Wikipedia, the largest online encyclopaedia in the world, needs no introduction. Although anyone is allowed to create an article on the free encyclopaedia, Wikipedia requires that the subject of an article exhibit notability. Some articles which may be considered non-notable have on occasion gone unnoticed for several months before eventually being deleted by an administrator who deems the subject un-noteworthy, as has been the case for several micronations in the past.
However, a milestone finally securing the permanent existence of an article about MicroWiki, the largest micronational wiki, has been made today on 16 May, when a draft article for MicroWiki was approved by an experienced editor of the site during the Articles for Creation process.
Articles for Creation (AfC) is a process designed to assist newer, inexperienced editors in creating a new article by giving them a draft space for them to work on. Other more experienced editors of the site may then give them feedback and aid in an article's creation. When an editor feels the draft is ready to be created (and thus enter the "mainspace" of Wikipedia), they can submit it for creation and wait for it to be either approved or denied by an inexperienced editor more familiar with Wikipedia's notability policies and guidelines.
Today, at 18:16 (UTC), a draft article for the micronational wiki was approved and is now live on Wikipedia. The article, which has a length of 187 words, has ten citations in total. Excluding two citations — one from MicroWiki itself which is used to confirm its copyright license and one from MediaWiki which confirms the wiki runs on the MediaWiki software — sources from the British Independent, Spanish Business Insider and El Definido, a Polish book from Wydawnictwo Poznańskie and the academic journal Shima: The International Journal of Island Cultures are among the citations that all aided towards establishing the wiki's notability on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia's "General notability guideline" (GNG) outlines several key points for what may render a subject as notable enough for inclusion on the encyclopaedia. In general, notably can often be presumed if a subject has received significant in-depth — non-trivial — coverage from reliable sources (typically ones that have editorial oversight or are from a respected publishing house) that are independent of the subject. Shima gives an in-depth analysis of MicroWiki, whilst the Polish book "Tycipaństwa. Księżniczki, bitcoiny i kraje wymyślone" mentions and details MicroWiki several times. Alongside those, several reliable news sources as previously named above have brief descriptions of the wiki, which together helped with establishing significant coverage.
The creator of the draft was user Mattplaysthedrums, who is an administrator on MicroWiki under the username Matt (real name Matthew Hubbard). He created it on 11 May 2021 and submitted the draft for review on 21 September. After initially being declined by the Wikipedia user ThadeusOfNazereth on 7 November, who remarked: "So I think it's really possible that MicroWiki meets notability, but I don't think the current sourcing displays that," the draft was picked up by user AWESOMEDUDE0614, the Penn Federal Republic's very own President Devin Purcell. User Pax Brittanica, real name Sertor Valentinus, also made significant contributions to the article. Edits were also made by Kevin Doan (Blazdonia), real name Kevin I of Blazdonia, and non-micronationalist The Most Comfortable Chair. The article was eventually resubmitted on 15 March 2022, and eventually approved by Dege31 on 16 May.
Several attempts to create an article on MicroWiki had previously been made, including one by MicroWiki's most prolific editor ZabëlleNB — formerly Z Luna Skye — in February 2019, but in all cases the article ended up being deleted by the Wikipedia administration.
As mentioned on MicroWiki's Wikipedia entry, author of "Tycipaństwa. Księżniczki, bitcoiny i kraje wymyślone" Maciej Grzenkowicz described MicroWiki as a "Wikipedia devoted to micronations", while The Independentremarked that the wiki was a thorough resource in which several articles on micronations were longer than those of real-world nations on Wikipedia. MicroWiki often comes up on news articles talking about the phenomenon of micronationalism as it is the largest website dedicated to the subject. The MicroWiki community, which is based around the wiki and other points of communication such as its Discord, is also the largest micronational community in the world, just ahead of the French, Czech and Portuguese communities.