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.
The general idea for a "Wikipe-tan" mascot was posted on January 5, 2006, by the anonymous Taiwanese IP address192.192.170.2, 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]
The puzzle pieces worn by the character are from an earlier version of the Wikipedia puzzle globe logo. ワィ is 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 logo'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]
editThe three current Wikimedia sisters (from left to right): Commons-tan, Wikipe-tan, and Quote-tan.
June 2006 — Wikipe-tan was made the mascot for the Anime and manga WikiProject after the previous mascot, a fan-art image of the title character from Midori Days, was removed from Commons due to copyright problems. Since her first appearance, many users across the entire Wikimedia project have placed images of her on their userpages (see Commons usage for each image).
October 9, 2007 — the image was delisted and is no longer a featured picture.
September 2006[7] — Wikipe-tan also acted as the mascot of the Counter-Vandalism Unit since their previous logo had been removed[8] in February 2006 due to trademark and copyright-related complications.
August 2008 — a new image replaced[9] Wikipe-tan, though the old logo with Wikipe-tan was still used on the Project template until[10] March 2011.
July 2007 — a suggestive image of Wikipe-tan (not drawn by Kasuga) was proposed for use in the article on lolicon. The image was removed[11] from Commons by Jimbo Wales, who called Wikipe-tan a "community mascot" who should not be subject to such "pedophilic sexualization".[11] Kasuga later drew a new image for the article which did not use Wikipe-tan.
December 21, 2007 — an image of Wikipe-tan wearing baro't saya was added to Wikipedia:Tambayan Philippines. That same image is currently used on the front page of the Chavacano-language Wikipedia at cbk-zam: and has been since June 27, 2008 (and was then made bigger on July 22, 2009).
May 31, 2006 — a userChrome.css, written by Kylu, is available for Firefox users to add Wikipe-tan in their browsers.
June 2006 — issue 48 of games™, a United Kingdom gaming magazine, used an image of Wikipe-tan on page 30 as an illustration of maid cafés.[12]
August 2006 — Two Wikipe-tan cosplayers have been spotted in a cosplay activity at the University of Hong Kong. One of them was later interviewed by the Hong Kong magazine Easy Finder, which erroneously reported that she had been invited by Kasuga and Norwegian "administrator" GunnarRene to become the real-life personification of Wikipe-tan.[13][14]
December 18, 2006 — The Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily compounded that error, reporting that she had become a representative for Wikipedia.[15]
October 12, 2006 — Hong Kong's Apple Daily ran a short article discussing Wikipe-tan, and how the GFDL helped her spread across Wikimedia.
March 2007 — the Swedish foreign ministry published a promemoria[16] about Japanese anime and manga, using text and Kasuga's Wikipe-tan image from the Swedish Wikipedia without acknowledgement as required by the GFDL. The Swedish media reported this violation in April,[17] and the Chancellor of Justice ruled that the act was a copyright infringement in November.[18]
June 15, 2007 — the German newspaper Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten (circulation ca. 31,000) used Wikipe-tan on the front page as well as next to an article on the variety of manga.
June 1, 2008 — British newspaper The Observer featured on page 35 in the 'World' section a picture of the cropped sailor fuku version of Wikipe-tan in the article "Girl geeks find manga haven", byline Justin McCurry. The article makes no mention of Wikipedia, Wikipe-tan, or the GFDL.
May 2012 — The proportions of Wikipe-tan inspired those of a 3D-modelled character designed for a thesis.[19]
2015 — Pixel art of Wikipe-tan is used as an example in a paper about pixel art.[20]
September 15, 2015 — Wikipe-tan was mentioned alongside various other mascot characters in a Hopes and Fears article.[21]
2017 — Wikipe-tan is used as an example of a character with a super-deformed version in a textbook.[22]
April 1, 2021 — Adult Wikipe-tan was added as an opponent in the free browser-based strip poker game SPNATI (Strip Poker Night at the Inventory) as part of their yearly April Fools' Day event. After the event ended, she was removed before being added again due to several requests from the player base.[23]
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.
Commons-tan
Adult Commons-tan
Taking a picture
Wikiquote-tan
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.
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Media related to Wikipe-tan at Wikimedia Commons