I have 3 major problems with this idea
- PC is not Smogon
- PC is not Bulbagarden
- PC is not Serebii
No one is trying to make PC into any of these websites. PC's forums will always be the foremost feature of PC, seeing as it is a COMMUNITY.
In my honest opinion, what makes PC stand out above all the rest is that it does not try to dictate how the fandom operates, acts or even hacks. In fact the charm point about PC is the fact that even the most green and wet behind the ears ROM hackers can come here and try their ideas. Without pressure. Without being given more than the basic knowledge one needs to ROM hack. PC's wealth of support and information is in it's forum and it should always stay that way. Putting everything out there on a Wiki would be difficult, and it would require a LOT more staff oversight than most staff members here would think, and a Wiki Staff would need to be appointed and so on.
How would a clear, enclycopedic list of resources and tutorials dictate how the fandom operates or acts? and do you seriously think that every person has their own "way" of hacking? That's absurd. Hacking is dealing with hex codes and the myriad of programs that this community has produced, and those only do so much, and there's only one or two ways to do something to get a desired result. this wiki would show the best ways to do these things, so that hackers and modders (ESPECIALLY the green and wet behind the ears ones) could stop sweating the small stuff and get to the stuff that hopefully makes their hack stand out:
the storyline (as well as any 'ideas' or features they figure out and add to their rom and/or the wiki). This idea would literally eliminate any pressure that new hackers feel, because they would have a real guide to go by for their ideas and hacks. And hackers, especially new ones, want more than the bare basics if they hope to learn quickly how to build innovative, quality hacks
I don't want to speak for the moderators for the Emulation sub-forum, but I would be happier moderating for a wiki than a thread because its a much easier beast to regulate. PC's wealth of support will most likely stay in the forum even after the creation of the wiki, but the info would be more streamlined and much more navigable in a wiki than any thread could hope to be. Seeing as the Emulation sub-forum has only two mods (who do an excellent job), I don't see why the wiki would need more than two objective moderators to help in that endeavor.
So why not just K.I.S.S and be done with it?
How is a wiki NOT simple? As long as there are
facts to back up any information or claims, a wiki is as simple as it gets. Even most wiki syntax is WYSIWYG. Do you consider Wikipedia's information portal to be infinitely complex?
The biggest problem with a Wiki which is a fixed source of information is opposition of change once it's complete. Editors defend their work rabidly, and if the initial main contributors are given Admin or Stewardship rights on the Wiki, you can forget that thing ever evolving with information the way a forum can.
Opposition of change is what kills forums too, including people against any change in their community because they think everyone else on their forums is too lazy/stupid to recognize the import of a wiki in being a critical resource in helping newbies learn how to compete with our big hitters on the PC forums.
Editors could/would only defend their work to the point of it being correct. If it is not, no amount of complaining is going to make it so, and that's the only concern of a wiki: facts, regardless of who first proposes them. Information is empirical, and only empirical data is worthy of wiki inclusion. Again, the whole point of a wiki: to separate the opinions from fact, to be a clear, concise information gateway. That is the rule of thumb that brought wikis into prominence in the first place. Why does a wiki need to evolve like a forum can? A forum is a glorified conversation, and a wiki is a glorified textbook: why does a wiki need to emulate a forum in any way?
Lastly we all know that "If you build it they will come" is not true. If our newbies won't even read a sticky thread, what makes you think a Wiki would be read?
A General Pokemon wiki from PC will just look like a pathetic attempt to rival places like Serebii, Smogon and Bulbapedia, and therefore our "Wiki" would be limited to ROM hacking topics and that's just not enough info for a wiki in my opinion.
'If you build it they will come is absolutely true' in this case, and the creation of PC in the first place is the prime example. As the epicenter of rom hacking, as Karpman stated, PC has an obligation to those hackers to give them the resources they want and need to better supply them with quality help, unless it is the goal of PC to rid itself of rom hackers entirely.
And who says newbies don't read sticky threads? Do you have that much contempt for your perceived 'stupidity' of other users to think that a sticky thread goes unread by all, and how could you be so naive to think that a sticky thread is the end-all be-all of information? Like I said in an earlier post, if that was the case, all wikis would be forums. I
know the wiki would be read because it is all the information, with none of the banality. Would anyone ever read a textbook again if the authors were constantly fighting within its pages, truncated by the occasional fact? It would become obsolete immediately, except for its entertainment value, which I'm pretty sure a textbook, or any body of information, isn't going for.
A general pokemon wiki would be a pathetic attempt to rival these other websites, but no one has proposed we do that. We have had three main ideas for the use of the wiki which has nothing to do with these websites, and of which these other websites steadfastly refuse to cater to:
1. Rom hacking resource
2. Fakemon Pokedex
3. Competitive Battling Community.
If that's not enough of a reason to create a wiki to cater to an unmet need, then what is?