Tolkien Gateway: Difference between revisions
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:''This is the encyclopedic article about Tolkien Gateway, for generic help and information see [[Help:Contents]] or [[Tolkien Gateway:Community Portal|Community Portal]].'' | :''This is the encyclopedic article about Tolkien Gateway, for generic help and information see [[Help:Contents]] or [[Tolkien Gateway:Community Portal|Community Portal]].'' | ||
{{website | {{website | ||
| image=<div style="padding-top: 10px;">[[ | | image=<div style="padding-top: 10px;">[[File:tolkiengateway-trans.png|223px]]</div> | ||
| URL=http://tolkiengateway.net | | URL=http://tolkiengateway.net | ||
| slogan= | | slogan=''the [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] encyclopedia that anyone can edit'' | ||
| alexa=[http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/tolkiengateway.net | | alexa=[http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/tolkiengateway.net 132,714] | ||
| commercial=No | | commercial=No | ||
| revenue= | | revenue= | ||
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| owner=[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] | | owner=[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] | ||
| creator= | | creator= | ||
| keypeople=[[User:Ederchil|Ederchil]]<br/>[[User:Mith|Mith]]<br/>(see [[Tolkien Gateway:Top Editors|Top Editors]]) | | keypeople=[[User:Ederchil|Ederchil]]<br/>[[User:Mith|Mith]]<br/>[[User:Morgan|Morgan]]<br/>(see [[Tolkien Gateway:Top Editors|Top Editors]]) | ||
| launch=[[3 June | | launch=[[3 June]] [[2005]] | ||
| status=Active | | status=Active | ||
}}'''Tolkien Gateway''' (or simply '''TG''') is a not-for-profit collaborative [[wikipedia:wiki|wiki]] devoted to the [[Index:Writings by J.R.R. Tolkien|works]] of [[J.R.R. Tolkien]], being the largest Tolkien-related encyclopedia on the [[wikipedia:World Wide Web|World Wide Web]].<ref name="List">"[[List of Tolkien Encyclopedias|List of Tolkien Encyclopedias]]", based on research by [[User:Mith|Mith]] (accessed [[19 November|November 19]] [[2010]])</ref> It strives to be the most extensive and complete online resource with content relating not just to the works of [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] but also information on Tolkien-related images, adaptations, people, places, events, societies, and other works of scholarly and academic interest. | }}'''Tolkien Gateway''' (or simply '''TG''') is a not-for-profit collaborative [[wikipedia:wiki|wiki]] devoted to the [[Index:Writings by J.R.R. Tolkien|works]] of [[J.R.R. Tolkien]], being the largest Tolkien-related encyclopedia on the [[wikipedia:World Wide Web|World Wide Web]].<ref name="List">"[[List of Tolkien Encyclopedias|List of Tolkien Encyclopedias]]", based on research by [[User:Mith|Mith]] (accessed [[19 November|November 19]] [[2010]])</ref> It strives to be the most extensive and complete online resource with content relating not just to the works of [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] but also information on Tolkien-related images, adaptations, people, places, events, societies, and other works of scholarly and academic interest. | ||
Inspired by the | Although still criticised for its "wiki" ethos, Tolkien Gateway's growth and increased scholarship have been lauded by Tolkien scholars in recent years.<ref name="Tolkienseminariet"/> Its increased status has led to greater popularity as Tolkien Gateway is now the second-most popular Tolkien website in the world after [[TheOneRing.net]].<ref name="Alexa">[http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/tolkiengateway.net Alexa - tolkiengateway.net] (accessed [[25 May]] 2014)</ref> Tolkien Gateway is recognised as one of the world's largest wikis, ranking 422nd in the world by total number of articles and 365th by total number of edits.<ref name="WikiStats">[http://wikistats.wmflabs.org/largest_html.php?s=good_desc&th=10000&lines=750 WikiStats - List of largest MediaWikis] (accessed 6 July 2014)</ref> | ||
Inspired by the release of [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' (film series)]], Tolkien Gateway was founded by [[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] on [[1 January|January 1]], [[2003]] as [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net], then [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.tk http://tolkiengateway.tk], before eventually opening up as [http://tolkiengateway.net http://tolkiengateway.net] on [[3 June|June 3]], [[2005]]. Tolkien Gateway uses the same [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki] software as [http://www.wikia.com Wikia] and [http://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia] whilst operating a [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html GNU-FDL] licence. Tolkien Gateway has a [http://wikiindex.org/Category:WikiFactor wikifactor] of 106.<ref>[[wikipedia:WikiFactor|From Wikipedia]]: "The wikiFactor is simply the number of pages in the wiki (wF) that have had more than 1000 times wF visits."</ref> | |||
==Objective== | ==Objective== | ||
{{ | {{Blockquote|Tolkien Gateway is determined to inform you as much as possible about J.R.R. Tolkien and his masterpieces. Our goal is to have the most complete database about Middle-earth and Tolkien as possible.|[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]]}} | ||
==History== | ==History== | ||
===Key | ===Key dates=== | ||
:''See also: [[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]]'' | :''See also: [[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]]'' | ||
* [[1 January | * [[1 January]] [[2003]] - TolkienGateway is created as a [http://www.phpnuke.org/ PHP-Nuke] website<ref name="About">From "[http://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Tolkien_Gateway:About&oldid=57386 Tolkien Gateway: About]" (accessed [[24 November|November 24]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
* [[8 February | * [[8 February]] 2003 - TolkienGateway migrated from [http://Angelfire.com Angelfire Angelfire.com] to new server at [http://FuturePoint.com FuturePoint.com]<ref name="About" /> | ||
* By [[August]] | * By [[August]] 2003 - Switched domain from [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net] to [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.tk http://tolkiengateway.tk]<ref name="About" /> | ||
* [[6 November | * [[6 November]] [[2004]] - TolkienGateway.net domain is purchased<ref name="About" /> | ||
* In January [[2005]] - We launch our own IRC network for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien<ref name="About" /> | * In January [[2005]] - We launch our own IRC network for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien<ref name="About" /> | ||
* [[3 June | * [[3 June]] 2005 - Our wiki project is started<ref name="About" /> | ||
* [[1 January | * [[1 January]] 2006 - Foundation of [[Tolkien News]] | ||
* [[2 April | * [[2 April]] 2006 - Opening of the [[Forum:Council|Forums]]<ref name="Forum Create">"[[Forum:Welcome to the Council forum!]]" (accessed [[24 November|November 24]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
* [[14 October | * [[14 October]] 2006 - Creation of [[Tolkien Gateway:Projects|Projects]] | ||
* [[16 October | * [[16 October]] 2006 - Default skin changed to "Cavendish"<ref name="2006u"/> | ||
* [[14 April | * [[14 April]] 2007 - New [[Main Page]] design<ref name="Old Main Page">"[http://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=42029 Main Page oldid=42029]" (accessed [[24 November|November 24]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
* [[15 April| | * [[15 April|15]] - [[18 April]] 2007 - [[The Children of Húrin Release Party]] hosted by Tolkien Gateway | ||
* [[4 October | * [[4 October]] 2007 - the ability to add interwiki links was included<ref name="Interwiki" /> | ||
* [[30 April | * [[30 April]] 2008 - the [http://tolkiengateway.net/map Map] is created<ref name="Updates Map" /> | ||
* In July, 2008 - Tolkien Gateway reaches 1,000 registers users<ref name="April2007" /> | * In July, 2008 - Tolkien Gateway reaches 1,000 registers users<ref name="April2007" /> | ||
* [[12 July | * [[12 July]] 2008 - Tolkien Gateway passes 7,000 articles<ref name="Updates 7000"/> | ||
* [[17 August | * [[17 August]] 2008 - [[User:Ederchil|Ederchil]] is promoted to [[Tolkien Gateway:Administrators|administrator]]<ref name="Rights">"[[Special:Log/rights|User Rights Log]]" (accessed [[25 May]] [[2014]])</ref> | ||
* [[26 August | * [[26 August]] 2008 - Default skin changed to "Gateway to Ithilien"<ref name="Ithilien" /> | ||
* [[23 June | * [[23 June]] 2010 - Tolkien Gateway is locked to anonymous editors<ref name="TG lock" /> | ||
* [[27 June | * [[27 June]] 2010 - Ederchil promoted to [[Tolkien Gateway:Bureaucrats|bureaucrat]]<ref name="Rights"/> | ||
* [[14 July | * [[14 July]] 2010 - [[User:Mith|Mith]] promoted to administrator<ref name="Rights"/> | ||
* [[25 October | * [[25 October]] 2010 - Tolkien Gateway reaches 2,000 registered users<ref name="April2007" /> | ||
* [[16 March | * [[16 March]] 2011 - Tolkien Gateway passes 9,000 articles<ref name="Updates Map" /> | ||
* [[6 August | * [[6 August]] 2011 - Default skin changed to "Mithilien", a re-made version of "Gateway to Ithilien"<ref name="Updates Map" /> | ||
* [[7 August | * [[6 August]] 2011 - Tolkien Gateway passes 3,000 registered users<ref name="April2007" /> | ||
* [[7 August]] 2011 - After the installation of ConfirmEdit extension anonymous users can again edit the wiki<ref name="Updates Map" /> | |||
* [[16 July]] 2012 - Tolkien Gateway passes 10,000 articles<ref>[[Forum:10,000 articles]] (accessed [[16 July|July 16]], [[2012]])</ref> | |||
* [[26 April]] 2013 - Tolkien Gateway passes 4,000 registered users<ref name="April2007" /> | |||
* [[12 June]] 2013 - [[User:Morgan|Morgan]] promoted to administrator<ref name="Rights"/> | |||
* [[30 April]] 2014 - Tolkien Gateway passes 11,000 articles<ref>[[Forum:11,000 articles]] (accessed [[25 May]], [[2014]])</ref> | |||
* [[16 September]] 2014 - Tolkien Gateway passes 5,000 registered users<ref name="April2007" /> | |||
===History by year=== | ===History by year=== | ||
====2003==== | ====2003==== | ||
Inspired by the recent release of | Inspired by the recent release of [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' (film series)]], [[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] created TolkienGateway on [[1 January|January 1]], [[2003]] as a community and an encyclopedia at [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net]. Sporting a tan-coloured skin, TolkienGateway made use of the free [http://www.phpnuke.org/ PHP-Nuke] software.<ref name="Archive CJB">[http://web.archive.org Internet Archive: Wayback Machine], "[http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
In [[February]], Hyarion decide to move the web-hosting of TolkienGateway from [http://Angelfire.com Angelfire] to [http://FuturePoint.com FuturePoint]. By [[August]], Hyarion migrated to the free, and more aesthetically-pleasing, domain of [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.tk http://tolkiengateway.tk].<ref name="Archive TK">[http://web.archive.org Internet Archive: Wayback Machine], "[http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.tk http://tolkiengateway.tk]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | In [[February]], Hyarion decide to move the web-hosting of TolkienGateway from [http://Angelfire.com Angelfire] to [http://FuturePoint.com FuturePoint]. By [[August]], Hyarion migrated to the free, and more aesthetically-pleasing, domain of [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.tk http://tolkiengateway.tk].<ref name="Archive TK">[http://web.archive.org Internet Archive: Wayback Machine], "[http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tolkiengateway.tk http://tolkiengateway.tk]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
====2004==== | ====2004==== | ||
[[ | [[File:TG-logo.gif|thumb|right|Tolkien Gateway's original logo]] | ||
On [[6 November|November 6]], Hyarion purchased the domain [http://tolkiengateway.net http://tolkiengateway.net] and begins work on creating a proper wiki. By [[March]] [[2005]], the original TolkienGateway has gone offline so Hyarion can focus on the new website.<ref name="Archive TK"/> | On [[6 November|November 6]], Hyarion purchased the domain [http://tolkiengateway.net http://tolkiengateway.net] and begins work on creating a proper wiki. By [[March]] [[2005]], the original TolkienGateway has gone offline so Hyarion can focus on the new website.<ref name="Archive TK"/> | ||
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====2006==== | ====2006==== | ||
On [[1 January|January 1]] [[2006]] Hyarion opened a second website, [[Tolkien News]], as a another source of information, in competition with [http://www.theonering.net TheOneRing.net], but without the commercial advertising. The website closed in [[2008]] | On [[1 January|January 1]] [[2006]] Hyarion opened a second website, [[Tolkien News]], as a another source of information, in competition with [http://www.theonering.net TheOneRing.net], but without the commercial advertising. The website closed in [[2008]]. | ||
Technically, 2006 was a very important year for Tolkien Gateway: it saw the introduction of the fresh Cavendish skin, the creation of a forum for editors to discuss important issues, a community portal, and the ability to embed video. Furthermore, 2006 witnessed impressive growth in page views: from less than 200,000 page views at the start of the year to a million by October, by this point Tolkien Gateway was also witnessing 3,000 pages views per day.<ref name="2006u">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates#2006]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | Technically, 2006 was a very important year for Tolkien Gateway: it saw the introduction of the fresh Cavendish skin, the creation of a forum for editors to discuss important issues, a community portal, and the ability to embed video. Furthermore, 2006 witnessed impressive growth in page views: from less than 200,000 page views at the start of the year to a million by October, by this point Tolkien Gateway was also witnessing 3,000 pages views per day.<ref name="2006u">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates#2006]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
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====2008==== | ====2008==== | ||
[[File:TG 2008.png|thumb|right|Tolkien Gateway in June 2008]] | [[File:TG 2008.png|thumb|right|Tolkien Gateway in June 2008]] | ||
The first major event of [[2008]] was a server move, "''Due to the rapid growth of Tolkien Gateway we will be migrating to a new quad-core server with 8 gigs of RAM.''"<ref name="Updates Move">[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]], entry 1-29-08 (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> Tolkien Gateway moves server on roughly a year basis every time resulting in considerable downtime and residual problems; this move was no exception!<ref name="Updates" /> | The first major event of [[2008]] was a server move, "''Due to the rapid growth of Tolkien Gateway we will be migrating to a new quad-core server with 8 gigs of RAM.''"<ref name="Updates Move">[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]], entry 1-29-08 (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> Tolkien Gateway moves server on roughly a year basis every time resulting in considerable downtime and residual problems; this move was no exception!<ref name="Updates" /> The following month, Tolkien Gateway was featured as the Site of the Week for the 8th February on the fan website [http://www.thereandbackagain.net/ ThereAndBackAgain.net]<ref>[http://www.thereandbackagain.net/ ThereAndBackAgain.net] (accessed=21 August 2014)</ref> | ||
On [[30 April|April 30]], [[2008]] the first major extension to the wiki's content was the creation of [http://tolkiengateway.net/map/ a map] which seeks to list all the important locations in the world relevant to Tolkien's life, publications and adaptations.<ref name="Updates Map">[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]], entry 4-14-08 (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> The expansion of the wiki continues, reaching 7,000 articles by [[12 July|July 12]]<ref name="Updates 7000">[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]], entry 7-12-08 (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> whilst gaining an extra 366 members over the course of the year, taking the total membership to 788.<ref name="April2007" /> | On [[30 April|April 30]], [[2008]] the first major extension to the wiki's content was the creation of [http://tolkiengateway.net/map/ a map] which seeks to list all the important locations in the world relevant to Tolkien's life, publications and adaptations.<ref name="Updates Map">[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]], entry 4-14-08 (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> The expansion of the wiki continues, reaching 7,000 articles by [[12 July|July 12]]<ref name="Updates 7000">[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]], entry 7-12-08 (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> whilst gaining an extra 366 members over the course of the year, taking the total membership to 788.<ref name="April2007" /> | ||
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In the summer, Hyarion revealed to editors that [[Forum:One Wiki Merge|he had been in discussions]] with the the administrators of [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page One Wiki to Rule Them All], the Tolkien encyclopedia of [http://www.wikia.com Wikia], to merge the two sites together. Although the proposal wasn't fully fleshed-out, members of both communities got so far as [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/LOTR:Merge_Vote registering their intention to vote] on the issue before Wikia staff decided they were unwilling to let go of their own site - the merger never took place.<ref name="Merge talk">"[[User talk:Hyarion#Merge]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> A happy side-effect, however, is that many One Wiki editors migrated permanently to Tolkien Gateway, including the One Wiki bureaucrat [[User:KingAragorn|KingAragorn]].<ref name="Merge talk2">"[[User talk:Hyarion/Archive 4#Merge]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | In the summer, Hyarion revealed to editors that [[Forum:One Wiki Merge|he had been in discussions]] with the the administrators of [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page One Wiki to Rule Them All], the Tolkien encyclopedia of [http://www.wikia.com Wikia], to merge the two sites together. Although the proposal wasn't fully fleshed-out, members of both communities got so far as [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/LOTR:Merge_Vote registering their intention to vote] on the issue before Wikia staff decided they were unwilling to let go of their own site - the merger never took place.<ref name="Merge talk">"[[User talk:Hyarion#Merge]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> A happy side-effect, however, is that many One Wiki editors migrated permanently to Tolkien Gateway, including the One Wiki bureaucrat [[User:KingAragorn|KingAragorn]].<ref name="Merge talk2">"[[User talk:Hyarion/Archive 4#Merge]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
{{ | {{Blockquote|what a shame. It's almost comical that they ignored the wiki until there were any talks of leaving, at which point they realized they'd be losing money so they now have all of their employees pretending to be active contributors. Anyway, we're moving past it, they are not worth the time|[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] on [http://www.wikia.com Wikia]'s staff attitude towards a merger of Tolkien Gateway and [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page One Wiki to Rule Them All]<ref name="Merge talk2"/>}} | ||
The second seminal event of 2008 was the introduction of [[Tolkien Gateway:Meetings|Meetings]]. The [[Tolkien Gateway:Meetings/17 August 2008|first meeting]] was held on August 17, 2008; following the first meeting, Tolkien Gateway saw its very first promotion of [[User:Ederchil|Ederchil]] to [[Tolkien Gateway:Administrators|administrator]], an expansion of [[Tolkien Gateway:Projects|Projects]] to focus the activities of members, and a more extensive [[Tolkien Gateway:Community Portal|Community Portal]].<ref name="Meeting 1">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Meetings/17 August 2008]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> Meetings continued on a weekly basis until [[October]].<ref name="Meetings">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Meetings]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | The second seminal event of 2008 was the introduction of [[Tolkien Gateway:Meetings|Meetings]]. The [[Tolkien Gateway:Meetings/17 August 2008|first meeting]] was held on August 17, 2008; following the first meeting, Tolkien Gateway saw its very first promotion of [[User:Ederchil|Ederchil]] to [[Tolkien Gateway:Administrators|administrator]], an expansion of [[Tolkien Gateway:Projects|Projects]] to focus the activities of members, and a more extensive [[Tolkien Gateway:Community Portal|Community Portal]].<ref name="Meeting 1">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Meetings/17 August 2008]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> Meetings continued on a weekly basis until [[October]].<ref name="Meetings">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Meetings]]" (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
On [[25 August]], [[User:KingAragorn|KingAragorn]] contacted [[TheOneRing.net]] with a proposition that Tolkien Gateway and TheOneRing.net should work in co-operation. The general premise was that the two online Tolkien communities were consubstantial and should, therefore, work together for each other's benefit. The discussion was, at first, progressive; it was mooted that, in effect, Tolkien Gateway would become TheOneRing.net's encyclopaedia, and that TheOneRing.net would become Tolkien Gateway's news portal. However, discussions came to an end because of an apparent bad history between [[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]], the owner of Tolkien Gateway, and TheOneRing.net. Whilst there was reciprocal praise for the work achieved by both communities, no further discussions took place.<ref>Personal research by [[User:KingAragorn|]]</ref> | On [[25 August]], [[User:KingAragorn|KingAragorn]] contacted [[TheOneRing.net]] with a proposition that Tolkien Gateway and TheOneRing.net should work in co-operation. The general premise was that the two online Tolkien communities were consubstantial and should, therefore, work together for each other's benefit. The discussion was, at first, progressive; it was mooted that, in effect, Tolkien Gateway would become TheOneRing.net's encyclopaedia, and that TheOneRing.net would become Tolkien Gateway's news portal. However, discussions came to an end because of an apparent bad history between [[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]], the owner of Tolkien Gateway, and TheOneRing.net. Whilst there was reciprocal praise for the work achieved by both communities, no further discussions took place.<ref>Personal research by [[User:KingAragorn|KingAragorn]]</ref> | ||
Finally, on [[26 August|August 26]], the "Gateway to Ithilien" was made the default skin for Tolkien Gateway, and - with minor alterations - still remains the default skin today.<ref name="Ithilien">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]]", entry 8-26-08 (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | Finally, on [[26 August|August 26]], the "Gateway to Ithilien" was made the default skin for Tolkien Gateway, and - with minor alterations - still remains the default skin today.<ref name="Ithilien">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]]", entry 8-26-08 (accessed [[21 November|November 21]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
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During this time, many key projects were embarked upon by editors: the relatively new editor [[User:Morgan|Morgan]] working on bibliographical information;<ref name="Works">"[[Index:Writings by J.R.R. Tolkien|Writings by J.R.R. Tolkien]]" (accessed [[24 November|November 24]], [[2010]])</ref> Mith working on the [[Timeline]] and years; Ederchil and Mith updated and expanded infoboxes; Mith and [[User:KingAragorn|KingAragorn]] trying to remove five-years of redirected links (with the aid of their bots);<ref name="Redirects">"[[Forum:Linking to redirects]]" (accessed [[24 November|November 24]], [[2010]])</ref><ref name="Redirects1">See "[https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlmDTSjnmPrJdDFQSDU2QlMxN2hBYU80ZzVlemttVXc&hl=en_GB&authkey=CJeHxskG#gid=0 Redirects]" for progress (accessed [[24 November|November 24]], [[2010]])</ref> KingAragorn re-categorisation all location articles; [[User:Sage|Sage]] working on language-related articles; and [[User:Amroth|Amroth]] and [[User:Pinkkeith|Pinkkeith]] working on video-games articles. Other high-frequency editors include: [[User:Aule the Smith|Aule the Smith]], [[User:Gilgamesh|Gilgamesh]], [[User:Grond|Grond]], [[User:Mthomas|Mthomas]] and [[User:Theoden1|Theoden1]], along with the aforementioned [[User:KingAragorn Bot|KingAragorn Bot]] and [[User:Mithbot|Mithbot]]. | During this time, many key projects were embarked upon by editors: the relatively new editor [[User:Morgan|Morgan]] working on bibliographical information;<ref name="Works">"[[Index:Writings by J.R.R. Tolkien|Writings by J.R.R. Tolkien]]" (accessed [[24 November|November 24]], [[2010]])</ref> Mith working on the [[Timeline]] and years; Ederchil and Mith updated and expanded infoboxes; Mith and [[User:KingAragorn|KingAragorn]] trying to remove five-years of redirected links (with the aid of their bots);<ref name="Redirects">"[[Forum:Linking to redirects]]" (accessed [[24 November|November 24]], [[2010]])</ref><ref name="Redirects1">See "[https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlmDTSjnmPrJdDFQSDU2QlMxN2hBYU80ZzVlemttVXc&hl=en_GB&authkey=CJeHxskG#gid=0 Redirects]" for progress (accessed [[24 November|November 24]], [[2010]])</ref> KingAragorn re-categorisation all location articles; [[User:Sage|Sage]] working on language-related articles; and [[User:Amroth|Amroth]] and [[User:Pinkkeith|Pinkkeith]] working on video-games articles. Other high-frequency editors include: [[User:Aule the Smith|Aule the Smith]], [[User:Gilgamesh|Gilgamesh]], [[User:Grond|Grond]], [[User:Mthomas|Mthomas]] and [[User:Theoden1|Theoden1]], along with the aforementioned [[User:KingAragorn Bot|KingAragorn Bot]] and [[User:Mithbot|Mithbot]]. | ||
==2011== | ====2011==== | ||
[[File:TG-2012.png|thumb|Tolkien Gateway in January 2012]] | |||
In November 2011, the esteemed auction firm Bonhams included a reference to the Tolkien Gateway article on [[Przemyslaw Mroczkowski]] in their lot description of a [[Letter to Przemyslaw Mroczkowski (9/10 November 1957)|1957 letter from J.R.R. Tolkien]] to the Polish professor.<ref>[http://bonhams.com/eur/auction/18992/lot/182/ Lot 182] at [http://bonhams.com/ Bonhams.com] (accessed 22 November 2011)</ref> | |||
Key projects in this period included: [[Forum:Countdown to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey|"The Countdown to ''The Hobbit'' films"-project]], after suggestion of [[User:KingAragorn|KingAragorn]];<ref>"[[Forum:Countdown to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey]]" (accessed [[1 January]], [[2012]])</ref><ref>"[[Tolkien Gateway talk:Meetings/13 November 2011]]" (accessed [[1 January]], [[2012]])</ref> the creation of the index namespace and [[Main Page/Development|development]] for a new [[Main Page]] by [[User:Mith|Mith]];<ref>"[[Main Page/Development]] (accessed [[1 January]], [[2012]])</ref> [[User:Mith|Mith]] and [[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] working on technical issues and creating the new "Mithilien" skin; new editor Gamling creating articles for all [[The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien|letters of J.R.R. Tolkien]] and referencing articles; Morgan continuing to work on bibliographic information;<ref name="Works"/> Mith working on [[Tolkien Gateway:Projects#Dates|Dates]]<ref>"[[User talk:Mith/2011#Date restructuring|User talk:Mith/2011]]" (accessed [[1 January]], [[2012]])</ref> and creating and redesigning several infoboxes; KingAragorn working on locations, images and redesigning the portals;<ref>"[[Forum:Portals]]" (accessed [[1 January]], [[2012]])</ref> [[User:Morgan|Morgan]] and [[User:Sage|Sage]] working on language-related articles; [[User:Amroth|Amroth]] and [[User:Pinkkeith|Pinkkeith]] working on gaming-related articles; and [[User:CaptainRolly|CaptainRolly]] working on [[Tolkien Societies]]. Other high-frequency contributors include: [[User:Dwarf Lord|Dwarf Lord]], [[User:Ederchil|Ederchil]], [[User:Grond|Grond]] and [[User:Tik|Tik]]. | |||
====2012==== | |||
In | In January [[2012]], news spread about [http://twitter.com/lotrproject Emil Johansson]'s ''[http://lotrproject.com/ The Lord of the Rings Family Tree Project]'' — a genealogy of characters from Tolkien's [[legendarium]], where each character carries a link to the respective Tolkien Gateway article.<ref>{{webcite|author=|articleurl=http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/01/23/53027-student-produces-middle-earth-genealogy-site/|articlename=Student produces Middle-earth genealogy site|dated=23 January 2012|website=TORN|accessed=24 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{webcite|author=|articleurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/24/lord-of-the-ring-family-tree_n_1227790.html?ref=uk-culture|articlename=King Geek? Lord Of The Rings Super Fan Traces Middle-Earth Family Tree|dated=24 January 2012|website=[http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ ''The Huffington Post'']|accessed=24 January 2012}}</ref> | ||
On 20 August 2012, [[Shaun Gunner]] ([[User:Mith]]) took part in a panel discussion with [[Corey Olsen]] called 'Lifelong Learning Tolkien: Face-to-face and Online'. Tolkien Gateway was cited has an example of the power of the online Tolkien community, with noted scholar [[Dimitra Fimi]] claiming to be an editor.<ref name="ROTR-Troels">{{webcite|author=Troels Forchhammer|articleurl=http://parmarkenta.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ive-been-writing-about-return-of-ring.html|articlename=The Return of the Ring|dated=25 August 2012|website=[http://parmarkenta.blogspot.co.uk Parma-kenta]|accessed=25 May 2014}}</ref> | |||
In September 2012, the [[Mythgard Institute]] podcast "[[Riddles in the Dark]]" episode 17, featuring [[Corey Olsen]], Dave Kale, and Trish Lambert as hosts, included a positive mention of articles (particularly [[Radagast]]) on Tolkien Gateway.<ref>{{webcite|author=|articleurl=http://www.mythgard.org/2012/09/riddles-in-the-dark-17-radagast-the-brown-and-the-movie-app/|articlename=Riddles in the Dark 17: Radagast the Brown and the Movie App|dated=14 September 2012|website=[http://www.mythgard.org/ Mythgard.org]|accessed=16 September 2012}}</ref> | |||
On 22 November 2012, Tolkienseminariet ("The Tolkien Seminary") in Sweden, with notable members [[Anders Stenström]] and [[Åke Bertenstam]], positively reviewed Tolkien Gateway, saying that since 2003 the wiki "''has grown rapidly and now provides copious and dependable information about Middle-earth and not least about Tolkien's life and writings''"<!-- Translated by User:Morgan -->.<ref name="Tolkienseminariet">{{webcite|author=|articleurl=http://tolkienseminariet.wordpress.com/author/tolkienseminariet/|articlename= | |||
22 november 2012|dated=24 January 2013|website=[http://tolkienseminariet.wordpress.com/ Tolkienseminariet]|accessed=24 January 2013}}</ref> | |||
====2013==== | |||
In December 2013, surrounding the release of ''[[The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug]]'', a surge in traffic meant that Tolkien Gateway briefly became a top-50,000 website worldwide.<ref name="Alexa"/> | |||
====2014==== | |||
On 18 May 2014, the online version of ''The New York Times'' provided a link to Tolkien Gateway's page about ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', in Ethan Gilsdorf's article "Waving His Wand at ‘Beowulf’".<ref>{{webcite|author=Ethan Gilsdorf|articleurl=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkeins-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html|articlename=Waving His Wand at ‘Beowulf’|dated=18 May 2014|website=[http://www.nytimes.com/ nytimes.com]|accessed=18 May 2014}}</ref> On 21 July 2014, the website Inquisitr referenced Tolkien Gateway's article on the [[Inklings]] in its news story about forthcoming Tolkien biopics.<ref>{{webcite|website=[http://www.inquisitr.com/ Inquisitr]|articleurl=http://www.inquisitr.com/1363840/movie-in-the-works-about-j-r-r-tolkien-and-c-s-lewis-together/|articlename=Movie In The Works About J.R.R. Tolkien And C.S. Lewis – Together!|dated=21 July 2014|accessed=20 August 2014}}</ref> | |||
On 7 August 2014, [[Shaun Gunner]], Chairman of [[The Tolkien Society]], made reference to Tolkien Gateway in an interview with [[TheOneRing.net]], saying the website has "transformed the accessibility of Tolkien".<ref>{{webcite|website=TORN|author-Kelvarhin|articlename=TORn talks to Shaun Gunner, Chairman of The Tolkien Society|articleurl=http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2014/08/07/92174-torn-talks-to-shaun-gunner-chairman-of-the-tolkien-society/|dated=7 August 2014|accessed=20 August 2013}}</ref> | |||
==Criticism== | ==Criticism== | ||
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Like other wikis, Tolkien Gateway has been criticised for the reliability of its information, its lack of sources and the frequency of its revisions. In particular, in the summer of [[2010]], Tolkien Gateway was criticised for confusing the two articles for [[Norman Power]] and [[Joseph Power]]; the prominent scholars [[Wayne G. Hammond]] and [[Christina Scull]] said: | Like other wikis, Tolkien Gateway has been criticised for the reliability of its information, its lack of sources and the frequency of its revisions. In particular, in the summer of [[2010]], Tolkien Gateway was criticised for confusing the two articles for [[Norman Power]] and [[Joseph Power]]; the prominent scholars [[Wayne G. Hammond]] and [[Christina Scull]] said: | ||
{{ | {{Blockquote|The Tolkien Gateway entry for Norman Power makes a terrible hash of it by conjoining Norman and Joseph. How on earth could the writer think that someone said to be born in 1925 (Joseph) could be a student at Oxford in the late 1930s? [..] Well, call us old-fashioned (we do), and we admit to having only a passing knowledge of the ways of wiki-creation, but it would never occur to us to post a work-in-progress, to be cleaned up by someone else, especially since people often take wiki articles, in any state of completion, as gospel truth.|[[Wayne G. Hammond]] and [[Christina Scull]]<ref name="Power">[http://www.lotrplaza.com/ The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza], "[http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=229888#7238261 Brother Joseph Power's experiences of Tolkien, post #7238261]", dated [[26 July|July 26]], [[2010]] (accessed [[19 November|November 19]], [[2010]])</ref><ref name="Power2">[http://www.lotrplaza.com/ The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza], "[http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=229888#7239909 Brother Joseph Power's experiences of Tolkien, post #7239909]", dated [[29 July|July 29]], [[2010]] (accessed [[19 November|November 19]], [[2010]])</ref>}} | ||
Despite [[User:Morgan|Morgan]] launching a defence of Tolkien Gateway on The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza, although accepting that Tolkien Gateway was better than other online encyclopaedias, the members generally complained about the unreliability of Tolkien Gateway - and wikis in general - and the ephemeral nature of the Internet, with an agreement that there was a "''distressing lack of sources''".<ref name="Plaza Critic">[http://www.lotrplaza.com/ The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza], "[http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=238638 The future of Tolkien knowledge]", dated [[30 July|July 30]] to [[11 August|August 11]] [[2010]] (accessed [[19 November|November 19]], [[2010]])</ref> The article [http://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=English_and_Welsh&oldid=105660 English and Welsh] was paraded as a particularly bad example | Despite [[User:Morgan|Morgan]] launching a defence of Tolkien Gateway on The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza, although accepting that Tolkien Gateway was better than other online encyclopaedias, the members generally complained about the unreliability of Tolkien Gateway - and wikis in general - and the ephemeral nature of the Internet, with an agreement that there was a "''distressing lack of sources''".<ref name="Plaza Critic">[http://www.lotrplaza.com/ The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza], "[http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=238638 The future of Tolkien knowledge]", dated [[30 July|July 30]] to [[11 August|August 11]] [[2010]] (accessed [[19 November|November 19]], [[2010]])</ref> The article [http://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=English_and_Welsh&oldid=105660 English and Welsh] was paraded as a particularly bad example. In response to the criticisms raised, both the "Joseph Power"/"Norman Power" and "[[English and Welsh]]" articles were amended.<ref name="EandW">"[[Talk:English and Welsh]]" (accessed [[19 November|November 19]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
In a review of Tolkien Gateway, Kristine Kastle claimed that it was only appropriate for the younger reader, it suffered from poor navigation, and the design was basic, lacking colour and that the life was sucked out of it; she gave Tolkien Gateway a score of 1.5 out of 4 which translates as, "''Well now at least the website is recognizable as a website; style is still not pretty much nonexistant.''"<ref name="Kastle">Kristine Kastle on [http://people.emich.edu/zgarrett/ColProject/ Collaborative Web Review], "[http://people.emich.edu/zgarrett/ColProject/3.html Tolkien Gateway Review]" (accessed [[19 November|November 19]], [[2010]])</ref> The skin has been updated twice since the review although the navigation system has changed little.<ref name="Updates">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]]" (accessed [[19 November|November 19]], [[2010]])</ref> | In a review of Tolkien Gateway, Kristine Kastle claimed that it was only appropriate for the younger reader, it suffered from poor navigation, and the design was basic, lacking colour and that the life was sucked out of it; she gave Tolkien Gateway a score of 1.5 out of 4 which translates as, "''Well now at least the website is recognizable as a website; style is still not pretty much nonexistant.''"<ref name="Kastle">Kristine Kastle on [http://people.emich.edu/zgarrett/ColProject/ Collaborative Web Review], "[http://people.emich.edu/zgarrett/ColProject/3.html Tolkien Gateway Review]" (accessed [[19 November|November 19]], [[2010]])</ref> The skin has been updated twice since the review although the navigation system has changed little.<ref name="Updates">"[[Tolkien Gateway:Updates]]" (accessed [[19 November|November 19]], [[2010]])</ref> | ||
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Commenting on Tolkien Gateway, Troels Forchhammer says that "''[i]t suffers from the same problems as any wiki when the subject is one of some fame or notoriety and in particular when the subject lends itself to strongly held opinions''". He also marks that Tolkien Gateway is "''trying to add thorough references to their articles, but has still a way to go''."<ref>[http://users.silenceisdefeat.net/~aft-rabt/links.html The Tolkien Newsgroups' Links Collection], dated 5 August 2008 (accessed 26 April 2011)</ref> | Commenting on Tolkien Gateway, Troels Forchhammer says that "''[i]t suffers from the same problems as any wiki when the subject is one of some fame or notoriety and in particular when the subject lends itself to strongly held opinions''". He also marks that Tolkien Gateway is "''trying to add thorough references to their articles, but has still a way to go''."<ref>[http://users.silenceisdefeat.net/~aft-rabt/links.html The Tolkien Newsgroups' Links Collection], dated 5 August 2008 (accessed 26 April 2011)</ref> | ||
==See | After a suggestion from [[User:Morgan]], [[Hawke Robinson]] and [[Michael Martinez]] discussed Tolkien Gateway on the ''Middle-earth Radio Talk Show'' on [[8 August]] [[2010]]. The radio hosts put forward a "''positive critique''", praising Tolkien Gateway for "''a great effort''", "''a nice layout''", and that the website should be "''recognized for all the work that has gone into this wiki''". However, they also addressed the issue that "''as all wikis, there's always room for improvement''", especially pointing out the need for "''better citation standards''".<ref>[http://middle-earthradio.com/talk-show/Middle-earth-Talk-Radio-Show-0029-2010-08-08.mp3/view Middle-earth Radion Talk Show, Episode 29] (dated 8 August 2010; from ca. 27:50) at [http://middle-earthradio.com/ Middle-earthradio.com]</ref> | ||
==See also== | |||
*[[Tolkien Gateway:Membership Growth]], for detailed membership statistics and graphs | *[[Tolkien Gateway:Membership Growth]], for detailed membership statistics and graphs | ||
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* [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:TolkienGateway&limit=500 Wikipedia articles that link to Tolkien Gateway] | * [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:TolkienGateway&limit=500 Wikipedia articles that link to Tolkien Gateway] | ||
{{ | {{References}} | ||
[[Category:Tolkien Gateway| | |||
[[Category:Encyclopedia websites]] | |||
[[Category:Tolkien Gateway| ]] | |||
[[Category:Websites]] | |||
[[fa:دانشنامه تالکینگیتوی]] | [[fa:دانشنامه تالکینگیتوی]] |
Revision as of 14:33, 5 April 2015
- This is the encyclopedic article about Tolkien Gateway, for generic help and information see Help:Contents or Community Portal.
URL | http://tolkiengateway.net |
Slogan | the J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia that anyone can edit |
Commercial? | No |
Type | Wiki; collaborative encyclopedia |
Language | English |
Article count | 12,543 |
Registration | Open edit |
Owner | Hyarion |
Key people | Ederchil Mith Morgan (see Top Editors) |
Launch date | 3 June 2005 |
Status | Active |
Tolkien Gateway (or simply TG) is a not-for-profit collaborative wiki devoted to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, being the largest Tolkien-related encyclopedia on the World Wide Web.[1] It strives to be the most extensive and complete online resource with content relating not just to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien but also information on Tolkien-related images, adaptations, people, places, events, societies, and other works of scholarly and academic interest.
Although still criticised for its "wiki" ethos, Tolkien Gateway's growth and increased scholarship have been lauded by Tolkien scholars in recent years.[2] Its increased status has led to greater popularity as Tolkien Gateway is now the second-most popular Tolkien website in the world after TheOneRing.net.[3] Tolkien Gateway is recognised as one of the world's largest wikis, ranking 422nd in the world by total number of articles and 365th by total number of edits.[4]
Inspired by the release of The Lord of the Rings (film series), Tolkien Gateway was founded by Hyarion on January 1, 2003 as http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net, then http://tolkiengateway.tk, before eventually opening up as http://tolkiengateway.net on June 3, 2005. Tolkien Gateway uses the same MediaWiki software as Wikia and Wikipedia whilst operating a GNU-FDL licence. Tolkien Gateway has a wikifactor of 106.[5]
Objective
Tolkien Gateway is determined to inform you as much as possible about J.R.R. Tolkien and his masterpieces. Our goal is to have the most complete database about Middle-earth and Tolkien as possible.
—Hyarion
History
Key dates
- See also: Tolkien Gateway:Updates
- 1 January 2003 - TolkienGateway is created as a PHP-Nuke website[6]
- 8 February 2003 - TolkienGateway migrated from Angelfire Angelfire.com to new server at FuturePoint.com[6]
- By August 2003 - Switched domain from http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net to http://tolkiengateway.tk[6]
- 6 November 2004 - TolkienGateway.net domain is purchased[6]
- In January 2005 - We launch our own IRC network for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien[6]
- 3 June 2005 - Our wiki project is started[6]
- 1 January 2006 - Foundation of Tolkien News
- 2 April 2006 - Opening of the Forums[7]
- 14 October 2006 - Creation of Projects
- 16 October 2006 - Default skin changed to "Cavendish"[8]
- 14 April 2007 - New Main Page design[9]
- 15 - 18 April 2007 - The Children of Húrin Release Party hosted by Tolkien Gateway
- 4 October 2007 - the ability to add interwiki links was included[10]
- 30 April 2008 - the Map is created[11]
- In July, 2008 - Tolkien Gateway reaches 1,000 registers users[12]
- 12 July 2008 - Tolkien Gateway passes 7,000 articles[13]
- 17 August 2008 - Ederchil is promoted to administrator[14]
- 26 August 2008 - Default skin changed to "Gateway to Ithilien"[15]
- 23 June 2010 - Tolkien Gateway is locked to anonymous editors[16]
- 27 June 2010 - Ederchil promoted to bureaucrat[14]
- 14 July 2010 - Mith promoted to administrator[14]
- 25 October 2010 - Tolkien Gateway reaches 2,000 registered users[12]
- 16 March 2011 - Tolkien Gateway passes 9,000 articles[11]
- 6 August 2011 - Default skin changed to "Mithilien", a re-made version of "Gateway to Ithilien"[11]
- 6 August 2011 - Tolkien Gateway passes 3,000 registered users[12]
- 7 August 2011 - After the installation of ConfirmEdit extension anonymous users can again edit the wiki[11]
- 16 July 2012 - Tolkien Gateway passes 10,000 articles[17]
- 26 April 2013 - Tolkien Gateway passes 4,000 registered users[12]
- 12 June 2013 - Morgan promoted to administrator[14]
- 30 April 2014 - Tolkien Gateway passes 11,000 articles[18]
- 16 September 2014 - Tolkien Gateway passes 5,000 registered users[12]
History by year
2003
Inspired by the recent release of The Lord of the Rings (film series), Hyarion created TolkienGateway on January 1, 2003 as a community and an encyclopedia at http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net. Sporting a tan-coloured skin, TolkienGateway made use of the free PHP-Nuke software.[19]
In February, Hyarion decide to move the web-hosting of TolkienGateway from Angelfire to FuturePoint. By August, Hyarion migrated to the free, and more aesthetically-pleasing, domain of http://tolkiengateway.tk.[20]
2004
On November 6, Hyarion purchased the domain http://tolkiengateway.net and begins work on creating a proper wiki. By March 2005, the original TolkienGateway has gone offline so Hyarion can focus on the new website.[20]
2005
In January 2005 Tolkien Gateway's IRC chat was opened; this enabled both Tolkien Gateway editors and users from other websites to congregate in a single place for discussion of their respective websites and the works of Tolkien.[21] Tolkien Gateway's IRC, irc://irc.tolkiengateway.net, is still in use today.
After a long hiatus, Tolkien Gateway opened to the public on June 3 with Hyarion as the sole administrator and bureaucrat. In order for Tolkien Gateway to have a sizeable number of articles ready for its released, many were copied from either The Encyclopedia of Arda or Wikipedia; this has since been criticised by later editors who have struggled to identify and update all such articles.[22]
Notable editors during this time include BrightSideoftheDark, Bokkie, Elemmakil, Gandalf, Hyarion and Tik.
2006
On January 1 2006 Hyarion opened a second website, Tolkien News, as a another source of information, in competition with TheOneRing.net, but without the commercial advertising. The website closed in 2008.
Technically, 2006 was a very important year for Tolkien Gateway: it saw the introduction of the fresh Cavendish skin, the creation of a forum for editors to discuss important issues, a community portal, and the ability to embed video. Furthermore, 2006 witnessed impressive growth in page views: from less than 200,000 page views at the start of the year to a million by October, by this point Tolkien Gateway was also witnessing 3,000 pages views per day.[8]
2006 also witnessed modest growth in members from about 180 at the start of year to 422 at the end of the end of the year.[12] Important editors during this time include Ardamir, Earendilyon, Ebakunin, Hyarion, Mith, Narfil Palùrfalas, Tar-Telperien and Tik.
2007
Although technically relatively uneventful, 2007 saw attempts by Hyarion to increase Tolkien Gateway's user base and reach. In particular, coinciding with the release of The Children of Húrin Hyarion arranged The Children of Húrin Release Party an online gathering of artists, collectors, scholars and fans to celebrate the publication of this fresh story; a record-breaking 69 new users joined Tolkien Gateway in April 2007 as a result of this.[12] Coinciding with The Children of Húrin Release Party, Hyarion also introduced a brand new Main Page layout which still remains the basis for the current Main Page.
On October 4, Hyarion introduced interwiki links allowing Tolkien Gateway's English articles to be connected to the fellow wikis Ardapedia (German) and Kontu (Finnish).[10] Since then, interwiki links have also been expanded to the French website Tolkiendil and Farsi website Valimar.
Influential editors during this period include Dr Death, Dwarf Lord, Earendilyon, Elemmakil Fleela, Hyarion, Mith, Narfil Palùrfalas, Tar-Telperien, Theoden1 and Tik.
2008
The first major event of 2008 was a server move, "Due to the rapid growth of Tolkien Gateway we will be migrating to a new quad-core server with 8 gigs of RAM."[23] Tolkien Gateway moves server on roughly a year basis every time resulting in considerable downtime and residual problems; this move was no exception![24] The following month, Tolkien Gateway was featured as the Site of the Week for the 8th February on the fan website ThereAndBackAgain.net[25]
On April 30, 2008 the first major extension to the wiki's content was the creation of a map which seeks to list all the important locations in the world relevant to Tolkien's life, publications and adaptations.[11] The expansion of the wiki continues, reaching 7,000 articles by July 12[13] whilst gaining an extra 366 members over the course of the year, taking the total membership to 788.[12]
In the summer, Hyarion revealed to editors that he had been in discussions with the the administrators of One Wiki to Rule Them All, the Tolkien encyclopedia of Wikia, to merge the two sites together. Although the proposal wasn't fully fleshed-out, members of both communities got so far as registering their intention to vote on the issue before Wikia staff decided they were unwilling to let go of their own site - the merger never took place.[26] A happy side-effect, however, is that many One Wiki editors migrated permanently to Tolkien Gateway, including the One Wiki bureaucrat KingAragorn.[27]
what a shame. It's almost comical that they ignored the wiki until there were any talks of leaving, at which point they realized they'd be losing money so they now have all of their employees pretending to be active contributors. Anyway, we're moving past it, they are not worth the time
—Hyarion on Wikia's staff attitude towards a merger of Tolkien Gateway and One Wiki to Rule Them All[27]
The second seminal event of 2008 was the introduction of Meetings. The first meeting was held on August 17, 2008; following the first meeting, Tolkien Gateway saw its very first promotion of Ederchil to administrator, an expansion of Projects to focus the activities of members, and a more extensive Community Portal.[28] Meetings continued on a weekly basis until October.[29]
On 25 August, KingAragorn contacted TheOneRing.net with a proposition that Tolkien Gateway and TheOneRing.net should work in co-operation. The general premise was that the two online Tolkien communities were consubstantial and should, therefore, work together for each other's benefit. The discussion was, at first, progressive; it was mooted that, in effect, Tolkien Gateway would become TheOneRing.net's encyclopaedia, and that TheOneRing.net would become Tolkien Gateway's news portal. However, discussions came to an end because of an apparent bad history between Hyarion, the owner of Tolkien Gateway, and TheOneRing.net. Whilst there was reciprocal praise for the work achieved by both communities, no further discussions took place.[30]
Finally, on August 26, the "Gateway to Ithilien" was made the default skin for Tolkien Gateway, and - with minor alterations - still remains the default skin today.[15]
Top contributors during this period include Aule the Smith, Dwarf Lord, Earendilyon, Ederchil, Eldarion Telcontar, KingAragorn, Linathiel, Mith, Narfil Palùrfalas, Quidon88, Sage, Þelma, Theoden1, and Tik as well as KingAragorn Bot
2009
Apart from another difficult server move,[31] 2009 was a relatively uneventful year for Tolkien Gateway and its editors. Despite this, Tolkien Gateway gained the largest number of editors in any year (481),[12] as well as passing the threshold of 8,000 articles.
Frequent editors of 2009 include: Ebakunin, Ederchil, Eldarion Telcontar, Grond, Hyarion, KingAragorn, Mith, Morgan, Mthomas, Pinkkeith, Þelma and Sage, as well as KingAragorn Bot.
2010
2010 started eventfully for Tolkien Gateway as a new editor, Gilgamesh, including Quenya and Sindarin declension templates in the majority of articles - this led to an intense discussion between Gilgamesh on the one hand, and Ederchil, Mith and Sage on the other (arguing that their appearance and canonicity were questionable). Eventually, all the templates were removed.[32]
Despite reaching its fifth birthday (as a wiki) this was left uncelebrated by the editors. Indeed, some editors expressed disquiet about existing technical problems, the paucity of editors and the inactivity of Hyarion with some editors suggesting that the project should be forked. Following this, Tolkien Gateway witness a re-emergence of its meetings,[29] Hyarion became more active (updating the MediaWiki software), Ederchil was promoted to a bureaucrat and Mith was promoted to administrator/sysop.[33] It was also at this time that, with great reluctance,[34] that members of the community decided to lock Tolkien Gateway to anonymous editors; this was in order to prevent the large numbers of spammers who were vandalising articles.[16]
In the summer of 2010, Kris Kowal from 3rin.gs added links to Tolkien Gateway - alongside existing ones to the Encyclopedia of Arda - on his interactive map.[35]
During this time, many key projects were embarked upon by editors: the relatively new editor Morgan working on bibliographical information;[36] Mith working on the Timeline and years; Ederchil and Mith updated and expanded infoboxes; Mith and KingAragorn trying to remove five-years of redirected links (with the aid of their bots);[37][38] KingAragorn re-categorisation all location articles; Sage working on language-related articles; and Amroth and Pinkkeith working on video-games articles. Other high-frequency editors include: Aule the Smith, Gilgamesh, Grond, Mthomas and Theoden1, along with the aforementioned KingAragorn Bot and Mithbot.
2011
In November 2011, the esteemed auction firm Bonhams included a reference to the Tolkien Gateway article on Przemyslaw Mroczkowski in their lot description of a 1957 letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to the Polish professor.[39]
Key projects in this period included: "The Countdown to The Hobbit films"-project, after suggestion of KingAragorn;[40][41] the creation of the index namespace and development for a new Main Page by Mith;[42] Mith and Hyarion working on technical issues and creating the new "Mithilien" skin; new editor Gamling creating articles for all letters of J.R.R. Tolkien and referencing articles; Morgan continuing to work on bibliographic information;[36] Mith working on Dates[43] and creating and redesigning several infoboxes; KingAragorn working on locations, images and redesigning the portals;[44] Morgan and Sage working on language-related articles; Amroth and Pinkkeith working on gaming-related articles; and CaptainRolly working on Tolkien Societies. Other high-frequency contributors include: Dwarf Lord, Ederchil, Grond and Tik.
2012
In January 2012, news spread about Emil Johansson's The Lord of the Rings Family Tree Project — a genealogy of characters from Tolkien's legendarium, where each character carries a link to the respective Tolkien Gateway article.[45][46]
On 20 August 2012, Shaun Gunner (User:Mith) took part in a panel discussion with Corey Olsen called 'Lifelong Learning Tolkien: Face-to-face and Online'. Tolkien Gateway was cited has an example of the power of the online Tolkien community, with noted scholar Dimitra Fimi claiming to be an editor.[47]
In September 2012, the Mythgard Institute podcast "Riddles in the Dark" episode 17, featuring Corey Olsen, Dave Kale, and Trish Lambert as hosts, included a positive mention of articles (particularly Radagast) on Tolkien Gateway.[48]
On 22 November 2012, Tolkienseminariet ("The Tolkien Seminary") in Sweden, with notable members Anders Stenström and Åke Bertenstam, positively reviewed Tolkien Gateway, saying that since 2003 the wiki "has grown rapidly and now provides copious and dependable information about Middle-earth and not least about Tolkien's life and writings".[2]
2013
In December 2013, surrounding the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, a surge in traffic meant that Tolkien Gateway briefly became a top-50,000 website worldwide.[3]
2014
On 18 May 2014, the online version of The New York Times provided a link to Tolkien Gateway's page about The Silmarillion, in Ethan Gilsdorf's article "Waving His Wand at ‘Beowulf’".[49] On 21 July 2014, the website Inquisitr referenced Tolkien Gateway's article on the Inklings in its news story about forthcoming Tolkien biopics.[50]
On 7 August 2014, Shaun Gunner, Chairman of The Tolkien Society, made reference to Tolkien Gateway in an interview with TheOneRing.net, saying the website has "transformed the accessibility of Tolkien".[51]
Criticism
- See also: Wiki#Trustworthiness and Criticism of Wikipedia for criticism of wikis in general
Like other wikis, Tolkien Gateway has been criticised for the reliability of its information, its lack of sources and the frequency of its revisions. In particular, in the summer of 2010, Tolkien Gateway was criticised for confusing the two articles for Norman Power and Joseph Power; the prominent scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull said:
The Tolkien Gateway entry for Norman Power makes a terrible hash of it by conjoining Norman and Joseph. How on earth could the writer think that someone said to be born in 1925 (Joseph) could be a student at Oxford in the late 1930s? [..] Well, call us old-fashioned (we do), and we admit to having only a passing knowledge of the ways of wiki-creation, but it would never occur to us to post a work-in-progress, to be cleaned up by someone else, especially since people often take wiki articles, in any state of completion, as gospel truth.
—Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull[52][53]
Despite Morgan launching a defence of Tolkien Gateway on The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza, although accepting that Tolkien Gateway was better than other online encyclopaedias, the members generally complained about the unreliability of Tolkien Gateway - and wikis in general - and the ephemeral nature of the Internet, with an agreement that there was a "distressing lack of sources".[54] The article English and Welsh was paraded as a particularly bad example. In response to the criticisms raised, both the "Joseph Power"/"Norman Power" and "English and Welsh" articles were amended.[55]
In a review of Tolkien Gateway, Kristine Kastle claimed that it was only appropriate for the younger reader, it suffered from poor navigation, and the design was basic, lacking colour and that the life was sucked out of it; she gave Tolkien Gateway a score of 1.5 out of 4 which translates as, "Well now at least the website is recognizable as a website; style is still not pretty much nonexistant."[56] The skin has been updated twice since the review although the navigation system has changed little.[24]
Commenting on Tolkien Gateway, Troels Forchhammer says that "[i]t suffers from the same problems as any wiki when the subject is one of some fame or notoriety and in particular when the subject lends itself to strongly held opinions". He also marks that Tolkien Gateway is "trying to add thorough references to their articles, but has still a way to go."[57]
After a suggestion from User:Morgan, Hawke Robinson and Michael Martinez discussed Tolkien Gateway on the Middle-earth Radio Talk Show on 8 August 2010. The radio hosts put forward a "positive critique", praising Tolkien Gateway for "a great effort", "a nice layout", and that the website should be "recognized for all the work that has gone into this wiki". However, they also addressed the issue that "as all wikis, there's always room for improvement", especially pointing out the need for "better citation standards".[58]
See also
- Tolkien Gateway:Membership Growth, for detailed membership statistics and graphs
External Links
- Tolkien Gateway on Facebook
- http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net at Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
- http://tolkiengateway.tk at Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
- Tolkien Gateway at One Wiki to Rule Them All
- Tolkien Gateway at WikiIndex
- Wikipedia articles that link to Tolkien Gateway
References
- ↑ "List of Tolkien Encyclopedias", based on research by Mith (accessed November 19 2010)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "22 november 2012" dated 24 January 2013, Tolkienseminariet (accessed 24 January 2013)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Alexa - tolkiengateway.net (accessed 25 May 2014)
- ↑ WikiStats - List of largest MediaWikis (accessed 6 July 2014)
- ↑ From Wikipedia: "The wikiFactor is simply the number of pages in the wiki (wF) that have had more than 1000 times wF visits."
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 From "Tolkien Gateway: About" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ "Forum:Welcome to the Council forum!" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Tolkien Gateway:Updates#2006" (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ "Main Page oldid=42029" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Tolkien Gateway:Updates", entry 10-4-07 (accessed November 20, 2010)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Tolkien Gateway:Updates, entry 4-14-08 (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 12.8 Personal research by Mith
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Tolkien Gateway:Updates, entry 7-12-08 (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 "User Rights Log" (accessed 25 May 2014)
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Tolkien Gateway:Updates", entry 8-26-08 (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Forum:Database Lock" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ Forum:10,000 articles (accessed July 16, 2012)
- ↑ Forum:11,000 articles (accessed 25 May, 2014)
- ↑ Internet Archive: Wayback Machine, "http://tolkiengateway.cjb.net" (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Internet Archive: Wayback Machine, "http://tolkiengateway.tk" (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ "Tolkien Gateway:Chat (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ See "Tolkien Gateway talk:Meetings/5 September 2010#Ideas for Agenda" (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ Tolkien Gateway:Updates, entry 1-29-08 (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Tolkien Gateway:Updates" (accessed November 19, 2010)
- ↑ ThereAndBackAgain.net (accessed=21 August 2014)
- ↑ "User talk:Hyarion#Merge" (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 "User talk:Hyarion/Archive 4#Merge" (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ "Tolkien Gateway:Meetings/17 August 2008" (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 "Tolkien Gateway:Meetings" (accessed November 21, 2010)
- ↑ Personal research by KingAragorn
- ↑ "Tolkien Gateway:Updates", entry 9-2-09 (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ "Forum:Quenya declension template appearance" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ "Tolkien Gateway:Requests for adminship/Archive#Mith (28/06/10)" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ "User talk:Ederchil#Anti-spam strategies" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ "References for Middle-earth" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 "Writings by J.R.R. Tolkien" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ "Forum:Linking to redirects" (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ See "Redirects" for progress (accessed November 24, 2010)
- ↑ Lot 182 at Bonhams.com (accessed 22 November 2011)
- ↑ "Forum:Countdown to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (accessed 1 January, 2012)
- ↑ "Tolkien Gateway talk:Meetings/13 November 2011" (accessed 1 January, 2012)
- ↑ "Main Page/Development (accessed 1 January, 2012)
- ↑ "User talk:Mith/2011" (accessed 1 January, 2012)
- ↑ "Forum:Portals" (accessed 1 January, 2012)
- ↑ "Student produces Middle-earth genealogy site" dated 23 January 2012, TheOneRing.net (accessed 24 January 2012)
- ↑ "King Geek? Lord Of The Rings Super Fan Traces Middle-Earth Family Tree" dated 24 January 2012, The Huffington Post (accessed 24 January 2012)
- ↑ Troels Forchhammer, "The Return of the Ring" dated 25 August 2012, Parma-kenta (accessed 25 May 2014)
- ↑ "Riddles in the Dark 17: Radagast the Brown and the Movie App" dated 14 September 2012, Mythgard.org (accessed 16 September 2012)
- ↑ Ethan Gilsdorf, "Waving His Wand at ‘Beowulf’" dated 18 May 2014, nytimes.com (accessed 18 May 2014)
- ↑ "Movie In The Works About J.R.R. Tolkien And C.S. Lewis – Together!" dated 21 July 2014, Inquisitr (accessed 20 August 2014)
- ↑ "TORn talks to Shaun Gunner, Chairman of The Tolkien Society" dated 7 August 2014, TheOneRing.net (accessed 20 August 2013)
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza, "Brother Joseph Power's experiences of Tolkien, post #7238261", dated July 26, 2010 (accessed November 19, 2010)
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza, "Brother Joseph Power's experiences of Tolkien, post #7239909", dated July 29, 2010 (accessed November 19, 2010)
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza, "The future of Tolkien knowledge", dated July 30 to August 11 2010 (accessed November 19, 2010)
- ↑ "Talk:English and Welsh" (accessed November 19, 2010)
- ↑ Kristine Kastle on Collaborative Web Review, "Tolkien Gateway Review" (accessed November 19, 2010)
- ↑ The Tolkien Newsgroups' Links Collection, dated 5 August 2008 (accessed 26 April 2011)
- ↑ Middle-earth Radion Talk Show, Episode 29 (dated 8 August 2010; from ca. 27:50) at Middle-earthradio.com