User:Eeyore the Iowan Goat
Welcoming Pizza Tower Wiki to Miraheze.
Should I give info about myself? Well I've surely led a past in the indie wiki scene, that's a given. Indie wikis are still vulnerable to authoritarian admins, and several have fallen to pride. ZW was on fandom for several months, affecting the integrity of its affiliated wikis. in spite of that, i think you'll still find a few good folks on ZW (I know of one in particular but I won't say the name aloud). Likewise, you'll also find good folks over at the Zelda Dungeon forums and wiki.
My definition of the word "independence" does not refer to a coalition of independently hosted wikis or a bunch of wikis together on a wiki farm. It's like Mario Wiki used to look in 2007 (see Wayback Machine). Several gamers hung out there, it was independently governed without having to consider the needs of any other affiliated wikis. For instance, check out the countless proposals of SSB coverage on Mario Wiki, and every single one will have at least one person mention SmashWiki as the go-to for Super Smash Bros. information.
If it's a coalition of wikis founded by the same person, that's a gray area because it may seem independent but at same time it would seem one guy has complete control over several wikis on a wide variety of subjects. Independence is a subjective word, if I had to say so myself.
I am an ardent defender of scope creep and will continue to be for the rest of my life. That being said, a huge key thing to independence is the scope. Do you want to only cover the main franchise or do you want to explore new boundaries and uncharted territory with the franchises while simultaneously exercising moderation to not go too out of bounds (e.g. something "too out of bounds" would be full Crash Bandicoot on a Mario wiki)? Scope creep would be inviting more people to read more on what they originally bargained for. It can also encourage folks to enjoy themselves on wikis and see what kind of run they can have while remaining encyclopedic for the articles themselves.
I'm not against people wanting to reconsider scope creep if they have a good case for it, so long as they are still supportive of it. For instance, Banjo-Kazooie and Conker fit more on a Donkey Kong wiki because although they are not in the same franchise, they were all in the same ecosystem around the time when Rareware was developing the Donkey Kong games. Diddy Kong Racing has Diddy Kong along with Banjo and Conker in it. It's not a crossover game like Mario & Sonic series, the latter of which is not grounds for full coverage because it's a dedicated crossover series. Cameos aren't grounds either, but if a character makes several cameos and guest appearances, that can all be mentioned on their article. There's no real "one size fits all" solution to coverage. I personally weigh out several factors.
I'd rather cover The Legend of Zelda in full on a Mario wiki instead of Donkey Kong because the latter came before Mario (i.e. it's not a spinoff, so the Kongs made by Rareware are not "Super Mario" characters like the film would have you believe). The Legend of Zelda is not a Mario spinoff but it draws several parallels to Mario, particularly the Super Mario mainline series of platformers. Mario enemies have sometimes appeared in The Legend of Zelda games, such as Cheep Cheeps and Thwomps. Octoroks have unique Mario variants such as Octoombas. The mainline games are usually developed by the same people, to the point that even Fire Bars, an obstacle from Mario, were originally intended for Zelda (there's different sources to back this & they end up using Fire Bars in both franchises). The Legend of Zelda television series was part of the SMB Super Show! syndication package and consisted previews of Zelda episodes. I "weigh out" several factors with Zelda and Mario because it's a more complicated situation than they'd have you believe. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro are a similar but probably more straightforward case. Some day I dream of a Zelda wiki that can cover the mainline Super Mario series.
A lot of unfocused digression in my writing above, but I hope you enjoyed the read nonetheless, even though I may seem a bit crazy. :P
