Sep11wiki

In Memoriam: September 11, 2001

Original discussion

Project proposals

Discussion 2005–2006

The In Memoriam wiki is a former Wikimedia project on the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was made read-only in September 2006^[1], and later deleted from Wikimedia entirely at an unknown point between 2006 and 2007, but remains available on the Wayback Machine, and backups of the database are still available on the Wikimedia dumps site and at the on Internet Archive.

From October 2006 to ~2009 the site was hosted as a third-party project at sep11memories.org. This domain has since been usurped and now points to a spam blog on dog training, but is still available on the Wayback Machine. It is unknown what edits were made to the site in that incarnation, and if they are backed up anywhere. The domain https://sep11.wikipedia.org at one point redirected to sep11memories.org, then was changed to the Wayback Machine, and later to point here in 2024.

An interwiki link was created (sep11:) which pointed to an Internet Archive-hosted archive of the site (see discussion at bug 24805). It was later changed to direct to this page.

I think that the page September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack could be one of the great accomplishments of Wikipedia, if everyone gets involved. Already it's pretty remarkable, and it's only been four days. Many people built an amazing timeline, while my focus has been on the casualties entry. But everyone can help in any way.

I've put in a lot of effort because I live in New York City, and this is the small way I can do something in honor of the thousands of people who died, including the 350 firefighters who died because they rushed in to save people, and in respect for the thousands of people working until they drop, exhausted, after literally days without sleep, digging through the rubbish, cutting through the twisted steel, and getting this city back on its feet--so well that all over the city people can go back to their cafes, be fashionable, and chat merrily with their friends, as if nothing had happened. And it's important that we do get back to normal--but also that we don't forget what happened. And the only way to prevent that is through the preservation and dissemination of knowledge, the reason for something like Wikipedia.

What can you do?

(this section is outdated)

First off, remember that you can Be bold in updating pages. So if you want to plunge headlong, do. There are no experts or masters of building this site--everyone is in charge. That said, here's a list of suggestions, in increasing levels of difficulty or intensity (please add if you think of one):

Build the memorial pages

Five minutes or less

Go to the Personal experiences page and add your own experience or thoughts
Go to the Casualties page, pick one person on the list, and build their initial entry using the template
If you know a victim on the Casualties page, please build or add to their entry
Scroll down to the external references that haven't been fully incorporated and add that information
Track down the online version of the newspaper local to the lost and use the info to write up the entry.

Several minutes to several hours

Find authoritative lists of the missing and add the names, properly formatted, to the Missing Persons page
Figure out how to redesign the Personal experiences page (break it up, most like) to make it useful and easily navigable

Best of luck to you!

Build a dynamic, sexy frontend to the pages, get a memorable and appropriate URL, and give the memorial pages their own virtual site
Convince professional media organizations such as the New York Times to put its memorial reportage into the public domain for the public good

Build the historical pages

Five minutes or less

When you hear new information, add it to the Timeline
As you surf (or scour) the web for stories, make note of the urls of informational stories and add them at the bottom of the appropriate subpages.
Go through info on the Timeline and incorporate it into the appropriate subpages. If they don't exist, make them.
Edit current subpages for content, style, and formatting

Several minutes to several hours

Write comprehensive, critical entries (like the terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, or even box-cutter knife entries) on related topics, such as militant Islam, the tension between civil rights and security throughout history, or the construction of passenger jets and why their pilot doors are made to open easily, even if locked (there are a lot of good reasons).

Best of luck to you!

Hack Wiki to allow the use of templates, so complex subsites like this can be more easily managed and rapidly prototyped (to use a little bizness jargon)

You can also promote the site through whatever means you desire, getting people to link to it, making a simple logo/button, etc.

Of course, there isn't really a hard line between the memorial and historical pages--all the pages act as one great memorial, and every individual page is a bit of history, from the "big" names (John P. O Neill) to the "little" names (Dana Falkenberg).

In particular, I've tried to make it as easy as possible to build intial entries for the casualties, which can then become full-blown tribute pages over time. It takes less than five minutes to build an entry. To do all of them is an impossible task for one person, a simple task for all of us.

--The Cunctator

September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
sep11:In Memoriam - Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors - Give Blood - Personal experiences - Donations
Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services - US Governmental Response
Responsibility - Hijackers - World political effects - World economic effects - Airport security

See also Mémorial 9/11 (some French-speaking people opinion)

↑ "[Foundation-l] sep11.wikipedia.org locked" (message). lists.wikimedia.org. Sep 15, 2006.

[1] "[Foundation-l] sep11.wikipedia.org locked" (message). lists.wikimedia.org. Sep 15, 2006.

[1]