2 October 2008 (UTC)


 * According to Alexa, wotlkwiki.info has more traffic than worldofwar.net, but that seems strange. If someone makes a 22x22 icon (File:Icon-wotlkwiki-22x22.png) it can be considered for main site status. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 6:55 PM PST 13 May 2009

WoW Directory?
Yo! Ive found one weird site and dunno where to add it - here is the address:

http://wowlibrary.jackschest.com/

What do you guys think? -- R3nO (talk) 09:33, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Already added, but may be removed for having too many gold seller links. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 6:39 PM PST 13 May 2009

New Blog Link - Valid? And if so, where?
I've got a relatively young blog that's been up for a few months, and was wondering if there was a valid place for a link. It's called Alazar, and I'd like to share it with everyone. Any input? My main fear being that it started out a general blog on Wow, but has dissolved into a running commentary of my avatar's adventures, so it may not be appropriate. Anyone? -- Alphasim (talk) 10:25, 8 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Add it to the Blogs table. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 6:41 PM PST 13 May 2009

Why was my blog removed?
My blog, Travels through Azeroth and Outland, is no longer on the fansites page. Is there a reason for this, or was it just an accidental deletion? I am going to add it again (as I've gotten a decent amount of traffic from this site). If you do remove it again, please tell me why. The blog is active, even though it is only updated once or twice a month. This is mainly due to the size of the updates. -- Felya (talk) 16:04, 10 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Some of our admin cleaners can be over-zealous. You appear to have added it back and that's fine. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 6:41 PM PST 13 May 2009

Warcraft newsgroup
Any reason to remove the Warcraft newsgroup (alt.games.warcraft)? It continues to get lots of traffic. It looks like it was removed at 11:49, 10 May 2009 in this edit: http://www.wowwiki.com/index.php?title=Fansites&oldid=1884650 -- ScratchMonkey (talk) 07:50, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * http://groups.google.com/group/alt.games.warcraft/topics hosts this newsgroup, but I'm not sure if it qualifies as a fansite. It's a bit too free-for-all. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 6:38 PM PST 13 May 2009


 * Note that newsgroups are not "hosted" at some central site. Newsgroups predate the web and are a distributed hierarchical messaging system. You post to your ISP's news server and the message is distributed to thousands of news servers all over the world. (If your ISP doesn't provide this service, I recommend Motzarella, a free newsgroup server.)


 * Back when the web first started, a company called "Deja News" started archiving newsgroups. When it went out of business, Google bought the archive and continues to add to it. It also provides a web interface so one can post to groups. But it doesn't "host" the groups in the sense that web forums are hosted at a single site. Both a pro and con to this system is that there's no central moderator to censor posts. This makes newsgroups quite distinct in style from web boards, with a much more "wild west" free-for-all of topics. (There are technical mechanisms to deal with the cons of this system, such as "plonking".)


 * By "free for all", do you mean that the group lacks structure? This is an administrative issue of newsgroups: Creating a new group, even a subgroup, requires a new group proposal justifying the additional complexity, a vote, and the acquiescence (often automatic if procedures are followed) of the many sites that host groups. Hence, adding subgroups to alt.games.warcraft hasn't been deemed worth the effort.


 * Perhaps better would be to separate out from "fansites" those sites that are specifically discussion boards, and move that list to another page. The warcraft newsgroup would be better placed in that kind of list.


 * -- ScratchMonkey (talk) 02:43, 14 May 2009 (UTC)


 * My bad, I should have been more clear. I said hosted when I should have said "serves as a frontend for accessing". Regardless, newsgroups don't belong in fansites. An explanation for "free-for-all" doesn't make it better, it just allows you to understand why it doesn't belong in fansites. For newsgroup fans, perhaps make a nice new page called Discussion resources and add it there. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 11:00 AM PST 14 May 2009

WoWJutsu good enough for main sites?
WoWJutsu.com seems to get alot of traffic and is probably the main site people look for guild rankings. Anyone else thinks it deserves to be in the Main sites list?

I will upload an icon (File:Icon-wowjutsu-22x22.png) soon regardless. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 7:00 PM PST 13 May 2009

WoW Survey - 8 Intriguing Questions
Hi

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You are more than encouraged to spread the word by forwarding this message to your contacts.

Thanks ever so much :) http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=masSYyk7GwYfs3AZ_2fKiBPQ_3d_3d

Seems like a good place to add a new wikia service
We're beta-testing a new service to let the community review web sites. Is it possible to move much of this website review content and updating to the new site? Check out an example here: http://reviews.wikia.com/wiki/Mmoexposed.com Thanks, color="Blue">Gil (color="Blue" size="1">talk) 19:20, January 4, 2010 (UTC)


 * Now that Wowpedia is no longer part of the Wikia network, it seems like contributing to this reviews site is unnecessary. Sorry Gil. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic (talk &middot; contribs) 2:38 PM PST 7 Nov 2010

Question on submitting a new site
We would like to submit our website to the list, we are dedicated to providing the community with the latest news, updates, guides, strategies and more for World of Warcraft. We are updated daily and all of our writers are avid and experienced warcraft players. We provide insight on all aspects of the game ranging from raiding to casual gaming and Arena/PvP. Our URL is http://www.PlanetRaid.com and we were wondering where our site falls under.

Thanks for your time!

-- Oninuva (talk) 18:30, April 8, 2010 (UTC)


 * I added it under News and general sites section. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic (talk &middot; contribs) 2:38 PM PST 7 Nov 2010

Romanian fansite
Hello. We would like to add http://www.wow-forum.ro to the Romanian category of Other languages. It's a new forum for romanian WoW players. Thanks for your time.
 * Looks like you already did. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic (talk &middot; contribs) 2:38 PM PST 7 Nov 2010

WoWInsider and Wow.com
Under the Main Sites Heading, it has wowinsider listed with a link to the old website. Shouldn't be fixed to link to the correct website? I'm posting this because when I tried to edit it it said to post here first.


 * URL updated. Even wow.com is now old. The new URL is http://wow.joystiq.com. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic (talk &middot; contribs) 2:38 PM PST 7 Nov 2010

Free Time Cards Website
There's this website I made and it explains how you can get a free time card from another website. It is all legit and I have done it multiple times before. Here is a link to the website. http://freewowtimecards.weebly.com/ Should I post it on the fansite list?
 * Uh, no. This is not really WoW related at all. WoW time cards just happen to be one of the rewards. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic (talk &middot; contribs) 2:38 PM PST 7 Nov 2010

WoWDB replaced with MMO Champion DB
Wowdb is now closed. I replaced it's link with a link to MMO Champion DB, since the Wowdb closure notice refers visitors there. I hope that's okay. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contribs) 2:38 PM PST 7 Nov 2010

TimeWastedTuesday.net Added to the Fansites list?
Is it ok if I add TimeWastedTuesday.net to the fansite list? It's a WoW blog site. We have a few writers one being a Hunter Tank. We run monthly in game events and have a free ventrilo server for our users. talk