The TF Wiki: Feelings?

Comics, cartoons, movies and fan stuff.
Post Reply
User avatar
DrSpengler
Protoform
Posts: 4891
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 1:04 pm

The TF Wiki: Feelings?

Post by DrSpengler »

Do you like or hate Teletraan-1, the Transformers Wiki?

I post at three different boards (including this one) and found the appreciation for the site (which I provide content for regularly) to be pretty fiercely polarized depending on which board I'm at.

Most the Wiki's admins and moderators such as M Sipher, Walky and Chip post at the Allspark. And unsurprisingly, the majority of the Allspark loves the TF Wiki. There have been, of course, several people who hate the site, but they're in the minority.

Over at TFWorld2005, there's a distinctly different majority opinion. For reasons I'm not clear on, most of the mods and long time members of TFW seem to absolutely hate Walky and Shortpacked and so, of course, the general opinion of the TF Wiki over there is almost all negative (they constantly refer to it as "Walky's Wiki").

The reason a lot of people seem to dislike the TF Wiki is the inclusion of humor. Some people seem incapable of comprehending facts alongside gentle satire or a tongue-in-cheek writing style, and thus believe that the TF Wiki is nothing but a haven for misinformation. Apparantly, if information isn't 100% dry and emotionless then it can't be considered information.


As you can guess, I love the site, otherwise I wouldn't post there on a daily basis. I do agree that some of the gags can get carried away. Mostly the articles about overreacting fans, such as Ruined Forever. The article for Fandom used to be full of so much snark that it was eventually rewritten entirely (you can check out the Talk page to get an idea of all the trouble that page caused).

While I don't think they diminish the site's usefulness all that much, they are rather unnecessary and just asking for trouble from the more sensative members of the fandom.

Still, Transformers is a very silly and fun franchise at its heart and trying to take it dead seriously seems like a bad idea.

Anyhow, I know the general feeling toward the TF Wiki from the other sites I mentioned, but how do you people feel about it? Do you hate the humor? Do you hate the admin and mod staff? Do you love it?
User avatar
Tetsuro
Protoform
Posts: 2520
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:26 pm
Custom Title: Poe Dameron did nothing wrong
Location: Suomi Finland Perkele

Post by Tetsuro »

The only thing I ever hated about it was their choice of 'Deathsaurus' over 'Deszaras'.

It still annoys me to this day. :p
User avatar
DrSpengler
Protoform
Posts: 4891
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 1:04 pm

Post by DrSpengler »

Well, the wiki uses English names wherever appropriate and thanks to that BotCon set, "Deszaras"'s official English name is "Deathsaurus"...as utterly stupid a name that is. Not that thenonsense name of "Deszaras" was much better, but man...how do you get an empire to take you seriously when you're name is "Deathsaurus"?
User avatar
Jaynz
Posts: 3643
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 7:18 pm
Custom Title: RIP - see pixelsagas.com
Contact:

Post by Jaynz »

I'm going to be frank. I think that the TF Wiki has been an amazing effort overall. It's funny at times without being an 'uncyclopedia', and very informative. I have to give immense credit to Walky, Sipher, et al, for putting it together.

And, as for 'fandom eliteness', I've posted and contributed on it, and took no flak or flames for it. That's not something most people would consider even possible.

So, more power to them.
User avatar
Clay
Posts: 7209
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 2:19 am
Location: Murray, KY

Post by Clay »

The Transformers wiki makes me laugh more often than Shortpacked! does.
User avatar
Denyer
Posts: 33033
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2000 4:00 am
Location: Perfidious Albion
Contact:

Post by Denyer »

Find it useful for some types of information, such as obscure characters, info on recent series, info on convention material. Tends to be written in an entertaining style (I prefer guides with some personal input, and it's daft to think that any guide is going to be entirely impartial whatever the intent of the author.)

On the other hand, I'd rather know who's written whatever I'm reading without having to dig to find out who edited what in. Your info on many subjects has more weight behind it than Anon Fanboy X or whoever.
Cliffjumper
Posts: 32206
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2001 5:00 am

Post by Cliffjumper »

Sometimes the jokes aren't particularly funny (especially on re-reading.... the Bonecrusher movie page gets on my tits a bit), but often they are.... It'll get better as some of the stuff gets padded out a bit more - my only real criticism is I haven't really learnt a lot there I didn't know already, but if nothing else it's a good centralised resource for a lot of stuff. Having a staff of dedicated fans makes it much more reliable than the Transformers section on Wikipedia itself, which seems to be something of a lightning rod for wankers.
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

I think it's Ruined Transformers Forever.

Actually do an entry on me and I'll love it forever.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
Nevermore
Posts: 10697
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2002 10:30 pm
Location: Autobase Germany
Contact:

Post by Nevermore »

I don't really get the outright hate either. As far as I know, it's something that dates back many years, when Walky and his Wiigii friends used to work for Glen Hallit and the infamous "Official Transformers Colelctors' Convention", whereas the TFW2005 staff would rather side with the Hartmans. That, and the fact that the Wiigiis don't like Kickback, a former TFW admin, and his tendency to boast about "awesome inside sources" that regularly tell him everything in advance which of course he couldn't talk about, but likes to mention anyways.

As a result, some of the TFW regulars are outright embarrassed when they found out that Walky shares the same opinion they have on some issue. Like, when they make fun of fanboys who hate the movie, it's good; when Walky does it, it's "boring" and "overdone".

No, I don't get it either.

My latest contributions to the Wiki were articles about "toy scalping", "toy swapping" (the kind where some arsehole returns a box with random junk in it and gets the money back, and the box with the wrong content goes back to the store shelf) and e-Hobby.
Looking for a complete Energon Sky Shadow (from Superion Maximus).
Offering: Binaltech Hound, Swindle, Ravage (Corvette), Skids.
Can buy in stores: Robot Heroes Tigatron/Inferno, Ricochet/Predaking.
User avatar
Halfshell
Posts: 19167
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2000 4:00 am
Location: Don't complain to me. I don't care.
Contact:

Post by Halfshell »

Originally posted by DrSpengler
Well, the wiki uses English names wherever appropriate and thanks to that BotCon set, "Deszaras"'s official English name is "Deathsaurus".


No it's not. The name of the BotCon toy is Deathsaurus. I can ignore it as much as I choose to ignore the HoC Overlord being called Gigatron.

[/bastard]

I have mixed feelings on it.

I like the fact it's tongue-in-cheek and doesn't take itself seriously. But at the same time I think a lot of the humour is a bit too in-jokey and self-referential... some of it is too preoccupied with having a laugh rather than actually constructing articles.

I mean the entry for that seafood thing is more comprehensive than a lot of the character stuff.

But, yeah, overall I like it. :)
Image
User avatar
Tetsuro
Protoform
Posts: 2520
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:26 pm
Custom Title: Poe Dameron did nothing wrong
Location: Suomi Finland Perkele

Post by Tetsuro »

And the only reason why the BotCon toy, in turn, is called Deathsaurus, is that damn StarTV dub which shouldn't be used as an example for anything. (No, not even crappy dubs, because I can totally dig up a lot worse one)

Anyway, I felt that 'Deszaras' is supposed to be a reference to 'Czar', much in the same vein with Dinoking and Liokaiser.

(Kaiser, in case you didn't know, is a reference to the German emperor, not the Roman emperor. In a way, this is kinda fitting, since the pre-WW1 world had all three (King of England, Czar of Russia and Kaiserreich of Germany))
User avatar
Nevermore
Posts: 10697
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2002 10:30 pm
Location: Autobase Germany
Contact:

Post by Nevermore »

Originally posted by Tetsuro
And the only reason why the BotCon toy, in turn, is called Deathsaurus, is that damn StarTV dub which shouldn't be used as an example for anything. (No, not even crappy dubs, because I can totally dig up a lot worse one)


Nah, the RTM dub (it was actually by RTM from Malaysia, not Star TV) called him "Deathsandras".

Also, another reason for the feud between the Wiigiis and TFW2005 is that the Wiigiis would often oppose TFW2005's willingness to report leaked prototypes, because ZOMG THEY ARE STOLEN AND REPORTING THEM CAN GET HASBRO GO BANKRUPT TOMORROW. Anticipatory obedience at its best.

Oh, and both Kickback AND the Wiigiis seem to be friends with the Hasbro crew, so there's a "There can ony be ONE bestest friend of Hasbro in the world EVAR" rivalry in play as well.
Looking for a complete Energon Sky Shadow (from Superion Maximus).
Offering: Binaltech Hound, Swindle, Ravage (Corvette), Skids.
Can buy in stores: Robot Heroes Tigatron/Inferno, Ricochet/Predaking.
Cliffjumper
Posts: 32206
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2001 5:00 am

Post by Cliffjumper »

Originally posted by Brendocon
some of it is too preoccupied with having a laugh rather than actually constructing articles.

I mean the entry for that seafood thing is more comprehensive than a lot of the character stuff.


This is sort-of my gripes summed up nicely - seeing as it's a "do what you want" project, there's a lot of disparity between articles, ranging from them being very comprehensive to being just one line and a collection of empty section headers (I do think on Wikis in general articles shouldn't be made until there's actually some content to go into them...). I dunno, I find the thing a fun read if I'm in the right mood, but a wobbly research tool.
User avatar
RUNAMOK
Protoform
Posts: 1007
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:33 am
Location: Kolding, Denmark

Post by RUNAMOK »

The wiki defenetly has some good informations, if you can get past the jokes. The jokes can be good, but some are just mind boggeling to me. Maybe they are something intern or some other stuff I don't know about, but I just don't get them. The wike does defenetly have some information that was rather hard to find otherwise. Allso, it would maybe be nice with some more sources, one excample could be that I want to know were the funny ficture of the decepticlones doing gymnastics and Titalwave doing pushups are from(the game juding by the graffics, but a little more specific).
Image
User avatar
Tetsuro
Protoform
Posts: 2520
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:26 pm
Custom Title: Poe Dameron did nothing wrong
Location: Suomi Finland Perkele

Post by Tetsuro »

Originally posted by Nevermore
Nah, the RTM dub (it was actually by RTM from Malaysia, not Star TV) called him "Deathsandras".
Well, strike another one in the RTM dub's "favor".

The TF wiki article on Wheelie is the best, though.

And, as far as I'm concerned, what comes to this awfully silly rivalry between armies of fans, my opinion cannot be described in words, only by the following image:

Image
User avatar
Terome
Posts: 1431
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:16 pm
Location: Brighton

Post by Terome »

I'm only dimly aware of the rivalries between boards, so a lot of the more specific in-jokes go over my head, I think. But otherwise, I think it's great.
User avatar
DrSpengler
Protoform
Posts: 4891
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 1:04 pm

Post by DrSpengler »

Originally posted by Nevermore
I don't really get the outright hate either. As far as I know, it's something that dates back many years, when Walky and his Wiigii friends used to work for Glen Hallit and the infamous "Official Transformers Colelctors' Convention", whereas the TFW2005 staff would rather side with the Hartmans. That, and the fact that the Wiigiis don't like Kickback, a former TFW admin, and his tendency to boast about "awesome inside sources" that regularly tell him everything in advance which of course he couldn't talk about, but likes to mention anyways.

As a result, some of the TFW regulars are outright embarrassed when they found out that Walky shares the same opinion they have on some issue. Like, when they make fun of fanboys who hate the movie, it's good; when Walky does it, it's "boring" and "overdone".

No, I don't get it either.


That's interesting. Had no clue their rivalry stemmed from all that convention stuff.

Still, it's nice being able to post at three different boards and not be forced to "choose sides". Really silly, honestly.
Originall posted by Tetsuro
The TF wiki article on Wheelie is the best, though.
I'll take that as a high five since I wrote most of that article and rewrote most of it to work it into a semi-coherent rhyme scheme.


On another note, I don't think I'd write for the TF Wiki as much if they prohibited a sense of humor. I mean, if it were humorless, I'd have been forced to write Tentakil's bio as "He's a Seacon who seduces enemies and then kills them". But thanks to the advent of this substance called "fun" I was able to write his bio like so.
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

The humore doesn't bother me because, like I suspect many of us, I can recite most of the facts of by heart so a bit of a giggle is my main reason for going there.

On the other hand, if I were a complete noob coming into it of the back of the Movie I'd probably find it next to useless as a resource because of not being 100% sure where the jokes stop and the facts and, and of course, not being able to get most of the injokes.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
takara_destron
Protoform
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:30 pm
Location: Wales, UK
Contact:

Post by takara_destron »

I think its fantastic. It does the job a wiki is supposed to do and I personally think its hilarious
Image

Recent Aquistions: Movie Voyager Autobot Ratchet, BW Transmetal II Megatron
User avatar
chiasaur11
Protoform
Posts: 173
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:00 pm

Post by chiasaur11 »

I like it.

That is all.
Post Reply