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{{Era|RW}}
{{Status|Halopedia}}
This page chronicles the history of [[Halopedia]].
This page chronicles the history of [[Halopedia]].


==Beginnings: 2004-2005==
==2004 to 2005: Beginnings==
[[Image:Halo Wiki logo.png|thumb|Halopedia's original logo.]]
[[File:Halo Wiki logo.png|thumb|Halopedia's original logo.]]
[[File:1223771930 Halo Wiki.PNG|thumb|left|How Halopedia looked in 2005.]]
[[File:Halopedia History 2005.PNG|thumb|left|How Halopedia looked in 2005.]]
'''Halopedia''', originally known simply as "'''Halo Wiki'''", began on November 4, 2004 as a project of user [[User:AgentSeethroo|AgentSeethroo]], with the help of [[User:Porplemontage|Porplemontage]]. Built as an offshoot of his then [[clan]], the BlackBoxRepublic, it quickly attracted a small following of users.
'''Halopedia''', originally known simply as "'''Halo Wiki'''", began as an idea by the then [[clan]], the BlackBoxRepublic to be the first Halo Wiki around October 28, 2004.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20041028025513/http://www.blackboxrepublic.com/ '''www.blackboxrepublic.com''' ''- "Your Halo resource, home of the first Halo wiki"'']</ref> and on November 4, 2004, [[User:AgentSeethroo|AgentSeethroo]], with the help of [[User:Porplemontage|Porplemontage]] the site was formed with the URL <nowiki>"http://wiki.blackboxrepublic.com"</nowiki>.


To help the growing wiki, AgentSeethroo appointed several other [[Halopedia:Administrators|Administrators]] to assist in the maintenance of the site, namely [[User:Buz|Buz]] and [[User:Dragonclaws|Dragonclaws]].
On April 5 2005, AgentSeethroo thought about creating a wiki network/gaming site to which he suggested potentially importing the wiki onto it, deleting the wiki in the process. However the users went against the idea.<ref name="Initial">[[Halopedia talk:History/Archive1|'''Halopedia''', ''Halo Wiki to Halopedia Domain change'']]</ref>


Becoming ambitious, AgentSeethroo and Porplemontage created GamerFocus: a wiki network/gaming site. Because of the recent creation of {{plain|[http://www.halowiki.net/ Halowiki.net]}}, the wiki's name was changed to "Halopedia", and moved to www.halopedia.org, where it became part of the wiki network alongside a game cheats wiki, an overall video game wiki, and the [[MarioWiki:Main Page|Super Mario Wiki]].
To help the growing wiki AgentSeethroo appointed several other administrators to assist in the maintenance of the site, namely [[User:Buz|Buz]], and on April 7  [[User:Dragonclaws|Dragonclaws]].<ref>[https://www.halopedia.org/index.php?title=Halopedia:Administrators&oldid=6416 '''Halopedia''' ''-Halopedia:Administrators (7 April 2005)'']</ref>


Due to lack of interest, the cheats wiki and the video game wiki closed and the wiki network eventually shut down, leaving the remaining sites, including Halopedia, as stand-alone sites. Throughout 2005, the site continued to grow as the user list expanded to a little over 150.
Because of the creation of Halowiki.net earlier in the year, on August 9 it was suggested the wiki was renamed to "Halopedia" as a riff on "Wikipedia", and on August 11 the wiki moved to www.halopedia.org, where it became part of the wiki network alongside a game cheats wiki, an general video game wiki, and the [[MarioWiki:Main Page|Super Mario Wiki]].<ref name="Initial"/>
{{clear}}


==Notability: Early 2006==
==2006 to 2007: Notability and Migration to Wikia==
{{main|Halopedia Media Mentions}}
{{main|Halopedia:Halopedia in the media}}
The site began to be recognized by the international community in early 2006; it was mentioned in a section of the Tahlequah Daily Press newspaper of Tahlequah, Oklahoma on February 20, 2006.<ref>[http://www.tahlequahdailypress.com/features/local_story_051130651.html '''Tahlequah Daily Press''': ''Old Man Winter freezes out Halo tourney'']</ref> The site eventually was recognized by [[Bungie]] as a reliable, yet unofficial source of Halo information for the Halo community. This recognition prompted Halopedia's membership to increase by 300 percent over several weeks.<ref>[http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=news&cid=7690 '''Bungie.net''': ''Halopedia Knows'']</ref>
[[File:PreWiki.png|thumb|The Old Halo Logo]]
The site began to be recognized by the international community in early 2006; it was mentioned in a section of the Tahlequah Daily Press newspaper of Tahlequah, Oklahoma on February 20, 2006.<ref>[http://www.tahlequahdailypress.com/features/local_story_051130651.html '''Tahlequah Daily Press''': ''Old Man Winter freezes out Halo tourney'']</ref> The site eventually was recognized by [[Bungie]] as a reliable, yet unofficial source of Halo information for the Halo community. This recognition prompted Halopedia's membership to increase by 300 percent over several weeks.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=news&cid=7690 '''Bungie.net''': ''Halopedia Knows'']</ref>


<!--
Halopedia's growing community began to present a major problem for its creators; the site's growing size was producing a bill in excess of $150 a month for server usage. Throughout May, June, and July, the site would be sporadically offline, until it finally went offline for several straight weeks. AgentSeethroo had to admit that he could no longer host Halopedia himself.
/** The following is for the future, just in case Wikipedia has an actual article about Halopedia. If there is an article about Halopedia, remove this hidden tag and restore the below paragraph **/


Still, notability is not something Halopedia has acquired in a major sense; Halopedia's article was deleted from Wikipedia because the site is not considered notable enough to pass the site's notability standard. A Wikipedian user and a Halopedian user, [[User:Aranho|Aranho]], added Halopedia back into Wikipedia. However, it was once again deleted.
The admins decided that Halopedia had to be merged with halo.wikia.com, a formerly rival wiki simply referred as Halo Wikia that did not have the same issues. Despite the process of having to manually import every article from the original Halopedia (now referred to as old.Halopedia due to its temporary filename during the transfer process), the site ultimately benefited with several new active users. This merger with Halo Wikia also brought Halopedia over 1,000 articles, and around September 2007 Halopedia hit 3000 articles.
-->
{{clear}}
==Server Problems: Mid 2006==
Halopedia's growing community began to present a major problem for its creators; the site's growing size was producing a bill in excess of $150 a month for server usage. Throughout May, June, and July, the site would be sporadically down, until it finally went offline for several weeks.


Eventually, Halopedia had to be merged with halo.wikia.com, a formerly rival wiki simply referred as Halo Wikia that did not have the same issues. Despite the process of having to manually import every article from the original Halopedia (referred to as old.Halopedia due to its temporary filename), the site ultimately benefited with several new active users.
==Early 2008: Introduction of Wikia's social tools==
In March 2008, Halopedia was one of the few wikis of Wikia having to experiment a [[mw:social tools|social tools]] system and a new skin. Part of the reason behind these features was for Wikia to experiment with the extensions in question and finding out the accessibility and usefulness of the tools. The implementation of the social tools includes the point system, an editing system that rewards users points for editing, completing various steps to becoming an active community member, and participating in community activities.


==Halo Wikia==
At first, the social tools proved to be useful in Halopedia. A significant number of users enjoyed the features and were motivated to improve the wiki. However, the social tools created major problems with vandals and concern about the site's quality. The point system awarding equal value for both good and bad edits unfortunately encouraged most new users to contribute numerous edits of low beneficial value. These included adding random spaces and line breaks, fixing spellings one word for each revision, and unnecessary and redundant content. Users seeking a high point score without care for article quality caused an overall deterioration of quality in Halopedia.
[[Image:Wikiold Logo.png|thumb|The Old Halo Logo]]
Halo Wikia was started on June 15, 2005 by [[w:c:Halo:User:Akashe|Akashe]]. The user is no longer around to answer for his actions. It is unknown whether Akashe wanted to start a new site to compete against the old Halopedia or that he just did not know of Halopedia's existence. Whatever the reason, without the support of other users, halo.wikia.com slowly died out, with Akashe last posting on June 15, 2005. The site would remain a dead wiki until it was merged with, and became Halopedia.


==Introduction of social tools: Early 2008==
The administration team sought to resolve the matter by limiting the rewards to only mainspace articles, uploading the first avatar to the user's profile, and for signing up to Halopedia. Though a significant number of the community were uncomfortable with these changes, they would later realize that the changes made were necessary to restore Halopedia to its quality state.
In March of 2008, Halopedia was one of the few wikis of Wikia having to experiment a [[mw:social tools|social tools]] system and a new skin. Part of the reason behind these features was for Wikia to experiment with the extensions in question and finding out the accessibility and usefulness of the tools. The implementation of the social tools includes the point system, an editing system that rewards users points for editing.


At first, the social tools proved to be useful in Halopedia and a significant number enjoyed the features and was motivated to improve the wiki. However, the social tools created major problems with vandals and concern about the site's quality. The point system unfortunately encouraged most new users to contribute unneeded additions to the articles, such as adding random spaces and line breaks, fixing spellings one word for each revision, and unnecessary and redundant content. This caused deterioration of quality in Halopedia and widespread activity of point system abuse.
==2008 to 2010: Themes==
[[File:Halopedia History 12-08-08.png|thumb|Halopedia in December, 2008.]]
{{Quote|Know your Halo history by studying Halopedia, and make sure you’ve finished all three games, and have played all the multiplayer maps a lot. |Rob Adams<ref>[http://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?cid=16876 '''Bungie.net''': ''Breaking In - Rob Adams'']</ref>}}
Halopedia experienced a great year in 2008, hitting 5,000 articles in August. While Special tools met some controversy in the past, the social tools motivated the Halo community to continue improving and expanding the Halo database. Eventually, those who opposed the implementation of the social tools adapted and enjoyed the features.


The administration team sought to resolve the matter by limiting the rewards to only mainspace articles, uploading the first avatar to the user's profile and for signing up to Halopedia. Though a significant number of the community were uncomfortable with these changes, they would later realize that the changes made were necessary to restore Halopedia to its quality state.
In late 2008, Halopedia moved back to the main Wikia codebase, which provided lots of software updates. Halopedia's skin was changed from the custom "Halopedia" skin to Wikia's then-default Monaco skin, which was customized to Halopedia's needs. From 2009 to 2010, Halopedia underwent multiple design changes whereby the site would alter its appearance to a specific theme. These changes made it possible for the site to pay tribute for the release of ''Halo 3: ODST'' and ''Halo: Reach''.


==From 2008 to 2010==
In August of 2009 Halopedia started to expand outside the wiki on platforms like [https://www.facebook.com/HalopediaWiki/ Facebook].
[[File:120808.png|thumb|Halopedia in 2008.]]
{{clear}}
{{Quote|Know your Halo history by studying Halopedia, and make sure you’ve finished all three games, and have played all the multiplayer maps a lot. |Rob Adams<ref>[http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?cid=16876 '''Bungie.net''': ''Breaking In - Rob Adams'']</ref>}}
Halopedia experienced a great year in 2008, now featured with social tools. Though it met some controversy in the past, the social tools motivated the Halo community to continue improving and expanding the Halo database. Eventually, those who opposed the implementation of the social tools adapted and enjoyed the features. From 2009 to 2010, Halopedia underwent multiple design changes whereby the site would alter its appearance to a specific theme. These changes made it possible for the site to pay tribute for the release of ''Halo 3: ODST'' and ''Halo: Reach''.


In late 2008 Halopedia moved back to the main Wikia codebase, which provided lots of software updates. Halopedia's skin was changed from the custom "Halopedia" skin to Wikia's then-default Monaco skin, which was customized to Halopedia's needs.<!-- This information was originally available on [[Blog:Halopedia upgrades]], which was posted by Wikia staff member KyleH in November 2008. Kyle later wrote that "The move is scheduled for Monday, December 8th". -->
==Late 2010 to 2015: Domain change and growth==
[[File:Halopedia History 10-17-10.png|thumb|left|Halopedia in October, 2010 using Wikia's Oasis skin.]]
In mid-August 2010, Halopedia's hosting service, Wikia, introduced a new mandatory skin change codenamed "Oasis" along with the removal of Monaco skin, and an update of the terms of use to the Wikia community. Declared by many to be a maintenance burden, Wikia defended its position for the removal of Monaco skin and offered the community a chance to experience the new skin. Though the skin is described by Wikia as "sleek" and helpful to newer users, it faced a lot of opposition from a significant amount of the Wikia community over what they saw as reduced accessibility and had unnecessary features. In addition, veteran contributors felt that Wikia's updated terms of use greatly restricted creativity and community freedom of each wiki, something the Wikia community had enjoyed when using older skins.


==Domain change: Late 2010==
After a community consensus initiated by administrator [[User:Nicmavr|Nicmavr]], a majority voted to move back to its independent domain, halopedian.com, on October 17, 2010. This also caused the left over wiki to eventually turn into Halo Nation.  
[[File:101710 Oasis.png|thumb|left|Halopedia in Wikia's Oasis skin.]]
In mid-August 2010, Halopedia's hosting service, Wikia, introduced a new mandatory skin change codenamed "Oasis" along with the removal of Monaco skin, and an update of the terms of use to the Wikia community. Declared as maintanence burden, Wikia defended its position for the removal of Monaco skin and offered the community a chance to experience the new skin. Though the skin is described by Wikia as "sleek" and helpful to newer users, it faced a lot of opposition from the majority of the Wikia community. Many veteran contributors express burdensome accessibility and that some of its features are unneeded. In addition, the veteran contributors felt that Wikia's updated terms of use greatly restricted creativity and community freedom of each wiki, something the Wikia community had enjoyed when using older skins.


After a community consensus initiated by [[Halopedia:Administrators|administrator]] [[User:Nicmavr|Nicmavr]], Halopedia was supported by a majority to move back to its independent domain, halopedian.com, on October 17th, 2010. The wiki was moved again to its original domain, halopedia.org, in summer 2012.
Halopedia was moved again to its original domain, halopedia.org, in summer 2012, and in July 2014, Halopedia adopted a special skin for mobile web-based browsers. On September 27, 2015, the site reached the 10,000 article mark.
{{clear}}


==Current==
==2019 Merger==
Currently, Halopedia continues to grow in anticipation of many new projects planned for the Halo universe, such as the new ''[[Reclaimer Saga]]'' of games. In July 2014, Halopedia adopted a special skin and theme for mobile web-based browsers. On September 27, 2015, the site reached the 10,000 article mark.
On February 4, 2019, a vote was passed for Halo Nation to merge into Halopedia, in which the Halo Nation team and contents would become part of Halopedia. In doing so, the Halo Nation website was rebranded to Halo Alpha to reflect that the Halo Nation staff and community had left the platform, to join Halopedia.


Halopedia has been regarded as relatively accurate and reliable among Halo fans and website forums, many of which cite Halopedia's articles as sources of information. Although Halopedia frowns on speculation in its articles, its [[Forum:Index|forums]] have become a central place for speculation and discussion of the upcoming productions.
==Currently==
Currently, Halopedia continues to grow in anticipation of many new projects planned for the Halo universe, and currently hosts {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles that are being worked on.
 
Halopedia has been regarded as relatively accurate and reliable among Halo fans and website forums, many of which cite Halopedia's articles as sources of information. Halopedia also thrives though its use of Facebook, [https://twitter.com/Halopedia Twitter], and [[Halopedia:Discord server|Discord]] to interact with the community.
 
==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Halopedia History 09-11-06.JPG|Halopedia in September, 2006.
File:Halopedia History 2006.jpg|Halopedia in 2006.
File:Halopedia History 10-28-07.PNG|Halopedia in October, 2007.
File:Halopedia History 04-04-08.jpg|Halopedia in April, 2008.
File:Halopedia History 2009.jpg|Halopedia in 2009.
File:Halopedia History 05-07-10.png|Halopedia in May, 2010.
File:Halopedia History 10-07-10.png|Halopedia in October, 2010 (Monaco).
File:Halopedia History 12-25-10.png|Halopedia in December, 2010 (Christmas theme).
</gallery>


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Halopedia talk:History/Archive1|Migration history of Halopedia]]
*[[Halopedia talk:History/Archive1|Migration history of Halopedia]]
*[[Halopedia:Milestones|Halopedia Milestones]]
*[[Halopedia:History of Halo Nation|History of Halo Nation]]


==Sources==
==Sources==
<references/>
<references/>


[[Category:Help|History]]
{{Halopedia IP}}
 
[[Category:Halopedia]]

Latest revision as of 06:08, March 24, 2022

This page chronicles the history of Halopedia.

2004 to 2005: Beginnings

Halopedia's original logo.
How Halopedia looked in 2005.

Halopedia, originally known simply as "Halo Wiki", began as an idea by the then clan, the BlackBoxRepublic to be the first Halo Wiki around October 28, 2004.[1] and on November 4, 2004, AgentSeethroo, with the help of Porplemontage the site was formed with the URL "http://wiki.blackboxrepublic.com".

On April 5 2005, AgentSeethroo thought about creating a wiki network/gaming site to which he suggested potentially importing the wiki onto it, deleting the wiki in the process. However the users went against the idea.[2]

To help the growing wiki AgentSeethroo appointed several other administrators to assist in the maintenance of the site, namely Buz, and on April 7 Dragonclaws.[3]

Because of the creation of Halowiki.net earlier in the year, on August 9 it was suggested the wiki was renamed to "Halopedia" as a riff on "Wikipedia", and on August 11 the wiki moved to www.halopedia.org, where it became part of the wiki network alongside a game cheats wiki, an general video game wiki, and the Super Mario Wiki.[2]

2006 to 2007: Notability and Migration to Wikia

Main article: Halopedia:Halopedia in the media
The Old Halo Logo

The site began to be recognized by the international community in early 2006; it was mentioned in a section of the Tahlequah Daily Press newspaper of Tahlequah, Oklahoma on February 20, 2006.[4] The site eventually was recognized by Bungie as a reliable, yet unofficial source of Halo information for the Halo community. This recognition prompted Halopedia's membership to increase by 300 percent over several weeks.[5]

Halopedia's growing community began to present a major problem for its creators; the site's growing size was producing a bill in excess of $150 a month for server usage. Throughout May, June, and July, the site would be sporadically offline, until it finally went offline for several straight weeks. AgentSeethroo had to admit that he could no longer host Halopedia himself.

The admins decided that Halopedia had to be merged with halo.wikia.com, a formerly rival wiki simply referred as Halo Wikia that did not have the same issues. Despite the process of having to manually import every article from the original Halopedia (now referred to as old.Halopedia due to its temporary filename during the transfer process), the site ultimately benefited with several new active users. This merger with Halo Wikia also brought Halopedia over 1,000 articles, and around September 2007 Halopedia hit 3000 articles.

Early 2008: Introduction of Wikia's social tools

In March 2008, Halopedia was one of the few wikis of Wikia having to experiment a social tools system and a new skin. Part of the reason behind these features was for Wikia to experiment with the extensions in question and finding out the accessibility and usefulness of the tools. The implementation of the social tools includes the point system, an editing system that rewards users points for editing, completing various steps to becoming an active community member, and participating in community activities.

At first, the social tools proved to be useful in Halopedia. A significant number of users enjoyed the features and were motivated to improve the wiki. However, the social tools created major problems with vandals and concern about the site's quality. The point system awarding equal value for both good and bad edits unfortunately encouraged most new users to contribute numerous edits of low beneficial value. These included adding random spaces and line breaks, fixing spellings one word for each revision, and unnecessary and redundant content. Users seeking a high point score without care for article quality caused an overall deterioration of quality in Halopedia.

The administration team sought to resolve the matter by limiting the rewards to only mainspace articles, uploading the first avatar to the user's profile, and for signing up to Halopedia. Though a significant number of the community were uncomfortable with these changes, they would later realize that the changes made were necessary to restore Halopedia to its quality state.

2008 to 2010: Themes

Halopedia in December, 2008.

"Know your Halo history by studying Halopedia, and make sure you’ve finished all three games, and have played all the multiplayer maps a lot. "
— Rob Adams[6]

Halopedia experienced a great year in 2008, hitting 5,000 articles in August. While Special tools met some controversy in the past, the social tools motivated the Halo community to continue improving and expanding the Halo database. Eventually, those who opposed the implementation of the social tools adapted and enjoyed the features.

In late 2008, Halopedia moved back to the main Wikia codebase, which provided lots of software updates. Halopedia's skin was changed from the custom "Halopedia" skin to Wikia's then-default Monaco skin, which was customized to Halopedia's needs. From 2009 to 2010, Halopedia underwent multiple design changes whereby the site would alter its appearance to a specific theme. These changes made it possible for the site to pay tribute for the release of Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach.

In August of 2009 Halopedia started to expand outside the wiki on platforms like Facebook.

Late 2010 to 2015: Domain change and growth

Halopedia in October, 2010 using Wikia's Oasis skin.

In mid-August 2010, Halopedia's hosting service, Wikia, introduced a new mandatory skin change codenamed "Oasis" along with the removal of Monaco skin, and an update of the terms of use to the Wikia community. Declared by many to be a maintenance burden, Wikia defended its position for the removal of Monaco skin and offered the community a chance to experience the new skin. Though the skin is described by Wikia as "sleek" and helpful to newer users, it faced a lot of opposition from a significant amount of the Wikia community over what they saw as reduced accessibility and had unnecessary features. In addition, veteran contributors felt that Wikia's updated terms of use greatly restricted creativity and community freedom of each wiki, something the Wikia community had enjoyed when using older skins.

After a community consensus initiated by administrator Nicmavr, a majority voted to move back to its independent domain, halopedian.com, on October 17, 2010. This also caused the left over wiki to eventually turn into Halo Nation.

Halopedia was moved again to its original domain, halopedia.org, in summer 2012, and in July 2014, Halopedia adopted a special skin for mobile web-based browsers. On September 27, 2015, the site reached the 10,000 article mark.

2019 Merger

On February 4, 2019, a vote was passed for Halo Nation to merge into Halopedia, in which the Halo Nation team and contents would become part of Halopedia. In doing so, the Halo Nation website was rebranded to Halo Alpha to reflect that the Halo Nation staff and community had left the platform, to join Halopedia.

Currently

Currently, Halopedia continues to grow in anticipation of many new projects planned for the Halo universe, and currently hosts 16,224 articles that are being worked on.

Halopedia has been regarded as relatively accurate and reliable among Halo fans and website forums, many of which cite Halopedia's articles as sources of information. Halopedia also thrives though its use of Facebook, Twitter, and Discord to interact with the community.

Gallery

See also

Sources