Forum:Famine goes to Wikia

As some of you know, I recently took a trip to Menlo Park, California to speak at Wikia on a number of topics, including our beloved Uncyclopedia. Since at least some of you are wondering about how it went, I figured I'd take the time to cough up a little writeup.

Entry to the Sacred Halls

To start, the corporate headquarters of Wikia are far less impressive than one might imagine. The place is basically a couple of offices and a few conference rooms bolted onto a server farm. Really. Check the pic out - the brown part is the offices - the white thing in the back is a massive building which houses the servers.

I got a tour of the server farm - if you're a computer whore, and like quantity over quality, this place is for you! The number of machines in there is truly staggering. By far the biggest farm I've ever been in. And nary a cow to be seen!

Inside the office-part of Wikia, I was not so impressed. It's small, cramped, and not at all impressive. As an example of how unimpressive it is, here's a picture of the hallway leading to the Speaker's Lounge, where I got to hang out before my big presentation.

The Speaker's Lounge is.....also not very impressive. I guess it counts as a "lounge", as it had comfortable chairs and some light refreshments, but it didn't count as "lounge" in the "cigar smoke, liquor, and poker" items that I usually associate with a lounge. Still, it was decent. I mean, the water and soda was free at least. And it had a couch.

The Presentation

Basically, I was asked to give the people-who-be a quick rundown on where we are as a wiki, our needs, and some of the challenges we face. It was a fairly quick presentation - I honestly spent about 2 hours on business for a 3 day trip. I mean, it was all business, and no money was wasted flying me to CA and setting me up in a decent hotel, taking me to dinner, etc. I swear.

While they had some questions, there was nothing really technical - as our hosting company, they pretty much know where we are in terms of usage and hardware. About the only thing they don't really see is what it looks like from an outside perspective. Which was where I came in. For the most part, the people I talked to were a bunch of nameless suits. (Sorry guys.) I did get a chance to briefly talk to Gil, who while seemingly a good candidate for a CEO, is not all that skilled in using a wiki. Different skill sets, I hope. But he does have a link to us on his userpage! He can't be all bad, I guess.

There was one rather awkward moment, when one of the semi-important guys there started asking me about a specific ban I had handed out....turns out I had banned some corporate exec from Wikia about a week before I flew down! Luckily I'm pretty good at smoothing things over, and explained that my primary job is to safeguard existing content. Told them that due to the nature of this wiki, someone unfamiliar with how we do business and what our goals are might quickly find themselves working against our stated purpose. I got a laugh when I finished it with "and some of the users we have the biggest problem with are ones who think they know what they are doing, and disregard instructions because their business card ends with "something something O"".

Anyway, other than that it was pretty mundane. They know what we need, and are trying to make it happen. While they are still trying to really grasp what Uncyclopedia is, and what we're doing, they know wikis, and from that technical standpoint they are pretty good.

Heading Out

While heading out I figured that I should take at least one souvenir from Wikia. Since they didn't have a gift shop, I helped myself...

I had another day to bomb around CA, so I took in some sight-seeing. Nothing too exciting - Menlo Park is actually a really small place - I think the population is like 30,000 or something. But a lot of tech business are headquartered near there. I did refresh my dork-tank by visiting the Stanford Particle Accelerator while I was out there. Nothing like a bigass piece of scientific equipment to make me smile. I need to get one of those....

Home

Got in Thursday night, and played the jet-lag game today. Pretty much good to go now, and the pretty souvenir looks great next to my computer. Here's to hoping that they fly me out there again sometime soon.

Sir Famine, Gun ♣ Petition » 01:53, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Questions, Comments?

Did you greet Gil with a nose pinching? He seems to like that. -- Imrealized ...hmm? 07:10, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

lol -- mowgli 09:16, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

I totally forgot about that. Will do so next time. Although I'd better bring the picture just in case. Sir Famine, Gun ♣ Petition » 14:07, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

You should have handed out a few bannings while you were there. In fact you should have gone in full 4 Horsemen regalia and cracked some skulls. Then they would have realised what you're we're all about. 10:49, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

I was limited to one carry-on bag, no animals. Sir Famine, Gun ♣ Petition » 14:02, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

That's an awesome story: adventure, excitement, Famine fortune... who could ask for anything more? (Does anyone else feel sorry for Wikia having their one and only corporate sign telling people what company they're working for being taken by Famine?)--<<>> 14:44, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

They had other signs - they were just firmly affixed to the walls or far too large to slide into a backpack. I was depressed that they didn't have mugs with their logo on it - that would have been my first choice. I'd have dumped out all the hotel shampoos to make room for as many of those as I could have gotten away with. As it was, they just had styrofoam and paper cups kicking around. Depressing, really. Sir Famine, Gun ♣ Petition » 14:48, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Ponies! --Roger The Bum Full sig!

<a href="http://rdoger6424.jaywebdesigns.com/recipient.php">psychotomimetic</a>

CLICK HERE!!!!!!!! 02:38, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Strange, I always thought the Wikia building was some sort of magnificent golden palace where the gods dwell. What a shame. --General Insineratehymn 17:17, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Stole their sign... you badass, you.   t o m p k i n s  blah. ﺞوﻦ וףה ՃՄ ண்ஸ ފއހ วอฏม +տ trade websites 19:33, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Good job bad ass Famine! --Brigadier General Sir Zombiebaron 20:07, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

That looks like it was a great trip. We talked with the Wikia crew about 4000 miles from there (Chron, Keitei, and I) a little over a month ago. » Brig Sir Dawg | t | v | c » 21:55, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Interesting to note that lemon tea is your drink of choice as you let loose with the banstick. Who would have known? Unless that's a Coke in there, I suppose. Hmmm. 00:00, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Lemon tea....haliarous! Those are somewhat old limes seen in bad lighting through a thick mug against a brown table and black keyboard. Note the splash of green visible at the bottom of the mug. The Bombay Gin, ice, and tonic are all gone. Only the limes remain. That, my friend, is the elixer of life. I can drink them all day and all night. If you see me issuing harsh bans, that's usually an indication that I switched over to scotch. Sir Famine, Gun ♣ Petition » 02:51, 17 September 2006 (UTC)