Encyclopedia Westarctica
Encyclopedia Westarctica is the definitive, officially authorized, source for information about the micronation Westarctica.
The encyclopedia was created on 12 March 2018.
Impetus for creation
War for Wikipedia
For many years, there was an article about Westarctica featured on the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia. However, a sad, pathetic gang of bottom-feeding thugs saw fit to make the article the target of their wrath. Because these people have no actual value as human beings (outside of creating flame wars on Wikipedia talk pages) they expended considerable time and energy attempting to get the Wikipedia article on Westarctica deleted from the site in its entirety.
The primary bullies and instigators of the deletion process were users:
- Bromley86
- Power~enwiki
- Deathlibrarian
Although the Westarctica article had been under assault since the first day it was created on Wikipedia, in July 2017, the attacks against the article increased dramatically and became especially vile. It is unknown what happened in the personal lives of these three users during this time to turn them into such bitter, pedantic, grotesque mutations with no regard for civility or human decency, but none of Westarctica's defenders were able to stand up to their unrelenting assault--not on Westarctica's legitimacy as a nation--but on the right of the human race to have the word "Westarctica" included in its bank of collective knowledge. Their position was that Westarctica is entirely un-notable and would never possibly be of interest to anyone.
Defenders of the article, heroes such as user Dolberty and Vyacheslav84, provided dozens of sources from newspapers (The Independent, The Japan Times, The Washington Post), magazines (Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post, The Week), and books from publishers (Lonely Planet) around the world. Every single one of these sources were dismissed with ignorant comments such as: "There's no independent coverage of this at all."
Then came the sad day on 22 July 2017 when it was announced in a micronations group on Facebook that Westarctica had fallen prey to the vultures of Wikipedia. Westarctica's existence on the "free encyclopedia anyone can edit" was erased from history with the simple words:
The result was delete. Sandstein 20:20, 22 July 2017 (UTC)
After years of struggle, the War for Wikipedia was lost. And all the while, less notable micronations with far less international press coverage, continue to have their articles unmolested by the foul coprophages mentioned above.
Aftermath and creation of Encyclopedia Westarctica
Despite having stayed far from the battle lines during the edit/revert war raging on Wikipedia, Grand Duke Travis took a concerned interest in the lack of discretion being displayed by the team dedicated to deleting Westarctica's entry. When the news finally broke that the article's deletion would be permanent, His Royal Highness clenched his fists and remarked: "Screw Wikipedia! I'll make my own Wikipedia, that'll show 'em!"
However, with limited technical knowledge and almost no experience editing or creating articles in the Wiki format, the Grand Duke was unable to move forward with his plan immediately. It took several months of exhaustive research and help from a team of technical experts to set up a dedicated server, load the MediaWiki software, and create the Wiki you see before you today.
Mission
The primary goals of Encyclopedia Westarctica are:
- Answer any question that could possibly be asked about Westarctica: especially its people, places, and mission.
- Provide a definitive chronicle of Westarctica's history for use by researchers and historians.
- Digitally preserve all available information about Westarctica from primary and secondary sources.
Milestones
Firsts
- The first article, the country article for Westarctica itself, was sourced from MicroWiki and edited by Grand Duke Travis, under the username User:Westarctica on 12 March 2018.
- The first picture was uploaded three days later on 15 March 2018 and was the Flag of Westarctica.
- The first completed article with no broken page links was the article on James Eights which was finished on 20 March 2018.
- The first main page featured article was Peter I Island on 13 March 2018.
- The first main page featured photograph was a picture of Grand Duke Travis and President Kevin Baugh on Hollywood Boulevard taken by photographer Matt Roth.
Records
- The 100th article was on emperor penguins and was created on 27 March 2018.