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Thursday, August 07, 2008

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Jul 4

Written by: John Jackson Miller
7/4/2006 12:00 AM

One of the things that's changed just in the few years that I've been writing comics professionally is the rise of Wikipedia and other Wiki-based sites.

Crafted as non-profit sites by hobbyists, they catalog an amazing amount of information. Not always correctly, as observed John Siegenthaler (who visited my newsroom at the University of Tennessee Daily Beacon while I was editor years ago) in his much-publicized conflict with the main Wikipedia site over his entry. In general, though, the more different people are involved with a site, the more reliable the material tends to be. I think the main Wikipedia may be on its way to becoming a new kind of Internet search engine, given all the links that are on there.

It's been interesting to find my comics writing documented on these sites -- and surprising to realize that there's more than one Wiki project tackling any given project. The one I probably get the most traffic from lately is Wookieepedia, where there's quite a lot of information about the Knights of the Old Republic series -- even cataloging names only mentioned once here or there in passing.

Of course, approaching these things as the author, you get a whole different experience. The facts are whatever they are as of the current issue -- so there are a number of occasions where the info online is ultimately incorrect, but correct to the best of the posters' knowledge. It's wrong, but it's not wrong "yet," so to speak.

To take a recent example: "Perero" was never Camper's real name -- nor did it mean father, even though the word has that ring to it. But I wanted to misdirect readers into thinking he might be Jarael's father or grandfather, at least until #5 -- so if there was any misperception out there, it was absolutely my purposeful doing! And I may not be done with his name yet!

Which raises the question: How much of what's in, say, Wookieepedia now about my published work is incorrect by my own design? The answer: Some -- but I can't say what things. That's as it should be. As long as there are mysteries yet unresolved, Wikifolk, wherever, will want to hedge their statements when it's wise, to put it alliteratively. (And most do note when something is speculation, I've found.)

Looking at these sites also gives me an idea when something needs clarification. On seeing traffic from a Wookieepedia page on the Jedi's digs on Taris, I realized I'd never stamped an official name on the building in the series. Interestingly, though, while I can and do clarify such things now and again (in this case, for example, I personally refer to the building as the Jedi Tower -- the Jedi Temple referring to the room on the top floor), it often doesn't impact the Wikian definition unless and until the clarification appears in the comics themselves. That seems to be how it works, anyway.

The result is a kind of interesting dance. I learn from fans what they need clarification about -- and, if it's something that fits with what I'm doing in the series, that can result in a line like, "Oh, yeah, the Jedi Tower with the Jedi Temple on the top floor" somewhere down the line. I'm generally not into the thought that serial fiction is a collaboration with the readers -- there does need to be a distinction between storyteller and audience -- but this is one case where it seems to work out...

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© 2008 by John Jackson Miller