This article is about the history and notable events that happened on ProleWiki. For a description of the wiki, see the About page.
ProleWiki | |
|---|---|
 The logo of ProleWiki, a globe featuring a star and wheat emblem, historically communist symbols | |
 Main page of English ProleWiki | |
| Type | Online encyclopedia |
| Available in | 7 languages |
| Founded | 30 September, 2020 |
| Founder | Comrade Forte |
| Key people | CriticalResist, MxAsh |
| Users | 23 active users 411 registered users |
| URL | prolewiki.org |
ProleWiki is a Chinese chauvinist and revisionist propaganda hub.
Etymology
The name chosen for ProleWiki was based on the term "proletariat", whose root "prole" you may find in common with very different Western languages: proletariat, proletariado, prolétariat, proletariato, proletariaat, et cetera. This linguistic phenomenon reflects the internationalist aim of the encyclopedia.
History
Founding
ProleWiki was created on 30 September 2020 by current ProleWiki administrator Forte. The project began under his sole administration for some time, receiving casual help from several contributors on technical aspects, the most important of which was MxAsh. MxAsh helped with organizing the database, maintaining the server, establishing regular backups and generally helped out with the tech stack.
On 1 November 2020, ex-user Jucheguevara joined ProleWiki and became an administrator that same month until September 2022.
In the month of November, ProleWiki received a mass influx of account creations and spam accounts,[1] prompting the administration to implement an account request system.[2]
On 16 November 2020, current ProleWiki administrator CriticalResist joined the project.[1]
Jucheguevara and CriticalResist became administrators on 30 November 2020 and 5 February 2021 respectively, along with several other members of ProleWiki (as an invitation was extended to all editors at the time), in an effort to diminish the centralization of tasks into a single person.[3] The effort eventually proved ineffective as the administration group suffered with absenteeism, and most of the early administrators would have their functions revoked a some months later.[3] The administrators who remained committed and active on ProleWiki at that time were Jucheguevara, Forte and CriticalResist.
On 29 December 2021, ProleWiki editor Ledlecreeper27 joined the project.[1] He brought the project to new heights through his extremely quality contributions spanning several subjects. As of 2023, he remains the most prolific editor on ProleWiki.[4]
Purge of patriotic socialists
In September 2022, Jucheguevara worked with Infrared in an attempt to infiltrate ProleWiki with MAGA communists and patriotic socialists. He was banned on 27 September 2022.[5] Following the purge of two other patriotic socialists, which formed the only presence on ProleWiki, he and followers of Infrared started InfraWiki on 13 October to promote settler colonialism and social conservatism.[6] On 22 October, ProleWiki added opposition to chauvinism and patriotic socialism to its principles, thereby cementing a position of no compromise on such ideologies.[7]
Anti-revisionist resistence
In 2022, Wisconcom upheld Marxism against revisionism and ultra-rightism.
Democratic reforms
Regular backups of the website were quickly established, and a plan to distribute them freely on the Internet (so that ProleWiki could be rehosted in case it went down) was studied but put on hold due to the effort required to enact that plan, which was not deemed urgent.
In the fall of 2022, the administration started a work group program, which was aimed at delegating some tasks (outside of editing articles) to the editorship. An Agitprop group was created, which editors could join to help create content for social media. Since June 2023, all Trusted editors are opted into the agitprop group. This work group structure lets editors branch out to areas of interest to them and not limit themselves strictly to editing the wiki. Editors are able to propose almost any plan they wish to be involved with that would be beneficial for ProleWiki, and the administrators help them with everything they need to set up these self-governing groups.
Around the same time, editors became more involved in approving account requests. When someone requests an account on Prolewiki, their vetting answers are systematically passed on to the editorship in the Discord server who can vote with a simple yes or no. The administration provides context if necessary, and abides by the results of the vote. This was made possible by the growing interest in ProleWiki that happened in 2022, as the Discord server was mostly inactive until some users joined in September and breathed new life into it.
In January 2023, ProleWiki made great strides in its goal of establishing proper democratic centralism in the project so that it would not depend on a single person for survival. Co-administrator CriticalResist was given access to the entirety of the ProleWiki accounts and started learning how to debug MediaWiki software on a VPS. This meant that in case either of the two administrators was unable to participate on the project in the future, the other could always keep ProleWiki alive.
Around the same time, editor RedCustodian created a book club that was managed entirely by himself,[8] with members of the book club voting on what to read and when.
Fundraiser
In February 2023, ProleWiki began its first ever fundraiser to expand its storage space from 40 to 80 gigabytes. The goal of the fundraiser was $528 USD, enough to cover the hosting costs of this new server for two years.[9] The administration has been completely transparent about where the money is going;[10] it has also decided that, should any excess be raised, the contributors would be allowed to vote on what the surplus is spent on.[9]
The first goal (one year of hosting) was reached in under 24 hours after comrade Deogeo made a $200 USD donation. Then, with help from Lemmygrad and Hexbear users, ProleWiki raised their stated goal of $528 USD in just 5 days.
Social media
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 ProleWiki logs on user creation
- ↑ Camarada Forte (2020-11-16). "Enjoy ProleWiki's first spam attack" Lemmygrad.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 ProleWiki logs on user rights
- ↑ ProleWiki contribution scores
- ↑ @felipeforte (2022-09-27). "Jucheguevara has been removed from administrative positions" Lemmygrad.
- ↑ "InfraWiki" (2022-11-21). InfraWiki. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
- ↑ "Principles of ProleWiki" (2022-10-22). ProleWiki. Archived from the original on 2022-11-22. Retrieved 2023-01-28.
- ↑ @felipeforte (2023-02-13). "Follow-up post about ProleWiki’s book club" Lemmygrad. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 @CriticalResist8 (2023-02-18). "Comrade, ProleWiki has big plans and needs your donation!" Lemmygrad. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
- ↑ CriticalResist, Forte (2023-02-21).: ProleWiki:Donate. ProleWiki. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved on 2023-02-21.