MicroWiki forums
 | |
 Screenshot of the homepage, August 2013. The homepage layout remained largely unchanged for the entire forums' existence. | |
Type of site | Internet forum |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Dissolved | 9 January 2021 |
| Owner | MicroWiki administration Charles Ross (last head forum administrator) |
| Website | forum.micronations.wiki [archived] |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Required (for posting) |
| Users | 1,543 (5 December 2020) |
| Launched | 22 December 2010 |
| Current status | Defunct |
The MicroWiki forums – formerly the MicroWiki Forum (2010–2013; acronym: TMF 'The MicroWiki Forum') and the Micronation.org Forum (2013–2016) for branding purposes – was the official online discussion forum for MicroWiki.
Launched on 22 December 2010, the MicroWiki forums quickly became the principal means of communication amongst members of the MicroWiki community. In December 2012, the MicroWiki forums had 60,000 posts from 3,000 threads, with 100 posts being made daily. On 7 November 2013, the MicroWiki forums moved to forum.micronation.org to coincide with MicroWiki's domain move, however it consequently led to all posts and threads being deleted. The MicroWiki forums later moved to forum.micronations.wiki on 20 October 2016, again coinciding with MicroWiki's domain move. In March 2017, the MicroWiki forums had 50,000 posts from 3,200 threads, and 659 registered members. In May 2017, activity levels on the MicroWiki forums began dropping, reaching an all-time low in September. After MicroWiki@Discord was launched in September 2018, the MicroWiki forums remained largely inactive. An unsuccessful attempt at revitalising the MicroWiki forums was made in 2020. On 9 January 2021 – after nearly four years of inactivity – the MicroWiki forums were disestablished.
Structure
History
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As the 2010s began, "talk page diplomacy" – discussions held on the Talk: namespace on MicroWiki – began to be replaced as the principal means of communication and diplomacy between members of MicroWiki community by discussion forums. By August 2010, the OAM forums, as well as minor chatrooms on Skype, had fully succeeded talk page diplomacy. The MicroWiki forums were unveiled on 22 December, originally located at microwiki.org.uk/forum, to rival the OAM forums and become the central point of communication between the MicroWiki community. This coincided with the declining influence of the OAM, during which users were directed to the MicroWiki forums instead, eventually succeeding this goal. On 10 October 2011, the MicroWiki forums reached its 30,000th post – averaging over 102 per day – from over 1,455 threads. It had 233 registered users. At the time the most popular thread was "Microball" with 11,700 views, followed by "Salutations and greetings!" with 10,216 views and "Stereotypes of micronations" with 4,659 views. The most popular forum was Diplomacy and antiquity with 4,000 posts and 197 threads. On 2 December, 35,788 posts on 1,735 threads had been made.
On 20 February 2012, Aldrich Lucas, a highly influential micronationalist, vandalised the MicroWiki forums after being stripped of his administrator role and having his account deleted from MicroWiki. This resulted in him being permanently banned. On 28 December 2012, 58,970 posts on 2,911 threads had been made, and on 7 November 2013 the MicroWiki forums moved to forum.micronation.org to coincide with MicroWiki's domain move. The domain move consequently led to all posts and threads being deleted. On 19 January 2014, the MicroWiki forums had 2,029 posts – averaging 28.01 per day – from 208 threads. It had 148 registered members. The most popular thread was "Which do you prefer?" with 5,182 views, followed by "Conlang discussion" with 1,371 views and "What are you listening to?" with 1,119 views. The most popular forum was Café Reinhardt with 695 posts and 18 threads. On 2 November, the MicroWiki forums had 5,910 posts – averaging 16.32 per day – from 542 threads, and had 353 registered members. The most popular thread was "Which do you prefer?" with 62,238 views, followed by "How to start your own micronation? A short guide for beginners!" with 9,535 views and "Organization of United Emerging States" with 7,503 views. The most popular forum was Café Reinhardt with 1,785 posts and 34 threads.
On 2 January 2015, the MicroWiki forums had 7,532 posts from 626 threads, and 387 registered members. In October, concern over community cohesion grew as the users of MicroWiki almost completely separated into a primarily left-wing faction mainly using the MicroWiki forums and a primarily right-wing faction mainly using the traditional MicroWiki-focused Skype rooms. The MicroWiki forums had 23,604 posts from 1,522 threads on 5 January 2016, as well as 528 registered members. On 20 April 2016, the MicroWiki forums had 27,845 posts – averaging 31.1 per day – from 1,810 threads. It had 551 registered members. The most popular thread remained "Which do you prefer?" with 413,737 views, followed by "Microball… blog" with 72,234 views and "Need a wiki account?" with 59,290 views. The most popular forum was Café Reinhardt with 5,066 posts and 83 threads. On 20 October 2016, the MicroWiki forums moved to forum.micronations.wiki, again coinciding with MicroWiki's domain move. On 3 March 2017, the MicroWiki forums had 49,385 posts from 3,187 threads, and 659 registered members.
Stagnation and dissolution
In May 2017, activity levels on the MicroWiki forums began dropping, reaching an all-time low in September. After MicroWiki@Discord was launched in September 2018 and activity in the community recovered, the MicroWiki forums remained largely inactive. On 9 January 2019, the forums had 59,759 posts from 4,183 threads, and 888 registered members. In 2020, there was an unsuccessful attempt at revitalising the MicroWiki forums as an alternative to MicroWiki@Discord. On 5 December 2020, the forums had 59,206 posts – averaging 3.18 per day – from 4,407 threads, and 1,543 registered members. The most popular threads remained the same since 2016: "Which do you prefer?" with 1,429,198 views, followed by "Microball… blog" with 261,227 views and "Need a wiki account?" with 187,510 views. The most popular forum was General discussion with 9,664 posts and 789 threads. On 9 January 2021, MicroWiki moved to a new server provider for better uptime, while the domain forum.micronations.wiki was not moved. According to Karl Friedrich, the head technical administrator of MicroWiki, "nobody noticed" until mid-January, at which point it was agreed by the community that the MicroWiki forums were no longer needed.