GuildWiki:Community History

The contents of GuildWiki is licensed under the CC 2.0 by-nc-sa. Anyone can take a copy of the content and set up their own copy of the wiki. This article seeks to document the history, evolution, splits and offshoots of the community that is behind the contents.

In the beginning, there was a game called Guild Wars. In the early days of the game, many fansites sprung up, including a number of wikis. A few of them consolidated, and GuildWiki became the most prominent wiki for Guild Wars.

Later, Anet started their own official Guild Wars Wiki. A number of the prominent GuildWiki community members began to contribute to both wikis. When the hosting of GuildWiki changed hands from User:Gravewit to Wikia, there was much uproar among the community. Many users among the GuildWiki community (including a notable portion of administrators) who were upset about the process decided to leave GuildWiki for good, and only contribute to (or began contributing to) the official wiki. Others in the GuildWiki community (including a non-trivial number of administrators) had reservations about the official wiki or still felt attached to GuildWiki, and stayed. This was the first major community split.

During Wikia's hosting of the GuildWiki, various changes were introduced at different points in time, often causing upsets with community members who feel the older traditional way is preferable. The "new Wikia look" (also referred to as the "Oasis skin") introduced towards the end of 2010 caused the most drastic changes and backlashes, and all the active administrators at the time agreed to move away. This would leave Wikia with a site of contents, and perhaps the ability to grow a new wiki community for Guild Wars.