Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance

The Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, or NIWA for short, is a of wikis and their associated websites that aims to chronicle all things , supporting wikis independent of large corporate wiki groups such as Wikia.

Founding
NIWA began as an expansion of the concept of Encyclopaediae Pokémonis, shortly after the administration of Zelda Wiki contacted Archaic, Bulbagarden's head, about a possible affiliation. It was jointly decided, shortly thereafter, that rather than a simple affiliation, an entire network of Nintendo-based wikis could be begun, and Super Mario Wiki was shortly asked to join as a founding member.

After a little under a month of planning, NIWA was launched on February 14,, coincidentally the fifth anniversary of the public launch of Bulbapedia. NIWA now boasts having its own forums, hubsite page, and Facebook fan page.

Inductees
Some of the smaller Nintendo themed wikis, such as WiKirby aimed to join NIWA. After much staff discussion, it was decided that wikis needed to first create their 200th article on their own, to prove their willingness to work. NIWA publicity would bring many viewers and possibly new editors once inducting and fully supporting a fellow Nintendo wiki.

WiKirby, the Kirby-themed wiki became the first wiki inducted into NIWA on May 21, 2010. Metroid Wiki was later inducted, and was followed by Wars Wiki. Lylat Wiki was inducted in October 1, 2010, and Pikipedia and Pikmin Fanon joined a week later. StrategyWiki followed on October 15, 2010. Next was SmashWiki, on October 29, 2010, followed by WikiBound on November 4, 2010. Donkey Kong Wiki joined on November 12, 2010. Golden Sun Universe joined on November 30, 2010. The Nintendo Wiki joined on December 10, 2010. Fire Emblem Wiki joined on April 20, 2011, followed by Starfy Wiki on April 28, 2012. F-Zero Wiki joined on March 16, 2012, and Icaruspedia joined on March 23, 2012. The most recent wiki to join is Dragon Quest Wiki on March 30, 2012.

Name
NIWA's name, an acronym of Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, is also romanized Japanese for "garden", symbolizing the natural growth of the community around the fandoms that make it up. This is fitting, given Nintendo's Japanese origins, with romanization of Japanese being an important aspect of all three wikis that currently make up the network.