Neither could be easy. The Sexypedia had withstood different makes an attempt to take away the location, together with one by its unique proprietor after they left. Fandom acquired a number of takedown requests, however group members pointed the finger at a YouTube video created by Trig Jegman, a volunteer employees member of a number of different Fandom wikis.
The video, which has acquired about 3,000 views, advisable Sexypedia be deleted for “outright sexual in content material protection.” The video additionally claimed lots of of different databases violated Fandom’s insurance policies. “The choice so as to add Sexypedia [to the list] was not performed out of non-public hatred or deliberate concentrating on,” Jegman says.
The studies led to an inner dialogue for Fandom, which will need to have determined Sexypedia was too inherently sexual to be allowed. As soon as the choice was made, the location was taken down with no session or warning given to the location’s employees, who had thought they had been in compliance.
“Our wiki contained no express content material and was strictly PG-13,” says Lee, who had owned and maintained Sexypedia since 2021. (Lee declined to offer their final identify, citing privateness considerations.) “[Fandom’s] purpose would not make sense, until they only noticed the phrase ‘intercourse’ within the title.”
In contrast to the Wikimedia Basis, which hosts Wikipedia, Fandom is a for-profit firm, owned since 2018 by enterprise capitalist Jonathan Miller’s Built-in Media Firm. Lately, various fan wikis have elected to create new databases unaffiliated with Fandom moderately than cope with the corporate’s shifting practices and insurance policies. Final yr, customers and employees of the big Minecraft Wiki voted to depart Fandom, saying the corporate had been “prioritizing its personal pursuits and engagement over these of wiki communities.” (Fandom declined to supply touch upon the file for this story.)
The Sexypedia staff didn’t have these considerations. “We ran wonderful with no problem for years, even having Fandom employees assist us with issues,” says Lee. Nonetheless, on October 30, when mods requested why the wiki had disappeared, Fandom responded to their help request by saying it violated the corporate’s Phrases of Use and Neighborhood Creation insurance policies, successfully denying their enchantment to reopen the location. As per coverage, although, Fandom permitted the employees to archive the wiki’s information, so it may very well be restored elsewhere.
The day Fandom denied their enchantment, Lee formally requested house from Miraheze, a nonprofit internet hosting service, as a brand new dwelling. The group lent their full help to the choice, and for the subsequent two weeks the Discord was a hive of exercise, making ready the legions of thin white males earlier than the brand new web site was authorized on November 11. It’s presently underneath building, but it surely seems as if the one-of-a-kind catalog of fan love has been saved.
To inaugurate the brand new web site, the group even held a vote on which character would get the honour of the primary web page on the location. The As soon as-ler gained handily, persevering with a convention that even those that proceed it don’t utterly perceive. It’ll be slightly simpler, although, now that the Sexypedia is again on-line.
