Wikipe-tan
Moe anthropomorphism of Wikipedia
First appearanceWikipedia (January 8, 2006)
Created byKasuga[a]
In-universe information
SpeciesHuman
GenderFemale
FamilyCommons-tan (sister) Wikiquote-tan (sister)

Wikipe-tan (Japanese: ウィキペたん) is a personification of Wikipedia created in January 2006 by Japanese editor Kasuga.[a] She is an unofficial mascot of Wikipedia and is used at several WikiProjects. The -tan in "Wikipe-tan" is an affectionate suffix, in the form of a Japanese honorific. Like the OS-tans, she is a product of moe anthropomorphism.

Wikipe-tan is the mascot character for WikiProject Anime and manga and WikiProject Holidays' Christmas task force; she was also the mascot for Admin coaching, the Counter-Vandalism Unit, and a contender for an official Wikipedia mascot. In addition, Wikimedia Hong Kong uses Wikipe-tan images and her cosplay during functions and promotions. Wikipe-tan has occasionally been treated as a mascot for Wikipedia or its community in news reports.

Appearance[edit]

Wikipe-tan is a short, fair-skinned girl. Her hair is light blue with two puzzle pieces acting as a hook. Her most common outfit is a dark blue maid dress with some white sections and she also wears tights the same color as her dress. Sometimes she wears dark brown slip-on shoes. Just like in her hair, she wears a puzzle with the symbol "ワィ", which is a misspelling of the katakana "ウィ" that was present in the previous logo from Wikipedia.

Background[edit]

The general idea for a "Wikipe-tan" mascot was posted on January 5, 2006, by the anonymous Taiwanese IP address 192.192.170.2, who suggested a mascot "just like OS-tan" on the Wikipedia mascot vote.[1] Japanese Wikipedia user Kasuga drew at least two images of a "Wikipe-tan" character and posted them on the Futaba Channel on January 8; the thread was linked from the mascot discussion on January 13,[2] and two of the images were uploaded to Commons and added directly to the discussion on January 18.[3]

Kasuga has stated that when designing Wikipe-tan and, later, her sisters, he kept two things in mind: Fujiko F Fujio's advice that a good character design should have a distinctive silhouette, and an observation by Scott McCloud in his Understanding Comics that golden age comic book artists gave each character symbolic color charts.[4]

The puzzle pieces worn by the character are from an earlier version of the Wikipedia puzzle-ball logo. ワィ is apparently a misspelling of ウィ ("wi"), the first syllable of the Japanese katakana transliteration of "Wikipedia", while 祖 is a kanji character apparently changed from the puzzle-ball's 袓, the latter being a Chinese character not used in Japanese. The most up-to-date picture by Kasuga shows her wearing the characters 維 (being the first character of Wikipedia's Chinese name) and the correct Japanese katakana ウィ from the current Wikipedia logo.

On March 29, 2007, Wikipe-tan was joined by the moe anthropomorphisms for Wikipedia's sister projects, Commons-tan and Quote-tan. Kasuga has stated "...new Wiki-sisters will be designed in the future". However, Kasuga also stated that "there was no page that needed other sisters' images up to now. I might draw their images if there are pages which need them."

Although Wikipede received more support in the mascot vote, new Wikipe-tan images were made and saw continued use. Jimbo Wales described Wikipe-tan as a community mascot in 2007,[5] though he has since noted that he personally dislikes the character.[6]

Use and mentions[edit]

Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects

The three current Wikimedia sisters (from left to right): Commons-tan, Wikipe-tan, and Quote-tan.

Outside of Wikipedia and Wikimedia

Kasuga's art[edit]

Wikipe-tan

Sisters (Commons & Quote)

She is the sister of Wikipe-tan and Wikiquote-tan. She is a short girl with fair skin, her hair is red with a blue arrow beret, she wears a dark blue maid dress with white sections and also wears socks the same color as her dress, she also wears orange slip-on shoes.
She is the sister of Wikipe-tan and Commons-tan, she is a short girl with light skin, her hair is dark blue with a hook of the ” symbol in blue, she wears a dark blue maid dress with white sections, she wears socks of the same color as her dress, she also wears blue shoes.

Cropped versions

Derived from Kasuga's art[edit]

See also: c:Wiki-sisters

Barnstars

Miscellaneous

The following are images which have been used on the English and International Wiki. These include displays on Wikipedia articles, displays on Wikipedia project pages, and displays on Humorous and/or user pages.

Stubs

Userboxes

Code Result
((User:Running/wikipe-tan))
This user loves Wikipe-tan, the cutest personification of Wikipedia.
 Usage
Supports several images
((User:Σ/UBX/AntiWikipetan))
This user believes Wikipe-tan established a cult of personality and is now destroying Wikipedia.
 Usage
((User:Cloud668/UBX/Waifu|Wikipe-tan))
This user's waifu is Wikipe-tan.
 Usage

See also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ a b In the aftermath of the unified login finalization, the user now going by Kasuga on Commons and on English Wikipedia is a different person. The accounts of the creator of Wikipe-tan were renamed Kasuga~enwiki, Kasuga~jawiki and Kasuga~commonswiki.

References[edit]

  1. ^ 192.192.170.2 (January 5, 2006). "How about Wikipe-tan just like OS-tan". Meta. Retrieved March 7, 2011.
  2. ^ 72.137.173.201 (January 13, 2006). "something like the one here?". Meta. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  3. ^ Shii (January 18, 2006). "Um... it seems those images are GFDL ... let's put them here, then". Meta. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  4. ^ Kasuga (October 23, 2007). "Adult Wikipe-tan by ~Kasuga39". deviantArt. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  5. ^ Wales, Jimbo (June 8, 2007). "Community mascot". Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved March 7, 2011.
  6. ^ Wales, Jimbo (February 7, 2011). "I am not a fan". Wikipedia. Retrieved February 7, 2011.
  7. ^ "Wikipedia:Counter Vandalism Unit/Nav". Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  8. ^ "Wikipedia:Counter Vandalism Unit/Nav". Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  9. ^ "Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit: Difference between revisions". Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  10. ^ "Template:Counter-Vandalism Unit: Difference between revisions". Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  11. ^ a b "Deletion log". Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  12. ^ "Magazine Issues | Videogames Magazine - gamesTM - Part 3". www.gamestm.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2010-07-13. Retrieved Feb 20, 2023.
  13. ^ http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h208/vfoma/kuso/1.jpg
  14. ^ http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h208/vfoma/kuso/2.jpg
  15. ^ http://game.21cn.com/zhuanti/ags2006/news/2006/12/18/3069581.shtml
  16. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-27.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ^ Helander, Magnus (2007-04-30). "UD plankade Wikipedia" (in Swedish). resume.se. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  18. ^ "Filecrunch.com homepage". filecrunch.com. 22 November 2010. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  19. ^ Práca, Bakalárska. Vybrané animačné nástroje programu 3ds Max a ich využitie pri tvorbe charakteru [Selected 3ds Max animation tools and their use in character creation] (PDF) (Thesis) (in Slovak).
  20. ^ Huang, Ming-Rong; Lee, Ruen-Rone. "Pixel Art Color Palette Synthesis". doi:10.1007/978-3-662-46578-3_38. ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  21. ^ Howard, Dorothy (15 September 2015). "Meet the manga avatars of your favorite tech platforms". Hopes&Fears. Archived from the original on 16 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  22. ^ Neto, Ernane Alves Guimarães; de Lima, Leonardo Souza. Narrativas e Personagens para Jogos (in Portuguese). p. figure 4.6. ISBN 9788536525716.
  23. ^ "Wikipe-tan SPNATI Wiki". Miraheze. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  24. ^ https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-catgirl-robots

External links[edit]

Media related to Wikipe-tan at Wikimedia Commons

Categories