I think there can be a middle ground between Jamie's optimism and Sebastian's frustration.
I work on a bunch of wikis too, and, like Jamie, I'm very happy with the progress that's been made in the last year. Sebastian, I don't know how long you've been running your wiki, so you may or may not have seen where things were a year and a half ago. The issues that come up now are nothing compared to what it used to be; this is a much smoother running site. At the same time, I think it's important to acknowledge the frustration that some users feel about the tech issues. Sebastian isn't imagining things; there have been outages of one kind or another just about every week. Yes, Wikia is growing quickly, there are a lot of changes that are being made technically, and there are always going to be glitches. There's a good explanation for each problem, and problems get fixed. But that doesn't change the users' experience, which has been a regular series of outages and bugs. This is especially frustrating for new users, who aren't comforted by the thought of how much better it is compared to a year ago. Wiki people are a special breed; we put our heart and soul -- and a whole lot of our spare time -- into building a site that we feel passionate about. That's the kind of people that Wikia wants to attract, and keep. So that means that when there are problems that seem to threaten the stability of the wikis, then those passionate people are going to get worried and upset. I think it's important for Wikia to figure out solutions for both problems -- how to fix the tech issues, and also how to help the passionate users know that their complaints are being addressed. If Sebastian is feeling cynical and frustrated, then I'm sure he's not alone. If we want to keep him around, then we need to listen to him, and take his comments seriously. -- Danny
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