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'''WikiAlpha''' (2011–2024) was a free online wiki encyclopedia that allowed open contributions from anyone. The site, launched on June 19, 2011, by Richard and Govind, operated using [[MediaWiki]] software. It remained active until June 2024, when it went offline due to attacks on the site by gambling spammers.
[[File:WikiAlpha logo.jpeg|thumb|right|The original public domain logo of WikiAlpha]]
'''WikiAlpha''' (''wikialpha.org''; 2011–2024) was a free online wiki encyclopedia that allowed open contributions from anyone. The site, launched on June 19, 2011, by Richard and Govind, operated using [[MediaWiki]] software. It remained active until June 2024, when it went offline due to attacks on the site by gambling spammers.
WikiAlpha was online for a total of 15 years, with a slow, obscure first decade followed by the tumultuous final 5 years.
WikiAlpha was online for a total of 15 years, with a slow, unremarkable first decade followed by its tumultuous final 5 years.
==Overview==
==Overview==
WikiAlpha.org had a public domain license. Articles forked from Wikipedia had to have a Creative Commons license tag attached in order to override the default public domain license.
WikiAlpha.org had a public domain license. Articles forked from Wikipedia had to have a Creative Commons license tag attached in order to override the default public domain license.
WikiAlpha.org also accepted donations, although only a few cryptocurrency options were available: Dogecoin (DOGE) and Ripple (XRP).
The only subdomain available was en.wikialpha.org. In theory, all articles were supposed to be in English, although this became difficult to control starting from 2021 due to the mass influx of Bengali, Vietnamese, and to some extent, Arabic and Persian-speaking editors.
WikiAlpha.org also accepted donations exclusively via cryptocurrency transfers. Only a few cryptocurrency options were available: Dogecoin (DOGE) and Ripple (XRP).
In a sense, WikiAlpha had a spirit of online anarchy. There was only source code editing, with no visual editing option enabled. The only default skin available was Vector (legacy, pre-2020).
In a sense, WikiAlpha had a spirit of online anarchy. There was only source code editing, with no visual editing option enabled. The only default skin available was Vector (legacy, pre-2020).
WikiAlpha was created in 2011<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20110622140938/http://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/Main_Page</ref> as a response to Wikipedia's unrelenting deletions of articles that were considered to be non-notable. In response, refugees from Wikipedia created WikiAlpha, which had absolutely no notability restrictions.
WikiAlpha was created in 2011<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20110622140938/http://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/Main_Page</ref> as a response to Wikipedia's unrelenting deletions of articles that were considered to be non-notable. In response, refugees from Wikipedia created WikiAlpha, which had absolutely no notability restrictions.
WikiAlpha remained relatively obscure until 2019. As of 2019, the most active administrators on the site were Mathewignash, who mostly wrote about Transformers, and Geo Swan, who created hundreds of biographies and articles about recent event topics. Since 2019, WikiAlpha started to pick up traffic. Users such as WritingSnowman and Dove Windsor joined and became prominent regular editors at WikiAlpha. From then on, Google started to prioritize WikiAlpha in its search rankings, with WikiAlpha often appearing right at the very top of Google's search results pages.
WikiAlpha remained relatively obscure until 2019. As of 2019, the most active administrators on the site were Mathewignash, who mostly wrote about Transformers, and Geo Swan, who created hundreds of biographies and articles about recent event topics. Through the 2010s, WikiAlpha's users were predominantly North American.
Since 2019, WikiAlpha started to pick up traffic. Users such as WritingSnowman and Dove Windsor joined and became prominent regular editors at WikiAlpha. From then on, Google started to prioritize WikiAlpha in its search rankings, with WikiAlpha often appearing right at the very top of Google's search results pages if there were no Wikipedia results for the query. Since most of WikiAlpha's content was original and not copied and pasted en masse from Wikipedia, it often ranked even higher than [[EverybodyWiki]], which was using bots to import thousands of deleted articles and drafts from Wikipedia.
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.
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.
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.