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 that was started on March 4, 2005, and 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 inspired by Wikipedia, but can expand on Star Wars information in greater detail and with more freedom than Wikipedia. Wookieepedia was founded 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.

Evolution of a wiki
"So we'd call it Wookiepedia? [sic]"

- Chad Barbry, first suggesting the name of the Star Wars Wiki

Wikipedia is a collaboratively developed, free content encyclopedia. It is a general knowledge encyclopedia, rather than being specific to one topic (as Wookieepedia is Star Wars specific). Because of this, it is not always particularly friendly to in-depth knowledge specific to a given fictional universe. Founded in 2001, Wikipedia allows anyone to edit it. Due to the broad nature of its editors, the site covers a wide variety of topics, and has millions of articles.

Chad Barbry, under the screenname of "Cbarbry," was a regular contributor to Wikipedia, participating in a number of different subjects within the online encyclopedia, including Biblical history and technology since October 17, 2004. In January of 2005, Steven Greenwood joined Wikipedia under the screenname of "Riffsyphon1024," adding articles in the subject of geography and popular culture. Immediately after working on these articles of interest, he took the job of sorting the various Star Wars articles on the site. As Wikipedia was concerned, only notable items would have complete articles, with the rest of the minor subjects with descriptions on a giant list. Planets, characters, weapons, and vehicles were all done in this manner. Over a short period of time, Steven found that he disliked this format and sought another way to gather and place information on the saga and its Expanded Universe. On January 21, Steven posted on a section on a talk page regarding the creation of a new Star Wars Portal, but suggested that instead of a portal it should be a wiki. Two days later, Chad entered the discussion and began working out ideas with Steven. Both agreed that this new project would run alongside Wikipedia as a separate, but equal entity&mdash;something more than simply a WikiProject. It was here in the discussion that Chad proposed the new nickname of "Wookieepedia," which caught on with Steven and others immediately, and the idea was trailblazed (Steven's request of "Wicketpedia" was an alternate name which did not work nearly as well). However, since Steven was not sure how a new wiki would be created, Chad contacted of then Wikicities (now Wikia) and requested the creation of the new wiki.

Wiki creation
Other Wikipedia contributors seemed to be getting more hostile toward new Star Wars articles, so in February 2005, Chad decided to make a request of the Wikipedia Board of Trustees to make a "Star Wars Wiki." His intent was more than just another WikiProject, but an official sister project similar to Wikiquotes. He thought the best solution was a separate, but linked project—a project that was separate enough for the "anti-cruft" Wikipedians, but still one that was officially Wikipedia, so there would be no need for redundant articles between the projects.

In early March 2005, after meeting, the board came back with their answer. They did not want to move Wikipedia the direction proposed by Chad, but recommended creating a Star Wars Wikia. of Wikia was on the Board of Trustees, and contacted Chad to let him know of the board's decision and to set up the new Star Wars Wiki. Part of the process that Angela set up was creating interwiki links so Wikipedia could link to SWW articles and vice versa.

Chad, under the screen name of "WhiteBoy," was the first to edit on the newfound wiki on March 4, starting with the logo and the moving of articles from Wikipedia to Star Wars Wiki. A few days after, Steven joined the site, using the same screenname.

For a brief time, there was some confusion as to how to move articles over. Chad devised a template for use on Wikipedia to place on talk pages of articles of interest, alerting users that the article would be redirected or moved entirely. The idea was to move as many existing articles from Wikipedia to the new wiki, under the GFDL, making sure to save those under threat of deletion first, and then "wookify" them to the new wiki's standards. The hope was that, though separate, Wikipedians would begin to put the more obscure articles (essentially anything but the most encyclopedic of articles) in the Star Wars Wiki. Main articles, such as Luke Skywalker, would remain at Wikipedia.

Wikipedians in general ultimately saw the Star Wars Wiki as an external site, one not affiliated with Wikipedia enough to actually "transwiki" articles over, like one would with Wikibooks or Wikirecipe. Creating redirects to the Star Wars Wiki was not what the Wikipedians had in mind and they requested that Chad and Steve immediately cease what they believed was legal transwikification; however, articles could still be copied and pasted under the GFDL copyleft license and then "wookified" to fit the scheme of the Star Wars-themed wiki, making sure to place an in-universe article in past tense, or remove redundant sentences. In this aspect, it was decided to have all articles, not just those that were more trivial, lesser known, or more detailed, at the wiki.

Later articles were copied in this fashion and the originals were left alone on Wikipedia for its users to edit under its rules. Eventually Wookieepedia would develop so many articles that Wikipedia would no longer have any to copy. It should also be noted that Wookieepedia was created independently of the Wikimedia Foundation and of any events occurring on Wikipedia.

Great LucasCruft Purge
In March of 2005, perhaps unaware of the formation of the new wiki, a Wikipedian (considered by some a deletionist who wished to prove a point) began to place several Star Wars articles in the Votes for Deletion system (now Articles for Deletion) in an attempt to get these articles deleted from Wikipedia. The purge was later dubbed the "Great LucasCruft Purge" by Steven himself. It was Steven's goal to save as many articles from this individual before the damage was made permanent, and would then impede Star Wars Wiki's ability to grow as it did within the first month. One such article that became a focus of this battle was Order D6-66, which became one of the first stub articles added to the new wiki via the "transwiki" process. The purge garnered the Star Wars Wiki a great deal of public attention, which gave some the erroneous impression that Wookieepedia was created because of the purge.

2005
Just days after the official founding, administrative powers were given to Steven by Chad. This set up the dual administrator system until the adminships of the users, , and later in the year. The wiki, now going under the moniker of "Wookieepedia," developed a steady rate of contributions by new members from all over, and over time lost its reliance on Wikipedia. Eventually Wookieepedia became the primary name for the wiki and an official renaming took place with the creation of a new logo by Tracy Duncan.

was first started in June 2005, with as the first user to be recognized by the community for his contributions. As of January 2011, 74 users have been recognized as WOTM.

July brought the first on Wookieepedia. Though now considered minuscule in comparison to the current number of quotes now passed through four subcategories, it was a sufficient means to create a new feature on the wiki. Today, is the most edited page of Wookieepedia. Pages such as these show the significant growth of each area over the course of only a few years. In the same month, Wookieepedia's largest ever boost came when an explosion of editors hit the site, sending the wiki's article count over 10,000. Factors to this expansion could be attributed to advertising and the release of Revenge of the Sith. (See wiki growth table below.)

In September 2005, was experimentally created and added to the Main Page, where it has remained as an active feature since.

, a voting and discussion system designed to improve site-wide policies and practices, was formed onto a single page in October 2005. In the same month, Eric Przybylski of Nav-Computer.com allowed Wookieepedia to use his fan-made sector maps on certain articles. His maps have since been replaced with versions directly from canon sources, but which likely were inspired by his base maps.

2006
The first bot, known here as a "," was released onto Wookieepedia on February 8. was designed to clean up instances of repeating words, categories, as well as clean the page. Since then, another bot named has made over 150,000 total edits on Wookieepedia.

A new Forum area dubbed the was constructed in March 2006 as part of Wikia's MediaWiki updates, and as a result, the  no longer was the primary form of wikiwide discussion. Senate Hall was chosen as a name that would not be considered too cliché or overly used for a Star Wars name. Consensus Track was subsequently moved into the forums, and becoming its own section, used specifically for policy creation and alteration on the wiki.

2007
On February 20, 2007, the first was posted. The podcast was parody and commentary by on subjects relating to Wookieepedia and Star Wars in general. It did not, however, represent the official views of the wiki. The Wookiee-Cast podcasts were released throughout 2007, but have since been on hiatus.

Also in February, the was formed to handle the structure of the  system.

Wookieepedia's Reference desk became the new within the forums, where general questions on Star Wars not relating specifically to articles or Wookieepedia could be asked.

Over the course of the spring leading up the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, Wookieepedia held votes for the and  with Darth Vader and SuperShadow winning respectively.

In May, at least ten Wookieepedians from across the globe attended Celebration IV to help monitor Wookieepedia's table alongside Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia founder Bob Vitas, advertise the wiki, and host a trivia contest named "Stump the Wookiee." In the months before the convention, admins and users came across a notice by Mary Franklin that a group could obtain a table at CIV for free. Immediately the wiki reacted and set up a page for those interested as well as other details of the event. By February, it was known that Wookieepedia won the table and final preparations were made. Some users and administrators that attended and helped man the table alongside Vitas included Riffsyphon1024,, , , , , , , and. As a result of Wookieepedia's appearance and contest at Celebration IV, it was mentioned by the official site for the first time, marking another level of awareness in the Star Wars community. In addition, the event allowed the wiki to express itself to the fans directly.

Also in May, the Votes for Deletion page was renamed to the more in-universe sounding. In 2007, the wiki's Main Page underwent a major change, which allowed for exploration of the Star Wars universe within films, Expanded Universe, and in-universe categories to be hidden on a subpage with the use of Javascript. In addition, the single search icon in the Wookieepedia's sidebar was upgraded in April to include.

2008
In late February 2008, a Facebook fan page for Wookieepedia was started by Riffsyphon1024. As of May 2011, it has over 5,000 fans. Wookieepedia began its on March 4, 2008. A new project of Wookieepedia was the with established authors, artists, actors, and anyone else related to the creation of the Star Wars universe in order to gain more insight for its articles. Some of Wookieepedia's first interviews were given to authors Kevin J. Anderson and Tom Veitch and artist Christian Gossett. This project, however, was short-lived in in gaining access to interviewees.

2009
As with many wikis over time, certain features render other ones redundant or useless. Such was the case during what was described by some Wookieepedians as the "Great List Purge" that occurred in late December 2008 and early January 2009, where many old lists created years before were simply out of date as categories had accumulated a far greater number of articles on each topic.

The start of 2009 also saw the addition of an official blog to the Wookieepedia, named the Wookieepedia Newsnet. The blog began regular entries in January, with regular features summarizing monthly Featured Article output, Consensus Track results, Wookieepedian of the Month interviews, and Canon Updates. An RSS feed for the blog was added to the Main Page on April 1st, 2009, with the blog receiving an impressive 1,072 hits on that day.

2010
July 2010 brought forth a new classification of article, partly inspired by Wikipedia practices. Improvement of minor articles and stubs would lead to the creation of comprehensive articles, those which were complete topics, but too small to be either Good Articles or Featured Articles.

In October 2010, Wookieepedia underwent another skin change by Wikia (see right).

Multi-year phenomena
Over the course of the wiki's history, several attempts were made to curb fanon on user pages or delete it altogether. Most votes resulted in no consensus and the issue was pushed back until a few months later when it became known again. A major influence became the creation of the Star Wars Fanon Wiki which was accepting all forms of fanon written by its users. Most users to that wiki happened to be Wookieepedians as well, however not in the form of long-staying administrators, but rather those who had been told not to add fanon to Wookieepedia. This shift of population was seen as general amounts of fanon reduced, but there were still users that went ahead with filling in their user pages and then not editing any or even a few articles. This however did not limit the number of true contributors to Wookieepedia.

Each year since 2005, a contest for and  has been held in December, with voting up to the new year. The winners, either male or female characters in the galaxy, retain their crowns until the next vote and can continue to win as long as they receive enough support.

From 2005 to 2008, several Wookieepedians have also contributed to Star Wars canon via the What's The Story? feature of StarWars.com, including John Hazlett, Tim Veekhoven, Aidan Hennessy, Nathan O'Keefe, Gregory Walker, Kyle Jewhurst, Timothy S. Maddocks and Arthur Papadam.

April Fools jokes
Each year since 2006, Wookieepedia would partake in April 1st pranks across the wiki.

brought the creation of a new Featured Article titled.

For 2007, Wookieepedia temporarily became "," with articles moved to alternate titles and fake spoilers posted. Kyle Katarn also inhabited the search bar for the day.

brought the creation of a special Main Page in Aurebesh.

In 2009, the wiki temporarily became "", with the Main Page only linking to canon presented in the six films and nothing from the Expanded Universe.

In 2010, Wookieepedia claimed to have stumbled across a lost pilot for a television series named "" and created articles on supposed characters in the series.

resulted in the entire wiki converting to "3-D" to celebrate the upcoming films in 3-D, a Cease and Desist Notice placed on the Main Page, and various manipulations to the Mofference page the day before the actual meeting.

Growth
Wookieepedia has grown quickly from its start in March 2005 to present to reach articles. One relatively large spike in contributions occurred in August 2005, after the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Article milestones

 * First article: Brianna, March 9, 2005
 * Longest article: Wedge Antilles
 * Most edited article: Palpatine
 * 50,000th article: Solitaire

Popular acclaim



 * Wookieepedia was mentioned in TIME magazine on May 29, 2005 as one of Wikia's largest wikis; only Star Trek Memory Alpha was larger, though as of November 12, 2005, Wookieepedia has exceeded Memory Alpha in legitimate number of articles. However, Wookieepedia has since been overtaken by World of Warcraft's WoWwiki.
 * 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, done as an episode of their fan audio show Star Wars FM, 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 "&hellip;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."
 * In an interview with comedian C.C. Banana regarding the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, Peter Mayhew was asked if he contributed to the site, and replied that while he hadn't, "I do click onto it every now and again."
 * In an NBC blog, Aaron Bleyaert wrote about Wookieepedia's quick response to changing Motti's name to the disputed but canon name Conan Antonio Motti. In the blog, released a day after George Lucas's statement, he praised Wookieepedia for their quickness in incorporating it into the Star Wars mythology.
 * On May 4, 2007, Variety.com wrote an article on Wookieepedia. The article was later included on Star Wars Hyperspace and the starwars.com Homing Beacon #187&mdash;making this the first time the official site has recognized the existence of Wookieepedia.
 * On May 8, 2007, JoBlo.com posted a small article on Wookieepedia. As of its posting, the wiki had 47,916 articles.
 * On May 18, 2007, StarWars.com again mentioned Wookieepedia in the Behind-the-Scenes Stage Programming" section of its article "Insider's Guide to Celebration IV: Part III." Wookieepedia was later mentioned in the printed form of the guide available at the event.
 * Wookieepedia was alloted time on the "Behind the Scenes" stage during Celebration IV for a trivia game set up by members of the Wookieepedia community.
 * In the June 2007 issue of Reason Magazine, an article about Jimmy Wales discussed the Star Wars wikia community as one of the largest wikis.
 * On the June 19, 2007 episode of his radio show, Howard Stern&mdash;an influential radio shock jock&mdash;mentioned Wookieepedia, and proceeded to read from the Wookieepedia entry on Darth Nihilus.
 * In Issue #121 of ToyFare magazine, the "Twisted Toyfare Theater" section is devoted exclusively to The Star Wars Holiday Special, with Lumpy questioning Chewbacca about Life Day, and Chewbacca responding that he should look it up on Wookieepedia.
 * TimesOnline mentioned Wookieepedia as being one of the best Wikipedia spinoffs and referred to its "regularly amusing Quotes of the Day."
 * RiffTrax's Kevin Murphy worked a Wookieepedia reference into their commentary for The Star Wars Holiday Special.
 * Wookieepedia was mentioned in StarWars.com's February 12, 2008 Photo Caption.
 * After the third anniversary of Wookieepedia, on March 5, 2008, Galactic Watercooler blogged about the site, claiming it possessed the "best wiki name ever".
 * The Official Star Wars Blog mentioned Wookieepedia's April 1, 2008 joke.
 * Wookieepedia was mentioned in Dan Wallace's article "The Essential Expanded Universe" in Star Wars Insider 101.
 * Dave Filoni mentioned on the Official Star Wars Blog, among other topics, that George Lucas was shown printed Wookieepedia articles when discussing material he was unaware of.
 * On October 3, 2008, Associated Content.com posted an article on Wookieepedia, stating that it contained "so much minutiae that if Wookieepedia were an actual Star Wars convention the geek quotient would suffocate the average person."
 * Pablo Hidalgo mentioned Wookieepedia in the article about Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels game published on StarWars.com. When mentioning "speculative" matches from the game that may or may not fit into continuity, he gave an example of Obi-Wan Kenobi dueling Dooku while Anakin was attacking the Malevolence and commented "Good luck working that one out, Wookieepedians".
 * A number of images (from various media) on Wookieepedia were included in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.
 * In a sidebar entitled "Sizing Up Star Wars" in an article relating to the The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia in Star Wars Insider 106, Steve Sansweet is quoted as saying "From what I've seen, Wookieepedia is a superbly-run resource and the community does a wonderful job of policing and self-editing. And that's partly because of the kind of people that make up Star Wars fandom."
 * In a JournalGazette Times-Courier interview with Craig Titley, the script writer for the Clone Wars episode Blue Shadow Virus, Wookieepedia was mentioned as one of the sites Titley was thrilled to see his name on in connection with Star Wars (the other being the Official Site).
 * On March 3, 2009, Wookieepedia was acknowledged in a developer diary on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website.
 * On March 6, 2009, senior environment artist Alex Thomas mentioned in the BioWare Blog post on the Star Wars: The Old Republic website, that Wookieepedia used an early screenshot for Nal Hutta in the game as the article's only depiction of the planet surface so far, given its previously unexplored status.
 * On April 2, 2009, The A.V. Club used the Wookieepedia for research on an article about a ThinkGeek April Fool's joke.
 * Author Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff described Wookieepedia as a great place to begin researching things while writing her upcoming novel Shadow Games, before redirecting her research to a proper guide or expert. She has additionally mentioned Wookieepedia in several blog entries.
 * The acknowledgments of The Essential Atlas included several names of Wookieepedians that helped out the authors.
 * On October 8, 2009, Game Informer published an interview with the keeper of Lucasfilm's Holocron continuity database, Leland Chee, in which Chee mentioned Wookieepedia as a resource occasionally used by game developers.
 * Author Paul S. Kemp has admitted to reading Wookieepedia, albeit with some caution, while writing his 2010 novel Crosscurrent.
 * The Clone Wars second season episode Cat and Mouse, which broadcasted on March 26, 2010, had parts of a Wookieepedia article translated into Aurebesh and used as computer text.
 * In an article published on May 22, 2010, writer Robert Chestney cited Wookieepedia as one of the resources he used to research his comic series, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Threat of Peace.
 * On an episode of the Australian game show Good News Week, aired April 11, 2011, English comedian Simon Pegg correctly answered "Wookieepedia" when asked "What is the name of the comprehensive Star Wars database that can be edited by members of the public?"

Criticism
Like all 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. A question about the validity of the wiki was asked on the TFN Boards in 2008 whether it continued to be reliable, to which jSarek had replied "To a degree. We generally keep the nonsense out, but we're not perfect, and sometimes something slips through." Vandalism can easily distort canonical information if not checked, although Wookieepedia is one of the most active wikis.

Influences on canon

 * Jedi Exile - "Jedi Exile" began as a fanon nickname for this nameless character (called just "exile" in the game dialogue), but was adopted in The New Essential Guide to Droids.
 * Padawan Massacre of Taris - The event was first called "Padawan Massacre of Taris" on Wookieepedia for lack of an official term. Later this term was adopted into canon sources.
 * Sian Jeisel
 * Mygeetan - before being given the name "Lurmen", "Mygeetan" began as a fanon nickname on Wookieepedia for the nameless natives of Mygeeto. Later this term was adopted in The Essential Atlas.
 * Broon Ters was originally a player-chosen name in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords used for the Jedi Exile, which was uploaded in a screenshot on the Wookieepedia. This screenshot was later printed in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, making the name canon.

In other languages
In addition to Wookieepedia, several other Star Wars wikis exist in multiple languages. Though these different language encyclopedias were started by, and are currently run by different people, many are located at the wikia.com subdomain, meaning that membership at any one version is extended to the others as well.


 * Star Wars Wiki en Español (Spanish)
 * Star Wars Wiki fr (French)
 * Star Wars Wiki em Português (Portuguese)
 * Вукипедия (Russian; Star Wars Wiki Ru)
 * Biblioteka Ossus (Polish)
 * Kaminopedia (Hungarian; Star Wars Wiki Hu)
 * Yodapedia (Dutch; Star Wars Wiki Dutch)
 * Holopedia (Bulgarian; Star Wars Wiki Bulgarian)
 * Jedipedia (German; Das Star Wars Wiki)
 * Star Wars Wiki Da (Danish)
 * SWikoopedia (Slovenian)
 * Jedipedia (Finnish)
 * Star Wars Wiki sv (Swedish)
 * Jawapedia (Italian)

Spin-offs
Several wikis have been spawned from Wookieepedia. These include the Star Wars Fanon Wiki, the Star Wars Games Wiki, the Star Wars Fanpedia, and the Star Wars Galaxies Wiki.

In addition, the site wookieepedia.org appears to be written entirely in Shyriiwook.