Why did the wiki move from Miraheze to it's own website?

The Wiki
1

I was an user on the wiki a few years ago when it was on Miraheze. It was actually pretty easy for me to edit it, and I enjoyed making new location pages. It was pretty tolerable for a while, even though the server of the wiki was wildly toxic, with incidents like people using racist words and slurs. Thankfully, I never joined the server (though IDK if the issues are gone now). Fun fact here, the wiki actually used to be named “Chuck E. Pedia”, though it was changed to Cheese E. Pedia to distance itself from the toxic drama and give it a better image.

However, I realized that the wiki moved in late 2024 to an entirely new wiki software on it’s own host. I have no complaints with the wiki being self-hosted because other wikis like the Minecraft Wiki have done that, but I am not a fan of the new software they’ve been using. It’s been quite harder to edit than before, and I never understood what was the need to move from MediaWiki.

I’m also more surprised that there was no community vote on whether or not the wiki should be moved, and/or what wiki host/software it should be on. Like, the Minecraft Wiki did than when they were moving from Fandom to another host just to see if the community would like it. CEP didn’t do any of that at all. Feels like this decision was just one-sided, and only made by the staff without considering the opinions and thoughts of the editors.

I think that MediaWiki is a better wiki software in my opinion, as clearly it’s easier to use than this website and especially for newcomers. Also, unlike this wiki (though IDK if it still happens), it automatically changes the editors list in addition to the date. Also, if wikis did the same movement that CEP did, it would be a total nightmare to migrate, but also possibly maintain as well. I did realize the old wiki is completely gone now.

However, if you are to explain good reasons why it moved, and/or why the new wiki is better than the old one, you are free to talk to me down below. This will also sort of act like a CMV, and you must prove to me why the wiki is better than it was before. For now, I edit on CEC University on Miraheze, which still uses MediaWiki. But my reasoning may not be entirely correct or logically flawed. So, you can explain why the wiki needed to move, even if it was one-sided, and whether or not this current wiki is better than the old one on Miraheze. Thank you.

2 Likes
2

I’m not 100% sure on every reason of why the Wiki moved, but from what I know, The main reason was that The 64th Gamer wanted to have Cheese E Pedia be open source, easy to back up (Since Cheese E Pedia had previously had all of it’s content lost by Miraheze in 2022; Which was thankfully later recovered), & to have more control over Cheese E Pedia’s design.

I do Agree that Miraheze was easier to use, and the current editor is currently being redesigned to work better on the site itself. I think the way Article Editing is now is probably because Cheese E Pedia has a pretty poor reputation for low quality articles.

3

Yeah early on the wiki move was for open-source and because Miraheze as a platform has great intentions but a flawed staff system.

I never went back because I began to realize I could start shaping the site into exactly what I wanted it to be. It took a very very long time but the underlying structure of articles are unrecognizable to what they were the first time we moved. The new format lets a lot of automation to be done- but only on my local PC, and that the main site is still fully static, keeping costs down. Mediawiki would cost me more to host. I’ve always wanted de-duplication of data especially when this wiki plans on archiving thousands of photos, videos, and articles. The fact you can tag a photo with what appears in it and that will have it appear in all those galleries are great. Same with tagging pages with their arcades/stages and it auto building a table/list.

The site is also extremely modular, so if people want to completely change how the data is compiled or displayed they can add a whole new section without messing up the current one. The new editor works that way by being /v=cep-editor instead of /v=cep-js.

Its been a rough journey and I’ve lost editors over it, and only by this point am I getting satisfied with both the wiki and these forums being integrated with it.

…even though the server of the wiki was wildly toxic, with incidents like people using racist words and slurs. Thankfully, I never joined the server (though IDK if the issues are gone now).

Every server has incidents of people being stupid and having to be banned, I don’t see how that’s not literally every server. Especially once I banned all the teenagers it got extremely chill. Either way that server doesn’t exist anymore I left months ago cause its too hard to moderate live chat.

That’s why I prefer these forums, people don’t act stupid when the chat isn’t live and your posts live on it forever. There’s technically a live chat here but its 18+ cause again teenagers will act stupid on there.

Fun fact here, the wiki actually used to be named “Chuck E. Pedia”, though it was changed to Cheese E. Pedia to distance itself from the toxic drama and give it a better image.

No? It was changed because Reel to Real got nuked and I was worried CEC would go after the wiki for trademark use next. I don’t know how a change like that would even distance us, I deliberately picked the closest name I could to not confuse people and keep the acronym the same.

I’m also more surprised that there was no community vote on whether or not the wiki should be moved… Feels like this decision was just one-sided, and only made by the staff without considering the opinions and thoughts of the editors.

Because there is no staff, its just me. I wanted the wiki to move. The article information has always been freely available, if people wanted to rehost it under Mediawiki they could go do that. And they did, CEC University early on just copied over CEP articles. Because I did that move the community now has 2 options instead of 1. I get to keep working on my website while they continue using Mediawiki and working the site around how that functions.

I have always been open to community feedback and a lot of this site is built around that, but that move was non-negotiable. Regardless, people continue editing the site. New people will join who never knew we were on Mediawiki. I’m in this for the LONG long run, hopefully some decades. Its important to make drastic stuff like that happen early.

Also, if wikis did the same movement that CEP did, it would be a total nightmare to migrate

Yeah and you come out the other end hopefully a better place and you learn a lot from it. Some wiki formats are perfect for Mediawiki, some aren’t. You use the right tool for the job, especially if its gonna be around for a long time.

It’s been quite harder to edit than before.

That depends entirely on if you used the Decap editor, the GitHub editor, or the brand new editor that uses your Forum account. I think that has in the past been the worst part of using the site but this new editor has been the most commits I’ve ever had to ingest daily since its implementation.

This will also sort of act like a CMV, and you must prove to me why the wiki is better than it was before.

I don’t have to prove anything, if you wanna stay on CEC University go do that. Or edit both.

1 Like
4

Let me guess a few other reasons why it moved:

  1. More control and autonomy, rather than relying on someone else?
  2. (Apparently) more lightweight and less lag?
  3. Anyone can use the wiki even without Wi-Fi or with poor internet connections?
  4. More customization and features that Miraheze doesn’t have or would be impossible to have on there?
5

Basically. The using without Wi-Fi thing still requires you to understand how to locally run a website from your filesystem if you download it, its more so people can rehost the site if I die or if they disagree with my changes and want to branch off using the same articles/systems.