The Ratchet & Clank Wiki is an online wiki compendium about the Ratchet & Clank series. It consists of articles and other content created by a collaborative community whose aim is to curate accurate and comprehensive content for Ratchet & Clank fans.
Structure and functionality[]
The Ratchet & Clank Wiki's content (articles, pictures, etc.) is added by its editors. By virtue of being a wiki, any visitor can become an editor. While some visitors create an account to edit, it is not required and some do not (however it is free and easy and comes with several benefits). All content is created, revised, and monitored in accordance with the site's policies and guidelines and scope to ensure they are up to standard in quality, reliability, and encyclopedic value.
The site is managed by a group of contributors known as administrators, who have the ability to delete and undelete pages, protect pages, rollback edits, block users, and edit the site's interface pages (see Project:Administrators for more information).
All decisions are made according to or with respect for consensus, determined by discussion among editors (usually via talk pages, discussion boards, or a dedicated chat room). Not the status of the contributor to the discussion nor the number of votes on a particular issue determine consensus—rather, the cogency of the presented arguments win out through a process of concession and good faith. However, regardless of any consensus, the dependence upon reliable sources to maintain the integrity of the site remains invariably paramount.
History[]
The Ratchet & Clank Wiki was founded February 21, 2006 by Thai420, who effectively abandoned the wiki after a year of formative contributions. While the next few years saw the addition and removal of numerous users to the administrative team, Hunterj arrived in November 2007, and was promoted to administrator and bureaucrat almost a year later after substantial contributions.
Hunterj remained the most involved administrator for nearly the next eight years, seeing many administrators come and go over the years, with the notable exception of Torta de Limão, who was promoted in November 2012 after a successful community nomination. Eventually, both Hunterj and Torta de Limão reached technical inactivity, and thus on June 12, 2015, DrNefarious successfully adopted the wiki and proceeded to make changes alongside his newly appointed administrator PapiDimmi.
PapiDimmi made sweeping changes across the wiki, attracting the attention of the administrative team of the Jak and Daxter Wiki. A brief stint in off-wiki collaboration resulted in the transition of administrative duties to the Jak and Daxter admins, alongside the adoptive bureaucrat and returned active admin Torta de Limão.
The current administrative team now consists of Neffyarious (DrNefarious), Tim H, Technobliterator, Thatawesomecat, and Roberad, the latter three of whom initiated the revamp project, the first concerted wiki-wide overhaul to replace the wiki's content (paralleling the Jak and Daxter Wiki which had just successfully undergone the same process).
Scope[]
While the Ratchet & Clank Wiki aims to be a comprehensive resource for Ratchet & Clank fans, it does not devote coverage to everything conceivably related to the Ratchet & Clank series. On the contrary, it primarily focuses on the canon and gameplay of the series, with everything else required to supplement such a focus. As such, it does not cover:
- Real-world biographies about people involved with the creation of the series (as a sufficiently comprehensive article dedicated to them would exceed their involvement with Ratchet & Clank).
- Cut content, except that which supplements canonical material (such as unused dialogue), or is directly relevant to used content (e.g. unused variations of a used element).
- Articles otherwise entirely dedicated to "behind the scenes" information, or information related to franchises which feature Ratchet & Clank elements but are not installments to the Ratchet & Clank series.
- Content that is unverifiable against canonical material.
- Articles whose topics are not sufficiently notable (unique or distinctly relevant to the Ratchet & Clank series).
What the Ratchet & Clank Wiki is not...[]
As a site whose stated goal is to be a comprehensive resource for Ratchet & Clank "fans", it is possible to misconstrue the means to that end. The Ratchet & Clank Wiki is not:
- Content
- A place for discussion concerning the games or topics therein that are not relevant to the improvement of the wiki itself (e.g. theories, speculation, requests for help with the games, etc.) These things may be discussed elsewhere, such as on a relevant subreddit.
- An indiscriminate collection of information. Content must have practical and encyclopedic value. Merely being true is not enough to be included on the wiki (see § Scope).
- Censored. The Ratchet & Clank series' target demographic is 13 and above, as is the wiki's. Therefore, there may be potentially offensive content that will not be censored.
- Spoiler-protected. It should be a basic expectation that an encyclopedic site about a topic will have spoilers about it.
- Community
- An experiment in democracy. While straw polls can be helpful in determining consensus, they themselves do not establish consensus. Majority rule leads to unresolved discussions and weakly established consensus not sustainable under future scrutiny.
- A bureaucracy. The wiki does not have formal, rigid processes for the establishment of new rules or procedures. Instead, it is governed by an organic and dynamic body of consensus established through discussion, and enforced only where intervention is necessary.
- Compulsory. Do not make the mistake of taking things too seriously. Remember, editing is not required.
See also[]
- Project:Policies and guidelines, the wiki's main source for established consensus.
- Project:Administrators, for more information on the wiki's administration.