Jedipedia

Premia, who was the forum administrator for Star Wars Chroniken, a German fan portal dedicated to Star Wars, initiated Jedipedia on October 16th, 2005. The project commenced with five inaugural articles: Naboo, George Lucas, Humans, Wookiees, and Tusken. Initially called "Deutsches Star Wars-Wiki" (German Star Wars Wiki), it was initially hosted on the starwars-chroniken.de server, sharing its resources and traffic. The community, which was small at the time, sought a more distinctive and memorable name, considering options such as Wookieepedia, Naboopedia, and Banthapedia, but ultimately chose "Jedipedia."

Jedipedia entered into an official partnership with Wookieepedia on May 26, 2006, which involved exchanging inter-language links and engaging in cross-promotion. One month later, Jedipedia celebrated the publication of its 500th article. Since then, the community experienced rapid growth, with a dedicated group of authors consistently contributing new articles. Consequently, Jedipedia reached the milestone of 1000 articles in August 2006 and added its 1500th article just three months afterward. Due to the increasing traffic and rapid expansion, Jedipedia was compelled to migrate from the starwars-chroniken.de server to a new hosting solution. Furthermore, the need to incorporate Google advertisements into Jedipedia arose to cover the expenses associated with the larger webspace and growing traffic volume. To address the escalating workload and frequent vandalism incidents, particularly the notorious "on wheels" vandalism, the original team promoted two additional administrators. On December 1st, 2006, the main page and Community portal were significantly redesigned, introducing new features such as a graphical header, image buttons for all six Star Wars films, and sections for "Quote of the Week" and "Article of the Month," with Jango Fett being the community's first selection. In subsequent years, Jedipedia saw substantial growth in terms of articles, users, and website traffic. To facilitate improved cooperation and communication among the wiki's users, an IRC channel was established on the GameSurge IRC network. Beginning with Jedipedia's second anniversary on October 16th, 2007, significant milestones were achieved with each subsequent anniversary (2007: 6,000 articles; 2008: 10,000 articles; 2009: 15,000 articles; 2010: 20,000 articles).

Beyond its online development, the Jedipedia administrative team also decided to become more involved in the German fan community by setting up booths at the Jedi-Cons in 2008 and 2010. This effort led to official recognition from Lucasfilm fan ambassador Stephen J. Sansweet and fostered friendships with actors and artists like Matthew Wood, Femi Taylor, Richard LeParmentier, Randy Martinez, and Denise Vasquez. In June of 2011, the webmaster, Premia, made the decision to move Jedipedia to Wikia, a decision that the administrative team had not previously agreed upon in their forum discussions. Upon learning of this decision, some users initiated a community vote to oppose the move, which was supported by over 40 active users at the time. Their primary concern revolved around the potential exploitation of the wiki by a company like Wikia and the resulting loss of independence for the community. One week later, the remaining administrators launched a new website at Jedipedia.net, replicating the old articles while adhering to the GNU license and transferring the user database using a MediaWiki extension. Over a hundred new articles were created on the first day after the relaunch on the new domain. In the following weeks, Jedipedia.net introduced the new Vector skin and launched a new search portal. To establish a new administrative structure, four new administrators were appointed, and the new Jedipedia sought affiliations with organizations in the German fan community, companies selling Star Wars merchandise, and Star Wars book publishers. One of Jedipedia.net's most notable achievements is its collaboration with the official German Star Wars Fan Club and the publication of an article in their club magazine, which is largely the German equivalent of the Star Wars Insider. As of September 2011, Jedipedia.net boasted over 24,000 articles, surpassing de.jedipedia.wikia.com, the Wikia version with reduced activity and fewer users, by more than 2,000 articles.

In August 2011, a registered voluntary association named Jedipedia e.V. was established by seven of the wiki's users. This association aimed to provide financial and legal protection for the website and serve as an authority to prevent unilateral actions by individual community members regarding Jedipedia's future, such as the move to Wikia. To further strengthen connections with the German fanbase and align with the association's objectives, the Jedipedia.net team participated in the Noris Force Con 2011, a Star Wars charity convention benefiting the German children's cancer foundation. At their booth, the team showcased the wiki project and contributed to the collection of over Euro 11,000 for the event's cause, with the support of various sponsors.

• Main Page of Jedipedia.net
• Jedipedia.de
• Jedipedia on Facebook
• Jedipedia ( @jedipedia ) on Twitter (backup link (jedipedia) not verified!)
• Jedipedia on Tumblr (backup link (jedipedia) not verified!)