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Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki

Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki, also known as the Pirates of the Caribbean Encyclopedia or simply PotC Wiki (sometimes stylized as POTC Wiki), is a wiki-based online encyclopedia that was launched on June 14, 2006, and strives to be the premier source of information on all aspects of Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean universe. Maintained by volunteer editors, PotC Wiki documents content from the Pirates franchise, encompassing Disney attractions, films, books, games, and other media, as well as information of value to fans. The PotC Wiki is inspired by Wikipedia, but expands on Pirates information in greater detail and with more freedom than Wikipedia can.

As a fan-created encyclopedia, Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki is not intended to be a primary source, nor is it a replacement for the DisneyPirates.Com, or any other official source. Rather, it serves as a fan effort to summarize all aspects of the Pirates universe in the best way possible, while pointing the reader to the respective official sources.

History[]

Past Wikimedia history[]

Wikipedia (founded in January 15, 2001) is a collaboratively developed free content encyclopedia, covering a wide variety of topics, and has millions of articles.[2] It is a general-knowledge encyclopedia, rather than being specific to one topic. Because of this, it is not always particularly friendly to in-depth knowledge specific to a given fictional universe.[3][4]

By 2005, a wiki-based online encyclopedia that contains detailed information about Star Wars, Wookieepedia, would be founded by Chad "Whiteboy" Barbry and Steven "Riffsyphon" Greenwood. Both agreed that this new project would run alongside Wikipedia as a separate, but equal entity—something more than simply a WikiProject. This would inspire the creation of various Wikimedia sites, like The Lord of the Rings Wiki, Disney Wiki, and Harry Potter Wiki, and Jurassic Park Wiki, all of which would be inspired by Wikipedia but can expand on information in greater detail and with more freedom than Wikipedia.

The founding of Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki[]

Wiki creation and evolution[]

The exact origins behind the wiki based on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise are unknown. It is known, however, that Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki came online on June 2006. A user under the screenname of "Novajoe23" was given admininistrative and bureaucrat rights by Community Central Staff member Kat Walsh, under the screenname of "Mindspillage," on June 14.[1] According to Novajoe23, he was told by Wikia that "PotC was too narrow of a subject to be made into a Wiki," so he gave up on the project, though he later checked in on the listings that said his name was the creator.[5] It should be noted that this supposed comment was made way back when Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was the only film in the franchise released thus far, despite the ongoing back-to-back production of Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. Nevertheless, PotC Wiki sat idle for a few weeks.

Just weeks after the official founding of PotC Wiki, Kwenn was the first user to officially start editing on July 4, starting with the Main Page.[1] A regular contributor at the Star Wars Wookieepedia since April 2005, Kwenn "stumbled across this Wiki on the Wikia listing, and decided to get it off the ground."[6] By the next year, both Kwenn and Novajoe23 would be given administrative powers and bureaucrat rights,[7] and a system would be created in which users could be given admin rights through a community vote.[8] This endeavor would be accomplished with the assistance of Darth Oblivion, another Wookieepedian who decided to help improve PotC Wiki,[9] along with Wanderingshadow and Lord Cutler Beckett. The latter two became admin by late 2007,[10] around the time Kwenn resigned from his adminship.[11]

The number of PotC Wiki editors would increase or decrease, depending on the year. Following the conclusion of the Pirates Trilogy, the franchise would continue through other media, beginning with Disney theme park attractions, prequel books, and the as-of-yet unannounced sequel film in the works that all tie into an emerging, overarching Pirates mythology. At some point before July 9, 2009, the name "Pirates of the Caribbean Encyclopedia" was coined, as it was used in an "MediaWiki:Description" edit by Wikia Helper JParanoid.[12]

Content developments[]

Over the years, PotC Wiki became the Pirates of the Caribbean encyclopedia that anyone could edit. Some users were voted in and became admins and/or Pirate Lord of the PotC Wiki Brethren Court overseeing the wiki edits, as well as keeping the content as reliable as it could. While many others contributed, a majority of users came and went, eventually abandoning the wiki altogether. By 2009, every other user left PotC Wiki, including the original admin, leading to frequent vandalism.

On October 24, 2007, Uskok - Pirate Lord of the Adriatic sea created an account and started editing on PotC Wiki. Within the following year, he became a Pirate Lord of the PotC Wiki Brethren Court.[13][14] He had since changed his username to simply "Uskok". In 2009, Uskok put in a request at Community Central to adopt PotC Wiki, and by August 19, was promoted to administrator and bureaucrat.[15] Since then, he continued editing, cleaning, and updating the wiki to the highest possible standards.

Within the next year of Uskok's initial tenure of adminship, several other users joined PotC Wiki. Chief among them, the user MidhavDarkskull, later renamed "Midhav", who made his first edit no later than January 10, 2010. He became a PotC Wiki Pirate Lord on April 16, and was later granted administrator rights by June 24.[16] However, his activity had wavered and stagnated since then.

On April 4, 2010, CJSFan created an account and started editing on PotC Wiki.[17] He was eventually granted the promotion to admin and bureaucrat several months later on June 21, as well as voted into the title of Pirate Lord in January 2011.[14] Since then, he had changed his username from "CJSFan" to "J Fan" in 2012, and had continued editing, cleaning, and updating the wiki to the highest possible standards for the fans. Among his many contributions over the years, he created PotC Wiki affiliates, hosted the very first PotC Wiki interview with filmmaker James Ward Byrkit, and made several blog posts in celebration for the 10th anniversary of the first film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Because of the importance of the latter contribution, J Fan was asked to make a guest blog post at Community Wiki.[18]

A notable user within this time was the author Ann C. Crispin, under the username A.C. Crispin, who helped both Uskok and J Fan in adding information (albeit without major spoilers) related to her novel, The Price of Freedom, prior to its 2011 release. In an interview at JohnnyDeppReads forums originally posted on May 2011, Crispin would mention the "gamers' Pirates of the Caribbean Wikia", specifically in her including "James" aka Captain Hook as a Disney "in"-joke. On the "gamers" site, Crispin also commented that "they want every detail. They are very meticulous about everything.".[19]

Other users who became admins and Pirate Lords included Captain Teague (aka Maggie) and Angelica Teach, who mainly helped around the release of the fourth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Dentface and User:JoshuaCoalskull, who mainly served as admin of Pirates Online Wiki, occasionally contributed on PotC Wiki. Some more users also came from some fan-websites and forums, like KeepToTheCode.com. While many others contributed on PotC Wiki, a majority of users came and went, eventually abandoning the Wiki altogether.

As the Wiki admin, Uskok, J Fan, and Captain Teague have been the most active users within the PotC Wiki community in the 2010s. However, Captain Teague became inactive after 2014. Later, although he remained quite active after a so-called retirement, J Fan stepped down in early-to-mid 2017. This left Uskok as the sole admin and bureaucrat among other active users around the release of the fifth film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

On November 19, 2018, Uskok promoted Gundolf60 to rollback and administrator to prevent possible vandalisms. This was partly due to Gundolf60 being an active admin from the German version of POTC Wiki. On December 10, after an unproductive edit warring between Uskok and a Fandom Staff member, Uskok was demoted by FishTank. Although some users disagreed with this action, Uskok remained demoted while Gundolf60 continued his admin duties, albeit not as actively. After Gundolf hosted an adoption of PotC Wiki, Black Caesar was promoted to bureaucrat and administrator June 18, 2019. As a result, all previous admins also lost their adminship.

In the following two years, a user named X9 The Android was able to make several interviews, one with comic writer Chris Schweizer in 2019, and one with screenwriter Terry Rossio in 2020.

In 2022, J Fan returned to edit on the PotC Wiki. With Black Caesar's blessing, a vote was made to solidify the reinstatement of Uskok's former rank and status as well as J Fan's. The community active at the time voted in their favor as the two users officially rejoined the admin team in November 2022.[20]

LightDarkJanuary2023PotCWikiMainPage

The Main Page in January 2023.

Within the following year, PotC Wiki underwent some major changes and updates. J Fan and Uskok began discussing the potential of the wiki covering external content, due the movie franchise making references to the novel Treasure Island as well as the historical relevance featured in the 2017 book Disney Pirates: The Definitive Collector's Anthology and the D23 Expo exhibit A Pirate's Life for Me: Disney’s Rascals, Scoundrels, Really Bad Eggs, among other sources for documentation purposes. The most notable example and starting point is Captain "James" Hook from Peter Pan.[21] In addition, Wiki Representative Saunt3D helped the wiki support both light and dark themes, which J Fan updated for the coming 20th anniversary of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.[22][23] On June 14, Uskok launched the POTC Wiki YouTube channel, initially for archival purposes. Along with updating the Wiki's theme in celebration of the film's 20th anniversary, J Fan arranged several blogs in to post on July 2023; one with past interviewees Jim Byrkit and Terry Rossio, as well as one featuring words from actor Martin Klebba (Marty) and actress Lauren Maher (Scarlett).[24] By December 15, a blog was posted with special guest actor Kevin R. McNally, who portrayed Joshamee Gibbs in various Pirates-related media, answering fan questions.[25]

Overview[]

Canon policy[]

Unlike what happens in some other fandoms with multiple "official" works or original media, most notably Star Trek and Star Wars, what constitutes canon within the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has never been officially defined. Though it is widely accepted in the Pirates fandom that the films take canonical precedence, the opinions of fans on the canonicity of other "official" materials (such as the Disney Adventures comics; video games like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow; or even the fifth film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, written by Jeff Nathanson rather than Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio) differ, at times significantly.

Stewardship[]

The Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki is a collaborative effort so that anyone can register and edit its contents.

Very much like the Wikipedia model, editors in good standing in the community can run for volunteer stewardship: this begins with Administrators (alternatively called sysops), users who have access to additional technical features that allow them to delete pages, prevent articles from being changed in case of vandalism or editorial disputes, and try to prevent certain persons from editing. Despite the name, administrators do not enjoy any special privilege in decision-making.

Statistics[]

Growth[]

Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki has grown from its start in June 2006 to present to reach 3,453 articles.

There are 3,453 articles on Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki. There are 24 active users (Users who have performed any action in the last 30 days).[26]

Article milestones[]

  • First article: Jack Sparrow, July 5, 2006
  • Longest article: Jack Sparrow[27]
  • Most edited article: Jack Sparrow[28]

Logo history[]

Special logos[]

In other languages[]

In addition to PotC Wiki, several other Pirates of the Caribbean wikis exist in multiple languages. These different language encyclopedias were started and are currently run by different people.

Spin-offs[]

Several wikis have been spawned from PotC Wiki. These include the Pirates Online Wiki, the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean The Video Game Wiki, and the Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy Wiki.

External links[]

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 PotC Wiki Founder reference
  2. WP favicon Wikipedia:About on Wikipedia
  3. See WP favicon Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not on Wikipedia, WP favicon Wikipedia:Notability on Wikipedia and WP favicon Wikipedia:Fancruft on Wikipedia
  4. WP favicon Talk:Star Wars/Archive 1#Star Wars Wiki (was Wikipedia Portal: StarWars ?) on Wikipedia
  5. Novajoe23's user page on Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki, August 14, 2006 edit
  6. Kwenn's first edits
  7. PotC Wiki:Administrators; May 27, 2007 edit
  8. Forum:Requests for adminship - discussion
  9. Darth Oblivion's first edits
  10. PotC Wiki:Administrators; October 30 2007 edit
  11. PotC Wiki:Administrators; November 22, 2007 edit
  12. MediaWiki:Description | Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki | Fandom; July 9, 2009 edit
  13. User contributions for Uskok - Pirate Lord of the Adriatic sea - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  14. 14.0 14.1 PotC Wiki:Brethren Court - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  15. User blog:Uskok/The day I turned 16... - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  16. PotC Wiki: Brethren Court - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom; April 16, 2010 edit
  17. User blog:J Fan/The day I turned 11...or 14? - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  18. User blog:J Fan/Celebrating Anniversaries - Community Central - Fandom
  19. Ann (A.C.) Crispin - JohnnyDeppReads; Originally posted May 2011
  20. Forum:New/old admin - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  21. Forum:Captain Hook and Disney characters in general - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  22. User blog:J Fan/Talk Like A Pirate Day 2022! - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  23. User blog:J Fan/January 2023 Announcements and Updates - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  24. User blog:J Fan/The Curse of the Black Pearl 20th Anniversary - On This Day July 9th - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  25. User blog:J Fan/The Curse of the Black Pearl 20th Anniversary - Kevin R. McNally - Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki - Fandom
  26. Statistics on Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki
  27. Long Pages
  28. Pages with the most revisions
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