Earlier this month, the wiki-hosting institution Fandom scooped up respective games sites, including Giant Bomb and GameSpot, successful an acquisition worthy $50 million. And that exorbitant terms of the sale, coupled with what the website calls “questionable staffing decisions” astatine the company, has led the Zelda Wiki to interruption escaped from “corporate consolidation” and assertion its independency from Fandom.

Opened successful 2005 and autarkic up until its transportation implicit to Gamepedia hosting successful 2017, the Zelda Wiki is 1 of the biggest fan-run games wikis around. With thousands of entries from games crossed the full franchise, you could walk days oregon weeks scrolling done the integer encyclopedia and astir apt inactive not decorativeness it successful its entirety. It’s my go-to assets erstwhile looking up accusation connected a circumstantial force oregon limb successful Nintendo’s fashionable franchise, and it hosts 11,199 articles. However, present you’re gonna person to sojourn a brand-new website if you person bookmarked and/or frequented the aged Zelda Wiki.

Staff astatine the website announced connected Twitter this week that, “after galore months of preparation,” the website is present wholly autarkic from Fandom oregon immoderate different entity.

“For implicit a decade, from its instauration successful 2005 to its transportation to Gamepedia successful 2017, the Zelda Wiki was a afloat autarkic site,” the wiki’s EIC wrote. “Even aft the transfer, and Gamepedia’s consequent acquisition by Fandom, Inc., the tract sought to proceed its ngo of curating an editorially independent, high-quality wiki operated by fans. However, we person travel to judge that these ideals are incompatible with Fandom.”

There was a crushed for specified a scathing statement. Citing Fandom’s “recent buyouts and questionable staffing decisions,” the Zelda Wiki unit said it wants to “keep the net escaped from firm consolidation” and “hegemonic control.” As such, the squad moved the wiki to a caller home, though the Fandom one is inactive up and running.

Responses to the quality person been overwhelmingly affirmative online. Multiple folks person called this a large win for the Zelda Wiki, portion others are looking guardant to fewer ads and a amended layout connected the site. Even the Twitter relationship for the Fallout Wiki, one of the fewer publically feuding with Fandom implicit intrusive videos and ads connected the site, congratulated the Zelda Wiki team for breaking from the company. Generally, there’s immoderate nationalist wariness astir Fandom’s increasing power implicit fan-led Wikis that person provided utile escaped resources to the assemblage astir large franchises. As such, determination are present adjacent resources shared for alternatives to Fandom Wikis, and immoderate encouragement successful the comments from this announcement to get much Wikis to bash the same. While autarkic Wikis bash exist, implicit the years Fandom has go the much ascendant website erstwhile radical Google for definite topics.

In Discord messages with Kotaku, assemblage unit subordinate ModdedInkling said the aged Fandom wiki volition “continue to beryllium updated” by a fewer volunteers that person chosen to stay there. Just astir everyone else, however, volition determination to the website’s caller domain. ModdedInkling besides explained what this independency means for the staff.

“Being ‘editorially independent’ means having afloat originative power implicit the wiki’s contented nether its ain policies arsenic opposed to Fandom’s policies,” ModdedInkling said. “This besides includes the wiki’s wide quality (user interface, templates, etc.), which has been 1 of the main subjects discussed by galore autarkic wikis splitting distant from Fandom. Another taxable of involvement involves avoiding mandated censorship. Certain wikis besides person contented that involves socio-politics and morals that are often restricted by Fandom, but are deemed applicable by the community.”

ModdedInkling extrapolated connected the quality of Fandom’s alleged censorship. He said that portion thing has been blocked connected the Zelda Wikia (to his knowledge, anyway), determination person been immoderate alterations made to entries post-publication connected different wikis.

“Basically, Fandom’s policies whitethorn invoke a level of censorship connected definite delicate topics, adjacent if it is applicable towards a enactment of fiction, if it is deemed to spell against their policy,” ModdedInkling said. “Sometimes it whitethorn impact altering one’s accusation arsenic good adjacent if it is little accurate. This tin hap done a assortment of topics, specified arsenic discussions involving the retroactive alteration of a character’s traits, adjacent if it was historically inaccurate to alteration it.”

ModdedInkling brought up 1 lawsuit wherever Fandom’s policies got successful the mode of making what they see close accusation available. On Wookieepedia, the integer encyclopedia for Star Wars, determination were allegedly complications astir changing the sanction of idiosyncratic who aboriginal came retired arsenic trans.

“There was statement involving the naming conventions of idiosyncratic identifying aboriginal arsenic trans,” ModdedInkling said. “The mandate was to retroactively alteration immoderate of the names displayed for the idiosyncratic oregon character, adjacent though that was not however they were referred to astatine the time. I don’t retrieve if it was a real-life idiosyncratic oregon a fictional character. It did not origin them to fork, but it was 1 interest that NIWA had successful imaginable examples involving quality pronouns similar Vivian from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Sheik from Ocarina of Time, oregon Vilia from Breath of the Wild.”

Kotaku has reached retired to Fandom for comment.

The Zelda Wiki is conscionable the astir caller integer encyclopedia to divided from its genitor institution and the 3rd to interruption distant from Fandom specifically successful caller memory. Earlier this year, the squad down the Terraria Wiki announced connected Steam that it’ll big a caller tract abstracted from Fandom. Meanwhile, the Runescape Wiki went indie years agone successful effect to corporate mandates forcing autoplaying videos successful posts. The Zelda Wiki tin present beryllium recovered successful the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance database, which includes different independent, volunteer-run websites similar Bulbapedia (the integer encyclopedia dedicated to each things Pokémon) and SmashWiki.