MicroWiki sector

The MicroWiki sector (also known as the MicroWiki community and often referred to colloquially as just MicroWiki) is a broad grouping of micronationalists who participate in the nations and organisations based around the micronational wiki MicroWiki, loosely united by a common subculture, their contributions to the online encyclopaedia, and their patronage of particular online social venues, such as the MicroWiki Community Dicord and historically the MicroWiki forums.

Overview

The MicroWiki sector is a sector (a community within the wider intermicronational community) of micronationalists, rarely called MicroWikians, and micronations based around the MicroWiki wiki website or its official Discord server, MicroWiki Community. The term also includes micronationalists who participate in the micronations and intermicronational organisations of the MicroWiki sector while not necessarily directly editing MicroWiki itself or participating in the MicroWiki Community Discord server. The MicroWiki sector is perhaps one of the largest micronational media sectors; as of August 2024, MicroWiki had over 550 active users, while the Discord server had 1,200 members. However, it must be noted that both the wiki and MicroWiki Community Discord server are also utilised by micronationalists outside of the MicroWiki sector.

History

Main article: History of the MicroWiki community

Lethler era

In October 2008, Robert Lethler, Joe Foxon and Jacob Tierney joined the wiki, and the Grand Unified Micronational was founded in January 2009. In this early era, messages left on MicroWiki talk pages were the main venue for the community. Between August 2009 and mid-2010, Lethler and the GUM held hegemonic sway over the community, broken by the Organisation of Active Micronations being created in March 2010 and Lethler leaving in July 2010. In March and September 2010 were the Austenasian and Atlantis Civil Wars respectively, which were both major events in the community that established its negative view of micronational warfare as immature and destructive.

Post-Lethler era

From late 2010 onwards, micronational Skype rooms replaced talk pages as the main venue of the community, and MicroWiki moved from Wikia to an independent domain. In November 2010, the admins controversially banned Sebastian Linden, dividing the community as one faction backed the admins and the other called for Linden to be unbanned and for the admins to be more accountable. Meanwhile, admin Aldrich Lucas became the dominant figure in the community. The OAM declined in influence and sparked controversy after it started branching into the Micras sector of interactive geofiction, which some denied was micronationalism. Linden was unbanned in July, and the GUM was secretly revived in August.

Inter-summit era

Tensions flared up again in September with Yablokogate, when Lethler briefly returned, revealed that the GUM had been revived, and showed that Lucas had been plotting to take over the community for Yabloko. Following Yablokogate, the OAM was dissolved in December 2011, and the GUM increased in power through 2012. At around this time, the community definitively decided interactive geofiction was not micronationalism, separating it from the Micras sector and representing the start of classical micropatriology.

Settled era

2012 and 2013 were largely settled, characterised by formal diplomacy giving way to informal networking on Skype, other than at major events like PoliNation 2012 and the 2013 Intermicronational Summit. One exception was conflict over Bradley of Dullahan and Quentin I of Wyvern making alleged xenophobic remarks, and the 2012-13 GUM leadership scandal, when Dullahan and Yaroslav Mar were forced to resign over accusations of corruption and Crown Prince Jonathan became Acting GUM Chair. From early 2013 onwards, the Empire of Austenasia became the most powerful nation in the community, and in May 2014, Jonathan became site owner of the wiki.

Polarised era

William Soergel proposed the Denton Protocol in July 2014, leading to a backlash from right-wing members of the community, and over the next year or so, a distinct right-wing appeared in the community for the first time, with several micronationalists converting to Christianity or abandoning socialism. There were serious tensions between the left-wing and right-wing of the community and the left mostly moved from Skype to the MicroWiki forums. In addition, newer members were concentrated on the forums and could only enter the Skype rooms when they were invited by someone already-established, and there were tensions between them and older members. The GUM changed from an organisation to a formal chatroom in June 2015 and changed back in June 2016. In early and mid-2016 was the intermicronational economics boom of 2016. Tensions between the left and right and between the older and newer members of the community started to die down in late 2016 and early 2017, but these causes were briefly revived in mid-2017 by two intertwined controversies, the New Community and a diplomatic dispute between Austenasia and Delvera.

Stangnant era

Subsequently, activity in the community seriously declined, to the point where the MicroWiki forums were abandoned and sincere concerns were expressed that the community might die out.

Discord era

There were brief experiments in micronational Discord servers from 2017 onwards while Skype declined, and in September 2018, the community moved from Skype to MicroWiki@Discord, which hugely swelled its numbers and restored activity. Initially, the GUM and the Old Guard retained their traditional hegemony, but from 2019 onwards a defined strand of New Guard politics came to be equally influential, establishing the Cupertino Alliance as a companion to the GUM. Governance of MicroWiki@Discord, concerns over its toxicity, and occasional bursts of anti-moderator sentiment culminated in a failed attempt by Jonathan in November 2020 to shut the server down, which was followed by it being spun off as a separate institution to MicroWiki with an independent moderation structure. Meanwhile, the traditional Old Guard — including some wiki admins — became inactive on MicroWiki@Discord or even left the server altogether, using the Micropolitan Club and Lounge instead.

Attitude to micronational warfare

Most of the MicroWiki community like the majority of micronational communities often criticise all or some aspects of micronational warfare, with some adopting official policies against the matter. No micronational warfare in the MicroWiki community has ever had any casualties or severe injuries. Most modern warfare consists of nerf battles, Discord raids or happens through gaming, and sometimes through air-soft or physical combat, which tends to be somewhat more acceptable in the community. Civil wars are often considered the most acceptable types of micronational warfare.