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Memory Alpha

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mr. Starfleet Command (talk | contribs) at 23:04, 29 August 2023 (-mostly useless citation, -original research, citation cleanup). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
This article is about the website. For the fictional Star Trek location, see The Lights of Zetar.

Memory Alpha
Type of site
Wiki
OwnerCommunal
Created by
  • Dan Carlson
  • Harry Doddema
RevenueAdvertising
URLmemory-alpha.fandom.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired
Launched
  • November 11, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-11-11) (test site)
  • December 5, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-12-05) (official launch)
Content license
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0[1]

Memory Alpha is a wiki encyclopedia for topics related to the Star Trek fictional universe.[2][3][4] Conceived by Harry Doddema and Dan Carlson in September 2003 and officially launched on December 5 of that year, it uses the wiki model and is hosted by Fandom on the MediaWiki software. Doddema and Carlson retired from Memory Alpha in 2008 and 2005 respectively. Memory Alpha contains over 55,000 articles and 60,000 images in its English edition alone as of October 2021, making it one of the largest wiki projects. The site is also available in several other languages,[5] including Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Swedish.

History

Memory Alpha aims to create a comprehensive database for all fans, but was not conceived as a wiki.[6] Two concerns spurred its creation in 2003: many Star Trek references sources on the internet were incomplete, and the most promising often shut down. Doddema and Carlson christened their project Memory Alpha, after the Federation's largest information archive, from the original series episode "The Lights of Zetar".

The two decided on a wiki format, which allowed for more collaboration than other formats available. As Carlson said in the Charlotte Observer, "The idea I latched onto with the wiki concept is you can spread the work around. Everyone can pitch in and go in on their own special interest." After experimenting with TikiWiki software, they switched to the MediaWiki platform, finding it less cumbersome. The platform of choice for Wikimedia Foundation projects proved to be, in their opinion, more stable and efficient, and they brought a test site online on November 11, 2003. Memory Alpha officially launched on December 5, 2003.

The site gained momentum in the following months, aided by a mention on the Star Trek fan site "TrekNation" on December 23. Memory Alpha reached 1,000 articles by January 12, 2004, but on March 23, the site's database was accidentally erased during an upgrade of the MediaWiki software. Although this caused six weeks of work to be lost, the project expanded to include Dutch and German versions on April 10 and May 14 respectively. It remained stable until the following year, when the fees associated with hosting the site became more than the founders could afford.

In February 2005, Memory Alpha switched hosting servers and joined Wikicities (later renamed to Wikia, now known as Fandom), a free for-profit wiki-hosting company started by Wikimedia Foundation board members Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. Memory Alpha opened a Swedish site on May 5 and a French one on November 5. It also received several distinctions that year, such as the Ex Astris Excellentia award from Ex Astris Scientia, a Star Trek reference site, in September 2005.[7] By this time, Memory Alpha was the largest project on Wikicities and had become a central hub for Trekkies who previously been spread across a wide array of websites.[8] Memory Alpha was featured as the Sci-Fi Channel's Site of the Week for October 10, 2005.[9]

Blogger Will Richardson hailed the site in his 2006 book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms as "one of the most impressive [wikis] out there".[10]

In June 2007, Memory Alpha announced that it had reached a milestone of 25,000 articles, which made it one of the biggest online Star Trek informational sources.[11]

Entertainment Weekly named Memory Alpha one of the 25 Essential Fansites in 2007. In comparing it to other Star Trek sites, the reviewer wrote, "Memory Alpha wins out for its handsome, intuitive presentation and its overwhelming mass".[12]

In April 2016, it became public knowledge that Simon Pegg, actor and writer for Star Trek Beyond, had used Memory Alpha as a resource in the writing process of the film, even asking the community's then-inactive founders to name and establish etymology for a device in the film.[13][14][15]

Structure

Several aspects of Memory Alpha set it apart from other reference works, such as its method of citing sources. All information must be cited from a valid source, but rather than a "Works Cited" or "References" list, Memory Alpha prefers stand-alone inline citations, which are placed in parentheses after the sentence or section in question. For television episodes, this consists of an abbreviation for the series from which the information came (e.g. DS9 for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), followed by the name of the episode in double quotation marks. So, to cite information from the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) pilot "Encounter at Farpoint", one would add: (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint"). The same rule applies for films, without the series prefix and with italics in place of quotation marks.[16]

Articles on Memory Alpha are written from two points of view: "in-universe," which are written as if the reader is a part of the Star Trek universe, and "production," which speak from a real-world perspective. For "in-universe" articles, behind-the-scenes information is not included in the main body of the article; rather, it is placed in a separate background section or italicized and included in indented boxes with dotted borders to separate from the in-universe perspective.[17]

Like many wikis, Memory Alpha has a section on its home page which displays one of the site's "featured articles,"[9] which are articles believed to represent the best the community has to offer. The criteria for this distinction are that an article must be well written, comprehensive, accurate, undisputed, and stable.[18] To be featured, an article must meat the featured article criteria, be nominated by a user, and supported by at least one other user. If issues with the article are razed, they must be resolved before it can become featured.[19]

Several methods of communication are available beyond conventional talk pages. Memory Alpha contains a forum called Ten Forward where users discuss various issues regarding policies and other operational subjects.[20] A separate area, the Reference Desk, exists for discussions and questions related to what is considered part of the canon and other such topics.[21] However, topics not related to Star Trek in some way but not to Memory Alpha itself are not discussed on the wiki; a separate Discord channel exists for these discussions.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Memory Alpha: Copyrights". Memory Alpha. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  2. ^ Tossell, Ivor (January 12, 2007). "It's a wiki world". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010.
  3. ^ Lee, Ellen (December 25, 2005). "The (mostly) wonderful world of Wikis". Contra Costa Times. Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service.
  4. ^ "Web watch: Star Trek sites abound". The Record. October 14, 2006. p. F1.
  5. ^ Crockett, Christine (September 17, 2006). "A 40-year 'Trek'". Sun Journal. p. B1.
  6. ^ Ebersbach, Anja (2008). Wiki: Web Collaboration. Berlin: Springer. p. 33. ISBN 978-3-540-35150-4.
  7. ^ "EAE Award Winners 2005". Ex Astris Scientia. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  8. ^ Barnett, Cynthia (September 1, 2005). "Wiki Mania". Florida Trend. Vol. 48, no. 5. p. 62. ISSN 0015-4326. Archived from the original on October 17, 2006.
  9. ^ a b Newquist, Ken (October 10, 2005). "Sci-Fi Site of the Week". SciFi.com. Archived from the original on December 13, 2005. Retrieved November 30, 2005.
  10. ^ Richardson, Will (2006). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press. p. 62. ISBN 1-4129-2767-6.
  11. ^ ""Memory Alpha," the Online Star Trek Encyclopedia, Surpasses 25,000 Article Mark". PRWeb. Cision. June 20, 2007. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  12. ^ ABV. "25 Essential Fansites". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  13. ^ Trendacosta, Katharine (April 19, 2016). "Simon Pegg Got Help From the Star Trek Fan Wiki While Writing Star Trek Beyond". Gizmodo. G/O Media. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
  14. ^ "Simon Pegg: "Memory Alpha Has Been So Helpful" During STAR TREK BEYOND Writing Process". TrekCore. July 23, 2015. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
  15. ^ Couto, Anthony (April 19, 2016). "Simon Pegg Got Help from Memory Alpha Writers on Star Trek Beyond Script". Spinoff Online. Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  16. ^ "Memory Alpha: Cite your sources". Memory Alpha. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  17. ^ "Memory Alpha: Manual of Style § Background information and comments". Memory Alpha. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  18. ^ "Memory Alpha: Featured article criteria". Memory Alpha. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  19. ^ "Memory Alpha: Featured article policies § Nominations". Memory Alpha. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  20. ^ a b "Memory Alpha: Ten Forward". Memory Alpha. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  21. ^ "Memory Alpha: Reference Desk". Memory Alpha. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
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