Liquipedia Review - Episode III

LP: Care to give us a quick introduction of yourself?

Aesop: Hello, I am Aesop. I have been a member of TL.net since October 2007 and was recently staffed to head Liquipedia. I play Protoss with an abysmal PvT. In rl I just finished my studies of philosophy and I am about to enrol for a PhD program.

LP: How did you first get into StarCraft?

Aesop: when Starcraft launched, I had been playing a variety of games, like warcraft II, Diablo I and the C&C series. So it seemed natural to try it. Soon after I started playing LAN with friends.

LP: And it just spiraled out from there?

Aesop: hell, no

Aesop: I quit sc to play D II, I quit D II to play Wc3, I quit Wc3 to play WoW, I quit WoW to play Wc3, I quit Wc3 to play Bw

Aesop: so basically full circle

Aesop: certainly SC II on the horizon helped for rekindling my interest in brood war

Aesop: and when I found TL I was hooked

Aesop: there was just so much more flair to KOrean progaming than to any other scene I had seen

LP: Why did you decide to help with Liquipedia in its early stages?
Aesop: It appeared like a logical and desirable step to set something like it up. The strategy forum, overall, is a good place to get feedback on your games, but a bad structure to host any kind of systematized information. However, I suffered from the same symptome as many would-be or actual contributors: I did not think that I could contribute anything high-level enough to be included. So my initial contributions were limited.

Aesop: that changed obviously

LP: How do you think the average user can contribute, even if they feel they have no real strategy knowledge?

Aesop: This answer could get long, since this is one of my main messages: First of all, I am quite sure that there is no "average" user. There are common perceived barriers when starting to edit, such as too limited knowledge and all, but those are not sufficient to constitute something like an "average user"

Aesop: A very basic thing everyone can do is spellchecking and formating; the next thing is just going through existing content, using it and checking it for consistency. Sometimes we have people noting that a build order does not work out correctly, so they make a remark on the talk page, and similar.

Aesop: Thirdly, we have content sections beyond strategy now, namely Players, Teams, Leagues, Maps. We seek to contain all kinds of knowledge about Pro Gaming, so if you feel like recounting the storyline of a specific League (for example, the one where you got accustomed to Pro Gaming), it is also content we want.

Aesop: Fourthly, it is usually a bad approach to just think in abstract terms about "what could I do". Try this: Go to Liquipedia; push "Random Page". (Do it again when you hit the profile of an unknown player, we have many of those). You will soon read a page where you will think "wait, this isn't quite complete" or "wait, this is a bit too vague". And this is the point where you start editing.

Aesop: To make it short, I think every single member of TL can and should contribute to the wiki.

LP: What are your responsibilities in Liquipedia?

Aesop: That's hard to deliniate. Before moving on to staff, I saw myself mostly as a facilitator - I would talk to people, encourage them to edit the wiki, and, once started, to go on with that. I would have a look at other people's contributions and try to get the best out of those - besides adding whatever own content I had to offer.

Aesop: Besides that, I have been reviewing people's contributions, but that (luckily) doesn't take much time (except for removing that spam that tries to disguise itself as Obama's inaugural speech). Now my responsibilities range further; I still try to make as much happen as possible, but now I mainly try to coordinate the actions of the admin team (that luckily has grown a little more) and the other contributors.

LP: What is your vision for Liquipedia?

Aesop: I see liquipedia still in its infant stage. How long did it take wikipedia to become main-stream and as well-maintained as it is today? We are currently still in the process of catching up with whatever knowledge is floating around, be it about Players, be it about Strategy. Once those basic things are done, the real beauty of our wiki will shine through.

Aesop: One of the great future visions of Liquipedia obviously concerns Starcraft II: Can we be there right from the start? Will we have the infrastructure in place to become the #1 resource instantly? Will everyone be ready to contribute to this shared project? We are happy about the reputation we are starting to gain in Broodwar, but SCII might be the real watershed.

LP: Can you tell us about any future events or Liquipedia behind-the-scenes projects?

Aesop: I wouldn't want to disclose all the suspensefull projects we have lined up!

Aesop: but kidding aside, a second installment of our strategic Q&A might be in the works. Besides that, we are thinking of getting a very old project done.

LP: And that just about wraps up the interview. Do you have any final thoughts?

Aesop: Thanks to Teamliquid and especially to our stout contributors for making this awesome encyclopedia happen. (Pathos alarm): I live to serve, and my life for TLaiur!