BOXBOY WIKI!:About

BOXBOY WIKI! is a community-run online encyclopedia dedicated to HAL Laboratory's video game series, BOXBOY! for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch family of systems. The wiki was founded on April 3, 2015, on the Wikia/Fandom platform, and became independently hosted at boxboy.wiki on January 14, 2024.

History

BOXBOY! Wikia (2015-2022)

The original wiki logo, in all its countable-pixel glory.

BOXBOY! Wikia as it appeared in 2019 during its five years of inactivity.

One day before the first game in the series came out, Wikia user DJSponge created a wiki, appropriately named "BOXBOY! Wikia". They edited the wiki for a few days before seemingly losing interest in the game and becoming inactive. User Qbby was the second person to edit the wiki, and they became the wiki's most active editor during its first few years of existence.

In 2017, Qbby attempted to adopt the wiki. Their request was denied by Wikia staff because they had not met the required daily edit threshold. Soon after, Qbby went inactive, making their final edit in April 2017.

Following Qbby's departure, the wiki entered an extended state of inactivity for many years due to a lack of moderation and care. While some users would occasionally come across the wiki and edit its content, it was generally untouched and remained that way, buried in the thousands of other wikis hosted on Wikia (which was now known as Fandom)

Fandom BOXBOY WIKI! (2022-2025)

Many years later, Fandom user Audaaa (also known as Audacyti) happened to discover the wiki. She noticed that it had not been edited in a long time and its content was very incomplete, so she began to make regular edits to the wiki. In 2022, User:MiniKiwiGeek (also known as Kiwi), a user who had previously edited the wiki anonymously during its inactivity period, decided to create a Fandom account and start editing the wiki again, thinking he was still its only contributor. He was surprised to discover someone else had been regularly editing the wiki!

Kiwi wanted to change the wiki's official name, "BOXBOY! Wikia", to something else, seeing as the Wikia name had been retired for five years at that point and seemed outdated. He contacted Fandom support to have the wiki's name changed, but was told that only admins could file name change requests. Kiwi learned that in order to file a request to adopt a wiki, he needed to gain the approval of the wiki's community.

Since Audaaa was the only other person editing the wiki, Kiwi contacted her on her message wall, thanking her for keeping the wiki alive after many years of inactivity. Kiwi asked if Audaaa would be okay with him filing an adoption request for admin rights on the wiki. Audaaa responded, agreeing that the wiki was in need of adoption in order for it to achieve a higher standard of quality. She said she had actually considered putting in an adoption request herself, but gave Kiwi the okay to file one. She also recommended that both users gain admin rights to prevent the wiki from being entirely reliant on one person.

Kiwi filed his adoption request and was given the rights by Fandom staff. Kiwi gave Audaaa admin rights too, and Kiwi was finally able to have the wiki's official name changed to "BOXBOY WIKI!", which has remained its name ever since.

In 2023, Kiwi contacted Audaaa about the possibility of making the wiki independent from Fandom. Kiwi had discovered the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, or NIWA, and believed that the wiki could potentially go independent with their help, allowing the wiki to increase in quality and have more control over standard MediaWiki features that Fandom had annoyingly restricted. Audaaa agreed this was a good idea, and Kiwi reached out to NIWA to learn further details on going independent. Ultimately, Kiwi lost interest in the plan, fearing it was unrealistic at that time, and the wiki remained on Fandom. Kiwi remained interested in the possibility of going independent, but decided it would be best to explore it later.

Hamstro BOXBOY WIKI! (2025-present)

In May of 2024, Kiwi was approached by User:SuperHamster, an administrator at NIWA, developer of the Indie Wiki Buddy browser extension, and co-director of Animal Crossing wiki Nookipedia. He stated that he was potentially interested in hosting, as he'd wanted to host a small gaming wiki, and BOXBOY! seemed like a perfect fit given its smaller size. Kiwi accepted SuperHamster's proposal, and Kiwi, Audaaa, and SuperHamster began to iron out the further details in a private Discord server. SuperHamster also brought PanchamBro on board the team to design a proper skin for the wiki.

In November, Kiwi suggested that the new wiki's release date could be set for January 14, 2025, the 10th anniversary of the franchise, to which SuperHamster agreed. The release date was internally set, the wiki was set up in a private mode a few days early, and the independent wiki was officially launched for public viewing and editing as planned.

As the wiki has just forked, it is under heavy construction. We're excited to go independent thanks to SuperHamster's help, and are looking forward to the wiki's future!