User:David Shepheard

David "Big Mac" Shepheard

Hi, I am David Shepheard but I am also known as "Big Mac" by my friends. I have used both of these names as my user name on different wikis. Generally, I use my real name on more formal wikis and my nickname on wikis that are more fun. But there have been times when I've done the opposite thing. I used my real name on Wikia and they set up the same user name on all of their wikis.

Why I started to wiki

My first wiki activity was with Wikipedia, where I wanted to improve the articles associated with Spelljammer.

However, after signing up with Wikipedia, I became disillusioned with the delitionists who are attempting to undermine the wikification of fiction. I believe that they are doing this in good faith (at least the majority of them are), but some of them have adopted a 'tag and run' attitude that means Dungeons & Dragons articles need to be constantly defended against aligations that they are 'not important enough' to be on Wikipedia.

(There are actually a lot of flaws with many of the Dungeons & Dragons articles on Wikipedia, but working on the articles over there has turned into more of a grind, where the minority of deletionists push you to sort out articles, while making no effort to improve them themselves.)

A number of Wikipedians with an interest in Dungeons & Dragons have split off from Wikipedia to concentrate on other projects that create encyclopedias for their favorite part of the D&D universe. I'm one of these people. But I'm certainly not one of the first D&D fans to join the Wikipedia exodus.

What I'd like to see wikified

As a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, I would like to see a wiki dedicated to the canon of every campaign setting. This would help people look up obscure facts about their favorite game world.

I think that one canon wiki per campaign setting is the best way to deal with this. There are some campaign settings that have much larger followings than others and a minority campaign setting (like Jakandor) could easily be swamped if it was mixed in with a more popular campaign setting (like Forgotten Realms).

Some people like to create fan material that builds onto their favorite D&D world. For written stories, this is known as fan-fiction, but Dungeons & Dragons is a game where GMs are expected to create adventures and build the rest of the universe. Home made D&D material is sometimes called fanon (as in fan created canon). I'm not sure that fanon and canon can share the same wiki (without readers being confused by fanon polution of canon), but wikis would be a good tool to help people create a body of fanon for their favorite D&D world.

So my current opinion is that each D&D campaign setting needs a pair of wikis. One canon wiki, that provides a snapshot of all the elements of the official published material. And one fanon wiki that encourages GMs to share the material they have created to support the official material.

Spelljammer Wiki

• I am the creator of Spelljammer Wiki. A wiki on Wikia that hopes to create a hyperlinked encyclopedia of Spelljammer canon.

Dungeons & Dragons Wiki

• At Dungeons & Dragons Wiki, you are more likely to see me doing minor edits to fix typos.

My contributions

• User contributions

Places outside Dungeons & Dragons Wiki where you can see my work

If you are really interested in me then here is where you can find more of me:

• I am one of moderators at the Spelljammer forum on The Piazza (a community dedicated to discussion of all D&D worlds) and also post in The Piazza's other D&D forums.
• I have created one article on Beyond the Moons (the official Spelljammer website) and contributed to the 3rd edition Spelljammer conversion.
• I am webmaster for the Virtual Eclipse (a science fiction role playing club)
• I chat to friends in the Public Mouth group
• I also spend some time talking to webmasters at the Sveit community.
• I also edit articles on the English version of Wikipedia, but as there is now a deletionist attack against most roleplaying articles, I'd prefer to work with D&D wikis, and other similar sources.

Want to ask me something or tell me something?

Pop over to my discussion page and say hi.