We're back!

From Zelda Wiki.org

We're back! --Jase 11:48, 17 June 2007 (PDT)

Sorry about the downtime - there was a freak traffic increase of some sort that overloaded the server and got us shut down for a little while ;)... but we're back, and with some other interesting news as well!

Before and during the time while ZW.org was down, I was contacted by somebody named Angela Beesley. For those of you who have never heard of her, she is the co-founder of Wikia, the other co-founder of whom is the man who founded Wikipedia. And, for those of you who have never heard of Wikia, it is a very, VERY large network of wikis all hosted by one company.

So, because you guys do such an awesome job making such an awesome wiki, Angela was quite interested in, well, seeing it perhaps move to Wikia. But not just that - she was also interested in merging ZW.org with Wikia's already existing Zelda Wiki, which many of you probably know about, have visited, or currently edit on. So, it sounded like a good deal at first, and very flattering as well, plus beneficial due to the increase in articles ZW.org would get from merging with Wikia's Zelda Wiki.

Of course, not all things are so simple and so great, and in the end myself and the other owners of ZW.org who I were able to contact and talk to a bit couldn't see the advantage: Our wiki and theirs, although compatible, would take a TON of work (possibly a whole community) to merge together. On top of that, the promised increase in traffic did not justify this insane amount of work, nor did it justify actually having to move the wiki to Wikia, where we'd all lose control over the site, as well as ownership of the site. Wikia refers to their wikis AS "their" wikis - and that doesn't work well with what ZW.org really stands for, and that's not being TRULY owned by anybody. But, obviously, as the technical owner of the domain I had to make some sort of decision, and in the end, with the input of the other owners and some friends, it was unanimously decided not to move to Wikia or to merge with Wikia's Zelda Wiki.

And, as a side note, I'm not even sure if Angela ever spoke with the owner of Wikia's Zelda Wiki! In any case, I found this whole ordeal very interesting, and quite flattering, because now we have concrete proof that you people have made a wiki that's truly unique and valuable, not just to the people who edit it, but to the big, corporate people in the sky, and to the many, many people who visit every day and probably love this place more than I do. And it's because of that that I will never make the decision to sell this site for profit - even if Angela had asked me to sell it for thousands (God forbid), I feel that it would be a betrayal of the users on this wiki to sell it to someone else unless absolutely necessary for the wiki to function. And even then, I couldn't just pick anyone, and I wouldn't dare do it without the help and support of the people who really own this site - the owners of the Zelda sites that use the wiki, and the users that edit the wiki.

So, enough philosophy - back to editing and having fun. ;)

~ Jase.