I love wikis. I pretty much always have. I thought the idea that anybody could edit a wiki was so interesting, and how they tend to develop a culture and governance all their own.
Wikipedia is by far the best known of these among my own generation, and I think that the amount of specific Wikipedia clones (most of which are disappointments riddled with advertisements) leads a lot of folks to believe that “wiki” necessarily means an encyclopedia of sorts. Wikipedia is famously strict about content (for understandable reasons) and a lot of the smaller wikis follow along with that format. Liquipedia is one such project, a particularly high quality one at that, which I am proud to say I was a regular contributor to at different points in my esports fandom over the years.
But the first time I came across WikiWikiWeb the idea thoroughly clicked to me of just having a site that could be easily, quickly edited. That the ease of editing comes with the risk of vandalism of course but for the most part if you get a critical mass of people involved the result is highly creative. People like to contribute and help each other out, and so even when there’s not much of a mission for the wiki to serve the contributors will build something worth seeing.
I very much enjoy how anarchic creativity leads to all these little unique pockets. Where there was nothing comes together a half a dozen people who dedicate their evenings to cataloging cricket scores or engaging in an extended roleplay or posting pictures of celebrities’ feet. Each with their own little norms and history and squabbles. Each a testament to the human desire to make something that matters, even if only to strangers on the internet.
The creative medium of the wiki isn’t as groundbreaking in 2026 as it once was. It’s never been easier to put something out there, and you could argue that the ubiquitous static site generators and blog platforms like WordPress are the true heirs to the promise of WikiWikiWeb. But I still love the promise of that blankest of canvases, with its leveling egalitarian ideal that anybody can just come along and contribute anything they want. I love the trust that the result will matter. It matters to me.