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The Homestar Runner Wiki, commonly abbreviated to HRWiki, is a Homestar Runner wiki fansite which uses the Wikimedia Foundation's MediaWiki software. It was founded on October 7, 2003 and is still owned by User:JoeyDay.
History
In September 2003, Joey Day stumbled across Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. He immediately fell in love with the concept and decided to start a wiki of his own. After researching the various wiki platforms available at the time, he settled on one called WikkiTikkiTavi, and installed the software on October 7 2003. He decided on the topic of a Homestar Runner knowledge base. After Googling to make sure no one had already set up such a thing, he promptly called his wiki the Homestar Runner Wiki. After users began signing up, and content grew, it was moved to its own domain, and upgraded to its current format running MediaWiki on July 16 2004. It was locked for the first few weeks, and had its official opening on September 13 2004.
On November 11 2005, the Homestar Runner Wiki (along with the Fanstuff Wiki) suffered a massive rash of vandalized pages. The vandal used thousands of IP Addresses and replaced the text of hundreds of entries with the words "NIGGA STOLE MY COW!"(possibly a reference to a similar ytmnd fad) and a number. After anonymous editing was disabled, the vandal bot created thousands of usernames. For a time afterwards, editing was closed to all but those who were registered before the attack. After several weeks a CAPTCHA was introduced, and new user registration and anonymous editing were re-opened.
On April 1 2006, The wiki "regraded" from MediaWiki to its previously used WikkiTikkiTavi software. Though it was only a reskinning of MediaWiki, the April Fool's prank upset many users initially, but eventually many would appreciate the joke and remember back to the "good ol' days."
Knowledge Base
The Homestar Runner Wiki Knowledge Base is a repository of information on the various characters and Flash cartoons of Homestar Runner universe. It attempts to present this information with the same kind of thoroughness and quality as articles in Wikipedia. All of its pages can be edited by nearly anyone and it must also deal with vandalism as a result.
The Homestar Runner Wiki contains detailed information on all of the Toons, Strong Bad Emails, Games and Characters from the main site as well as other minutiae.
Cartoons
Each cartoon page contains a detailed analysis of its corresponding toon, usually divided into the following categories:- Transcripts of the entire cartoon are provided with great detail.
- Easter Eggs with transcripts and means of activation.
- Fun Facts about the toon, including:
- Explanations, Trivia, Inside References and Jokes, Remarks, Goofs, Glitches, Real-World References, and Fast Forward.
- DVD Commentary transcript.
- Links to various related pages.
Strong Bad Emails
Every single Strong Bad Email made by the The Brothers Chaps is listed in the Homestar Wiki. This list includes emails released only on DVD. These pages contain email Transcripts, Funfacts and DVD commentary much in the same way regular Toons are dissected.Characters
A complete biography and filmography can be found of each character in the Homestar Runner universe. There are pages for all of the Characters#Secondary characters in the site, as well as entries for Items Characters#PseudoCharacters by the Main Characters.Products
A complete list of items sold in the Homestar Runner Store along with detailed descriptions of the Store#Products, prices and even Store#Goofs found in the page.Other Pages
There are other kinds of pages found in the Homestar Wiki:- Secret Pages that are not linked from anywhere on the Homestar Runner site.
- Places found in the Homestar Runner universe.
- Running Gags are jokes often repeated among the different cartoons.
- Inside Jokes
- Character Evolution
- Cartoons no longer on the site, some of which can be found in mirror sites.
Homestar Runner Wiki Forum
The Homestar Runner Wiki Forum was set up in May 2004 as a companion to the Homestar Runner Wiki. Although it was originally meant as a place for wiki-related discussions to take place, it has now developed into a full fledged Homestar Runner fan forum, with over 3,750 registered users, comparable in size to other fan forums such as Homestar Rules and the BHZ.
Homestar Runner Fanstuff Wiki
The Homestar Runner Fanstuff Wiki is a collection of fan-made Homestar related materials. The Fanstuff Wiki (sometimes known as "The Fanstuff") has approximately seven times the amount of articles, due to the fact that unlimited amounts of fanstuff material can be created. Despite the large amount of pages, there are around 3,000 more users on the Knowledge-Base than the Fanstuff Wiki.
History
As the old wiki grew, it became more and more cluttered with non-encyclopedic items, such as fan art and Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Originally this was not an issue, but as the site received more traffic, thus overwhelming the servers, it became clear that the fan-items would have to be separated from the main content. When the transfer was made to MediaWiki, it was decided that only encyclopedic articles would be allowed on the new wiki. However, when it was certain that the servers could handle it, a separate wiki dedicated for fanstuff was set up.Content
The Fanstuff Wiki contains many different types of fanstuff.- Email that stems from the immense popularity of Strong Bad Emails. There is a lot of Email related fanstuff in which fans create email shows for other characters in the style of Strong Bad Emails. This includes:
- Other Character Email where fans create email shows as other characters from the Homestar Runner universe.
- Fake Character Email where fans create email shows for characters that do not exist, but live in the Homestar Runner universe.
- Wiki User Email where fans create Fake Character Email shows where they are the fake character.
- Fan Fiction contains fictional stories about the Homestar Runner characters.
- Media presents visual or audio material that users have created.
- Video Games many users create that are related to the Homestar Runner Universe. Some are playable games, others are made up.
- Text-Adventures is where the Choose Your Own Adventure type fanstuff went.
- Products includes fictional Homestar Runner related wares that were imagined or created by users.
- Flash Fanstuff is Homestar Runner related Flash cartoons and games created by many users.
Fanstuff of the Week
HRFWiki:Fanstuff of the Week was started on May 1, 2005. Users on the wiki could nominate fanstuffs, and then users would vote on them. Every Sunday, a user, usually a sysop, would determine the winner (based on the voting from the previous weeks) and display the fanstuff (with a brief description) on the Main Page.See also: Category:FotW Winner
Unofficial Fanstuff Forum
The Fanstuff Wiki also has a forum. However, it is not considered an official part of the site. It is mainly used for discussion of Fanstuff and the Fanstuff Wiki. However, it is also used for discussion of topics not related to Homestar Runner.Homestarrunner.net
The Homestar Runner Wiki recently acquired the homestarrunner.net domain. There was a debate over what should be done with the page, mainly on whether it should be a fanpage or a portal. Joey Day said that he did not want the site to contain any knock offs of Homestar Runner.com, including no flash animation. Following the consensus reached in the forums, it will become the Homestar Runner Community Portal.
Notable Users
User:JoeyDay is the wiki's proprietor. See Special:Listusers/sysop for the list of administrators, bureaucrats, and developers.
External links
Homestar Runner | MediaWiki websites | Online encyclopedias | Wiki communities
"Homestar Runner Wiki"