Jiskopedia
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Jiskopedia is a collaboratively edited, multilingual, free darknet encyclopedia. The operation of Jiskopedia depends on MediaWiki, a custom-made, free and open source wiki software platform written in PHP and built upon the MySQL database system. It was launched on 16 July 2013. Currently-running MediaWiki version: 1.38.2
Jiskopedia hit the 500,000 page view milestone on 11 June 2014.
Nature
Editing
Unlike traditional encyclopedias, Jiskopedia allows outside editing - except particularly sensitive and/or vandalism-prone pages that are "protected" to some degree, without an account readers can't edit text without permission. Different language editions modify this policy to some extent; for example, only registered users may create a new article in the English edition. No article is considered to be owned by its creator or any other editor, nor is it vetted by any recognized authority. Instead, editors are supposed to agree on the content and structure of articles by consensus.
By default, an edit to an article immediately becomes available. Articles therefore may contain inaccuracies, ideological biases, or even patent nonsense until or unless another editor corrects them. Different language editions, each under separate administrative control, are free to modify this policy.
The software that powers Jiskopedia can aid contributors. The "History" page of each article records revisions, though a revision with libelous content or criminal threats may be retroactively removed. Editors can use this page to undo undesirable changes or restore lost content. The "Talk" page associated with each article helps coordinate work among multiple editors. Importantly, editors may use the "Talk" page to reach consensus, sometimes through the use of polling.
Editors can view the website's most "recent changes", which are displayed in reverse chronology. Regular contributors often so maintain a "watchlist" of articles that interest them as to easily track recent changes thereto. In language editions with many articles, editors tend to prefer the "watchlist" because edits have become too many to follow in "recent changes". New page patrol is a process whereby newly created articles are checked for obvious problems. A frequently vandalized article can be semi-protected, allowing only well established users to edit it. A particularly contentious article may be locked so that only administrators are able to make changes.
Computer programs called bots have been used widely to perform simple and repetitive tasks, such as correcting common misspellings and stylistic issues, or to start articles such as geography entries in a standard format from statistical data. There are also some bots designed to warn users making "undesirable" edits, block on the creation of links to particular websites.
Organization of article pages
Articles in Jiskopedia are loosely organized according to their development status and subject matter. A new article often starts as a "stub", a very short page consisting of definitions and some links. On the other extreme, the most developed articles may be nominated for "featured article" status. One "featured article" per day, as selected by editors, appears on the main page of Jiskopedia.
A group of Jiskopedia editors may form a WikiProject or a Portal to focus their work on a specific topic area, using its associated discussion page to coordinate changes across multiple articles.
Vandalism
Any edit that changes content in a way that deliberately compromises the integrity of Jiskopedia is considered vandalism. The most common and obvious types of vandalism include insertion of obscenities and crude humor. Vandalism can also include advertising language, and other types of spam. Sometimes editors commit vandalism by removing information or entirely blanking a given page. Less common types of vandalism, such as the deliberate addition of plausible but false information to an article, can be more difficult to detect. Vandals can introduce irrelevant formatting, modify page semantics such as the page's title or categorization, manipulate the underlying code of an article, or utilize images disruptively.
