Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance
The Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, NIWA for short, is a network of wikis and their associated websites that aims to chronicle all things Nintendo, supporting wikis independent of large corporate wiki groups.
History
NIWA began as an expansion of the concept of Encyclopaediae Pokémonis, shortly after the administration of Zelda Wiki contacted Archaic, Bulbagarden's head, about a possible affiliation. It was jointly decided, shortly thereafter, that rather than a simple affiliation, an entire network of Nintendo-based wikis could be begun, and Super Mario Wiki was shortly asked to join as a founding member.
After a little under a month of planning, NIWA was launched on February 14, 2010, coincidentally the fifth anniversary of the public launch of Bulbapedia.
Within two months more, preparations were complete for the launch of Metroid Wiki and WiKirby, which had been spun off by users of the original trio of NIWA wikis, and they joined the group. Wars Wiki, a wiki based on the age-old Nintendo Wars franchise, became the first member recruited from outside the original trio.
Name
NIWA's name, an acronym of Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, is also romanized Japanese for "garden", symbolizing the natural growth of the community around the fandoms that make it up. This is fitting, given Nintendo's Japanese origins, with romanization of Japanese being an important aspect of all three wikis that currently make up the network.
