Memory Alpha

Memory Alpha (often shortened MY) is a collaboratif project Wiki and an encyclopedic reference book for subject related to the fictitious universe Star Trek. Conceived by Harry Doddema and daN Carlson in September 2003 and officially launched the December 5th of the same year, the project uses the model Wiki thanks to the software MediaWiki, and is lodged by the company Wikia. In March 2007, Memory Alpha contains more than 24.000 articles, placing it like one of the largest wiki projects. Memory Alpha is available in German, English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Esperanto, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbe, Swedish, Czech.

The contents of Memory Alpha are placed under the license Creative Commons of not-commercial attribution. Since this license does not allow the commercial re-use, its contents are incompatible with the license GFDL, and of the material of this site cannot be copied in projects which employ the GFDL. This distinction makes of Memory Alpha a " sœur" project; project Wikia based on the GFDL.

History

The objective of Memory Alpha is to create a database really complete and accessible to all the fans, but at the base, it was not conceived exclusively like a wiki. Two principal concerns encouraged with the creation of the project: many encyclopedic projects existing Star Trek remained unfinished, and most promising were regularly out-service for various reasons. Here a worrying example: at the end of the year 2005, the Web site " TrekPulse" inexplicably closed its doors to only reappear the following year under the name of " TrekCore ". The founders of the project, Doddema and Carlson thus chose to name their future project, Memory Alpha ; according to single and the largest bases information of the Federation appeared in the episode " lights of Zetar (The Lights off Zetar) " , of Star Trek, the traditional series.

In there reflective, Doddema and Carlson found that the format wiki would leave them more freedom, of flexibility and extensibility that any other format which were available for them, and finally decided to employ it. Here the quotation of Carlson coming from the Web site " The Charlotte Observer" : " The concept to which I am very attached with the wiki is that one can disseminate work: each one can be put at work and contribute to the interest commun" . After a short experiment with the software TikiWiki that they found difficult use, they decided all to migrate on a basis MediaWiki. MediaWiki is recognized like the platform of choice for Wikimedia, and proved its stability and its effectiveness as a software, according to their opinions. It thus was put on line the 11 November 2003 on a site of test. When the tests were achieved, Memory Alpha, the Web site, officially was launched and inaugurated the December 5th.

In the following months, the clothes industry of the site accelerated, thanks to an article on Memory Alpha, the 23 December 2003, coming from the Web site " The Trek Nation" , a site of fans Star Trek . The 12 January 2004, Memory Alpha reached the 1000^ème article, but unfortunately, the March 23rd, the database is accidentally unobtrusive during an update of the Logiciel MediaWiki. Although that caused six weeks of loss of work, the project continued to develop for finally including Dutch versions and allemandes the April 10th and the May 14th, respectively. There remained stable until the following year, when the expenses of lodging of the site became too important to maintain by the founders.

Into February 2005, Memory Alpha changed waiter of lodging and joined Wikia, a free company of lodging-wiki of profits and installation by Jimbo Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, and by Angela Beesley, member of the board of directors of the Fondation Wikimedia. The site became stable on Wikia, opening a Swedish version the 5 May 2005 and a French version, the 5 November 2005. It accepted several distinctions this same year: - In September 2005, the outstanding commendation award Ex Astris Excellentia coming from Ex Astris Scientia, a site of reference Star Trek - In a bulletin of the Web site of the American chain Sci Fi Chanel the 10 October 2005, it was elected like " Internet site Sci-fi of the semaine". Mike Sussman, producer and author of Star Trek: To travel and of Star Trek: Enterprise joined the community this same year.

The engineering problems encountered before on the old platform led the MediaWiki software to believe that the project Memory Alpha was begun the 23 November 2004, and in spite of the inaccuracy, this date was adopted ex post facto as a " go back to anniversaire" of Memory Alpha. To celebrate the occasion, Uncyclopedia (which is also lodged by Wikia) changed its principal page the 23 November 2005, to make a parody of Memory Alpha. The satirical page was maintained under the Espace of names " tlh: " , for tlhIngan Hol (the name Klingon for the language Klingon), according to the manner and on the model which the wikis have to bind of the pages towards other languages.

At the end of 2005 and at the beginning of 2006, several new characteristics were added to the site. Among those, a process of Reading panel, applied the 21 September 2005 in answer to the questions about the process by which the articles are put in the high-speed motorboat (see below for more information). The 20 November 2005 of this year, Memory Alpha began a program called " Babel" , and inspired according to the model of Wikimedia Commons, to help the users who speak the same language. Other recent innovations include a field for projects of user, sometimes indicated under the name of Wikiprojet on others wikis, and the cover of the Fanfilm S.

The site remained popular since its beginnings, although its growth slowed down lately. For example, it was more the great project on Wikia until in October 2005, its number of articles was exceeded by Wookieepedia and Uncyclopedia. Today, it roughly contains 1300 recorded users (80 who are in activity) and more than 17 million pages seen since its migration on Wikia. In February 2006, it receives approximately as much as half of visitors and page seen per day that the Web site Star Trek , according to Alexa. Memory Alpha influenced the design of others wikicities dedicated to information on franknesses TV, including the wikis '' Files-X '' and 24 Hours. It is also a resource employed by the journalists for any relative information with Star Trek.

Structure

Several aspects of Memory Alpha place it independently of other work of reference, such as its method to quote sources. Any information must be quoted starting from a valid source (see the section of the Politique gun below), but rather than a list " extracts of travaux" or of " références" , Memory Alpha prefers to use integrated and autonomous quotations, which are placed between brackets after the sentence or the section in question. For televised episodes, it is composed of an abbreviation for the series from which information comes (for example: DS9 for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ), followed name of the episode surrounded by double quotation marks. Thus, in order to quote the information of Star Trek: The new generation (NG) of the pilot " Appointment with Farpoint" , one would make rather: (NG: " Meet in Farpoint"). The same rule applies for films, without the prefix of the series and in italic instead of the quotation marks.

The articles on Memory Alpha are written starting from two points of view: " in the univers" , which makes that the articles are written as if the reader belonged to the universe Star Trek , and " production" , which speaks from the real point of view. For articles " in the univers" , information in background of the scene is not included/understood in the principal body of the article; it is rather placed in a separate section " background " or included in italic with tabulations to separate it from the prospect " in the univers". The last method is employed in the cases or information is particularly important (like the contradictory information coming from two sources of gun) or in the cases or there is not enough information " of background " to justify a separate section. In the majority of the cases, the method of the sections " of background " is preferred and the italics are employed very little.

As much of wikis, Memory Alpha has a section for the " articles high-speed motorboats " , those supposed to represent the best than the community must offer. The criteria for this distinction are that an article must be well-writing, complete (and includes quotations of sources), precis and uncontested – criteria which any article could hypothetically achieve. That because some conflicts compared to the criteria in plays (see the section Current debates). To be elected, an article must be nominated by a user and be unanimously constant by at least five other users; all the objections must be reparable and can be invalidated if considered irrational or not very reasonable. Each week, one of the articles high-speed motorboats of the site becomes " the article of the week " who can be posted on the banner page of the project.

Several means of communication are available beyond the conventional pages of discussion. The gate of the community of the Web site is baptized under the name of " the Before-All " , a place attended by the characters of the New generation. The questions discussed over there oscillate between the user-to-user conflicts and of new ideas, as on the way in which one can improve the site with the future projects. A separated field, the " Conference room " exist, it, for the discussions and related questions with what is considered gun, the anomalies between the sources, and such other matters. However, subjects and discussions " meta-Trek" (a term used for all that is related to Star Trek , but which does not concern in any manner Memory Alpha) are not discussed on the wiki; a chatroom IRC exists for these discussions.

Policy of the gun

The question of the Canon Star Trek a long time caused debate within the fans. Memory Alpha laid down its own policy of the gun. Although Star Trek: The animated series (HEAP) is officially considered apocryphal book by Paramount Pictures, Memory Alpha includes it for many reasons, like the fact that Gene Roddenberry and the majority of the casting of the traditional series were implied, in the same way one finds references to HEAP in the following series. Information of Star Trek Encyclopedia and Star Trek Chronology is generally accepted on MY as a long time as they do not contradict the “established” events (with the screen). Speculative or conflict information with the obviousnesses of the “gun”, although rare, must be been unaware of; in this manner, MY is slightly subjective.

Other sources are not include like gun, but are reported by MY in a manner distinguishing it from the other Trek resources. The books, Comic S, and roleplays are included like articles of Merchandizing, and single or new information of this source is reported on the page of the product. For example, in the series of novels Star Trek: New Frontier , a new series of characters is introduced into the Trek universe, and their vessel is the US Excalibur . Characters, vessels, and information of the books New Frontier will be included on the page of the corresponding books, but will not profit from individual pages inside MY. From this manner, the community distinguishes the “gun” from the “apocryphal book” while allowing to be complete.

Current debates

Several questions arise at the community of Memory Alpha. One is the question of the articles which should be seen given the statute d'" article high-speed motorboat ". According to the current rules of Memory Alpha, as much major subjects that minor are eligible; however, the question was raised to know if the criteria for the election should not be more subjective, C. - with-D., if a subject is not significant enough, it should not be elected at all events exhaustiveness of the article on the subject. There is currently no consensus in the community of Memory Alpha on this subject, and there no was policy change on the statute d'" article high-speed motorboat " , for the moment.

The question of what Memory Alpha must include is a recurring subject of the project since its creation. On the banner page of the project, it is described like " a project of collaboration to create the encyclopedia and the reference more complête, most precise, and accessible for all what is related to " Star Trek " , but the fans have often various interpretations from what " means; all ". In certain cases, one or more users add contents in connection with a subject – like a Web site, a club of fans or a parody – but which " stick pas" in the existing pages, then that requires a decision of the community if should be kept the current contents, and if so, what to make with him. Such incidents led to the creation of an article on the parodies of Star Trek after several questions were raised on this subject to know where to put the related information on this subject, mais which does not form part of the frankness Star Trek . A contradictory example relates to a musical group: " The Sunspots" , being composed of Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn. Although the implied actors did everything part of Star Trek: The new generation , several articles on the group were deleted because the community considered this subject not directly related to the frankness. In date of 2006, information on The Sunspots can be found on the various pages of the actors rather than in an article simple and separated from the actors.

Perhaps the most difficult question about Memory Alpha is that of these last months concerning the polemic in connection with their policy of the gun. Except questions length and the excessive use of formalizations, this new policy was called in question by several regular users of the site because of its rule specifying that articles and the information which were not seen drifting on-screen but of official sources of the production are not considered gun (or " canoniques"). The archivists of the site are divided if one should allow such an information to be gun; some do not want only to admit that what already passed on-screen while others wish to include what in the beginning was envisaged to be on-screen but never carried out like such, like information coming from removed scenes, of the outlines of manuscript, etc Of other archivists believe that such an information can be included provided that she does not contradict what was seen on-screen and provided that it states the source of information. In date of July 2006, this discussion fell down significantly, whereas the majority accepted the limits of the new policy (although they always await a shorter outline and less " légale").

See too

Internal bonds

Memory Alpha in French: the French-speaking version of Memory Alpha ( translations and original compositions).
Memory Beta: site relative with a wide policy of the gun including the novels, BDs and the plays on computers.
The Star Trek Encyclopedia : the most known encyclopedia on Star Trek.

References

Barnett, Cynthia (September 1,2005). " Wiki mania". Florida Trend , vol. 48, No 5; Pg. 62; ISSN: 0015-4326.

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