Harry Potter Wiki

The Harry Potter Wiki is an online encyclopaedia for information on J. K. Rowling's Wizarding World — including information on all the Harry Potter novels, films, and video games, and all the expanded universe, including but not limited to, , , and the Fantastic Beasts series.
It uses the wiki model, which means it is a fan-made collaborative effort, and is hosted by Fandom, Inc. (formerly known as Wikia, Inc.) on the MediaWiki software. It is written almost entirely from an in-universe perspective. With articles as of , it is one among Wikia's Big (English-language) Communities."Big wikis". Community Central. Wikia. Retrieved 22 December, 2018.
Harry Potter Wiki was launched on 5 July 2005 by Vostok.
==Overview==
===Canon policy===
Unlike what happens in some other fandoms with multiple "official" works or original media, most notably Star Trek and Star Wars, what constitutes canon within the Harry Potter franchise has never been officially defined. Though it is widely accepted in the Harry Potter fandom that the seven original novels take canonical precedence, the opinions of fans on the canonicity of other "official" materials (such as , the Fantastic Beasts series, or even the author's Twitter revelations) differ, at times significantly.
The Harry Potter Wiki, starting in 2007 when it defined the wiki's canon policy, has employed a novel approach to canon by assigning different levels of canonicity to different media. This "canon tier" system regards the novels and sources that come from J. K. Rowling herself as the highest forms of canon; information from the films is regarded as canon only provided it does not conflict with the books (video games and other officially licenced material is placed on a third tier, below the films)."Canon policy". Harry Potter Wiki. Wikia. Retrieved 13 December, 2018. This approach contrasts with another prevalent attitude towards canon in the Harry Potter fandom, which is the Harry Potter Lexicon approach: basically put, it has been the Lexicon's policy ever since it was created in 1999 to consider that canon consists only of the things J. K. Rowling has said or written: ergo, any information that comes solely from the films or video games is automatically non-canon and disregarded.Vander Ark, Steve. "Harry Potter Canon and other Sources". The Harry Potter Lexicon. Retrieved 13 December, 2018.
It has been noted that the fundamental difference between these two approaches are shift in the burden of proof, that is, the Lexicon expects details from the films to have to be proved canon, while the Wiki says they have to be proved not canon."Canon". TV Tropes. Retrieved 13 December, 2018. The Harry Potter Wiki will, thus, present some facts, histories, and even entire characters that did not appear in the Harry Potter books as canon.
===Stewardship===
The Harry Potter Wiki is a collaborative effort so that anyone can register and edit its contents.
Very much like the Wikipedia model, editors in good standing in the community can run for volunteer stewardship: this begins with Administrators (alternatively called sysops), users who have access to additional technical features that allow them to delete pages, prevent articles from being changed in case of vandalism or editorial disputes, and try to prevent certain persons from editing. Despite the name, administrators do not enjoy any special privilege in decision-making."Administrators". Harry Potter Wiki. Wikia. Retrieved 22 December, 2018."Administrators". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 22 December, 2018."RfA_Review/Reflect". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 22 December, 2018.
Bureaucrats name new administrators, solely upon the recommendations from the community."Bureaucrats". Harry Potter Wiki. Wikia. Retrieved 22 December, 2018.
Other more minor stewardship roles include Rollbacks (who can more easily revert vandalism and bad-faith edits), Content Moderators, Discussions Moderators, and Chat Moderators.
==Notes and references==
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