Fan Wiki's are not trustworthy

[powerjake]

Those Fan wiki's for comics, cartoons, movies, anime, and video games anyone can contribute to and anyone can edit. The pages can be edited at any time, by anyone, to insert any random content even including forcing fanon opinions or delete any content whatsoever, and such edits could easily cause the article you’re looking at to contain a lot of misinformation. I find it annoying when people who create and edit fan wiki's claim if something is non-canon they have nothing to back of their claim and its more of their own opinion.

I prefer official book encyclopedia's for fictional series from official companies over inconsistent Wiki's made by fans.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Well, yeah.

 

[powerjake]

Well, yeah.

It can be like a war of peoples edits which can get really annoying. Does not help how in fighting between the members happens alot as it can get out of hand.

 

[Low Spark of Lyman]

And that's what administrators are for, or at least good ones: to inspect articles and weed out "any random content", among other improvements.

As for official encyclopedias (of any kind, not just books)- while I can see your point, a few advantages I can think of wikis are being up to date in real time (assuming they're under good hands, of course) and providing an option for those things that don't get enough attention to even consider an official encyclopedia.

 

[powerjake]

And that's what administrators are for, or at least good ones: to inspect articles and weed out "any random content", among other improvements.

As for official encyclopedias (of any kind, not just books)- while I can see your point, a few advantages I can think of wikis are being up to date in real time (assuming they're under good hands, of course) and providing an option for those things that don't get enough attention to even consider an official encyclopedia.

Even official encyclopedia websites from companies are better than any fan wiki. True those fan wiki's have administrators as it does help but chances are rogue fans can cause lots of vandalism.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

I usually take what I see in a fan wiki with a massive grain of salt.

 

[powerjake]

I usually take what I see in a fan wiki with a massive grain of salt.

That makes sense because strangers can edit pages anytime.

 

[Low Spark of Lyman]

Even official encyclopedia websites from companies are better than any fan wiki.

Care to share any examples of official encyclopedia websites? And what of franchises that don't have even that?

True those fan wiki's have administrators as it does help but chances are rogue fans can cause lots of vandalism.

Hence why I said "at least good ones"; I know they aren't a given.

That makes sense because strangers can edit pages anytime.

If there's something suspicious (e.g. out of the blue, too good to be true) in an article, then that would be a good case for skepticism. I'd suggest checking the page history for further details.

I haven't checked most wikis out there, so I don't know what the reliability of the average one would be. If it looks amateurish (i.e. not much editing/adding, dubious claims/wishful thinking*, sloppy writing, just plain not encyclopedic), then I think it would be safe to dismiss that wiki...for the moment.

 

[powerjake]

Care to share any examples of official encyclopedia websites? And what of franchises that don't have even that?

Even for those that do not have official encyclopedia websites can have books as an alternative.

TV Tropes that one pop-culture wiki, catalogs and cross-references recurrent plot devices, archetypes, and tropes in all forms of media can also be ridiculous and untrustworthy. It should be taken with a grain of salt because its a very unreliable website.

 

[Erased Paper]

There have been "official" things that copy what fans write, without checking if it's correct or not.

 

[powerjake]

There have been "official" things that copy what fans write, without checking if it's correct or not.

Thats rather odd as fan wiki's can be all over the place with how they explain things on the pages.

 

[Low Spark of Lyman]

Even for those that do not have official encyclopedia websites can have books as an alternative.

That doesn't answer my question. I was talking specifically about websites. But we can talk about any kind of official source, not just books.

But any rate, how many have either? Likely the harder-hitting franchises, from what I can tell.

Where would I go for an obscure franchise?

 

[powerjake]

That doesn't answer my question. I was talking specifically about websites. But we can talk about any kind of official source, not just books.

But any rate, how many have either? Likely the harder-hitting franchises, from what I can tell.

Where would I go for an obscure franchise?

I ment book enclyclopia's examples like Marvel comics, DC comics, Cthulhu Mythos and Middle-earth.

As for the websites with an official source you mentioned, here is Marvels Online Encyclopedia

 

[Low Spark of Lyman]

I ment book enclyclopia's examples like Marvel comics, DC comics, Cthulhu Mythos and Middle-earth.

As for the websites with an official source you mentioned, here is Marvels Online Encyclopedia

Okay, now do everything else.

See my point?

 

[powerjake]

Okay, now do everything else.

See my point?

I guess its a mixed bag, some companies do make official online series encyclopedia's while other don't and just make a books for those guides. THough if people want to use fan wiki's that fine but it depends on how it is written by the people.

 

[JoeMabbon]

It was years ago, but I remember official Star Wars comic book writers citing and thanking Wookiepedia for information.

 

[powerjake]

It was years ago, but I remember official Star Wars comic book writers citing and thanking Wookiepedia for information.

Really, those comic book writers got the information from Wookiepedia?.

 

[JoeMabbon]

If I remember right, it was the authors of Knights of the Old Republic and Legacy.

 

[powerjake]

If I remember right, it was the authors of Knights of the Old Republic and Legacy.

I wonder if they knew what they were doing when using the Star Wars wiki?.

 

[JoeMabbon]

They sounded generally grateful, they got some help with Star Wars minutiae if I remember right.

Transformers author James Roberts affectionately referenced tfwiki and as a gag introduced an in-universe version, “Autopedia.”