User:Davidcannon/Nuked/Hierarchypedia

Hierarchypedia was an open content, online encyclopedia project inspired by Wikipedia, but with more specialized objectives, dealing with the world's political, economic, religious, military, dynastic, and other power structures.

Hierarchypedia was launched on 6 October 2004. Its stated purpose was to provide reliable information on influential people and organisations throughout history. A random sample of topics covered included Amway, George H. W. Bush and the Bush family, the United Nations, Freemasonry, and the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project. There were 899 articles as of 20 April 2005. More than 90 percent of these were contributed by the founder and owner, David Hopkins, known on Wikipedia as User:Hierarchypedia, although there were as many as 24 registered users, three of whom were administrators.

Hierarchypedia used the MediaWiki software, with an interface almost identical to that of Wikipedia. Its structure, with administrators known as sysops and bureaucrats, was also reminiscent of Wikipedia. One significant difference from Wikipedia lay in the way Hierarchypedia was run: whereas Wikipedia editors have to be approved as sysops or bureaucrats by referendum after contributing at least a thousand edits over a period of three to six months, Hierarchypedia offered adminship to any user who contributed regularly.

The project was run by Blue-Blood.co.uk and hosted by WebsiteUnited. It was disbanded around 29 June 2005, ostensibly for "lack of interest."