BrickWiki

From Research Realm
BrickWiki
Six 1×2 LEGO plate bricks stacked to form the shape of a 2×2 brick. Each plate is a different color.
Screenshot
Main Page on January 14, 2017
Type of site
Encyclopedia, wiki
Available inEnglish
OwnerTed Godwin
Created by
  • Venkatesh Srinivas
  • Jamie Bliss
URLbrickwiki.info
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional (disabled)
Users1,094 registered users
LaunchedJune 25, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-06-25)
Current statusPartial read-only archive
Content license
GNU FDL 1.2

BrickWiki is a defunct wiki-based online encyclopedia for topics related to LEGO. Created by Venkatesh Srinivas and Jamie Bliss, it was launched in June 2005 and ran on MediaWiki software. In mid-2009 the wiki started going through frequent downtime until it was acquired by a new owner and moved to a new server in May 2012. BrickWiki's closure was announced in February 2017, though it remained active through 2019. The website is still online, but contains only archived copies of a limited number of articles due to data loss.

BrickWiki was the first wiki dedicated to LEGO; however, the site never gained the same popularity as Brickipedia, a competing LEGO wiki launched a year later. In comparison to Brickipedia, BrickWiki focused less on individual LEGO products and more on the culture and communities surrounding LEGO. It was initially used primarily by members of the LUGNET community, and much of its content reflected the culture of that website. By the time of its closure, BrickWiki had 1,386 articles and 1,094 registered users.[1]

History

BrickWiki was created by Venkatesh Srinivas, building on an idea by Jamie "Astronouth7303" Bliss.[2][3] Srinivas posted his desire to start "LegoWiki" on LUGNET on June 8, 2005.[4] Following further discussion on what to name the website,[5] Srinivas decided on "BrickWiki" and launched the wiki on June 25, 2005.[6] The site was originally hosted by the Johns Hopkins Association for Computing Machinery, which Srinivas was a member of.[2][7]

Near the end of July 2009, BrickWiki went offline for several weeks.[8] Ted "Tedward" Godwin, one of site's administrators, attempted to contact Srinivas about it, but received no reply.[9] BrickWiki returned online on August 20.[10] The site went down again in May 2010,[11] this time remaining offline for nearly two years. In a September 2010 Eurobricks post, Godwin expressed frustration that the site had "died thanks to the neglect of one person."[12]

Srinivas found a backup of BrickWiki in early 2012 and restored the site in read-only mode. Godwin and Larry Pieniazek made a plan to move the site onto a new server with help from Brian Alano and Jeramy Spurgeon. BrickWiki was made operational again in May 2012, now hosted by Spurgeon's company Site Orchard.[2] On November 20, 2012, BrickWiki's URL was changed from BrickWiki.org to BrickWiki.info.[13]

On February 7, 2017, Godwin announced that BrickWiki would shut down on March 25.[14] He cited the lack of progress made in the previous two years as part of the reason, stating that that "clearly facts and history are not what the people want".[15] (Godwin had previously complained about Brickipedia lacking categorization and articles for basic concepts, despite having a much larger community.)[12] Despite this, BrickWiki remained online until late 2019 before finally going offline.[16] The site returned online in 2021, but in read-only mode and with many pages missing.

References

  1. ↑ "Statistics". BrickWiki. Archived from the original on 2019-10-27.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Brickwiki:History of Brickwiki". BrickWiki. 26 May 2012. Archived from the original on 2017-01-08.
  3. ↑ Bliss, Jamie (31 December 2005). "User:Astronouth7303". BrickWiki. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08. Oh, yeah. And I originally thought of it, but Venkatesh got to post it. And he owns the server. I'm not complaining. He gives me free hosting for my site.
  4. ↑ Srinivas, Venkatesh (8 June 2005). "Legowiki". LUGNET. Newsgroup: lugnet.general. Archived from the original on 16 July 2024.
  5. ↑ Srinivas, Venkatesh (13 June 2005). "Re: Legowiki". LUGNET. Newsgroup: lugnet.general. Archived from the original on 16 July 2024.
  6. ↑ Srinivas, Venkatesh (8 June 2005). "Brickwiki". LUGNET. Newsgroup: lugnet.general. Archived from the original on 16 July 2024.
  7. ↑ "Members". JHU ACM. Archived from the original on 2005-11-08.
  8. ↑ desultor (August 11, 2009). "What's with Brickwiki?". Eurobricks. Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  9. ↑ Godwin, Ted (August 12, 2009). "Holy mother of... somebody actually read the blog?!?! I guess I better start posting again". Eurobricks (comment on topic "What's with Brickwiki?"). Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  10. ↑ Godwin, Ted (August 20, 2009). "Looks like we are back online". Eurobricks (comment on topic "What's with Brickwiki?"). Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  11. ↑ MetroiD (May 26, 2010). "Please excuse me for reviving such an old thread, but Brickwiki hasn't been operational for the last week or so". Eurobricks (comment on topic "What's with Brickwiki?"). Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Godwin, Ted (September 8, 2010). "And yet it still has no categorization and lacks articles on the most basic concepts". Eurobricks (comment on topic "What's with Brickwiki?"). Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  13. ↑ "Main Page – News". BrickWiki. November 20, 2012. Archived from the original on 2016-02-06. BrickWiki has a new URL: www.brickwiki.info.
  14. ↑ "Main Page – News". BrickWiki. November 20, 2012. Archived from the original on 2017-03-21. BW is shutting down. If you have material you wish to save please do so before March 25th. On that date www.brickwiki.info will be shut down.
  15. ↑ "Shutting down, March 24, 2017". BrickWiki. Archived from the original on 2017-05-12.
  16. ↑ "Wayback Machine crawls for brickwiki.info". Internet Archive. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
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