User:Neo of ZW/Bulbapedia
| Official site logo Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia | |
Type of site | Wiki |
|---|---|
| Available in | English (with partners in German, Japanese, Spanish, French, Portugese and Polish through the extended Encyclopaediae Pokémonis network) |
| Owner | Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden |
| Revenue | Advertising |
| URL | http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net |
| Commercial | Ad-supported |
| Registration | Optional (required to edit pages) |
| Launched | December 21, 2004 (Restricted Launch); February 14, 2005 (Public Launch) |
| Current status | Active |
Bulbapedia is a community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia that is based on the wiki concept, meaning it may be read and edited by anyone. It is similar in spirit to Wikipedia, but is focused solely on documenting the Pokémon canon and the fandom surrounding it.
Its name is a portmanteau of Bulbagarden, a Pokémon website which runs Bulbapedia, and encyclopedia. Both Bulbapedia and its parent Bulbagarden get their names from Bulbasaur, notable as the first Pokémon, according to National Pokédex order.
According to the wiki index, Bulbapedia is listed as one of the top 100 best wikis.[1]
Development
[edit]Bulbapedia was set up by Bulbagarden on December 21, 2004. The original period of development sought members of the Bulbagarden community to write for "a collaborative and open work environment which makes interacting with other staff and looking up information very simple." This proved unsuccessful, but Bulbapedia proceeded with a dozen or so contributors, and reached 100 articles within three weeks. It eventually opened to the public on Februrary 14, 2005, marketed as "Bulbagarden's Valentine's Gift to the Fandom". At least 21 new articles were created within the first 24 hours of operations, and within three months 1,000 articles had been written. The 10,000th article was created 3 years later, on June 29, 2008. Currently, it is the largest English-language Pokémon wiki, surpassing the next largest, Wikia's The Pokémon Wiki, by more than 10,000 articles.
Content
[edit]Bulbapedia offers information on every aspect of the Pokémon franchise. Projects exist for many areas, where editors can work together to grow Bulbapeda. The anime, Trading Card Game, games, and manga each have their own Project. Featured articles are articles that have been recognized for their high quality and completeness. Featured articles are featured on the Main Page of the wiki on a one-month rotation, and can be voted on and nominated by every member of the community. At times, when server load is too high, restrictions for editing by all people must come into play.
In the initial stages of Bulbapedia, images were hosted on the wiki itself. Nowadays, they are kept on the Bulbagarden Archives, Bulbagarden's own analogue of the Wikimedia Commons, which allows interaction with their moderated news wiki Bulbanews as well.
Relations with other websites
[edit]Bulbapedia is a founding member of the Encyclopaediae Pokémonis, a multi-lingual group of wikis documenting all aspects of Pokémon. As a part of Bulbagarden, it is also considered an affiliate site with all Bulbagarden affiliates.
Bulbapedia is also a founding member of the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, together with Super Mario Wiki and Zelda Wiki.
Relations with The Pokémon Wiki, of Wikia, have not been as promising. This is to no fault of the Wikia administration, but due to Wikian contributors misunderstanding the various clauses of Bulbapedia's Creative Commons license, which prohibits commercial use of Bulbapedia information, and the redistribution of it. This has been a problem with other sites who wish to profit off Bulbapedia's volunteer staff, such as the makers of one iPhone application. An attempt was made by Wikia early in Bulbapedia history that would have seen Bulbapedia become part of the Wikia enterprise. It was, clearly, unsuccessful. Since then, Wikia has made a number of offers for Bulbagarden, most recently in April 2010. All of them have been rejected in a rather emphatic fashion.
References
[edit]External links
[edit][[Category:Wiki communities]] [[Category:Pokémon]]