Star Wars Fanpedia

Star Wars Fanpedia, also called the Star Wars Fan Wiki, is the Wikia Star Wars fan culture wiki, focusing on fan works, fan activities, and other topics related to the Star Wars fandom. Whereas Wookieepedia is the wiki of documented canon material and Star Wars Fanon is a repository where anyone can make up any story they wish to, with some restrictions, Star Wars Fanpedia is neither of these things. Fanpedia, founded by Brandon Rhea, is meant to serve as the largest online encyclopedia of Star Wars fan related documentation that there has ever been.

The entire effort to document information about Star Wars fan works and activities is a community effort. Everything gathered must be attributed to a verifiable source, and there are notability requirements to go along with this. Articles about fan websites, fan fiction, fan films, and various other Star Wars fan works, as well as articles about individual fan novels, films, characters, organizations, weapons, and so forth, are permissible under the policies of Fanpedia. The same is said for real-world fan fiction authors, fan film directors, crew members, and the like, though these too must pass the notability requirements.

History
On August 3, 2008, Star Wars Fanpedia was officially requested for creation at Wikia Requests by Brandon Rhea, an administrator at the Star Wars Fanon wiki. Originally, Rhea had discussed the potential for the wiki with Star Wars Fanon users such as Victor Dorantes and Jedi Master 76, both of whom believed it could succeed. Also believing in potential success was Wookieepedia administrator Atarumaster88.

In the creation request, Rhea stated that the purpose of the proposed wiki was to document all information regarding the Star Wars fan community, something he believed that was impractical on Star Wars Fanon due to its nature as a repository rather than an encyclopedia. After approving the request, Catherine Munro created the wiki.

To date, Star Wars Fanpedia is currently "building for official launch."

Purpose
The purpose of Star Wars Fanpedia is to document all information regarding Star Wars fan works, the Star Wars fan community, and Star Wars fandom in general. The wiki was created as such content was deemed to not fit on Wookieepedia or Star Wars Fanon. Wookieepedia is the Star Wars wiki of documented canon material, meaning everything that is documented is considered officially part of the Star Wars timeline or, if non-canon, has appeared in an official work or is considered notable enough to warrant an article. Star Wars Fanon, on the other hand, serves as a repository venue for anyone who wishes to create their own Star Wars stories to do so, and such authors are not required to source anything as a large amount of the information is created solely for Star Wars Fanon. For these reasons, the purpose of Star Wars Fanpedia simply did not fit in with the purposes of the other two wikis.

Rhea stated his intention to have Star Wars Fanpedia become "the largest online encyclopedia of Star Wars fan related documentation there has ever been". The effort would be one for the entire community, where editors would strive to gather and document verifiable information regarding fan websites, fan fiction, fan films, various other Star Wars fan works, and all notable information about the Star Wars fan community.

Content
Although though wiki is still in the building stages, Rhea did state what his intention for content was when he requested the creation of the wiki. Articles about fan fiction novels, individual fan films, and characters, organizations, weapons, and other types of articles such as that would be permissible under the policies of the wiki. Also allowed would be certain real-world persons such as fan fiction authors, fan film directors, and others. All information is required to be sourced and meet notability requirements.

Rhea emphasized that while articles on fan fiction would be allowed, because the wiki is an encyclopedia rather than a showcase like the Star Wars Fanon wiki, individual fan fiction chapters and segments would not be allowed to be posted, but rather they could be posted on Star Wars Fanon. The example Rhea gave was that on Wookieepedia, editors document information about Star Wars stories that are officially released, although they do not post the content of the actual stories themselves.

All information on Star Wars Fanpedia would have to be sourced, as the wiki is meant for facts about Star Wars fan works and fan communities. Although the word "facts" was used loosely due to Star Wars being fiction, the facts referred to information about the fan activities, fan works, and other fan-related information. Therefore, anything that cannot be verified is not permissible on Star Wars Fanpedia. If editors are interested in making up information for fun that does not appear in any fan source then they will be directed to Star Wars Fanon.

Also found on Star Wars Fanpedia will be other "normal" features from wikis, such as good articles, featured articles, user awards and other community-related endeavors.

Differences from Star Wars Fanon
Despite some confusion in the past, Star Wars Fanpedia is not a new version of Star Wars Fanon. Star Wars Fanon has made a number of efforts to become more encyclopedic, but, by its very nature, it can never be an actual encyclopedia. Star Wars Fanon is a wiki geared towards people using it as a repository, where users can write any story they so choose without having to use reliable sources or verify information. According to Fanpedia, Star Wars Fanon is "a great place for users to go should they wish to express their creativity in a near-limitless way."

Star Wars Fanpedia, on the other hand, is an encyclopedia. Unlike Star Wars Fanon, Fanpedia is not used to write a fan-created idea that "popped into your head five minutes ago." Users cannot register there and make up characters, organizations, or anything else like they can on Star Wars Fanon. Instead, the wiki is meant to document verifiable information about the fan community, its projects, and its activities using sources that have been deemed to be reliable by the wiki's notability guidelines. Essentially, the wiki is an encyclopedia documenting verifiable information from the fan community, much like how Wookieepedia documents verifiable canon information.