Wookieepedia

"Wookieepedia is a lavish and stunning homage to the Star Wars pop cultural phenomenon. Thanks to its professional appearance, the scope of its content, the quality of its writers and diligence of its administrators, Wookieepedia has become a valuable resource to fans both casual and obsessive, as well as to Star Wars authors. It's becoming the new nexus for everyone who wants to know as much as Yoda about that galaxy far, far away."

- Abel G. Peña



Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki is a Wiki which was started on March 4, 2005 by Chad "WhiteBoy" Barbry and Steven "Riffsyphon1024" Greenwood. It strives to be the premier source of information on all aspects of the Star Wars universe. This includes information from the Star Wars films and Expanded Universe, as well as information of value to fans. The Star Wars Wiki is considered to be a branch of Wikipedia, but can expand on Star Wars information in greater detail and with more freedom than Wikipedia. The Star Wars Wiki began when Wikipedia users began to complain of the overabundance of minutiae related to Star Wars, which began appearing on Wikipedia. Since then, it has expanded to become one of the largest Wikis on the internet.

As a fan-created encyclopedia, Wookieepedia is not intended to be a primary source, nor is it a replacement for the Databank or any other official source. Rather, it serves as a fan effort to summarize all aspects of the Star Wars universe in the best way possible, while pointing the reader to the respective official sources.

Wookieeterms


The term "Wookieepedia" was coined on January 23, 2005 by WhiteBoy as a joke during the preliminary discussions about creating the Star Wars Wiki. (Link)

It is coincidental that the word "Wookiee" would be the closest to resemble the word "Wiki" in Wikipedia, and so the creation of the term "Wookieepedia", a portmanteau, was almost a no-brainer.

The term stuck with Wookieepedians&mdash;a term used to describe those who work on the Star Wars Wiki and of those not directly affiliated with the wiki&mdash;and eventually SWW's namespace was changed from "Star Wars" to "Wookieepedia."

The term "wookify," a variation of the word "wikify" used on Wikipedia, was used from SWW's inception as a term for adding wiki links and bringing articles up to the standard of Wookieepedia's Manual of Style, particularly changing the article to an in-universe perspective.

Popular acclaim



 * Wookieepedia was mentioned in TIME magazine on May 29, 2005 as one of Wikia' largest wikis; only Star Trek's Memory Alpha was larger, though currently (November 12, 2005) Wookieepedia has exceeded Memory Alpha in legitimate number of articles.
 * On September 26, 2005, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, mentioned Wookieepedia in an interview on C-SPAN.
 * Abel G. Peña mentioned Wookieepedia in his October 11, 2005 blog, calling it a "staggering enterprise".
 * Nathan Butler mentioned and gave his support to the wiki in a recent episode of his ChronoRadio internet radio show.
 * SciFi.com selected Wookieepedia as its Sci Fi Site of the Week on November 28, 2005.
 * TheForce.Net acknowledges Wookieepedia for the first time on December 2, 2005, comparing it with the Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia.
 * On March 27, 2006, Wookieepedia was mentioned in the official Wikia press release covering the relaunch of Wikicities under the new name Wikia.
 * Dan Wallace puts Wookieepedia links in his blog . He also admitted being a "giant fan of Wookieepedia".
 * John Jackson Miller mentioned Wookieepedia in behind the scenes comments for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 6: Commencement, Part 6 as the source of the conjectural name "Padawan Massacre of Taris", which was later canonized in issue 11 of that same series. Also, he dedicated a blog post called "On Wikis and Wookiees" to it.
 * On September 4, 2006, Wookieepedia was mentioned in the New York Times.
 * In Matt and Ben Loewen's audio commentary for A New Hope on Nathan Butler's website, they cite Wookieepedia as where they looked for information on the retconned appearance of the 501st in the film. In reference to the site's name, Matt quips "I love that name!"
 * Pablo Hidalgo mentioned Wookieepedia in one of his blog entries. He stated "...there's a variety of reasons I can't go into that playground as someone on the official side of things. I try to avoid it, though from what I've seen it's pretty darn impressive."

Criticism
Like many wikis, Wookieepedia has been criticized for common wiki flaws such as pushing a certain point of view and for its easily editable nature, leading to frequent vandalism.

April Fools' prank
On April 1st, 2007, users who logged on to Wookieepedia found that it had changed to Katarnipedia and that virtually everything on the front page had been changed to being somehow relevant to Kyle Katarn (e.g."That the Snow King of Endor enjoyed..." in the Did You Know? column was changed to "That the Kyle Katarn of Endor enjoyed..."): Moreover, several of the major articles on Wookieepedia had been changed. Here are some examples:

Although just intended as harmless jokes, a number of Wookieepedians, however, found the changes irritating and potentially insulting to certain groups of people rather than humorous. Most of the sites were reverted to normal on April 2, except a couple which were "lost" and had to be restored from an earlier incarnation.
 * Kyle Katarn changed to Kyle 'God' Katarn
 * Katarn (animal) changed to Katarn (the one that wishes it was Kyle)
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi changed to Crazy Old Hermit
 * Yoda changed to Kermit the frog
 * Dooku changed to Dracula
 * Qui-Gon Jinn changed to Ra's al Ghul
 * Anakin Skywalker changed to Cybernetic Implants
 * Palpatine changed to Pope Benedict XVI
 * Han Solo changed to Han Solo, The Man Who Shot First
 * Leia Organa Solo changed to Her Hignessness
 * Jacen Solo changed to Darth Who
 * Anakin Solo changed to That Solo Kid that died
 * Luke Skywalker changed to Wormie
 * Padme Amidala changed to "Are You An Angel?"

In other languages
At present, the Star Wars Wiki exists in seven languages, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, and Hungarian. Though all seven were started by, and are currently run by different people, they are all located at the wikia.com subdomain, meaning that membership at any one version is extended to the others as well. Additionally there is a separate German version titled "Jedipedia".
 * Star Wars Wiki en Español (founded by KSK)
 * Star Wars Wiki fr (founded by Yukimura)
 * Star Wars Wiki em Português (founded by Stake black)
 * Star Wars Wiki Ru (Star Wars Wiki Ru)
 * Star Wars Wiki Polish (Empirepedia)
 * Star Wars Wiki Hu (Üdvözlünk a Csillagok Háborúja Wikiben)
 * Star Wars Wiki Nl (Star Wars Wiki Dutch)
 * Star Wars Wiki Bg (Star Wars Wiki Bulgarian)
 * Jedipedia.de (Das Star Wars Wiki)

Other Star Wars-related wikis

 * Biblioteka Ossus, Polish Fandom wiki about Star Wars

Wookieepedia