Heroes Wiki was a fan wiki for NBC's science fiction drama Heroes. The site used MediaWiki software and launched on October 10, 2006.[1][2] Heroes Wiki was supported by revenue from advertising, part of which was donated to various charities.[3][4] As of June 28, 2010, the site contained over 5,500 articles created and edited by approximately 9,400 registered users, with over 157 million page views.[5]

Heroes Wiki
Heroes Wiki's main page
Type of site
TV series fan wiki
Available in10 languages
Created byCommunal
RevenueAdvertising
URLhttp://heroeswiki.com
CommercialNo
RegistrationRequired for editing
LaunchedOctober 10, 2006
Current statusDefunct

On October 18, 2008, Heroes Wiki announced that it had officially partnered with NBC. NBC now directs those interested in a wiki on Heroes to Heroes Wiki, and directly funds the site in exchange for on-site advertisements.[6] The site was closed on June 1, 2020, due to low traffic rendering it unsustainable,[7] but an archived copy has been made available online.[8]

Overview

edit

Heroes Wiki was launched on October 10, 2006, several weeks after Heroes premiered in North America. Content includes articles on episodes, characters, cast and crew, cultural references, along with interviews with members of the Heroes cast and crew.[9] Episode spoilers and user-contributed theories was permitted on certain areas within the wiki.[10][11] The site's main page featured upcoming Heroes events and news, and links to articles summarizing the latest Heroes episode and online content. There are also links to Heroes-related websites, including official websites affiliated with the show and its producers, websites used in Heroes Evolutions, and unofficial fan sites. On September 18, 2008, the site became WAP-enabled for cell phones and other mobile devices.[12]

The site also established nine projects containing translations of the main English language version of the wiki: Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.[13]

When Heroes Wiki began its partnership with NBC in October 2008, links were added pointing to Heroes Wiki on NBC's Heroes and Heroes Evolutions sites.[14] NBC also discontinued promoting its own wiki for Heroes, instead redirecting readers to Heroes Wiki through links at the top of related pages.[15] In December 2008, the wiki was also referenced in several segments of NBC's Heroes Insider Interactive SMS, which uses text messaging to send facts, pose trivia questions, and conduct polling during the airing of episodes of the show.[16][17]

Role in Heroes Evolutions

edit

As part of the alternate reality game in Heroes Evolutions, a mysterious Heroes character known only as Dropper Evs Dropper Archived 2020-05-15 at the Wayback Machine answered a number of fan-submitted questions posed by e-mail by Heroes Wiki administrator Gibson Stewart Ryan Gibson Stewart Archived 2020-05-15 at the Wayback Machine. The interview was posted at Heroes Wiki on July 24, 2008.[18]

Reception

edit

Beyond its partnership with NBC, Heroes Wiki had been recognized by other media outlets, including New York Magazine,[19] the New York Times,[20] and E! Online.[21] Washington Times writer Joseph Szadkowski notes that the site is "obviously created by some very hard-core fans." He describes Heroes Wiki as a "dense online encyclopedia [that] offers more than 1,600 entries on the show's mythology."[22]

Content about Heroes cast and crew members had also been referenced elsewhere, including interviews with actor Kyson Lee James Kyson Lee[permanent dead link] (Comic Book Resources[23]), senior producer Tolerico Joe Tolerico Archived 2020-05-16 at the Wayback Machine (BuddyTV[24]), and the team behind the "Root and Branch" graphic novels (Comic Book Resources[25]).

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "About Heroes Wiki". Heroes Wiki. Archived from the original on 2009-02-03. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
  2. ^ Booth, Paul (January 2009). "Narractivity and the Narrative Database: Media-based Wikis as Interactive Fan Fiction". Narrative Inquiry. 19 (2): 372–392. doi:10.1075/ni.19.2.09boo.
  3. ^ "Heroes Wiki Advertising". Heroes Wiki. Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
  4. ^ "Heroes Wiki Revenue". Heroes Wiki. Archived from the original on 2012-10-22. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
  5. ^ "Heroes Wiki MediaWiki statistics page". Heroes Wiki. Archived from the original on 2010-10-09. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  6. ^ "Heroes Wiki Community Portal". Heroes Wiki. Archived from the original on 2009-12-30. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
  7. ^ "User:Admin/Goodbye". Heroes Wiki. Archived from the original on 31 May 2020. Retrieved 2020-02-03.
  8. ^ heroeswiki.ddns.net XML full dump clone
  9. ^ "Heroes Wiki Interviews". Heroes Wiki. Archived from the original on 2009-02-03. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
  10. ^ Heroes Wiki Theories Help, Heroes Wiki, archived from the original on 2009-02-09, retrieved 2009-02-03
  11. ^ Heroes Wiki Spoilers Help, Heroes Wiki, archived from the original on 2009-02-10, retrieved 2009-02-03
  12. ^ "wap.heroeswiki.com".
  13. ^ "Heroes Wiki Languages". Heroes Wiki. Archived from the original on 2009-01-21. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
  14. ^ "NBC Heroes News - HEROES WIKI". NBC. Archived from the original on 2009-02-27. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  15. ^ "9th Wonders! Heroes forum". Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  16. ^ Heroes Insider Interactive SMS Archived 2008-07-30 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Heroes Interactive:The Eclipse, Part 2, Heroes Wiki, archived from the original on 2009-02-07, retrieved 2009-02-03
  18. ^ "Heroes Wiki Interview with Evs Dropper". Heroes Wiki. Archived from the original on 2009-02-13. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
  19. ^ "'Heroes': The Return of Mohinder's Theme-o-Matic Voice-over! Oh, and the Petrellis Blow Up". New York Magazine. 22 May 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-04-02. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  20. ^ Heffernan, Virginia (2008-01-20). "The Medium - Art in the Age of Franchising". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2008-12-11. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  21. ^ "Heroes Redux: That Did Not Just Happen--Right?". E! Online. 2 December 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-12-17. Retrieved 2009-02-05.
  22. ^ "A place to find 'Heroes'". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on 2008-05-31. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  23. ^ "Watchmen, Speed Racer, Incredible Hulk: August 27th Comic Reel Wrap". Comic Book Resources. 27 August 2007. Archived from the original on 2012-10-07. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  24. ^ "Heroes: NBC Producer Talks About "Heroes Evolutions"". BuddyTV. 21 January 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-04-19. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  25. ^ "CBR News - Catwoman 2, Punisher: War Zone, Transformers 2: July 30 Comic Reel". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
edit