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'''Fragmentation''' in the wikisphere is the tendency for there to be many wikis with overlapping content. Sometimes this occurs by accident, due to people's lack of awareness of other wikis' existence, which leads to them to establish duplicative new wikis. Other times it happens when disgruntled users break away from existing wikis to form their own competing wiki (a process known as [[forking]]). Fragmentation is sometimes considered good, in that it allows for experimentation with different schemes of organization, governance, presentation, etc. It is sometimes consider bad, in that it increases the amount of time users have to spend checking various watchlists and otherwise performing the same work on multiple wikis. | '''Fragmentation''' in the wikisphere is the tendency for there to be many wikis with overlapping content. Sometimes this occurs by accident, due to people's lack of awareness of other wikis' existence, which leads to them to establish duplicative new wikis. Other times it happens when disgruntled users break away from existing wikis to form their own competing wiki (a process known as [[forking]]). Fragmentation is sometimes considered good, in that it allows for experimentation with different schemes of organization, governance, presentation, etc. It is sometimes consider bad, in that it increases the amount of time users have to spend checking various watchlists and otherwise performing the same work on multiple wikis. | ||
Examples of deliberately fragmented communities include [[Wikitravel]] and [[Wikivoyage]]. | Examples of deliberately fragmented communities include [[Wikitravel]] and [[Wikivoyage]]—the former was an independent community and the latter ended up joining the [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. For an example of the converse, see [[Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español]], which was spun off from [[Español Wikipedia]]. | ||
Alternately, [[MeatBallWiki]] was created as a space for talking about [[Ward's Wiki]] and the larger [[wiki]] movement in general. Years later, [[WikiIndex]] was founded with a similar motivation: discussing and fostering community amongst various wikis. The two communities aren't in direct competition but have some overlapping scope and have developed distinct approaches. | |||
[[Category:WikiIdea]] | [[Category:WikiIdea]] | ||