Earlier this month, the wiki-hosting firm Fandom scooped up a number of video games websites, together with Giant Bomb and GameSpot, in an acquisition price $50 million. And that exorbitant worth of the sale, coupled with what the web site calls “questionable staffing decisions” on the firm, has led the Zelda Wiki to interrupt free from “corporate consolidation” and declare its independence from Fandom.

Opened in 2005 and impartial up till its switch over to Gamepedia internet hosting in 2017, the Zelda Wiki is among the largest fan-run video games wikis round. With hundreds of entries from video games throughout your complete franchise, you possibly can spend days or perhaps weeks scrolling by the digital encyclopedia and possibly nonetheless not end it in its entirety. It’s my go-to useful resource when wanting up info on a particular enemy or weapon in Nintendo’s common franchise, and it hosts 11,199 articles. However, now you’re gonna have to go to a brand-new web site in case you have bookmarked and/or frequented the previous Zelda Wiki.

Staff on the web site introduced on Twitter this week that, “after many months of preparation,” the web site is now completely impartial from Fandom or every other entity.

“For over a decade, from its creation in 2005 to its transfer to Gamepedia in 2017, the Zelda Wiki was a fully independent site,” the wiki’s EIC wrote. “Even after the transfer, and Gamepedia’s subsequent acquisition by Fandom, Inc., the site sought to continue its mission of curating an editorially independent, high-quality wiki operated by fans. However, we have come to believe that these ideals are incompatible with Fandom.”

There was a purpose for such a scathing assertion. Citing Fandom’s “recent buyouts and questionable staffing decisions,” the Zelda Wiki workers mentioned it desires to “keep the internet free from corporate consolidation” and “hegemonic control.” As such, the group moved the wiki to a brand new house, although the Fandom one continues to be up and working.

Responses to the information have been overwhelmingly optimistic on-line. Multiple people have referred to as this a giant win for the Zelda Wiki, whereas others are wanting ahead to fewer adverts and a greater format on the positioning. Even the Twitter account for the Fallout Wiki, one of many few publicly feuding with Fandom over intrusive movies and adverts on the positioning, congratulated the Zelda Wiki group for breaking from the corporate. Generally, there’s some public wariness about Fandom’s rising affect over fan-led Wikis which have supplied helpful free assets to the group about huge franchises. As such, there at the moment are even assets shared for alternate options to Fandom Wikis, and a few encouragement within the feedback from this announcement to get extra Wikis to do the identical. While impartial Wikis do exist, through the years Fandom has change into the extra dominant web site when individuals Google for sure subjects.

In Discord messages with Kotaku, group workers member ModdedInkling mentioned the previous Fandom wiki will “continue to be updated” by a couple of volunteers which have chosen to stay there. Just about everybody else, nonetheless, will transfer to the web site’s new area. ModdedInkling additionally defined what this independence means for the workers.

“Being ‘editorially independent’ means having full creative control over the wiki’s content under its own policies as opposed to Fandom’s policies,” ModdedInkling mentioned. “This also includes the wiki’s overall appearance (user interface, templates, etc.), which has been one of the main subjects discussed by many independent wikis splitting away from Fandom. Another topic of interest involves avoiding mandated censorship. Certain wikis also have content that involves socio-politics and ethics that are often restricted by Fandom, but are deemed relevant by the community.”

ModdedInkling extrapolated on the character of Fandom’s alleged censorship. He mentioned that whereas nothing has been blocked on the Zelda Wikia (to his information, anyway), there have been some alterations made to entries post-publication on different wikis.

“Basically, Fandom’s policies may invoke a level of censorship on certain sensitive topics, even if it is relevant towards a work of fiction, if it is deemed to go against their policy,” ModdedInkling mentioned. “Sometimes it may involve altering one’s information as well even if it is less accurate. This can happen through a variety of topics, such as discussions involving the retroactive change of a character’s traits, even if it was historically inaccurate to change it.”

ModdedInkling introduced up one occasion the place Fandom’s insurance policies bought in the way in which of creating what they think about correct info accessible. On Wookieepedia, the digital encyclopedia for Star Wars, there have been allegedly issues round altering the title of somebody who later got here out as trans.

“There was debate involving the naming conventions of someone identifying later as trans,” ModdedInkling mentioned. “The mandate was to retroactively change any of the names displayed for the person or character, even though that was not how they were referred to at the time. I don’t remember if it was a real-life person or a fictional character. It did not cause them to fork, but it was one concern that NIWA had in potential examples involving character pronouns like Vivian from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Sheik from Ocarina of Time, or Vilia from Breath of the Wild.”

ModdedInkling clarified the instance to Kotaku, saying it isn’t consultant of his or the remainder of the Zelda Wiki group’s beliefs. He famous the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, a community of different wikis for Nintendo video games, has a objective to “handle sensitive topics with care to prevent any sort of misrepresentation.” This, he famous, aligns with the Zelda Wiki groups’ beliefs.

Kotaku has reached out to Fandom for remark.

The Zelda Wiki is simply the newest digital encyclopedia to separate from its father or mother firm and the third to interrupt away from Fandom particularly in latest reminiscence. Earlier this yr, the group behind the Terraria Wiki introduced on Steam that it’ll host a brand new web site separate from Fandom. Meanwhile, the Runescape Wiki went indie years in the past in response to company mandates forcing autoplaying movies in posts. The Zelda Wiki can now be present in the NIWA database, which incorporates different impartial, volunteer-run web sites like Bulbapedia (the digital encyclopedia devoted to all issues Pokémon) and SmashWiki.

Update, 10/21/22, 6:30 p.m. ET: Added a clarifying assertion from ModdedInkling.