GearKnob

GearKnob is the name of a website founded in February 2022, and hosts this Wiki.

Name

The name "GearKnob" is a compromise. It sounds odd because it was originally intended to be GearKnobs, however, a firm representing Andy Wilman has owned that particular name as a trademark since June 2015, and a game of legal Russian Roulette does not sound particularly appealing. Otherwise, the two-worded "Gear Knob" is in the English dictionary, and so should be safe from any legal challenges.

History

The following is a very abridged story concerning why the change to a whole new domain was not only necessary, but also inevitable from an informal, first person perspective. If you'd like to read a passive-aggressive tome of a diatribe, then read Main Page/Leaving Fandom for further information.

Top Gear Wiki on Fandom

The Top Gear Wiki had existed since 2008, and in its first decade of existence, the amount of activity on it rose and fell, particularly following Clarkson's 2015 fracas. In that time there were a lot of low quality, odd, and ill-fitting additions which took a lot of time to sort out and even by the beginning of 2020, were far from finished.

Implementation of Wiki Specialists

Though I'd enjoyed my time on the service for the first month or so, it was not to last. Wikia/Fandom implemented one of many controlling totalitarian-esque measures by basically stripping the owner of their right to decide what's best for their wiki, deferring it to one guy who had about 500 other wikis under his belt. All this really did was construct an extra wall between me and the sysops who added back in certain features. Eventually it got to a point where I'd contact my assigned specialist, wait a couple days for an answer to whatever request I asked of him, and get a predictable, yet nonetheless disappointing "no" from those he was in contact with. This got old fast.

May 2020 Raid

The final deciding factor for the move occurred in May 2020. A group of internet trolls, chiefly TheAldroid and NootOfRoses, for whatever mind-addled reason, decided to target the wiki because their 15-viewer stream was lacking in content. Other than pointlessly dragging their name through the mud, what their lacklustre raid proved is that no-one really cared about the old wiki. The specialist ought to have noticed and mitigated it before I returned from my brief hiatus, but nothing happened. This made it plain that raids could happen at any time with zero means to negate them. This is particularly bad if you want your Wiki to become an accredited source of information.

Financing and creation

I had the idea for a breakaway Wiki since late 2019, but it could not happen until 2022 as I lacked the financial means to bring it online. With the release of my two-part documentary on Top Gear, I was able to pay for hosting and achieve my goal 2 years behind schedule, but as they say, better late than never. Through sustained donations, you will help to keep this source of information online.