Is there any rely able source for transformers? The thing is the transformers wikis aren’t as good as the Star Wars and marvel fandom. The only main source is this website. Anyone know of any good sites or wikis?

 

Not really at the moment unfortunately.

I've been a supporter of the idea that we can make something that is in general superior to TFwiki, something that isn't so sanitized, opinionated and obnoxious. If all goes according to plan I may have something down the pipeline someday. Maybe.

As it stands TFwiki is (unfortunately) the best place to go. It's reliable enough for the most part.

Someone needs to sit down with the staff of Tfwki and tell them they aren't that funny and that people generally don't go to a wiki to read a bunch of boomers pretending to be comedians (not even good comedians either). Look at virtually every other really good Wiki out there, it sticks out like an infected thumb. Some pages are nigh unreadable due to the joke, which is pretty unhelpful on a Wiki.

There's also the fact that they've made an effort to censor content due to personal feelings (the lack of coverage regarding RiD2015 for example), it took literally one nobody on Tumblr to make several of the loons running the Wiki to go on a edit spree to remove any joke that could be remotely offensive.

Just an absolute joke. If you want a laugh check out the discussion / edit tabs or whatever on the Wiki, like on Pages for Cindersaur, to watch presumably grown men passionately argue about the gender identity of a toy that was called a female by mistake. One of them even emailed Hasbro directly about it to ask for a statement.    

 

If you haven't found TFWIKI yet, it's one of the most informative fan wikis on the internet, far better than the Star Wars wiki IMO. It has full articles for just about every character, comic issue, cartoon episode and toyline within the franchise. Honestly, I really can't think of much info the site doesn't have.

It's not perfect though, I'm personally not a fan of the random "oh so clever" comedic subtitles for images, but it's got the information, and that's all that really matters to me.

 

I have already.

 

Their page on size classes is severely outdated and missing a lot of post-2014/15 information. Sadly.

Size class - Transformers Wiki

 

Oh yeah, Come to think about it I now even remember being disappointed in that page a few months ago  

.

 

Tfwiki always Feels Empty because They have PAGES upon Pages of misssing content but its still the best thing we have.

 

My favourite is when they make "jokes" about things that are wrong, and then have to edit them to erase their mistakes. For some reason one I always remember is when CW Onlsaught was released and the caption said something akin to "how is he supposed to hit targets above him? Is there a complicated system of mirrors he bounces the shots off of?" or something to that effect. Already not funny due to how long-winded and, well, non-comedic such a statement is despite clearly trying to be a joke. However it was even less funny because CW Onslaught can aim his cannons up, so rather than just drop the already protracted, unfunny joke, they edit it to be about how he can't hit targets to either side. (because ignoring the fact that no such "realization" was mentioned on his G1 toy page, the writer apparently forgot that he is a truck with front wheel steering) For some reason I always remembered that, maybe because it was the first one I noticed that was edited purely to try and not make the writer look like a doofus.

There's too many examples like this. Which is funny, because I remember perving a discussion page way back in like 2009 or something where the staff of TFWiki were themselves complaining about the abundance of "funny guys" coming in to edit pages just to add or change jokes without offering actual information, often with bias or to push their own opinions. Apparently that battle was lost. :/

I don't mind humour on a wiki if it's subtle and more "casual talk." Like, the joke is that a wiki is usually very formal, so even if there's no actual punchlines the casual/informal writing is itself humourous. Though I'd be lying if I said I didn't get immense gratification reading the slow mental decline of the poor fucker doing the Energon episode summary notes. Pretty sure the last "error" on the final episode page is simply "this series was produced."

The fact that TFWiki tries so hard to be "one with the fandom" really hurts its credibility. Again, they make more edits covering their own mistakes and bias than they do adding actual information about the franchise.

 

It's funny how we're all suddenly talking about the wiki now since I had a longer history with them than with TFW. Back when AOE just came out and I rejoined the fandom I joined the Wiki. I made some edits that still stand to this day, but also a lot that were pretty embarassing to think about. One time I even got myself temp-banned from editing captions too much  

It only took me about 3 months before school hit me up and I lost time to edit. Around that time I also left the fandom again for FNAF. I know. I tried to get back into editing this year but I guess I just didn't have the energy I used to for it anymore. I even tried to remove a factually incorrect piece of trivia I made years ago. Guess what? My edit got reverted back.

 

What was the trivia, just out of curiosity? (I know you said it was incorrect but tell that to my voyeuristic bitchy gossip brain)

 

I wrote that Movieverse Soundwave is 22ft tall. Apparently he was in a piece of ROTF concept art, but my trivia suggested that he stayed that size up to DOTM when he scanned an SLS AMG. I copied the piece here:

 

That's weird, yet somehow unsurprising.

 

For all its flaws TFWiki is a pretty comprehensive resource, they just need to actually create pages for their mass of redlinks and fix the article stubs that have been around forever instead of doing... whatever it is they're doing all the time.

Personally my main issue with the wiki is that they need some kind of level/class/tier system or something like you see on other wikis. The random page and go box features are great to help you learn about new things but it creates a very skewed perception of the franchise. You see this a lot with younger fans coming on board, they think everything is equally important because it has a wiki page and suddenly you have multiple people actually asking for a Commander Class Violin Jiger.

I will echo what was said above that they are ridiculously unfunny.

Also just a reminder of rule 10, I think in this case discussing the merits and flaws of different sites is okay but be careful not to spiral into personal incidents that may have happened on the wikis.

10. Keep Off-Site Drama Off This Site
If you had a disagreement or falling out with someone on another site or in real life, if you had a deal go sour on another website or whatever. If it happened elsewhere then don't bring it here. Leave your grievances at the door.

 

You know you are free to rewrite what you feel is an unfunny comment.

 

Which will result in an immediate reversion if you haven't already made significant contributions to the site.

 

You're actually not. TFWiki isn't like a normal wiki, it's actually monitored and reviewed, surprisingly.

 

TFWiki as much as a reliable source it is, is written by people trying way too hard to be funny. Atleast wikipedia is straightforward about the information given to you. I don't care if the articles are humorless, I came to the website to get some valuable information, not to giggle at "Prowl is a prick" jokes. TFWiki is lacking in so many areas which other people mentioned above. It doesn't tell you information like the characters appearance over the years (for example in G1 Optimus Prime, it doesn't show his design in other continuities also labeled "G1" like the War Within, IDW, why are the comics also labeled under G1? It's not the same continuity!) Even the fucking Angry Birds wiki shows you all the versions of a character just by clicking a button. Also facts like like eye color, first appearance, weight, birthplace, age? All not here.

 

In another thread I mentioned how I would like TFWiki to have stat boxes, kind of like the Star Wars wiki (which tell stuff like height, eye color, etc). I understand why some people feel like this would be too hard for Transformers, but I do think it would be doable, with some out-of-the-box thinking.

Another problem I have with the wiki is that the articles are just written like pages of a history book. They lack much information outside of the characters' story in fiction. For instance, they don't have a section to describe characters' personalities. The reasoning they use is that you should be able to gather a character's personality by reading the (rather lengthily) paragraphs about them. I find that logic really goofy because that's not what a wiki is for. If I wanted to gather the characters' personalities, I'd just watch the official fiction. A wiki is supposed to be for quick and easy info. Like Cliff's Notes. It's not supposed to be a substitute for the fiction itself.

And none of this is to say that TFWiki is useless or awful. It can't be denied that hours upon hours of work has gone into writing the articles. They have a vision for the site, and they've realized that vision. I have to give them props for that. My problem with the site is that I just don't like their vision, and I don't feel like it provides a good Wiki. It's definitely something, but it doesn't feel like a Wiki to me. The only thing I find it really useful for are toys. And I'm not even a huge toy guy. It's sad that I visit the site far less than I should.

As for a different source...I find Wikipedia fine. I grew up reading those articles, and I learned a lot about the brand from them. It's far less comprehensive, but I actually kind of prefer the non-fan perspective it gives. It feels more objective and straightforward. But it's by no means a fantastic source for Transformers stuff. And they've actually removed TF-related articles over the years (they used to have an article on Cyclonus, for instance).

I personally don't feel like the humor ruins the wiki, but I just don't find it funny. I've been visiting the wiki here and there since 2012, and I could probably count the number of jokes I've laughed at on a single hand. The only joke I distinctly recall laughing at was actually removed. It was on the Age of Extinction page, and it involved the Dinobots. They removed it in favor of making the page themed around Jurassic Park references (which is super lame). The thing is, not every picture needs a caption. Captions work best for pictures that have an unintentionally funny aspect to them. There's nothing inherently funny about most Transformers pictures, so most don't need captions.

I agree that we need another wiki. TFWiki can certainly keep doing their thing, but it would be nice to have something more straightforward and objective, like the Star Wars and Marvel wikis. I feel like someone eventually creating one is inevitable. There are a huge amount of fans who don't like TFWiki...and every fan I've met in real life has no idea it even exists. Making a competitor would be very doable. I feel like it's only a matter of time before someone who knows how to run a wiki decides to take on that challenge.

 

One thing I think TFWiki does fantastically is describe the character's personalities, that's what the opening paragraph is for.

 

TL;DR He's obeying the command he's been given.