About

The Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance (NIWA) revolution began in January 2010 when Zelda Wiki.org approached Bulbapedia seeking affiliation. For some time both wikis had been considering something more than just affiliation and a network of independent wikis was suggested. The proposition was agreed upon, and after contacting Super Mario Wiki to get on board, the staff of the three wikis collaborated together to create NIWA, a collaboration of independently owned Nintendo-orientated wikis. After a month of planning, NIWA was launched on February 14 2010. From amongst all of the hype of NIWA's founding arose the creation of WiKirby and Metroid Wiki, who later joined NIWA on May 21 and May 28 2010 respectively. Wars Wiki came on board one week later.

What the three founding wikis had in common was a mutual disdain for the recent corporatization of wikis. Over the past few years it has become increasingly difficult for fan wikis to operate in the shadow of large companies like Wikia. Any independent wiki that finds itself with an ounce of success will promptly receive offers to be bought out by organizations that cannot stand competition. The offers come with promises of increased viewership, free hosting and increased revenue.

Operating wikis is both time consuming and expensive, and small wikis cannot be blamed for accepting such offers. What is often not realised until after the wikis are bought out is exactly how many of these corporations operate. They find their wikis overrun by advertising, and while large revenue is pulled in, the people doing the day-to-day work on the wikis see very little of it while the corporations take the bulk. Not only that, but the wikis lose their identities. They are no longer unique as they have to adapt the policies and regulations of the corporation. Corporations who care very little for the wiki’s fans and the subject of the wiki for that matter.

Independent wikis who refuse to be bought out find themselves receiving constant abuse from their corporate counterparts. Whether it is vandalising edits at the individual wikis, threatening messages or attempted hacks, independent wikis do not receive it easy. At NIWA we are appalled by this trend, and we seek to change it. NIWA is here to aid independent Nintendo wikis, to nurture them and help them grow so that never will they have to sell out. NIWA is here to support Nintendo Wikis without compromising them. Here at NIWA, we believe that wikis should be run by the fans, for the fans and with the fans. By people with emotional investments, not people with solely financial interests.

You may be wondering how we can be against corporatization when we ourselves are an organization. The simple difference is this: NIWA is here to help wikis where they need it, not by taking control of them and enforcing policies. All of the NIWA wikis are separately owned, operated and hosted. They differ in policies and maintain their unique designs, values and traditions. Wikis are not bound to any contract and most importantly, we are not-for-profit. The only profit for us is to provide you with the best collection of Nintendo based information available on the internet.

Finally, as Nintendo is a Japanese based company, you will find that our name, NIWA, in Japanese means ‘garden’. We take this to fittingly refer to us as a garden of wikis. A peaceful collaboration. This idea was the inspiration behind our logo which includes the Hiragana, a type of Japanese writing, for the word NIWA.

If you would like more information on NIWA please contact us.