Wowpedia is a new wiki, officially separate from WoWWiki as of October 20, 2010. It is not hosted by or in any way affiliated with Wikia, the company which hosts WoWWiki.
Origins
Due to irreconcilable differences with Wikia, some members of the WoWWiki community resolved in October 2010 that they would leave Wikia. However, it turned out that the domain name wowwiki.com had been legally transferred to Wikia upon WoWWiki joining the then-nascent network in 2007. (Wikia cited their Terms of Use when refusing to allow WoWWiki to leave.[1]) As Wikia refused to relinquish control of the domain name to the previous owners, or consider selling the domain name (despite wanting admins to give up said domain name years earlier to move to wow.wikia.com), a mirror site was set up, and Curse offered to host it.
Wowpedia's initial database contained a complete copy of articles from WoWWiki as of 18 October 2010. Editing on both sites since that time and edits made in the future will further differentiate these sites from one another.
Differences
There are a number of differences, some imperceptible to the lay user. The most obvious are that the sidebar is in its original place and it is not fixed width. Also, there were no ads on the wiki for the first two months of its creation, afterward having just a single banner ad at the top of every page. Many of the new 'social' features introduced by Wikia do not exist, such as achievements and avatars. Additionally, watchlists will remain private, which runs in contrast to Wikia's current stance.
Reception
The decision among WoWWiki's administrators was practically unanimous, minus Kirkburn (who is a Wikia staff member). Many members of the active user base (as well as some new faces!) transferred to Wowpedia within a week of Wowpedia opening. It should be noted that some members of WoWWiki also either stayed behind to continue on this site or resolved to contribute to both.
Some critics have noted that the new Wowpedia site has had trouble staying online at times. This is because the setup was rushed as they wanted to have it up in time for Wikia's forced switch to "Oasis" which was also just days before Blizzcon.
Reclaiming your user name
Wowpedia contains a tool to 'reclaim' one's user name. All that needs to be done is to click on the 'Register' button and tell it your user name. The site will then generate a code; you can enter this code in an edit summary on your WoWWiki user page to confirm your identity. No edits made prior to 18 Octoboer 2010 are lost, as the entire history up to that point (including your user page and any subpages) is intact.