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alt title(s): That Other Wiki; The Other Wiki; Other Wiki; TOW
"At three in the morning I looked at my clock and thought, 'Good god! What on earth have I been doing for four hours?!' I looked at my screen. 'Plot summaries of Power Rangers episodes.' Damn."
Anonymous Wikipedia addict

"Information wants to be WRONG!"
Bluster Blaster, Sam & Max: Moai Better Blues

The Other Wiki. The wiki that most people are familiar with. The one that isn't us.

Wikipedia is the most famous wiki out there, and is mostly responsible for inspiring the creation of other wikis (although it was not the first) It presents its information as an encyclopedia (though by definition anyone can edit it) and focuses mainly on real-life information.

Over time, Wikipedia developed two major schools of thought. On one side were the Inclusionists, who argued that Wikipedia's electronic nature made it okay to have articles that paper-based encyclopedias would ignore. On the other side were Deletionists, who resisted anything they considered "non-notable" or "non-encyclopedic" ... which turned out to be quite a lot. Because of this, Wikipedia has attracted controversy for deleting what Wikipedians find non-notable, which has turned off a number of would-be contributors. Nonetheless, it has a vast range of subjects and has shown a steady rate of growth as time has gone on.

Here at TV Tropes, we only care about history to the extent that it applies to fiction, and we're cool with that. Don't just tell us the facts; tell us the memes, tell us the archetypes, tell us the catchy ideas and symbolic roles that get planted in people's heads. Got the kernel of an idea bouncing about your head? Throw it down here and see what grows. If we're lucky, our neologism for it will catch on.

Wikipedia has an entry on itself and its history, for further reading.

Due to its nature as being open for editing by anyone at any time, Wikipedia has incurred a significant amount of Hype Backlash. If you've ever had a professor forbid using Wikipedia for research, you know how extensive this backlash is. The bickering between Wikipedia's supporters and detractors can get pretty intense, both online and offline (and not just between inclusionists and exclusionists).

Whether or not calling Wikipedia "The Other Wiki" is related to Oxford's habit of referring to Cambridge as "the Other Place" and vice-versa is a tale lost to history. Another explanation may come from a convention in Westminister-style bicameral parliaments where members do not refer to the other chamber by name. The House of Commons and the House of Lords in Britain use the phrase, 'the other place' to refer to each other, as do members of the House of Commons of Canada and the Senate.

Wikipedia provides examples of:


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