Lately, there’s been some interest in the possibility of moving to another domain. Here’s some of my own ideas as to how we could go back about this. (New site is now located here: http://www.omniversenexus.net)
Why move to another domain?
As some of you know, activity in wikia has been slowing down, and I’ve been looking for ways to rejuvenate it with new life. The crossover idea has definitely been something new to work with, but I believe that we can do more. About six years worth of effort have been put into this project, and I think it’s time for us to evolve and try out newer, bigger things by stepping outside of our boundaries. We should definitely get our content prepped for the possibility of being adapted into other mediums such as web comics, video games, short movies, you name it.
However, to have better control over future adaptations of Omniverse Nexus, we should move to our own domain so that we’re not reliant on wikia anymore. We’ll be able to choose whatever creative license we want, and we’ll be able to add site features that would otherwise be impossible with wikia.
Licensing
For those who don’t know, wikia uses CC-BY-SA. Basically, what that is that anyone is free to share, remix or adapt our work so long as we’re given credit. However, said people could also use our work for commercial purposes. We’ve already tried to change the license in the past, but wikia did not allow it. The only way to change the license is to break away from wikia altogether.
I have to double check to see if we have to do any mass deletions, or just declare the wikias as fansites or something like that. If we are allowed to keep all of our wikia articles as they are now, we might even consider just making all new continuities exclusive to the site, and just providing hyperlinks to the wikia.
Structure
The writings throughout Omniverse Nexus (including Erudite Tales and Infinite Histories) that we pick and choose would be moved to a new domain powered by Wordpress which is normally intended for blogs, but it has enough versatility to be used for virtually anything. While users will be able to create accounts and discuss content in a public forum, only a select few will be able to make edits to the stories. New authors would be chosen on a case by case basis.
Hosting
The actual site will be powered by Wordpress, and preferably, one of us should buy a domain name so that "wordpress" is not in the URL. We could call the domain omniversenexus.net or something similar.
For the time being, the site will be ad free. Making money off of this is something way later down the line, and we’re not quite there yet. Baby steps.
Editing
There are a few ways to go about this. Wordpress does have a wiki-style plugin, but an additional fee has to be paid to make it so that it comes anywhere close to the level of features Wikia has. It might be wise to consider just using HTML and CSS instead to make our own style, but this is something we can vote on.
The Content
With our creations seeing so many different iterations and retcons, we’re definitely going to have to make all our stories set within a shared multiverse. As TROTK put it best, it would sort of be like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Same characters and settings but in different universes. For example, Suppy’s Tapestry of Stars is considered its own separate universe from Omni 01.
In regards to specifics, the main feature of the site would be the novels and short stories, so the front page would direct focus on them. As a time saver, we could take some of the best stories we have and put them up as they are.
Feedback
I would like to hear any and all of your comments, questions and concerns. This may seem like a massive undertaking, but if there’s enough interest and support, I believe we could bring something as ambitious in scale as this to life.
Lastly, if in the end, we don't move to another domain and keep the wikia as it is now, what could we do differently to ensure it thrives in the future?
