Changes

==Motivation==

==Motivation==

The motivation behind WikiAlpha's creation stemmed from dissatisfaction with Wikipedia's increasingly stringent deletion practices, especially concerning topics deemed non-notable or articles created by new editors. Richard and Govind, the founders, believed that Wikipedia's policies were moving away from its original mission as an encyclopedia "anyone can edit." In response, they established WikiAlpha to offer a platform where a wider variety of content could be published without the threat of deletion for not meeting traditional notability standards.

The motivation behind WikiAlpha's creation stemmed from dissatisfaction with Wikipedia's increasingly stringent deletion practices, especially concerning topics deemed non-notable or articles created by new editors. Richard and Govind, the founders, believed that Wikipedia's policies were moving away from its original mission as an encyclopedia "anyone can edit." In response, they established WikiAlpha to offer a platform where a wider variety of content could be published without the threat of deletion for not meeting traditional notability standards. Its complete lack of notability restrictions was quite radical even in comparison to the other wiki alternatives to Wikipedia. WikiAlpha's main page stated:

<blockquote>WikiAlpha is an alternative to Wikipedia, where the main difference is that our deletion policy is far more lenient with regard to notability requirements. Basically, WikiAlpha is a near-indiscriminate collection of information in the form of articles on ''any'' topic: you can create an article about the band you just started, your pet dog, yourself, your house - as long as your content does not fall under our speedy deletion policy, it will likely remain on the site forever!</blockquote>

To support its mission, WikiAlpha actively engaged with Wikipedia editors whose articles were at risk of deletion. If possible, WikiAlpha would retrieve these articles and republish them on its platform, informing the original creators of the transfer. This approach allowed content that might not meet Wikipedia's standards to find a home on WikiAlpha, preserving it for public access.

However, unlike [[EverybodyWiki]], WikiAlpha had no bots at all, and deleted Wikipedia articles were thus never imported on a large scale.

Originally in the 2010s, WikiAlpha claimed that to support its mission, it would actively engage with Wikipedia editors whose articles were at risk of deletion. If possible, WikiAlpha would retrieve these articles and republish them on its platform, informing the original creators of the transfer. This approach allowed content that might not meet Wikipedia's standards to find a home on WikiAlpha, preserving it for public access. However, this was never actually implemented on a wide scale, and WikiAlpha never archived thousands of deleted articles like Deletionpedia.

 

Unlike [[EverybodyWiki]], WikiAlpha had no bots at all, and deleted Wikipedia articles were thus never imported on a large scale.

==History==

==History==

In 2020, WikiAlpha started to have new articles that were apparently written by North American PR companies. These articles were typically well formatted and neatly written, and the users who posted the articles were generally helpful contributors. At this stage, WikiAlpha was still a small online community without any major issues.

In 2020, WikiAlpha started to have new articles that were apparently written by North American PR companies. These articles were typically well formatted and neatly written, and the users who posted the articles were generally helpful contributors. At this stage, WikiAlpha was still a small online community without any major issues.

However, when WikiAlpha started to rank well on Google search results, the SEO (search engine optimization) crowd started to notice and joined WikiAlpha. Unlike the early 2010s, during which much of the English-speaking online community was dominated by North Americans, increasing global Internet connectivty meant that the English-speaking online community was instead dominated by South Asians during the 2020s.

However, when WikiAlpha started to rank well on Google search results, the SEO (search engine optimization) crowd started to notice and joined WikiAlpha. Unlike the early 2010s, during which much of the English-speaking online community was dominated by North Americans, increasing global Internet connectivity meant that the English-speaking online community was instead dominated by South Asians during the 2020s.

 

From 2021 until 2024, Bangladeshi SEO editors flooded the site with autobiographies and paid articles, which typically had sloppy formatting and broken wiki code. However, they were still allowed by WikiAlpha due to the site's founding belief that there should be no notability restrictions. There were also many SEO editors from Nigeria, Vietnam, Iran, and other countries, although usually at any given time, more than half of the new pages showing up on WikiAlpha were about Bangladeshi people and businesses. The subjects were disproportionately about Generation Z male Bangladeshis, such as "TikTok influencers" or "digital marketing experts". During this time, the two kings of the alternative wiki world (in other words, all wiki sites that were not being hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation) were [[EverybodyWiki]] and WikiAlpha. Ads for paid "wiki profiles" on EverybodyWiki and WikiAlpha, mainly from Bangladeshis and Nigerians, along with some Pakistanis and Indians, started showing up all over the Internet, from social media platforms to freelancing platforms. Prices were typically in the $20-$50 USD range (never exceeding $100 USD), and the results were often very sloppy wiki code full of template errors and messy writing with poor grammar. On the other hand, services offered by PR companies in the Global North were priced higher, with meticulously formatted wiki code and coherent writing.

From 2021 until 2024, Bangladeshi SEO editors flooded the site with autobiographies and paid articles, which typically had sloppy formatting and broken wiki code. However, they were still allowed by WikiAlpha due to the site's founding belief that there should be no notability restrictions. There were also many SEO editors from Nigeria, Vietnam, Iran, and other countries, although usually at any given time, more than half of the new pages showing up on WikiAlpha were about Bangladeshi people and businesses. The subjects were disproportionately about Generation Z male Bangladeshis, such as "TikTok influencers" or "digital marketing experts". WritingSnowman relentlessly cleaned up after their work, since many of them were creating duplicate pages, not properly capitalizing page titles, and improperly using caps locks. Much of the writing was messy and ungrammatical; after ChatGPT was released, many of the Bangladeshi articles were generated by GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. Bengali-language and Vietnamese-language articles also showed up, some of which Geo Swan deleted as unsuitable since WikiAlpha was supposed to only be in English. Nevertheless, self-authored vanity pages about so-called SEO experts from Bangladesh were not considered to be spam on WikiAlpha, whereas incoherent, unencyclopedic pages stuffed full of gambling URLs were considered to be spam; this is explained in more detail in the section below.

WritingSnowman relentlessly cleaned up after their work, since many of them were creating duplicate pages, not properly capitalizing page titles, and improperly using caps locks. Much of the writing was messy and ungrammatical; after ChatGPT was released, many of the Bangladeshi articles were generated by GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. Bengali-language and Vietnamese-language articles also showed up, some of which Geo Swan deleted as unsuitable since WikiAlpha was supposed to only be in English. Nevertheless, self-authored vanity pages about so-called SEO experts from Bangladesh were not considered to be spam on WikiAlpha, whereas incoherent, unencyclopedic pages stuffed full of gambling URLs were considered to be spam; this is explained in more detail in the section below.

As of June 18, 2024, WikiAlpha had 18,717 articles.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20240618210608/https://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/Main_Page</ref>

As of June 18, 2024, WikiAlpha had 18,717 articles.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20240618210608/https://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/Main_Page</ref>

===Why WikiAlpha went offline===

===Why WikiAlpha went offline===

In 2024, Polish gambling spammers started spamming the website on a massive scale. Hundreds of new pages about gambling websites (usually mirrored domains) and blog-type essays about gambling started to flood WikiAlpha. xXBlackburnXx, a Wikimedia steward who was constantly battling these gambling spammers on Wikimedia wiki sites, came to WikiAlpha to track down the gambling spammers and report them to Geo Swan. The gambling spammers were livid with rage and threatened all of the active administrators and moderators. Incoherent, angry threats, often in all caps, were posted on their talk pages and sent to their e-mails. In June, the spammers falsely reported WikiAlpha to be a phishing site, performed DDoS attacks on WikiAlpha, and finally succeeded in permanently taking WikiAlpha down as revenge. Adding fire to the fuel was the fact that WikiAlpha's owner, Richard, was almost always absent (AWOL), and never responded to talk page messages and e-mails asking for his help in combatting the spammers.

In 2024, Polish gambling spammers started spamming the website on a massive scale. Hundreds of new pages about gambling websites (usually mirrored domains) and blog-type essays about gambling started to flood WikiAlpha. xXBlackburnXx, a Wikimedia steward who was constantly battling these gambling spammers on Wikimedia wiki sites, came to WikiAlpha to track down the gambling spammers and report them to Geo Swan. The gambling spammers were livid with rage and threatened all of the active administrators and moderators. Incoherent, angry threats, often in all caps, were posted on their talk pages and sent to their e-mails. In June, the spammers falsely reported WikiAlpha to be a phishing site,<ref>[https://factsider.com/technology/wikialpha-is-no-longer-online-heres-why-and-what-you-need-to-know/ WikiAlpha is No Longer Online: Here’s Why and What You Need to Know: The Full Story Behind the Shutdown of a Popular Wiki Site]. By Jake Halfey. July 29, 2024. Updated: January 12, 2025. ''Morning Post'' (factsider.com). Accessed September 3, 2025.</ref> performed DDoS attacks on WikiAlpha, and finally succeeded in permanently taking WikiAlpha down as revenge. Adding fire to the fuel was the fact that WikiAlpha's owner, Richard, was almost always absent (AWOL), and never responded to talk page messages and e-mails asking for his help in combatting the spammers.

In December 2024, a Simple English Wikipedia article about WikiAlpha was briefly published, although it was promptly deleted as non-notable.<ref>https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_deletion/Requests/2024/WikiAlpha</ref> A version of this deleted article is archived on [[EverybodyWiki]].<ref>https://en.everybodywiki.com/WikiAlpha</ref>

In December 2024, a Simple English Wikipedia article about WikiAlpha was briefly published, although it was promptly deleted as non-notable.<ref>https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_deletion/Requests/2024/WikiAlpha</ref> A version of this deleted article is archived on [[EverybodyWiki]].<ref>https://en.everybodywiki.com/WikiAlpha</ref>