WikiFur

2008-05-11T00:19:39Z

78.16.46.156:

[[Image:Wiki.png|right|WikiFur]]
'''WikiFur''' is a website dedicated to the collection and preservation of information about the furry [[:Category:Community|community]] and [[:Category:Culture|culture]]. It is built by contributions from readers - anyone can edit the site, and their changes are reflected immediately. Over 8,000 articles have been started as of September 2007, and active translation/localization efforts exist in [[:cs:|Czech]], [[:de:|German]], [[:fr:|French]] and [[:pt:Portuguese]].

:''For more information about how WikiFur works, see '''[[WikiFur:About]]'''''

*'''Addresses''':
**'''Web site''': wikifur.com -> http://furry.wikia.com/
**'''LiveJournal''': http://community.livejournal.com/wikifur/
*FUKKEN FURRIES
Exclusion of a person from WikiFur (as authorized by the consensus of the community) is typically implemented through locking the page about them with a [[:Template:Protected-Excluded|short message]]. It is also possible to for administrators to implement a limited editing system, such that only administrators and the person concerned may edit an article.

==== Examples ====

* Non-notable artists and other fans are usually removed on request without comment, although some have been convinced to watch the page or to turn the page into a personally-controllable page
* Notable people, including some "famous" artists, entertainers and members of the fandom who have caused controversy are opened to debate, and in some cases certain information is moved to relevant pages before exclusion is applied
* Extremely notable people are unlikely to receive full exclusion of the page about them, though some particularly decidedly personal information may be removed
* A person's real name and location is usually allowed to be removed without question, although there are cases in which even this has not been granted even after debate (the prime example of this is [[Sibe]])
* Removal of a person's name from an article that is not specifically about them is generally only permitted if their identity is not important - for example, the name of [[Talk:Further Confusion/Eyes of the Night|a person who bought a painting for $10,000 at auction]] was not considered important since the issue was the price of the painting
* Articles about comics and other public works are not subject for removal even if the author requests it, as they are not "personal information" - some artists have [[Talk:Guardian Knights|contended that their work is "not furry"]], but as they are on WikiFur because they are ''of interest'' to furry fans, this is not considered a valid reason either

=== Bias ===

There is an ever-present danger of bias on WikiFur. The most notable bias is due to the fact that most editors (and all of the most dedicated members) are members of the furry fandom, and the majority are likely to have a positive opinion of it. This can lead to accusations that articles are biased towards the furry fandom's position - and sometimes these accusations are accurate.

There is also little to stop people adding overly-positive information about things they like, or overly-negative (sometimes even downright malicious) information about things they do not like. Such information may or may not be removed by others when it is added; either way, it can cause controversy. Arguments are typically solved by removal of unsourced information, the provision of references, or (in the case of opinion) specific attribution of statements. Sometimes it is suggested that the relative proportions of content that is present in an article may itself put the topic in a [[Wikipedia:False light|false light]] - the usual answer to this is to suggest that the person complaining about it fix it by adding other relevant information.

Some people believe WikiFur can never be a reliable source of information. Despite this, WikiFur '''is''' perceived by some to be a more reliable source than others on contentious topics that it covers<ref name="Starfinder_Beware">[http://community.livejournal.com/artists_beware/90313.html?thread=1638089#t1638089 Comment about WikiFur] in regards to [[Starfinder]] by [[Darkwolven]] in [[artists_beware]], 9 August 2006</ref>, and it has been praised for its attempts to provide useful information while avoiding bias.<ref name="nothingkat">[http://nothingkat.livejournal.com/49215.html?thread=446271#t446271 Praise for WikiFur's attempts at avoiding bias] by [[nothingkat]]</ref><ref name="barona">[http://barona.livejournal.com/6037.html?thread=21653#t21653 Comment on the use of WikiFur] by [[Chris F. Grant]]</ref>

=== Vandalism ===

Like many furry forums and sites which allow comments, WikiFur has its share of vandals. However, since it is a simple matter to return to a previous state, most vandalism is reverted within minutes. The members of [[4chan]]'s ''/b/'' board took particular interest in the site, and regularly organized raids until August 2006.

Despite multiple attempts, no vandalism since Something Awful from any source has succeeded in disrupting WikiFur for more than a few hours - the worst case was a sophisticated account-registering bot that used the [[Wikipedia:Tor|Tor]] proxy system, which has since been blocked.

== Timeline ==

* '''July 23, 2005''': Conceived by [[GreenReaper]] when creating [[Wikipedia:The Blind Pig (fiction)|a Wikipedia article]] on [[The Blind Pig]].
* '''July 24, 2005''': WikiFur founded on [[Wikia:|Wikia]].
* '''July 31, 2005''': The first content pages began to appear.
* '''August 4, 2005''': GreenReaper wrote ''[[Wikipedia:Talk:Furry_fandom/Archive_2#WikiFur_-_a_home_for_the_furry_community|WikiFur - a home for the furry community]]'' on the talk page of Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:furry fandom|furry fandom]] page. Surprisingly (considering previous edits), there was no discussion, but a few people did join as a result.
* '''August 13, 2005''': With editing totaling around 50 pages, WikiFur was promoted with GreenReaper's ''[http://www.livejournal.com/community/furrtive/338319.html I Have a Dream]'' message, cross-posted to several [[LiveJournal]] communities (it was, perhaps appropriately, deleted from [[Yerf]]'s ;-). In a deserved burst of [[Wikipedia:Karma|bad karma]], the server went down and stayed down for hours.
* '''August 14, 2005''': Trolling [http://www.livejournal.com/community/fursecution/31428.html began], led by users from the [[fursecution]] [http://www.livejournal.com/community/fursecution/ LJ community] and [[Wikipedia:Encyclopedia Dramatica|Encyclopedia Dramatica]].
* '''August 15, 2005''': Shortly after midnight UK DST (or 19:00 EDT the day before), [[User:AshMCairo|AshMCairo]] [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1642602 posted about WikiFur] on the [[Something Awful]] forum. WikiFur was [http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=3132 subsequently selected] for the dubious honor of ''Awful Link of the Day'':
:''It should come as no surprise, but in case you were wondering: "yes". Yes, there is a Wiki for furries. Don't spam it up, if only out of respect for the wikipedia ideal.''
As a result, [http://furry.wikicities.com/webalizer/usage_200508.html a mass of users] hit the WikiFur servers. At the peak one edit was made every 45 seconds.
:''At first we thought it was just an extension of the previous trolling, but as I tried to record the IPs and figure out some sort of pattern, I saw they were all over the place. Our next thought was proxies, but even then, there were just too many edits. Finally a vandal posted the URL while making an edit, and so we found out exactly what happened. Then we got chosen as Awful Link of the Day . . . ''
:''I drafted several sysops from those trying to revert the edits, and we slowly beat back the tide. By about 14:00 EDT we had a reasonable handle on things, although edits were still coming thick and fast. Ironically, it probably helped us far more than it hurt, considering how many users it brought into the site, but it was hectic at the time!'' --{{UT|GreenReaper}}
*'''August 20, 2005''': Within the first week of openly promoting WikiFur, it had grown 32 times over, and there were over 1600 pages and 646 full articles on the site. Statistically, there was a new edit every 2 minutes, and a new page added every 20 minutes.
*'''August 21, 2005''': A [[Wikipedia:WikiFur|WikiFur article]] was created on Wikipedia by an anonymous user, and almost [[Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion/WikiFur|immediately submitted to Votes for Deletion]] on grounds of non-notability. Nobody actually at WikiFur heard about this until later in the week. The majority of votes (including those by WikiFur admins) were for delete, due to unproven notability.
*'''August 23, 2005''': Passed 750 article pages.
*'''August 25, 2005''': Passed 850 article pages and 10000 edits.
*'''August 28, 2005''': Passed 1000 articles pages in the early hours of the morning, [[:Image:1000 Articles.png|minor celebrations]] are held.
*'''October 30, 2005''': The [[WikiFur Furry Central|main page]] and [[WikiFur:Community Central|Community Central]] were redesigned (and the latter renamed) to celebrate the creation of WikiFur's 2000th article page.
*'''November 18-20, 2005''': WikiFur was [[User:GreenReaper/Con reports/Midwest FurFest 2005#WikiFur at the con|promoted]] at [[Midwest FurFest]] 2005, using a [http://www.greenreaper.co.uk/wikifur/WikiFur%20leaflet.pdf leaflet] written and distributed by GreenReaper, and printed with tweaks by [[Duncan da Husky]]
*'''December 1, 2005''': WikiFur pipped [[StarWars:|Wookieepedia]] to becoming December's [[w:Featured Wikicity#WikiFur|featured wikicity]].<ref>From the [[StarWars:Wookieepedia_talk:Community_Portal/Archive7#Featured_Wikicity|Star Wars talk page]]:
:Maybe we can try to vote for Wookieepedia to make it the next month's featured Wikicity? [[w:Featured Wikicity/vote]] [[StarWars:User:Sikon|Sikon]] <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[StarWars:User talk:Sikon|Talk]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> 18:15, 5 Nov 2005 (UTC)
:* Almost there... Just a few more votes to beat WikiFur, pleease! - [[StarWars:User:Sikon|Sikon]] <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[StarWars:User talk:Sikon|Talk]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> 15:20, 24 Nov 2005 (UTC)
:**If you only knew the ''power'' of the [[WikiFur Furry Central|furry side]] . . . why not join us, and we can rule together as WookieFur! --[[User:GreenReaper|GreenReaper]] 09:40, 27 Nov 2005 (UTC)
:***Nnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! --[[StarWars:User:Azizlight|Azizlight]] 09:41, 27 Nov 2005 (UTC)
:***We...we actually lost? '''''To furries?!''''' God help us. *echos Azizlight* [[StarWars:User:MarcK|--MarcK]] [[StarWars:User talk:MarcK|[talk]]] 05:48, 2 Dec 2005 (UTC)</ref>
*'''December 13, 2005''': WikiFur passed 2400 articles.
*'''December 30, 2005''': The 2500th article page begun.
*'''January 15, 2006''': 2600th article mark reached.
*'''February 5, 2006''': 2800th article.
*'''February 11, 2006''': [[WikiFur:Advertising|Advertising]] begins with [[Wikipedia:AdSense|Google AdSense]].
*'''February 21, 2006''': 2900 articles reached.
*'''March 27, 2006''': Because of [http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Wikicities_relaunches_as_Wikia#Out_of_curiosity confusion around the name (are they wikis about cities?) and a desire for a better name to reflect that they are not just another wiki community], WikiFur's host changed from Wikicities to Wikia. WikiFur's URL changes accordingly to http://furry.wikia.com (though the old address still works as well).
*'''April 1, 2006''': WikiFur underwent a [http://furry.wikia.com/index.php?title=WikiFur_Furry_Central&oldid=49382 short seasonal alteration].
*'''April 23, 2006''': 3500 articles reached.
*'''June 13, 2006''': WikiFur [[News:TurriWiki links with WikiFur|partners with]] Finnish-language furry wiki [[Turriwiki]].
*'''June 16, 2006''': First [[WikiFur:WikiFur Meetup|WikiFur Meetup]] was held at [[Anthrocon 2006]]. Around 25 furs attended.
*'''June 21, 2006''': 4000 articles reached.
*'''June 29, 2006''': WikiFur was referenced in [[Animal Passions]] [http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A28606], a [[Wikipedia:Pittsburgh City Paper|Pittsburgh City Paper]] article covering [[Anthrocon 2006]].
*'''July 24, 2006''': WikiFur [http://community.livejournal.com/wikifur/36552.html celebrated its first birthday], having just passed 4400 articles.
*'''September 20, 2006''': 5000 articles reached.
*'''November 8, 2006''': [[/Wikipedia version|Wikipedia's article about WikiFur]] is [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/WikiFur (2nd nomination)|deleted again]]
*'''December 17, 2006''': 6000 articles reached.
*'''February 17, 2007''': [[WikiFur:WikiFur News|WikiFur News]] launches.
*'''March 8, 2007''': [[:fr:|French version of WikiFur]] [[News:WikiFur launches French version|is founded]] by [[RainRat]]
*'''May 10, 2007''': 7000 articles reached.
*'''July 10, 2007''': 7500 articles reached.
*'''August 14, 2007''': [[:cs:|Czech version]] is founded by [[Xkun]].
*'''September 25, 2007''': 8000 articles reached.
*'''October 28, 2007''': [[:de:|German version]] [[News:WikiFur launches in German|is founded]] by [[O'wolf]] (technically a couple of months before - this is when edits and content started appearing).
*'''February 7, 2008''': [[:pt:|Portugese version]] is founded by [[Ekevu]].
*'''March 30, 2008''': [http://tinyurl.com/2rtopk OVER 9000] articles.
*'''April 1, 2008''': [[:Image:WikiFurFrontPage1April2008.png|Front page vandalism]]

== Interesting facts ==

* What was the first content page? [[Sibe]]! [[Uncle Kage]] followed three hours later. :-)
** [[Image:Censor_panda_nyr_button.png|right|Nyra button]] The first ''non''-content page was the [[WikiFur:About|about page]] ([http://furry.wikia.com/index.php?title=WikiFur:About&oldid=2 initial version]), while the first image was the [[:Image:Censor_panda_nyr_button.png|Nyra button]] from [[Mab]]'s [[Censorship Pandas]]. The very first edit was a reduction of [http://furry.wikia.com/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Lastmodifiedby&oldid=1 MediaWiki:Lastmodifiedby].
* WikiFur was not the first time the concept of a wiki for the furry community was raised - one was [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.lifestyle.furry/browse_frm/thread/41d3c0b95e66c60f/d8b09a18e03b8ce8 suggested] by [[David Cooke]] in 2001 on [[alt.lifestyle.furry]]
* WikiFur is a member of the 2006 ''Recommended Anthropomorphics List'' published by the [[Ursa Major Awards]] (listed under "Recommended Anthropomorphic Miscellany")

== Quotes about WikiFur ==

* ''WikiFur? Furry has to take everything and make a down-syndrome version of it.'' -- [[Chuckles]] on [[HLM]]
* ''Furries have the worst case of [[Wikipedia:Manifest Destiny|Manifest Destiny]] ever.'' -- [[Spiral Cut Mink]]
* ''Someone recently told me about the WikiFur Central project. It's a wikicity on furryism, basically. It's pretty crappy and a perversion of what Wikipedia is supposed to be about, but that's not really my point.'' -- [[J]] of [[God Hates Furries]]
* ''Thank you very much, Wiki moderators. As to my drinking, this is indefensible, and you have my abject apologies. I find of late that I have very little choice in the matter of expressing emotions. When I browse WikiFur I can either drink, or I can weep. And drinking is so much more subtle.'' -- [[McGroarty]] in a shout on [[HLM MUCK]]
* ''[[Special:Allpages]] has its pages ranked into sections for listing. They should make the results a slogan. "Wikifur: From [[2]] to [[Zoophilia]]." Eh? EH? :)'' -- [[Crassus]]
* ''I first cringed at the thought of a furry wikipedia roaming on the net. I figured it to be a rather one-sided "don't talk about the bad, only use it as a propaganda site to make furries look good" website. What I found it to be instead was a rather well done unbiased encyclopedia on the fandom.''<ref name="nothingkat" /> -- [[nothingkat]]
* ''Please do not take offence, but this site [[fursuit|featured article]] scares me. It is a person dressed in an animal costume sitting on a couch.'' -- [[Wikia:User:Makon|Makon]], on the WikiFur nomination for [[Wikia:Featured Wikia#WikiFur|Featured Wikicity]]
** ''OOH! Shakespeare wrote about some of them in [[Wikipedia:A Midsummer Night's Dream|Midsummer Night's Dream]].'' - [[Wikia:User:Robin Patterson|Robin Patterson]], in reply
*''I had no idea that furry culture was this big! Wow, this is really a nice community. :3'' -- [[User:The LP|The LP]]
*''Wikifur is definitely one of the fix-stars on the furry sky ;)'' -- [[User:Toumal|Toumal]]
*''It's a field crowded with high-quality entries, but WikiFur's emergence and growth after a smear campaign makes it uniquely qualified to receive attention, methinks.''<ref name="Wikia feature" /> -- [[Tom Howling]] voting for WikiFur as a Featured Wikicity
*''Somewhere else in this thread somebody posted a link to the furry wiki. As of so far, this is the only even handed thing I have seen posted here regarding Starfinder as it reports the allegations, doesn't claim them as truth and provides information on what to do. How hard is that?''<ref name="Starfinder_Beware" /> -- [[Darkwolven]] comparing WikiFur to [[artists_beware]]
*''WikiFur was definitely useful, I would have spent months gathering information without it. Feh on that! I was also glad to see that it seemed to maintain a rather evenhanded point of view overall; considering how factionalized FF can be that can be difficult. One man's fair is another man's controversy...''<ref name="barona" /> -- [[Chris F. Grant]]

== Related terms ==

* The term 'Wikifur' (sometimes inter-capped as WikiFur, also [[:Category:Wikifurries|Wikifurry]]/WikiFurry) is also used to describe a frequent contributor of WikiFur, much like 'Wikipedian' is used to describe a frequent contributor of Wikipedia
* A WikiFur [[:Category:People|page about a person]] is sometimes (incorrectly) referred to as "a wiki" or "my wiki", in the same way that people refer to "my LiveJournal" or "my MySpace"; this usage is not endorsed by regular editors

== References ==
<references />

== See also ==
* [[Wikipedia:WikiFur|WikiFur]] at Wikipedia

== External links ==

* Statistics:
** [[Special:Statistics|Local wiki statistics]] ('''note:''' page views and user count wildly inaccurate due to caching and global Wikia user database)
** [http://wikia.com/wikistats/EN/TablesWikiaFURRY.htm Wikia statistics]
** [https://www.google.com/analytics/home/report?rid=52980 Google Analytics reports] ([https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount Google account] and [[User talk:GreenReaper|prior authorization]] required)

[[Category:Websites]][[Category:Community]][[Category:WikiFur]][[Category:2005 births]]

[[cs:WikiFur]]
[[de:WikiFur]]
[[fi:WikiFur]]

WikiFur - User contributions [en]

WikiFur