Forum:SH:The future of SW Fanpedia, an Official Friend of Wookieepedia

Hey everyone. First let me just say that it was suggested by Grunny that I post this thread here in the Senate Hall. If there is a more appropriate place, please feel free to move it.

As some of you know, one of the wikis where I’m an admin is Star Wars Fanpedia, which I founded in August 2008 and is now an Official Friend of Wookieepedia. The idea behind Fanpedia was that it was the fan-version of Wookieepedia, meaning that it was an encyclopedia of fandom information. Unlike Star Wars Fanon, where you can post all of your character, story, etc. concepts without any sort of verification (since it’s from your imagination), Fanpedia was to be an encyclopedia where you could post verified and sourced information about fan fic stories, fan films, fan websites, fan groups, fan events, and anything else related to Star Wars fandom. The Official Friendship between Wookieepedia and Fanpedia grew because Fanpedia enabled Wookieepedia to be able to delete many of its fan-based articles without those articles being lost forever, because they could be exported to Fanpedia.

Unfortunately, the idea never really took off. What I’ve found over the last few years is that the wiki is perceived as another Star Wars Fanon, with most new articles being fanon rather than fan-based encyclopedic content. Because of that, Grunny (the wiki’s other primary admin) and I never really knew what to do with it anymore, so we said we’d wait for a new idea for the wiki to come along and, if it was good, go with that. We now have that new idea!

With Star Wars Episode VII and all sorts of new Star Wars films and projects on the horizon, there isn’t a wiki where fans can discuss news, speculation, rumors, and ideas for the projects. Star Wars Fanon deals with only fan creations, and Wookieepedia is about documenting fact and not discussing news, speculation, and so forth. That’s an area that Fanpedia can fill. What I’ll be working on is moving Fanpedia in the direction of becoming a place where fans can discuss the upcoming Star Wars projects, including official news, speculation, rumor, and so forth, and fans can even discuss their ideas for the projects.

To accomplish this, I will be working with Brian Linder. Brian is an Entertainment Programming Manager at Wikia, one of the founding members of TheForce.Net, and a huge lifelong Star Wars fan. Working with Brian will enable the new focus of Fanpedia to be built with the help of Wikia resources, which can be used to help the wiki reach a wider audience of Star Wars fans and get unique content about Episode VII and beyond.

There are three primary reasons why I wanted to talk to you all about this:


 * 1) There will be content based on Episode VII and the other upcoming projects, but to a limited extent. The reason I say this is because I wanted to make it clear now that I have no intention to compete with Wookieepedia in terms of canon information. Most of the content will be news, speculation, rumor, etc related, but I’ll still have pages about the films, probably the cast and crew, and possibly a few other out-of-universe details where news, rumor, and speculation can be documented in an encyclopedic fashion. As of now, though, I don’t have any intention of documenting in-universe information. That’s Wookieepedia’s territory, and I’m not going to tread on that. Wookieepedia is so well-established that I couldn’t compete with that even if I wanted to. The difference between Fanpedia and Wookieepedia will be established in policies to avoid the same kinds of confusion I spoke about between Fanpedia and Star Wars Fanon.
 * 2) Wookieepedia has always used Fanpedia as a means to put fan content somewhere else. It can now be used in a similar way for discussions about the new films and projects. Users who want to talk about Star Wars rather than document facts about it are generally directed to TheForce.Net. Fanpedia will provide a new and/or additional place for people to be directed, and it’ll even be a wiki.
 * 3) I wanted to let you know that while the wiki will have this new primary focus, I won’t be getting rid of the fandom info focuses that it currently has either. That will just be less emphasized since it never really took off. I’ll have clearer article guidelines about what the wiki accepts (for example, I’ll be de-emphasizing fan fiction given the confusion between Fanpedia and Star Wars Fanon), but Wookieepedia will still be able to move any fan articles it has to Fanpedia that fit within those new guidelines.

So that’s the basic gist of what I plan to do. I would love to get your thoughts on how Wookieepedia and Fanpedia can continue to work together with Fanpedia’s new focus, and any thoughts you have on making it clear what the content difference between Wookieepedia and Fanpedia is. If you have any other questions, comments, or concerns, I’d be happy to hear those too. Thank you for reading, and thanks for your thoughts! - Brandon Rhea (talk)  18:31, March 21, 2013 (UTC)