Bulbagarden: Difference between revisions

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===Bulbapedia and growth: 2005 onward===
===Bulbapedia and growth: 2005 onward===


In 2005, Bulbagarden's fortunes began to turn when {{u|evkl}} proposed that, instead of a regular website, Bulbagarden should turn toward a user-edited {{wp|wiki}} approach. With the assistance of {{u|ZhenLin}}, [[Bulbapedia]] was created. It rapidly grew over the next few years, and with its growth, Bulbagarden was finally able to firmly establish its presence in the fandom, just in time for the release of {{game|Diamond and Pearl|s}}. To complete the forum and Bulbapedia, a second wiki-based project, [[Bulbanews]], was soon added.  
In 2005, Bulbagarden's fortunes began to turn when {{u|evkl}} proposed that, instead of a regular website, Bulbagarden should turn toward a user-edited {{wp|wiki}} approach. With the assistance of {{u|Zhen Lin}}, [[Bulbapedia]] was created. It rapidly grew over the next few years, and with its growth, Bulbagarden was finally able to firmly establish its presence in the fandom, just in time for the release of {{game|Diamond and Pearl|s}}. To complete the forum and Bulbapedia, a second wiki-based project, [[Bulbanews]], was soon added.  


As of 2013, Bulbagarden.net is now a major Pokémon fansite, with an {{wp|Alexa internet|Alexa}} ranking placing it among the 50 most visited video game websites in the world, and has been cited in professional studies and publications. Archaic is still the webmaster, seconded by a team of vice-webmasters, as well as by the staff of the various ''projects'' of Bulbagarden (Bulbapedia, Bulbanews and Bulbagarden Forums).
As of 2013, Bulbagarden.net is now a major Pokémon fansite, with an {{wp|Alexa internet|Alexa}} ranking placing it among the 50 most visited video game websites in the world, and has been cited in professional studies and publications. Archaic is still the webmaster, seconded by a team of vice-webmasters, as well as by the staff of the various ''projects'' of Bulbagarden (Bulbapedia, Bulbanews and Bulbagarden Forums).

Revision as of 20:06, 9 May 2013

Bulbagarden
"the original Pokémon community"
Bulbagarden logo.png
Language English
Status Active
Run 2001 - Present
Date opened 2001
Creator Anenga
Current owner {{{owner}}}
Forum BMGf
Mascot Bulbasaur
Website Main Page
File:Titlecard.png
The titlecard for Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden, the episode for which Bulbagarden is named.

Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden, commonly known as Bulbagarden, is an English-language Pokémon community. It is most well known for Bulbapedia, its forums, and Bulbanews. The site's slogan is "the original Pokémon community".

Bulbagarden has, in recent years, made major pushes into the "Web 2.0" philosophy, starting with Bulbapedia and continuing with the Oekaki and the Bulbawiki networks.

History

The current Bulbagarden website is the successor site to Bulbagarden.com, a first-generation Pokémon fansite that existed around 1999-2000, competing back then with such sites as The Pokémasters (TPM), Azure Heights, and the original UPN.

Death and Revival: 2001-2002

The original site was shut down at the beginning of 2001, when the collapse of the dot-com bubble caused severe web advertising trouble for the vast majority of Pokémon sites, including most of Bulbagarden's major rivals. The advertising issue left Bulba unable to pay for the server. The files were held in stasis on the server until the beginning of February, during which time the (then) forum head admin Archaic launched a desperate bid to fund the server for just one more month, enough to be allowed access to the files again and to make a forum backup.

In late 2002, following significant downtime on the part of Serebii.net, Mozz and Archaic began to plan for the revival of Bulbagarden, with Mozz providing the initial funding. They obtained permission from Bulba, and Archaic began inviting staff members and well-known users from other fansites to join the staff for the new site. A large group of staff members of The Pokemasters, dissatisfied with the situation on that site at the time, chose to join Archaic's project.

Early Years: 2003-2005

Bulbagarden officially opened to the public on January 1, 2003 as bulbagarden.com, although only Bulbagarden forums existed at the time. Efforts to establish a website were made throughout 2003-2004, but while a pilot site was completed, the full version never actually went online. Moreover, despite the forum's quick initial growth, the lack of a website as well as the slumping fandom following the end of the original series and the release of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire resulted in long period of low activity.

In early 2004, the Bulbagarden.com domain name expired and was promptly squatted. After many attempts to reestablish the site at Bulbagarden.com, it was decided to move to a .net domain name, becoming (as it is today) Bulbagarden.net. In addition, the inability of Archaic and the staff to get the site working and the expenses related to the form server cost led Mozz to repeatedly threaten to end the site's hosting.

Bulbapedia and growth: 2005 onward

In 2005, Bulbagarden's fortunes began to turn when evkl proposed that, instead of a regular website, Bulbagarden should turn toward a user-edited wiki approach. With the assistance of Zhen Lin, Bulbapedia was created. It rapidly grew over the next few years, and with its growth, Bulbagarden was finally able to firmly establish its presence in the fandom, just in time for the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. To complete the forum and Bulbapedia, a second wiki-based project, Bulbanews, was soon added.

As of 2013, Bulbagarden.net is now a major Pokémon fansite, with an Alexa ranking placing it among the 50 most visited video game websites in the world, and has been cited in professional studies and publications. Archaic is still the webmaster, seconded by a team of vice-webmasters, as well as by the staff of the various projects of Bulbagarden (Bulbapedia, Bulbanews and Bulbagarden Forums).

Site Organization

Network

Hostees

In its long history, Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden hosted a wide variety of websites in a time where Pokémon sites were scrambling to be hosted by the bigger and more popular sites. One such place was Articuno Island, or Prussian Town as it was known at the time. Bulbagarden now operates on its own servers and currently hosts many other sites, including Dogasu's Backpack and the Japanese Pokémon Wiki.

Staff

Current staff

This is the list of Bulbagarden's senior staff. For the full list of Bulbagarden staff, including forum moderators and wiki staff, see this list.

  • Archaic - Bulbagarden Webmaster
  • Evil Figment - Vice-Webmaster
  • evkl - Vice-Webmaster
  • Zhen Lin - Vice-Webmaster, Technical Expert
  • MAGNEDETH - Vice-Webmaster
  • Werdnae - Editor-in-Chief, Bulbapedia
    • Kogoro - Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Bulbapedia
  • Gama - Head Administrator, Bulbagarden Forums
  • Iteru - Head Administrator, Bulbagarden Forums
  • Bikini Miltank - Editor-in-Chief, Bulbanews
    • Adyniz - Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Bulbanews
  • $aturn¥oshi - Coordinator, Social Medias
    • Satoshi-kun - Deputy Coordinator (interim), Social Medias; owner of #Bulbagarden IRC room

Other noteworthy staff

  • Dogasu - News translator, webmaster of Dogasu's Backpack, retired Head of Anime
  • Musashi - Retired Head Administrator of Bulbagarden Forums.
  • Joshawott - Editor of BulbaNews Now, head of the Video Games Forum

Noteworthy retired staff

  • Mozz - Creditor
  • Murgatroyd - Head of Anime and Shipping, retired
  • TTEchidna - Former Editor-in-Chief, Bulbapedia,
  • Argy - Former Editor-in-Chief, Bulbanews
  • RexRacer - Former Editor-in-Chief, Bulbanews
  • the dark lord trombonator - Former Editor-in-Chief, Bulbanews
Encyclopædiæ Pokémonis
English: Bulbapedia German: PokéWiki Japanese: Pokémon Wiki French: Poképédia Italian: Pokémon Central Chinese: 52Poké Wiki Spanish: WikiDex
English German Japanese French
Bulbagarden's
Bulbapedia
Filb.de's
PokéWiki
Pokémon Republic's
Pokémon Wiki
Poképédia
Italian Chinese Spanish EPBase.png
Pokémon Central's
Pokémon Central Wiki
Pokémon Zone's
52Poké Wiki
WikiDex
Defunct Members
Portuguese: LANDpedia Spanish: Pokéteca Polish: Wikinezka
Portuguese Spanish Polish EPBase.png
Pokémon LAND's
LANDpedia
PkStation's
Pokéteca
Pokémon Polska's
Wikinezka


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