User blog:DimiTalen/Too early for my memoirs (6)

User:DimiTalen goes a long way. I started as a Wikipedia contributor and ended up creating portals on the Dutch-language Wikipedia. Then, my geofiction career began. I think, my career has been leading many of us through the wiki experience. This is why.

What happened
A short overview of what happened:
 * On Wikipedia, User:SPQRobin started the "Wikistad" proposal. The idea was to create a small town using a wikitable with different colors. Wikipedia users could buy a house and share some community activities. If there was a pub on the map, it would link to the forum. If there was a community house, it would link to the community portal. I call this model the simple community model.
 * My idea was to extend this model into a larger, more fictional model. There would be shops, in which people could "buy" the books that were available on Wikibooks. Let's call this the extended community model. It was realized partially on Wikipedia, where I built a bookstore. This model made its way to the Wikistad wiki, that was created in March 2007. Its importance? It led to an economy-centered wiki model.
 * Wikistad became a user-centered wiki-fictional economy:
 * user-centered because users, not fictional characters, defined the politics and economy;
 * wiki-fictional because in the beginning it was all very "wiki"-centered; not based on a universe parallel to the actual world;
 * economy, because it was the economy, stupid. The role politics played was to facilitate business, mostly.
 * This led to personal warfare. And it still does. In late 2007, I founded Wikination. I based it largely on Wikistad, but introduced some different elements. We started from scratch with a plan. As a result, it was less wiki-centered and more character-centered and based on descriptive articles. Wikistad was about founding companies and towns; Wikination was about describing and running them. The model gradually evolved to the mixed Nation model. It has proven the most successful. Factors in its success:
 * strong administrator leadership, especially in the beginning;
 * moderate "user dominions": some leaders had "authority" over areas, which they cultivated; whereas Wikistad has regional dictators, Wikination still had enlightened regional leaders, whose power depended on more democratic mechanisms;
 * a fixed frame: I and some others determined what our historic/geographic/ideologic frame was. Why was this so important? It spared Lovia the many personal whims. Less drama and gossip shit;
 * style and writing rules.
 * Then, some time ago they were other projects of mine. One of them was the State Wiki, originally a wiki by Yuri about communism. We then turned it into another geofiction wiki. Three nations on one fictional island. The model had changed again: this was the pure descriptive fictional model. Since only me and Medve made it, users were unimportant. It was all about describing your country: history, religious demographics, election history, parties, towns, etc. I very much liked this idea.
 * Another project was the Postapo Wiki (the name stands for "post-apocalyptic"). The idea was that a world epidemic had killed the entire world population, with the exception of some regional population groups. To keep it small, we decided to only describe the Low Countries and Northern France, until we had reached a high level. The model was practically the same - the pure descriptive fictional model, although there was a bit less describing and more policy-making. We abandoned both wikis until some of you guys discovered them. They're in ruins now, in my opinion. The reason: they now lack what Lovia still has: fixed frames and an authority that enforces them.

So
'''The trend is clear: we moved from a 100% community-based model to a 99% descriptive model. Wikination is the only wiki which has survived the rocking waves of human curiosity and whimsicality.'''

For some curious reason, I am the only one who began at the start of a great project, and who's still running it. Wikipedia (Wikistad; moved to Wikia) - Wikistad (failed after I left) - various translations (most of them failed) - Wikination - various other projects (most of them failed). Llamada wiki I have not taken into account. It was never a project by one of the original Wikistad people. It's a wikikids project - and a successful one, it seems.

If you ever want a geofiction wiki that works, there's two maxims to take into account:
 * 1) You need an authority that sets a frame and will watch it for the next so many years;
 * 2) You should do it in a language that has enough native and non-native speakers. This is the only reason that landj.wikia.com didn't do that well: there was authority, but the Limburgish community is small, and there are no non-native speakers. Wikination attracted exactly those people: non-natives. This was part of the key to our success.

Pessimism?
Why so pessimistic about the success of these wikis, you could ask.

Don't companies need structure and leadership? They need a clearly-defined model in which authority is given to somebody or to some organ. All wikis which neglect this rule, are destined to suffer from "civil wars", "mob-like feuds" or simply neglect.