My thoughts on NIWA

[sdp]

I've been following NIWA since it launched and thought it was an interesting idea. Now that I've seen how much its grown in the past year I thought I'd share some of my thoughts.

First I feel too many wikis are joining NIWA and they don't offer much, if NIWA will allow any Nintendo wiki as long as its independent then I guess its ok but lets look at the quality of the "Founding" wikis. Bulbapedia, Mariowiki, and Zeldawiki are extensive encyclopedias of said franchises. You look at some of the other ones and they are severely lacking. Now I realize that Pokemon/Mario/Zelda are Nintendo's Big 3 franchises that have the biggest audience/content/fandom as reasons of them being so big, heck I list them in that order since Zeldawiki as great as it is doesn't have the level of content as Bulbapedia or even Mariowiki. I mean I do hope NIWA would allow the other wikis to eventually grow as right now many of them consist of mostly stubs and not a lot of content. I think before joining they should have a certain amount of content. Like most here I'm a Nintendo fanboy and would love to have say a Kid Icarus wiki but if there just isn't a fandom or content to support it then it maybe shouldn't be its own independent wiki until it is if not NIWA will end up being just 3 big wikis with a bunch of mostly dead wikis.


Now my main reason for this topic is as of right now all NIWA is just a glorified affiliate links section. I believe NIWA can be so much more. Theres quite a bit of overlapping articles between all the NIWA wikis, pretty much all of them besides the franchise that doesn't have a N64 game all have an article about Nintendo 64 and other examples like that one without even counting the overlapping from that Smash Bros causes. NIWA should really be a network and not just an affiliate link system with a fancy name. I think all wikis should be linking to each other for those articles, I noticed just a few seconds ago that Bulbapedia is already doing this, if you search for Mario/Link/Kirby etc it re-directs you to those respective wikis. All other wikis should be doing the same redirecting or at the very least give a direct link with "For more information on X go here". Only problems I'd see is some Smash Bros stuff and Donkey Kong since it wouldn't be fair to Mariowiki to give up their hard work on their DK articles.

Anyways I also think NIWA should start its own wiki on this website, it'd be a general wiki about Nintendo which would include articles on all their systems and other franchises. This way all the NIWA wikis could link to that wikis article on N64 instead of all of them having their own. It would also give other Nintendo franchises a chance at being on a independent wiki, I'm talking about smaller franchises like Wave Race and Pilotwings and even bigger ones like F-Zero and Kid Icarus. They are awesome franchises but really aren't big enough to carry their own wiki, and if they ever did they could always branch out of NIWA if say Kid Icarus makes a Metroid like comeback.

Anyways those are just my thoughts/suggestions on what I think NIWA should be heading for, I think NIWA is a great idea and it'd be awesome to have an extensive all-Nintendo Encyclopedia online through joint wikis. I'd love to be help NIWA beyond editing articles in the future since it'd be nice to see NIWA grow.

[tacopill]

WikiBound actually is working on an sidebar linking system, but you need to be logged in for it to work, at the moment.

I recommend you check it out:

• SSBB
• Ness
• Mother
  

[Axiomist]

Alright, I'm going to spill it, we've been in the process of building a collective property wiki, but with the people stretched pretty thin, we haven't given it a launch yet. It's been in the works since NIWA's early days, and will launch in a month or so. Anyway, like I said, we've been stretching out more than before NIWA existed. So we're still learning the ropes and all that. I want WiKirby to do as you said and have tight relations with all of the other wikis. So far WiKirby's role has been to help others with wiki templates and tools. When I made the "Ambassador" rank on WiKirby, I intended for it to be something that would allow user x from wiki y to properly link to articles related to their subject matter. I still need to get people to fill the roles tho.


Edit to not double post: I also agree with you that a minimum fixed amount of content should be a prerequisite here. In my opinion, startups should follow a process of Affiliation to Member; with minimal requirements for each step of the way.

[KidIcarus]

While NIWA may seem like nothing more than a forum and a link-exchange organization, there is a whole lot more going on behind the scenes. As Axiomist mentioned, there is the collaboration project that has been in the works. Furthermore, it's hard to understand how important the Wiki References board is until you're on the other side of the fence editing a wiki rather than visiting one.

Most importantly though, it gives the people in charge of the wikis a sense of security. Without the support of NIWA, I'm sure many more of the start-up wikis (or even Wikia departures) would have failed. I'm not saying there haven't been any failures, because there have (Ace Attorney, Fantendo). But it sure is hard for one person to convince a wiki like Smash Wiki to go independent. And it's very hard to set the framework for a developing wiki without any help.

[Tucayo]

The MW is working on a template to link to other wikis

[SnorlaxMonster]

Now my main reason for this topic is as of right now all NIWA is just a glorified affiliate links section. I believe NIWA can be so much more. Theres quite a bit of overlapping articles between all the NIWA wikis, pretty much all of them besides the franchise that doesn't have a N64 game all have an article about Nintendo 64 and other examples like that one without even counting the overlapping from that Smash Bros causes. NIWA should really be a network and not just an affiliate link system with a fancy name. I think all wikis should be linking to each other for those articles, I noticed just a few seconds ago that Bulbapedia is already doing this, if you search for Mario/Link/Kirby etc it re-directs you to those respective wikis. All other wikis should be doing the same redirecting or at the very least give a direct link with "For more information on X go here". Only problems I'd see is some Smash Bros stuff and Donkey Kong since it wouldn't be fair to Mariowiki to give up their hard work on their DK articles.

I've been working on many NIWA wikis (especially Bulbapedia) to have them all interlink. That is why I made those SSB character redirects and added all those external links on console pages on Bulbapedia. I've been finding sections about references to other series and providing interwiki links, and I recommend others do the same. This strengthens the bonds between NIWA, and beats linking to Wikipedia tenfold. I hope that the interwiki method WikiBound is using can be transferred to the other wikis easily (or at least Lylat Wiki which also uses Vector).

Ideally, every NIWA wiki should have a link to every other one as part of an article (not just as an affiliate link). Wars Wiki has the most trouble here, because it doesn't cross over very often, if at all, but it does have SSB stickers.

Oh, and Mario actually doesn't redirect you on Bulbapedia, there is a character page there, with a note at the top.

[tacopill]

Lylat Wiki has the system, and i plan on implementing it at FEW when i get permission from their wiki.


I hope every wiki can use the system, but unforgeable i don't think it will work with some wiki's default skins. For example, StrategyWiki uses a custom skin that, according to Moy.dow , won't work with the system. It will work on the wiki for user's who choose monobook or vector; but in doing so, any BlueCloud specific templates will look odd.

Anyway, i thank you for using the system SnorlaxMonster.

[Moydow]

What Tacopill says is true; as far as I can tell, the BlueCloud skin may not work with a sidebar-based link system. I haven't tried it; the Toolbox to the right can be expanded, at least page-by-page. The usual system with partner wikis is to add a "This wiki has more info on..." box to the guide's main page, and link templates for individual links within guides. However, judging by this ABXY Forum post, it seems Prod wants to add wikis as partners, similarly to the existing system with Bulbapedia, WiKirby and ZeldaWiki, before doing this.

[tacopill]

Wait, does this mean he doesn't consider us partners already?

[Moydow]

I'm sure he does, but it seems to me he wants a connection beyond fellow NIWA membership before adding the same templates the existing partner wikis have. I'm not entirely sure what he means, you'd have to ask him yourself.

[tacopill]

Alright, was curious. I sometimes see him around skype, maybe i can get Lylat Wiki and WikiBound can get on this deal.

[Garrett]

StrategyWiki is going to be updated with a new, sleeker skin which has no sidebar or toolbox in the traditional sense, so linking to other wikis in that way isn't going to be an option. While not everything is definite at the moment I expect that we will be continuing to use interwiki boxes for this purpose as well as the usual in-line links to characters and so forth as appropriate.

Each of the wikis is already linked to from the box on the main page; Prod plans on establishing individual contact with the wikis to make each arrangement feel personal, just like the pre-NIWA ones. It will also help identify how we can best link to each other and what special templates might be needed to make linking easier (like the existing Bulbapedia ones for moves and Pokémon names, which simplify Bulbapedia's naming structure). Prod might be able to explain things more if you can manage to catch him between intensive sessions of tweaking the new skin and whatever else he's doing to make this update a reality, but that's the gist of it.

[tacopill]

cool. I am loving the new skin, by the way. 

And I don't suppose there is room in the top or bottom bars for page specific content, is there?