Doom Wiki

[Quasar]

If you're a Doom Wiki user be sure to weigh in/make your opinion known here as well:
http://tinyurl.com/23942lg

As Manc states above, he has volunteered to host the new wiki on Mancunet. I can't think of any logical objection to this, and his hosting is about as good as any you're going to find that doesn't involve buying your own optical lines and building your own server farm with venture capital startup money :P

[Abyssalstudios1]

I'm all in favor of a fork. Perhaps some notices on the main page and popular pages to alert new users of this fork would be nice.

[Quasar]

Abyssalstudios1 said:

I'm all in favor of a fork. Perhaps some notices on the main page and popular pages to alert new users of this fork would be nice.

Other wikis have experienced problems putting these up. Wikia staff are calling them vandalism and banning people who try to maintain them.

[Abyssalstudios1]

Maybe some "external links" at the bottom? A list of popular Doom sites, and the New Doom Wiki could be one of them.

[hervoheebo]

Well, would it be better to try to get the old wiki shut down? I don't know wikia's policies on this but I'd imagine that if there's a semi-large wiki with no visitors, they'd lose interest in keeping it up in hope of ad revenue.

Would mean that the community has to cease support of the old one and only provide links to the new one. You could acknowledge the old wiki but not recommend it, unlike wikia who seemingly try to censure any info about possible migration(s).

[Gez]

hervoheebo said:

Well, would it be better to try to get the old wiki shut down?

Not possible. All you'd achieve is warn Wikia that there's a fork, and they then be on the lookout for links from the old to the new to remove.

What might be possible, though, would be that, when an article is improved or destubbed on the new wiki, then its equivalent on wikia could have a "For more information, see the New Doom Wiki" infobox added, kinda like the one used on ZDoom. (Example of article with said infobox.)

That or another bullet point in the "External link" section, which is less intrusive.

Something worth thinking about, too, would be "rebranding" the wiki so that it seems less like a direct competitor. I don't know, maybe "Idtech Wiki" since there's quite a lot of material on non-Doom games such as Heretic, Hexen, Hacx, Strife, Chex Quest etc.

[printz]

Gez said:

I don't know, maybe "Idtech Wiki" since there's quite a lot of material on non-Doom games such as Heretic, Hexen, Hacx, Strife, Chex Quest etc.

That would leave Doom 3 (and 4...) out. Granted, they're still idTech games, but then so are Quake 2 and 3 which aren't related to Doom. Now I'm not sure what little of a fanbase Doom 3 still has, but I sure love it.

[Gez]

printz said:

That would leave Doom 3 (and 4...) out. Granted, they're still idTech games

Exactly.

[Janizdreg]

After reading through this thread I can say that I now fully agree with the migration/fork idea, and I would love to see the fork hosted on Manc's server. The fork needs a catchier and more memorable name than "idtech Wiki" though. Maybe something like "Doom Database".

And yes, I'd like to see some non-intrusive links at the current wiki pointing to the new fork, and I really don't support the idea of vandalizing or deleting stuff on the current wiki. Actually I like the idea of having a corporate-sponsored and secure backup of the database, as it can save the content from being wiped out in case Manc's server and backups get destroyed in a hurricane or whatever other disasters independently hosted websites can die in.

Also, the current brown color scheme of the Doom Wiki can be altered if you dislike it. If anyone wants to give designing a new color scheme a shot, you can do so at the theme designer wiki. Just post a screenshot of your color scheme here and I can replicate it using Doom Wiki's own theme designer tool.

Another thing that sucks about the current look is the horrible logo, which I made because the old (much better) logo didn't fit into the new skin. If anyone is willing to draw a new logo, it should be a PNG image sized 250px × 65px, it should include Doom Wiki's traditional mascot Hissy and preferably not include any copyrighted graphics.

[Quasar]

Probably would have been nice to know about this name change idea before I bought the domain names. I already have doomwiki.org, doomwiki.net, and doomwiki.info which are ready to be directed to the site once it's up. If it's not called Doom Wiki that's going to be kind of odd now. Not any sort of showstopper of course, and out of ideas so far I like Janizdreg's the most. It has alliteration going for it.

[Janizdreg]

The best thing about the fork having a unique name would probably be the fact that then we wouldn't have to directly compete with Wikia's version in Google rankings and such. Which would probably be quite useful especially during the fork's early lifespan.

EDIT:

Also, IMHO, before we start doing further practical work on the fork project, we should thoroughly discuss and plan the idea to avoid rushed decisions.

EDIT2:

Oh, and the second best thing about a unique fork name could be that it would simply prevent confusion, especially with seeing two identically named article links while searching for Doom stuff on Google or whatever search engine.

[Sharessa]

I don't know if this helps, but has anyone thought of Wikispaces? My friends and I use that for our D&D campaigns. It seems to hold some fairly good sized wikis, though I have no idea how, uh...commercial it is, or if it's compatible with the wikia format. Just a suggestion, if anyone is willing to look into this.

[Janizdreg]

Further fork names that just popped into my head are "Doom Encyclopedia" and "Doom Dictionary". Although my personal opinion is that "Doom Database" sounds less boring and rolls off the tongue better.

[Fredrik]

Wikia used to be cool.

I'm all in favor of a move.

[Blzut3]

Can I re-suggest registering doomengine.com?

[LexiMax]

Doompedia

.com is taken, .net and .org are available though.

by the way, use domaintyper.com to check url's quickly.

[Janizdreg]

How about we gather these fork name ideas for the duration of this weekend and then attach a poll on those ideas to this thread, and after maybe a week pick the one the community prefers as a whole?

EDIT: Doompedia I do kind of like, but then again it can't be shortened like Doom Database can (ie. doomdb.com, which seems to be available too).

[Quasar]

AlexMax said:

Doompedia

.com is taken, .net and .org are available though.

by the way, use domaintyper.com to check url's quickly.

So we can be like Bulbapedia, classy.

Janizdreg said:

How about we gather these fork name ideas for the duration of this weekend and then attach a poll on those ideas to this thread, and after maybe a week pick the one the community prefers as a whole?

EDIT:
Ok then. My first entry for the poll is "DoomWiki.org". It's simple, to the point, keeps the fact it's a wiki explicit, and it keeps its connection to the original firm while not being the same name ("The Doom Wiki").

Here's a logo mockup:

[exp(x)]

wikiforagamethatcameoutinninetyninetythree.com

[Spleen]

I agree that doomwiki.org/net is the best, because the top priority with regards to choosing a name should be beating Doom Wikia in search rankings.

[Mr. T]

Cacopedia

[Solarn]

Mr. T said:

Cacopedia

My vote goes to this.

[esselfortium]

Doomwiki.org sounds best to me, both because the name works, it'd be good for search engine results (people are more likely to search "doom wiki" than they would "cacopedia" or whatever), and like Spleen says, it'd be likely to overtake the Wikia one in searches and thus make an overall migration smoother.

[Graf Zahl]

How about renaming the Wikia one to Cacopedia? That'd be the kind of sabotage that's hard to fight... :D

[esselfortium]

Graf Zahl said:

How about renaming the Wikia one to Cacopedia? That'd be the kind of sabotage that's hard to fight... :D

If we're playing it that way, why stop there? How about "Cocopodia" :3

[Graf Zahl]

Nah, 'branding' the Wikia wiki with a name that has some justification would be some perverse kind of fun at least.

[RTC_Marine]

wikiaboutdoom ;)

[Solarn]

I agree with Graf Zahl's idea. That way, people searching for "doom wiki" wouldn't be more likely to chance upon the Wikia one than the new one (less likely even, if we erase all mentions of a "doom wiki" from the Wikia one, but sneak in a few on the new one) and it's not even vandalism, it's legitimate rebranding.

And Cacopedia just sounds better.

[printz]

Establishing a new wiki ground because the old one was inconvenient is a good idea. Pissing on the old one as well -- that is immature.

EDIT: so ok, if cacopedia is named as such for search optimization. But vandalizing it for the hell of it is stupid.

EDIT EDIT before the fellow comes in that "it was never mentioned": yeah, but I did see some thin hints about it. GZ does look like wanting to damage it, I'd say.

[hervoheebo]

I think the new wiki should be marketed as Doomworld's "official" wiki, I didn't know for a long time that the Doom Wiki was essentially DW's. It would help getting visits, as DW is a venerable site, and pretty much "the" Doom site to go to nowadays and the odd newcomer wiki would get more believability. Also maybe some level of integration with /idgames, if possible - links to the WAD's page in the doom wiki where appropriate, for example.