YWOT Wiki by Randomguy

An abandoned project by user Randomguy_.

The YWOT Wiki was a network of userpages that aimed to be a comprehensive guide for using the site. In addition to basic tutorials, the wiki also explained the behavior of the YWOT community while shedding light on the site's history.

The wiki was created on February 1st, 2013 and received consistent updates for several months(at least up to July of 2013.) But progress on the project was halted around late 2014, which was supposedly when Randomguy_ left YWOT.

The project has fallen into disrepair in Randomguy's absence, and in the current day much of its contents have been lost to time.

Gallery(Color)

Screenshots in this section are from an Imgur album(also created by Randomguy_) that documented YWOT from 2013 to 2014. The album was provided by FP since it is no longer available on the internet.

Below are the only photos of Randomguy_'s wiki in its original colors.

Homepage

Evolution of the wiki homepage from February to July of 2013.

• 
  "Beta" homepage from February 4th, 2013.
• 
  "Proto" homepage from March 22nd, 2013(Announces another Mormon lockdown.)
• 
  Homepage on April 21st, 2013(Color change to commemorate the departure of JA, a prominent user.)
• 
  Homepage on May 12th, 2013
• 
  Homepage on May 22nd, 2013(YWOT hits a historic low of 8000 visits in April 2013, down from 22,000 in November 2012.)
• 
  Homepage on May 25th, 2013(Reason for low site traffic is stated to be excessive spam/trolling.)
• 
  Homepage on lockdown after a script leak. /Comprehensive was related in some way. (Date: May 26th, 2013.)
• 
  Another version from July 3rd, 2013. An "About Me" section has been added.

History Page

The history page, formerly located at /historyofywot, was possibly the first comprehensive source on YWOT's murky past.

The page received contributions from JA and InfraRaven, two older users, and included a timeline among other things. As the site was created in 2009, /historyofywot would have covered roughly 4 years of events ranging from spam wars to developer updates.

The YWOT history page has since been deleted, but much of its contents can also be found in the YWOT history Github which covers the same time period.

In addition to /historyofywot, Randomguy_ also worked on /~YwotHERP/ and ywothistory.tk(a defunct site which the YWOT history Github is possibly a backup of).

July 7th, 2013

General Page

Lists a brief history of the wiki's development.

April 21st, 2013

/apicaday

Described as a subproject of the YWOT Wiki, /apicaday linked to an Imgur gallery that hosted various YWOT screenshots.

This is most likely the same gallery featured on /~YWOT_screenshots, and where much of the images here are sourced from.

The gallery was deleted at an unknown point.

April 1st, 2013

Destruction?

"YWOT's equivalent to the burning of the Library of Alexandria"

- FP on the loss of the wiki's history page

*The following section is primarily speculation, all that is known is that Randomguy_ left YWOT.

Randomguy_ left YWOT in late 2014, stating that he "desired more freedom from the computer". It is unclear whether or to what extent this is related to the wiki's current state of disrepair.

At some point he (presumably) unclaimed all of the pages that made up the YWOT Wiki, leaving them open to be claimed by whoever got to them first.

Many of these pages were soon picked up by users who preserved their content, albeit without their original colors.

Other pages are now blank or sparse in content, suggestive that they were either griefed or left unfinished after Randomguy_ departed.

(Some wiki pages might have been transported to the /~Randomguy_/ subdomain following the July 2013 update. This has happened with at least two worlds in /~randomguy_/historyofywot and /~randomguy_/fractals_inc.)

(Whether Randomguy_ did the same for any of his other worlds is unknown, but in any case his account was deleted some time during or after 2021.)

• 
  Account from FP, who joined YWOT a year or so after Randomguy_'s departure.

List of Pages

All known subworlds that served as articles for the wiki.

Their names are taken from a (very blurry) screenshot in the YWOT imgur album, which shows all the pages owned by Randomguy_ at the time.

Pages With Content

*Pages with (remnants of) their original content, albeit without colors, links or comment spaces. 
Most of these worlds are consisted entirely of private tiles.

*The wiki's homepage stated that users could create their own articles. 
Pages with a certain naming scheme(Ex./ywotwiKi_00000c) might have been blank templates for people to edit.

1. /CENtralserver: A page that Randomguy_ used to catalogue all of his worlds. Abandoned at one point.
2. /jokefest: April Fools page. Unrelated to the wiki.
3. /billboard100: A (empty) list of YWOT's favorite songs.
4. /BOUncingsquare: Contains only a single piece of text at X: -1 Y: 1.
5. /RewriteInception: Rewrites of the popular movie by Christopher Nolan. Unrelated to wiki.
6. /Teamtrap2: Joke page, unrelated to wiki.
7. /ywotForprogress: A page advocating for extensive measures against spam. Part the Member-Only YWOT movement.
8. /ywotwiKi_00000c: A chatroom.
9. /ywotwiKi_00000e: Unfinished.
10. /ywotwiKi_00000u: A mostly empty page labeled "guidebook."
11. /ywotwiKI_as0001: On letterspam.
12. /ywotwiKi_aG0001: On anarchy in YWOT.
13. /ywotwiKi_aG0002: On the beliefs of erasers.
14. /ywotwiKi_aG0003: On idealists who try to fight against the site's more unpleasant elements(spammers and erasers).
15. /ywotwiKi_aG0004: On the influence spammers exert over the site.
16. /ywotwiki_AE0001: On the disappearance of the Spawn Box from February 24th to February 25th, 2013.
17. /YWotwikibackup: A backup homepage, the original purpose of which is unknown.
18. /ywotwiKidownformaintenance: Probably linked in place of pages that are being reworked.
19. /ywotwiki___externallinksmore: Links to other sites, including Flockdraw and the YWOT Fandom wikia.
20. /ywotwiKI__frontpage: On how YWOT's Mainpage is similar to /b/ on 4chan.
21. /ywotwikiGetting_started: A brief introduction to the YWOT community.
22. /ywotwikiHistory: Moved to /historyofywot, which is sadly lost to time.
23. /ywotwiki_Intro: "Hello. and welcome to YWOTwiki"
24. /ywotwiki__thegrId: On dot spam.
25. /ywotwikiunwritten_Rules_of_ywot: On the general behavior of YWOT users.
26. /ywotwiki_warfare: An unfinished page about the history of spam wars and how they are fought. One of the sections is labeled "Doomsday Scenario."
27. /ywotwikiWhat_do_I_do_now: Unfinished. "Read a book"
28. /ywotwikiwhat_TO_expect: Unfinished.
29. /ywotwikiYWOTmisc: Listed as "abandoned" in the Central Server. A page for random things that Randomguy_ finds on the Mainpage.
30. /ywotwiki_ywotTRavelcenter: A place where users could write down places and subworlds of note. This is the only wiki page that shows noticeable signs of griefing.
31. /ywotwikiYWottutorials: Listed as "abandoned" in the Central Server. The hub page for tutorials.
32. /ywotwikiYWOTtutorials___antispamstrategies: A page that lists ways to fight spam.
33. /ywotwiki_zZZ001: Regarding a major update to the wiki. Not included on the Imgur list.
34. /SPCA: Listed as "abandoned" in the Central Server. An article about the "Late March Spamtorm" on March 31st, which was classified as a "Category 1" spam event.
35. /thescale: Listed as "abandoned" in the Central Server. A scale which indicates how active the Mainpage is at any give time, and whether it is controlled by Spammers or Erasers.

Pages Without Content

*Pages that are empty, but display the same capitalization shown in the Imgur list. 
Most of these worlds are public/unclaimed.

1. /WaRfare_basics: More on spam wars. Contains only two characters, which might be remnants of an article.
2. /ywotwiki: Most likely the former homepage.
3. /YWOTwiki_00000a: "Create." Probably allowed users to write their own articles.
4. /ywotwiKi_aC0001: Unknown.
5. /ywotwiKi_00000g: "General." Possibly the "General Page."
6. /ywotwiKI_00000l: "Externals." Probably served the same purpose as /ywotwiki___externallinksmore.
7. /ywotwiKi_00000i: Unknown.
8. /ywotwiKi_00000r: "Travel." Probably served the same purpose as /ywotwiki_ywotTRavelcenter.
9. /YWotwikiASCIIcities: Probably something like Miscellaneous Cities on this wiki.
10. /YWotwiki_A00001: Unknown.
11. /ywotwikiGovernment: Probably on notable/influential users in YWOT, or the general power structure of the sandbox.
12. /ywotwikiHistoryintroduction: An introduction to /historyofywot.
13. /YWOTwikioldnews: Probably an archive for the news bulletin that used to be on the wiki's homepage. Not included on the Imgur list.
14. /YWOTwikioldnews2: Same as YWOTwikioldnews. Not included on the Imgur list.
15. /ywotwikioldNEws3: Same as YWOTwikioldnews.
16. /ywotWikiphilosophy_And_meaning_of_ywot: Sadly empty despite being a claimed world
17. /ywotwikisCripting: As its name suggests.
18. /ywotwiki__spamMertotalitarianism: Probably on how spammers control the sandbox.
19. /ywotwiki_Totalitarian: Same as above.
20. /YWotwikiunderconstruction: Probably linked in place of any unfinished page.
21. /ywotwikiVersionlog: Probably featured archives of old homepages.
22. /ywotwiki__Worldwar: Probably about a major spam war.
23. /YWOTwikiywottutorials___eastereggs: Unknown.
24. /ywotwikiYWOTtutorials___general: Possibly the "General Page." Contains only two characters, which might have once been part of a textbox.
25. /ywotwikiYWOTtutorials___spammingstrategies: As its name suggests.
26. /ywotwiki_Archive: Not on the Imgur list.
27. /ywotwiKi2: Not on the Imgur list.
28. /ywotwikiIdeAS: Supposedly deleted in an update. Not on the Imgur list.
29. /YWOTwikiYWOTissues: Supposedly deleted in an update. Not on the Imgur list.

Pages That Have Been Deleted or Moved

*Pages that display a different capitalization than what was shown on the Imgur list. 
(Ex. /APicADay instead of /apicaday) 
This means that these worlds have either been deleted or moved to another URL, as is common with worlds before the July 2013 update.

1. /APicADay: Described as a subproject of the YWOT Wiki, /apicaday linked to an Imgur gallery that hosted various YWOT screenshots.
2. /HistoryOfYwot: Likely moved to /~randomguy_/historyofywot, a now deleted world which can be found on the Wayback Machine. Unfortunately, however, the Internet Archive does not show the contents of YWOT pages.
3. /fractals_inc: Likely moved to /~randomguy_/fractals_inc. /fractals_inc was described as a subproject of the wiki.
4. /ywotwiKi_00000t: Most likely links to the other tutorial pages.
5. /YWotwiki_directory: Probably something like the central server.
6. /YWotwikifun_places_to_Visit: Probably served the same purpose as /ywotwiki_ywotTRavelcenter.

Illegible

*Names on the Imgur screenshot that are too blurry to discern.

• /ywotwiki_TOOgxx: Unknown.
• /ywotwikiywot??vsauce??: Probably something to do with people brought to YWOT by Vsauce.

Unaccounted Pages

*Pages that have been mentioned, but whose URLs are unknown.

• Membership and Your First Page: A tutorial on how accounts and userpages work.
• ASCII and Unicode Tutorial: As its name suggests. Probably provided a list of useful unicodes for art.
• The Ultimate Tutorial: "Really shady looking!"
• Statistics Page: Provided various YWOT statistics, most notably the monthly view count.

---

The Imgur screenshot was taken on May 27th, 2013, so any pages created after that would not have been included.

If you find any more then please put them here.

(Tip: Capitalize random letters in a subworld's name to see if other people have visited it before. If the capitalization shows up on the tab, then it means that the world is entirely new.)

Gallery(Current)

What remains of the YWOT Wiki.

Colors and links were lost when Randomguy_ abandoned the wiki.

Borders around text would have marked owner-only areas, whereas all other tiles would have been open for public comments.

Central Server

The YWOT Wiki's Central Server states that Randomguy_ owned a total of 61 worlds, including pages that are unrelated to the wiki.

This is clearly out of date as a greater number of pages have been discovered.

Introduction

A general explanation of how YWOT works, detailing different types of users and what roles they play in the site.

• /ywotwikiGetting_started
• 
• 
• 

YWOT Culture and Politics

The wiki sees YWOT as a sort of political system where certain users(Ex. spammers, scripters) have greater control over the sandbox.

• /ywotwikiunwritten_Rules_of_ywot
• 
• 

• 
  /ywotwiKi_aG0001
• 
  /ywotwiKi_aG0002
• 
  /ywotwiKi_aG0004
• 
  /ywotwiKi_aG0003
• 
  /ywotwiKI_as0001
• 
  /ywotwiki__thegrId
• 
  /ywotwiki_AE0001
• 
  /ywotForprogress
• 
  /ywotForprogress
• 
  /ywotwikiwarfare
• 
  /thescale

Tutorials

The pages for "ASCII and Unicode," "The Ultimate Tutorial," and "Membership and Your First Page" have not been found. Curiously, their names are not seen on the list of wiki pages, suggesting that they were created at a later date.

It is unknown whether the contents of these pages are still intact.

• 
  /ywotwikiYWottutorials
• 
  /ywotwikiYWOTtutorials___antispamstrategies

Unfinished and Miscellaneous Pages

/SpaceFighters was an in-site video game by Codefactor.

It is unclear what /TheOperator was for, but there are multiple userworlds in its name(/~theoperator/ and /~theoperator/theoperator).

• 
  /YWotwikibackup
• 
  /ywotwiKi_00000c
• 
  /ywotwikiHistory
• 
  /ywotwikiYWOTmisc
• 
  /ywotwiki_ywotTRavelcenter

Update

A message from Randomguy_ regarding a major update to the wiki.

Changes would have included a visual update to the homepage, the completion of several unfinished pages and the deletion of unnecessary worlds.

Despite what the update states, all the pages that were supposed to be finished have remained incomplete; and likewise all the pages that were marked for deletion still exist, with /ywotwikiywotmisc even having content.

The update would have taken place from 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. CST. It seemed to have occurred in March or April of 2013, judging by its inclusion on the General Page.

/ywotwiki_zZZ001

Unrelated Pages

Owned by Randomguy_ but not related to the YWOT Wiki.

• 
  /jokefest
• 
  /RewriteInception
• 
  /Teamtrap2

Other Wikis In YWOT

Other subworlds that seemed to be repositories of informations.

/~YwotHERP/

/~YwotHERP/ was another project by Randomguy_ which was closely linked to /historyofywot.

The Your World of Text History Exploration, Revision and Projection Project was an account which rallied users to find information about YWOT history(Exploration), correct misconceptions(Revision) and speculate about the site's future(Projection).

/~YwotHERP/ was founded on April 5th, 2014 as a way for regular users to contribute to /historyofywot and other history pages.

List of Subpages

• /~YwotHERP/about: A description of the project's goals.
• /~YwotHERP/Members: Completely empty.
• /~YwotHERP/Beta: The goal was to learn more about YWOT's beta period, either by contacting a user from that time or asking Andrew himself.
• /~YwotHERP/Future: A page for speculations(projections) on the future of YWOT. The purpose of this was to help the community prepare for spam wars and anticipate the circulation of destructive scripts.
  • As of April 2014, /~YwotHERP/'s predictions were:
    1. "By 2015, Scripts will be more widespread."
       • Probably came true, as seen in the Summer of 2015.
       • By 2021 however scripts are a lot less commonplace.
    2. "By 2016, the userbase will increase by up to 10,000."
       • It is unlikely that this prediction came true, as site traffic was decreasing as early as 2013.
       • This downward trend is still going on today as YWOT enters its most dormant period yet.
    3. "By 2016, YWOT will undergo an update to its URL system."
       • Did not happen.

/~YwotHERP/ was designed to gather information from user contributions, but as of today it seems that most of them have been wiped.

Alternatively it is possible that the project never gained significant popularity. This would explain why there are no names in the members page.

/~TheAlmanac/

/~TheAlmanac seemed to be the homepage of an unfinished wiki network. It promised to "show off YWOT to its fullest extent," offering a tutorial on basic features, a directory of subworlds, and a list of useful scripts.

The homepage would have linked to four additional pages labeled "Contribute," "ArchiveYWOT," "Index," and "About." /~ArchiveYwot might have been one of these pages, but it's impossible to tell as it is almost entirely empty.

Given that the two projects cover largely the same grounds, The Almanac might have been inspired by(or acted as a successor to) Randomguy_'s wiki.

/~YwotWiki/

/~YwotWiki/

Below is a series of mostly empty worlds that claim to be hosted by Randomguy_, though at least one of them appears to have been taken over by a spammer.

/~YwotWiki: "coming soon"

/~YwotWiki2: The page seemed to have been owned(or taken over) by a spammer, possibly Lol007, who owns /~ywot_scripts/.

/~YwotWiki3: Mostly empty.

/~YwotWiki4: Mostly empty.

/~YwotWiki5: Mostly empty. Randomguy_ left a message saying that they "find this amusing," suggesting that the entire series of worlds was an attempt to impersonate him.

/~YwotWiki6: Mostly empty.

/~YwotWiki7: Mostly empty.

/~YwotWiki8: Mostly empty.

/~YwotWiki9: Mostly empty.

/~YwotWiki10: Mostly empty.

/~YWOT_.../

/~YWOT_music/

It seems as if all of the following worlds were created after 2021. Despite this, most of them appear to be from a far older time period, with a few containing links that became defunct long before the 2020s. With this in mind, it is also possible that these are modern recreations of deleted pages.

/~YWOT_landmarks/(dated 2022) was created by user InstantRamen, who discovered a variety of locations using a script that tracked edits across the Mainpage. They did not create any of the other pages, though the presence of "/~YWOT_test123/" does imply that at least a few of the following worlds were part of an interconnected project.

/~YWOT_Nico/ is probably an unrelated userpage.

/~YWOT_test123/: Test world.

/~YWOT_culture/: Completely empty.

/~YWOT_help/: Doesn't exist.

• Would have likely served the same purpose as /~Help.

/~YWOT_history/: Doesn't exist.

/~ywot_memes/: A private page.

• /~ywotmemes/ also exists and is also a private page.

/~ywot_music/: A collection of music to listen to while browsing YWOT. The official music player no longer works.

• /~ywotmusic was claimed by Randomguy_ at an earlier time.

/~YWOT_quotes/: Doesn't exist.

• Likely a list of interesting messages similar to Miscellaneous Text on this wiki.

/~YWOT_screenhots/: A misspelling of "screenshots."

/~YWOT_screenshots/: Links to a Tumblr account and an Imgur page, the latter of which can no longer be accessed on the web. Many of the screenshots on this page are from these two sources.

/~YWOT_weather/: Doesn't exist.

• ??Possibly a daily report on the state of Spawn and whether it is being spammed??

/~YWOT_landmarks/: A list of Mainpage landmarks. This world is surprisingly active, having been updated as late as November of 2022.

Trivia

• From the screenshot of their list of worlds, it can be seen that Randomguy_ was a member of MIM worlds such as /A_New_Beginning and /ANBMembers.
• Randomguy_ is the subject of a meme by InfraRaven.