24
votes
What are your favorite wikis to browse and/or contribute to?
Just curious which sites people enjoy, and how many other frequent wiki contributors there are around here. I personally spend a lot of time on Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap.
WikiVoyage! I love looking up random places and reading about what there is to see, what there is to do, and especially what the culture is like. I even enjoy reading about places I live or have been to see what others felt a traveler there needed to know.
For instance, some time ago I read the page for the US and was interested to read an “external” perspective on what travelers felt other travelers need to know about American culture to get by here. Everything from when to shake hands to how you should never try to bribe the cops…tons of things you never think about as an American.
Thank you for calling this to my attention! Really interesting to read about our country from the lens of an outsider. Despite working internationally and dealing with learning outside customs all the time, I do find that I forget to call some of these tips out to my coworkers when I bring them here.
What is the WikiTravel then? Is it different than the Wiki Voyage?
Wiki Voyage is a fork of WikiTravel, from Wikipedia :
Just Wikipedia for me. I consider that to be a global treasure and just maybe think it should be worshipped.
Other than that I get updates from a Monster Hunter wiki page notifying me that someone edited it. I don't know when or why but that's the only other wiki I apparently edit.
Does SCP count?
Sure, why not? Didn't say the wikis had to be particularly serious.
Yeah it's technically a wiki in that it's a reference site people can freely edit but it's a bit different than other wikis. Most wikis are created with information as their core purpose but SCP wiki has more of a recreational purpose.
Anyway I don't edit there but it is an endless supply of fiction for me.
I really enjoy automotive wikis. I love reading about different models of cars, their specs, what trim levels were offered and the differences there, and what changed year to year. I wish someone would make an encyclopedia on different model cars. Like The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Encyclopedia and it would detail every model year, trim levels, what changes there were in different countries, etc.
To that end I wish I could contribute more info especially photos for the different car model years to Wikipedia but all photos have to be creative commons, you can't just post any photo you find on the net. That being said when I go to car shows I try to make sure to upload all the photos I take to the wikimedia commons.
This is much appreciated! The rule is quite annoying, but at the same time, it allows the photos to be used widely, so it's probably a good thing overall.
My two top picks:
The Old School RuneScape Wiki has put so much work into usefully presenting info, and also linking it to external data sources - item prices are pulled from live-ish market data, your stats and accomplishments are looked up from your account name so you can see what prerequisites you're still missing, etc. For me, it's the gold standard for gaming wikis
The Coppermind wiki for Brandon Sanderson's books. My favorite feature is their Time Machine - specifically chosen snapshots of the state of the wiki in the past, corresponding with immediately before the release of each of his books. That way, if you haven't read a particular book, you can Time Machine back to before its release so you can safely look things up without spoiling yourself.
Guild Wars 2 wiki and Guild Wars 1's counterpart are similarly comparable to the two Runescape wikis in information, but with less of the dynamic resources like automatic calculators and the like. On the other hand, unlike with the Runescape wikis, the Guild Wars wikis while hands-off in administration, are hosted by the developers under their own domain, so for at least the game's lifespan it's costs are covered without need for advertising or donations or any other way to monetize, which I know the Runescape wikis have been concerned about. (I think recently the Runescape wiki administration asked people's feelings on ads.)
As an avid FFXIV player, I often wish it had a wiki comparable to either of these two. It has one that has more of a database and less article format (random page example so you can see what I mean), and another that's a traditional mediawiki article style but severely lacking contributors, missing a lot of coverage, and is often out of date. Both also heavily use ads.
Coppermind is going to be a godsend for me when the next Stormlight book comes out as a way to refresh myself (if I decide against a full reread).
tvtropes.org is a remarkable and exhaustive repository for tropes and cliches in every media and a joy to read.
consolemods.org is a favourite of mine. Loads of info about all the consoles you could need. I like the section for the original Xbox most, also the only one I've contributed to.
I adore Wikimedia Commons as a great source for amazing pictures (and sometimes other media) for all kinds of topics. I also like Wikisource for certain texts and translations which are in the public domain.
All the popular knowledge wikis are worth a visit and contribution including Wiki How, WikiBooks, Wiktionary, Fandom, etc.[1]. Fandom wiki is especially popular among novel readers and fiction fans in general who are fond of stereotypes from Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Marvel Universe, etc.