Lostpedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Lostpedia (Lost Wiki)
Image:Lostpedialogo.png
URL http://www.lostpedia.com/
Commercial? No
Type of site Reference / Wiki
Registration Required for editing
Owner Kevin Croy
Created by Communal
Launched September 22, 2005
Revenue Advertising
Current status Active

Lostpedia is a wiki powered online catalog of information regarding the ABC drama show Lost. Launched on September 22, 2005 by Kevin Croy,[1] the site uses MediaWiki software to maintain a user created database of information. The site licenses its content under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons license. The site's content is available for free to the public, and may be edited by anyone who registers to do so. Lostpedia is supported by revenue from advertising; the site has not made information regarding financial details public. As of February 15, 2007, the site contained an estimated 2,588 articles created and edited by the 10,108 registered users, with over 50 million page views.[2] Tom Lowry of Business Week called the site "a replica of online user-generated Wikipedia, that is dedicated solely to all things Lost."[3] David Kushner of Rolling Stone called the site "the best example of how an online community can complement a series."[4]

Contents

[edit] Subject matter

Lostpedia provides detailed episode synopses, character biographies, and other articles. The site's main page features an international episode airing schedule, recent news related to Lost, as well as a featured article of the week.

Examples of articles in Lostpedia include a compilation of appearances of the show's infamous 4-8-15-16-23-42 number sequence, a breakdown of the blast door map seen in the episode Lockdown, including translations of the Latin text, and documentation of what the Lost producers call "crosses": events in the show where characters cross paths with each other, often unknowingly. The site also features maps of locations in Lost, derived from the limited views visible in the TV show.

The site also includes information on the tie-ins associated with Lost, including Lost novels, the "Lost Experience", and other web content.

Lostpedia lists Lost related websites, which includes official websites affiliated with the show and its producers, websites used in the Lost Experience, fan sites and other unofficial sites. It also lists websites which appear to be official sites but are not.

Lostpedia added a discussion forum in July 2006.[5]

[edit] Facts and speculation

The Lost series has a complex and cryptic storyline which spawns numerous unresolved questions. Encouraged by Lost's writers and stars, who often interact with fans online, viewers and TV critics alike have taken to rampant theorization in an attempt to unravel the mysteries.

In order to remain a reputable source, Lostpedia follows a "theory policy",[6] which discriminates between canonical and non-canonical sources, and the various canonical sources are ranked to determine which supersedes which in the case of a contradiction. In each article, canonical facts are listed under a "Facts" heading, while speculation, provided it is logically consistent and not discredited or disproved, is listed under a "Theories" heading. Erroneous information is not permitted at all. From November 15, 2006 onwards, Lostpedia requires the theories to be on a separate sub-page.[7] Where speculation is the subject of the article, such as when covering a fan-made website, the entire page is clearly labeled as "fanon".

Spoilers and rumors about episodes that have not aired in North America are generally not allowed by the site in the main article pages, although there are designated spoiler pages where rumors are allowed to be included as long as they are marked as such. For example, the site does not allow the creation of pages with the rumored episodes names; such pages may only be created when an official announcement is made by ABC.[7]

[edit] Role in the "Lost Experience"

As part of the alternate reality game "The Lost Experience", which ran from April 24, 2006 to September 24, 2006, a series of images called "glyphs," were released on numerous websites and in physical locations in cities across the world. The glyphs, once entered into an in-game website, would unlock a short video clip. Lostpedia was chosen by the game producers to host the 42nd glyph.[8][9]

During the course of the game, Lostpedia was also mentioned on the official ABC show blog,[10] as well as its UK[11]and Australian equivalents.[12] A "DJ Dan" podcast also quoted an article from Lostpedia.[13][14]

Additionally during the game, Lostpedia was continually updated by its users to include the latest game clues and solutions as they were found.[15] In the aftermath of the game, Hi-ReS!, the company which designed all in-game websites for the Lost Experience, links to Lostpedia on its homepage as a detailed analysis of the franchise.[16]

[edit] Controversy

In September 2006, Lostpedia received some comment in the Stuttgart newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung.[17] In October 2006, Lostpedia was criticized for insufficiently crediting and providing copyright information on images. In response, the site began enforcing its policy to add copyright and licensing information for all images.[18][19] The site was additionally criticised for its lack of citation for which episodes certain points or quotes are from. Consequently, a cross-referencing template has begun to be enforced on Lostpedia articles.

[edit] International sites

Lostpedia has set up seven sister projects for non-English language contributions: German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Dutch and Polish.

The policy of not providing spoilers until an episode has aired extends to these sister projects, and is based on local air dates rather than the North American air dates. This is not the case in English speaking countries (UK, Ireland, Australia in particular) where they share the main site with North America. There are however spoiler warnings. The UK and Irish now see episodes within a week of US airing, which minimizes the impact of this.

[edit] Awards

Lostpedia was SciFi.com Site Of The Week on July 5, 2006.[20]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lostpedia entry on Official LOST wiki. Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
  2. ^ Lostpedia MediaWiki statistics page. Retrieved on February 10, 2007.
  3. ^ Tom Lowry. "Network Finds Marketing Paradise with Lost", Business Week, 2006-07-24. Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
  4. ^ David Kushner. "The Web's best, most obsessive sites for television's most addictive shows", Rolling Stone, p34, March 8, 2007.
  5. ^ Lostpedia Forum Launch Message. Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
  6. ^ Lostpedia: Theory Policy (2006-10-12). Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
  7. ^ a b Lostpedia: Theory Policy (2006-11-26). Retrieved on November 30, 2006.
  8. ^ http://www.lostpedia.com/RachelBlake/HACKALLBEER.JPG
  9. ^ http://au.blogs.yahoo.com/lostninja/7485/glyph-tastic Lost Ninja Official Blog confirming that Lostpedia was the location of glyph 42
  10. ^ ABC - Inside the Experience Blog. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
  11. ^ Channel 4 - The Other Girl Blog. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
  12. ^ Channel 7 - The Lost Ninja - A Conversation with Tom and Andy Pt. 1. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
  13. ^ Lostpedia : DJ Dan September 24, 2006 Live Podcast Transcript Part 1. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
  14. ^ Archive.org : DJ Dan September 24, 2006 Live Podcast MP3 recording. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
  15. ^ Ryan Singel. "Wonderful Wiki Sidebar", Wired News, 2006-09-07. Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
  16. ^ Hi-ReS! homepage, linking to Lostpedia.
  17. ^ Stuttgarter Zeitung.[1] (Sept. 11, 2006). Sieben Dinge, die man zum Start der zweiten Staffel der Mystery-Serie "Lost" wissen sollte (translation: Seven things which one should know for the start of the second relay of the Mystery series "Lost"). Radio and television section, page 14.
  18. ^ Lostpedia Use of Images Policy. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
  19. ^ Lostpedia Use of Images Article History. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
  20. ^ Ken Newquist. "Site Of The Week: July 5, 2006", SciFi.com, 2006-07-05. Retrieved on November 1, 2006.

[edit] External links


Lost
Production: DVD releases | Episode list | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Soundtrack
Main
characters:		 Ana Lucia | Ben | Boone | Charlie | Claire | Desmond | Hurley | Jack | Jin | Juliet | Kate
Libby | Locke | Michael | Mr. Eko | Nikki | Paulo | Sawyer | Sayid | Shannon | Sun | Walt
Supporting
characters:		 Alex | Bernard | Christian | Cindy | Ethan | The Others | Pickett | Rose | Rousseau | Tom
Organizations: DHARMA Initiative | Hanso Foundation | Oceanic Airlines
Elements: Crossover list | DHARMA Initiative stations | Flight 815 | Mythology | Thematic motifs
Miscellaneous: Gary Troup | In popular culture | Lost Experience | Rachel Blake | Video game
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../l/o/s/Lostpedia.html"