User:Tali64³/Duplicate wiki noticeboard

Recently, I noticed that there are many duplicate wikis on Miraheze. While wiki requests that seem similar to existing wikis are likely to be declined, already existing duplicate wikis and wikis with similar topics still exist. This is a problem that needs to be corrected. As quoted on Fandom's help page about duplicate wikis: "Where multiple wikis on the same topic exist, however, fans split their efforts and compete with each other for readers, editors and authority. The duplicate content they create is penalized by search engines such as Google, especially when a new wiki copies pages of an existing wiki. As a result, both wikis will appear lower in search results, receive fewer visitors and attract fewer community members." So, if duplicate wikis were merged with the original wikis, they would rank higher in search results and thus attract more contributors. We need to find and merge these duplicate communities, so that one wiki can move forward. I have several wikis that could be considered duplicates. I'm merging these with the original wikis.

Proposed merging process

 * 1) A request to merge is presented to the founder or active bureaucrats and admins on a wiki.
 * 2) *If there are no active bureaucrats and admins or no response in a week, go ahead to step 3.
 * 3) *If the wiki is closed or if there are no active users, go ahead and start moving content.
 * 4) If the request is denied, the wiki stays separate.
 * 5) If the request is accepted, the community of the wiki to be merged votes on whether their wiki should be merged into the other wiki.
 * 6) *If no one votes in a week, go ahead to step 4.
 * 7) If at least a 2/3 majority of the community of the wiki to be merged votes in favor of the merger, the wiki's content would be transferred to the wiki that receives the merge. Voting must remain open for a week before the results can be considered valid.
 * 8) The wiki to be merged is closed and deleted, and its URL is redirected to the wiki that receives the merge.

Wiki lists
These are lists of wikis that need attention. These lists may be incomplete.

List of duplicate wikis
These are some of the wikis that are duplicates of others. These should be merged first.
 * Duplicates of Mirapedia (no notability guidelines encyclopedia):
 * Allpedia
 * Anypedia
 * Duplicates of Good Software Wiki (good software):
 * Great, Amazing and Useful Software Wiki (Focuses on useful software, which is usually good.)
 * Duplicates of Free Editing Wiki (anything goes wiki)
 * Anything Goes Wiki

Wikis with overlapping/divided topic and scope
These are the wikis with overlapping or divided topic and scope. Their topics are not related enough to categorize them as duplicates, but they overlap in scope. If you can think of any other topics or other duplicate wikis with already existing topics, please post them in the Comments section. Tali64³ (talk) 18:50, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Trollpasta/Bad Creepypasta Wikis:
 * Trollpasta Wiki (primarily about trollpastas, but also has several thousand bad creepypastas. Famous examples of bad creepypastas may be kept, but others should be moved to Bad Creepypasta Wiki)
 * Bad Creepypasta Wiki (primarily about bad creepypastas, but also has a number of trollpastas. Famous examples of trollpastas may be kept, but others should be moved to Trollpasta Wiki)
 * LOLpasta Wiki (appears to be a similar wiki to Trollpasta Wiki)
 * Reading/Writing Stories:
 * Stories Wiki (This is a wiki of mine in which users can read and write stories. I've banned fanfiction to prevent overlap with any fanfiction wikis. I can't think of anything that needs to be changed, but there may be one or two.)
 * Short Stories & Prompts (This wiki focuses on stories and writing prompts, while Stories Wiki just focuses on stories. I've already contacted the founder of this wiki about merging this wiki with Stories Wiki, and we ended up coming on an agreement where we could mirror each other's content. My plan for this wiki is to make it about writing prompts only and move the stories on Stories Wiki.)
 * Stories about an existing character in a franchise (fanfiction):
 * Fanfiction Wiki (Fanworks) (Primarily about writing fanfiction and chatting about it.)
 * My Fan Fiction (Focuses solely on fanfiction. I think Fanworks should be rebranded to "Fanfiction Wiki" or something similar, and this wiki should be merged with that one.)
 * Minecraft anarchy server wikis (propose to merge all these into the Anarchy Minecraft Servers wiki (currently closed, but it can be adopted or reopened). Also add details to Minecraft Wiki about these servers.)
 * 2b2t Wiki
 * 2B2Tmcpe.org wiki
 * 2builders2tools wiki
 * 5b5t
 * 6b9t deleted
 * 9b6t
 * The Original 9b9t Wiki
 * Wikis about Microsoft and its products (should all be merged with Microsoft Wiki):
 * Windopedia (wiki about Windows) This wiki seems to have been wiped clean. Please disregard.
 * Everything Windows Official Wiki (wiki about Windows)

Updates
This process, I believe, will stop most instances of abuse of merging. Tali64³ (talk) 22:35, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I've been informed that duplicate wikis actually aren't against the Content Policy. Still, you should merge them with other wikis to help the communities. That's why I propose this process to merging wikis:
 * A request to merge is presented to the founder or active bureaucrats and admins.
 * If the request is accepted, the community of the wiki to be merged votes on whether their wiki should be merged into the other wiki.
 * If at least a 2/3 majority of the community of the wiki to be merged votes in favor of the merger, the wiki's content would be transferred to the wiki that receives the merge. Voting must remain open for a week before the vote can be considered valid.
 * The wiki to be merged is closed and deleted, and its URL is redirected to the wiki that receives the merge.

Comments
Have anything you like to share? Please put it below.


 * While I don't have specific links and am working off the top of my head, I know there are multiple wikis for aggregate worldbuilding (putting any kind of worldbuilding stuff in one place), creepypastas, and 'do whatever' types that may be found even through the Gazetteer of wikis. From a policy perspective however, an overlapping or duplicate-ish premise isn't strictly against Content Policy; its most relevant clause is:
 * "An example of hinderance caused to other wikis is a direct fork of another Miraheze wiki where little to no attempts have been made to mediate situations on the existing wiki or existing community. If mediation has been attempted and failed, contact a steward who will be able to support the community through any follow up processes deemed necessary including but not limited to acceptance of a fork wiki as an exemption to this clause. "
 * In the generic wiki responses for approval through the request wiki function, one specific statement is provided: "Please be advised this approval does not preclude other wikis from being approved and created that share this topic, provided they aren't 95-100% content forks of your wiki." I do think up to 95% is exceedingly generous and maybe should be reduced since even 3/4ths identical is enough to invoke the condition you describe, and is enough to substantively be a direct fork. However I think it's worth distinguishing between overlapping premise and what these clauses talk about (word for word page lifting and identical scopes); not much action may be taken if the respective wikis you link do go their own way managerially and have somewhat distinctive content of their own, even if I agree they fill essentially the same niche and in my opinion a much too broad one. Either way seeing them come together to actually collaborate in community building would be welcome, even if Miraheze deliberately tries to avoid forcing wikis together the way fandom does. --Raidarr (talk) 19:55, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I respect your opinion, but what about the community? It's inconvenient for users to have to look to another wiki for one page that could have been easily found on a more active wiki. And even if the less active wiki isn't a content fork of the more active wiki, the less active wiki should be merged into the more active wiki. And I see your point about how Miraheze keeps duplicate wikis together. Even Fandom doesn't merge wikis for certain reasons, as can be seen on the page I quoted in my post. Also, do you have any specific wikis that are duplicates or have similar topics to other wikis? Tali64³ (talk) 22:24, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Much of the above was addressing from a practical action perspective; my opinion is actually largely agreement, since I do think communities are better off coming together to do something than splintering into forks that cover the same ground for both the editing base and potential viewers and I do think the 'weaker' wikis without a truly discernible function should merge into more complete ones for a better result. It's probably a topic to raise on the various local communities linked above and see if an overall compromise can be made since I'm still skeptical that the action could truly be forced, again unless there is truly proven content duplication. If the scopes are too similar regardless though, would be an interesting thing to have a Steward comment on - perhaps . if that's the case and there is something actionable, I can try to find more scope duplication including follow up on the above where I'm fairly sure multiple 'pasta compilations' with the same practical function exist. For now at a communal level, perhaps we can take a closer look at the above examples and see if we can resolve them to have an approach with any more close overlaps we can find. --Raidarr (talk) 17:24, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I proposed a method to merging wikis above. It involves a community vote to see if they want the wiki to be merged, so the process won't feel forced. Tali64³ (talk) 18:17, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Vote is reasonable and standard for established communities, but there are also cases with very few users or only the founding contributor, and yet other cases essentially abandoned and on the brink of true inactivity only being strung along; in these cases the responsible users can be contacted directly with an inquiry, or even an adoption request for the last scenario could be made. --Raidarr (talk) 19:31, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your input. I'll amend the process. Tali64³ (talk) 16:20, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Mirapedia seems to be more of a wikipedia copy kind wiki but allpedia seems to be a similar wiki without copying content Anpang

Talk 01:04, 3 November 2021 (UTC)


 * I looked, and I can't find any content policies or notability guidelines there. That's why I classified it as a no notability guidelines encyclopedia. Tali64³ (talk) 16:23, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

I strongly disagree with merging these wikis: into one wiki. They ARE different servers. Anarchy servers are a category of servers. There are thousands of anarchy servers out there.
 * 2b2t Wiki
 * 2B2Tmcpe.org wiki
 * 2builders2tools wiki
 * 5b5t
 * 9b6t
 * The Original 9b9t Wiki

2b2t wiki is one of the miraheze wikis that the fandom counterpart is less active.  Anpang 📨 04:00, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
 * They may be different servers, but they have substantial similarities that ultimately mean that they need to be merged. Tali64³ (talk) 04:14, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
 * They have different storylines. If you have ever played 2b2t and an other server like constantium or 9b9t or 10b10t you'll know they're super different.  Anpang 📨 04:19, 21 December 2021 (UTC)