The case for the LPA Wiki

What's an LPA Wiki? Well, surely you've seen other wikis dedicated to large bands, projects, and so on that were group edited, this is just like that.. but more awesome. Before you open your gas cans and flame throwers allow me a moment to explain.

And, as if to directly contradict what I said in the sentence before this one — I'm gonna start by probably insulting half the things you love. With LP's first two albums we can say a couple things were true: They were great music, and they were just what a lot of us wanted to hear as teens/young adults. However.. we can also say that LP's lyrics weren't exactly deep — it wasn't difficult for a teenager to walk away with exactly the impression LP wanted to convey with absolutely no work required. Nothing wrong with that, I'm just pointing out the obvious.

Transition to today, and with Minutes to Midnight and now the Catalyst we're starting to get a different LP, one that requires a little more work and thoughtfulness in order to appreciate fully. I don't think anyone that's listened to The Catalyst can honestly say that they think those lyrics are literal in the slightest.

This is our chance to turn this whole community thing up to 11 and really be the essential listener's guide to Linkin Park. Imagine a wiki containing not just the usual collection of songs but where each song's lyrics were available, and more than that, those lyrics were interpreted and analyzed by the loving community here at LPA. We're talking "LPA meets sparknotes" here. Just the same as you would find in any loving literary community the works will never be defined here but multiple theories will be tossed up as to their meaning, etc.. Is that drum beat in The Catalyst the sound of bombs falling in the background? Perhaps "blinding light" means the sun exploding? These are the kinds of things we would hash out on an LPA wiki and new people will not find the music quite as intimidating when they realize the lyrical depth.

(Oh, and imagine how cool it would be to keep a wiki entry for each show and allow members to link to their photos and videos of that show, etc., )

The possibilities become limited by only our imaginations. OK, NOW you can get your flame throwers out.

 

It takes a loving community to maintain it. You clearly have that. It's up to you I just thought I'd just toss it out there.

 

ninwiki.com

Although I believe the idea of having 'fan interpretations of song meanings' is the start of a very, VERY bad idea. There will always be dissenting opinions, whole meanings will be deleted based on opinion and it'll bloat articles about short topics that'll be unnecessarily long.

The idea is still good, however. For example, I can see an article about a specific song. We can have a section for 'has been mislabeled as', nuances performance-wise based on show, notable uses of the song in popular culture, etc.

It'd do a lot to get rid of the 'OMFG I HAZ A SONG CALLED VERTICAL HORIZON LOLZ'.

 

It already exists:

http://linkinpark.wikia.com/wiki/Linkin_Park_Wiki

 

I think if the LPA was to have a wiki that it could be better than that Linkin Park Wiki. I mean, going into the meaning of the lyrics is a great idea, analyzing the album art (at least for The Catalyst), things like that would be great because it would be so in-depth which that Linkin Park Wiki doesn't do. I would love to see a wiki myself, and would love to help out - now for the problem of editing, maybe have it similar to the arcade - you have to reach a certain post count.

 

Would be very interested in something like this. Wiki's are a great way of tons of information.

I've visited ninwiki a couple times and have found it to be a great source for information. The current Linkin Park wiki leaves something to be desired (for example its lack of article structure, advertisements, full page biography on Rick Rubin instead of concentrating on his relationship to Linkin Park), and starting anew could help in a case like this.

Quality would probably be the most important part of the wiki. An advertisement plagued, half way decent information, slow wiki would not be something desired.

As adam.posey pointed out the implications of a quality Wiki are promising for the site. There would be potential for it to become a definitive part of LPA. While I've never done something like this before, I'd love to collaborate / start brainstorming with others on how to do something like this.

edit: hawk as far as editing goes a new LP wiki would initially have to be closed without a doubt. Of course it would open up gradually, however a firm base of articles would have to first be established before allowing anyone to edit, as vandalism would without a doubt run absolutely rampant.

 

I made an edit to that wiki a year ago, adding some pages and potholing some more pages that needed to be created.

Just now checking up on it. Its at 139 Pages. AKA barely moved since a year ago. It only gets a couple edits a WEEK.

A proper wiki needs better exposure to the fanbase, and more documentation on the wiki's etiquette style (AKA is it like Wikipedia or does it have a "no such thing as notability" clause that TVtropes has), and it needs dedicated leaders or at least a dedicated host.

I'm all in favor of making a new wiki and starting from scratch, as that one isn't getting any attention, and if it did get attention, I don't know ANYTHING about the people running this wiki and it might fall apart. If LPA hosts it it'll get a LOT more exposure.

I'll be happy to help out wikifying things, but giving a dead wiki aid feels like a waste of time. Good wiki's need people swarming on it.

 

I'm heartened to see the constructive critiquing in here. I do think that a wiki would partially cannibalize forum activity initially as the same amount of people would be spreading their free time around. However I do think the benefits of constructive (and moderated) wiki pages that enable the fans to learn more about LP and the songs can only be a serious benefit to fans both new and old.

Also when it comes to opening up the songs to random interpretation the ridiculous shouldn't be tolerated but it might be enlightening to allow others to add their own little bits of insight into a song's lyrics and musical mechanics.

 

I mean, once it opens only people who have signed up can edit, put have also reached a certain amount of posts. Leaving it wide open would basically be a call to all vandals who add a tonne of shit.

As for helping out - I would be very glad to help out, and also I can lookout for any false and unnecessary content.

 

A wiki? Yes! Analyzing of art and lyrics? No. And that is a very adamant no. You cannot have a wiki that analyzes lyrics because all of Linkin Parks lyrics are subjective, they purposely write them that way. I can guarantee you that many will disagree with what the wiki says the meanings of the songs are, will complain about it, will be upset when people won't update what they think the meaning to be. Same with the art. It's not a good idea. I'm sorry.

I'm up for a wiki of information and I'd be very glad to help out but having an interpretation section is not reasonable. It''s illogical. Lyrics aren't suppose to be analyzed and have a tacked on meaning, their meant to be dissected and given the meaning that the listener feels it's emitting.

 

Agreed.

 

I can put in 30 minutes of editing every day or so. So you have at LEAST that much of a commitment from me.

 

Of course they're not going to have a tacked on meaning but, at the same time, consider how many pieces of very deep poetry would have been lost on younger readers without someone to help them analyze each stanza and line to understand how the meter, word choices, etc., change the entire meaning of the poem. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" would have been boring to me as a young English student without some assistance from the class thinking about the particulars of it.