Memory Alpha is a collaborative project launched in November 2003 by Harry Doddema and Dan Carlson. Its goal is to create the most definitive, accurate, and accessible encyclopedia and reference for everything related to Star Trek . The project uses the Wiki model, and is hosted by Wikia on the MediaWiki software. As of 2005, Memory Alpha hosts nearly 15000 articles, making it one of the largest wiki projects (see List of largest wikis). Memory Alpha has Dutch, English, German, and Swedish editions; the English version alone has received in excess of 12 million visits since moving to Wikia in February of this year.

Memory Alpha is named after the fictional location Memory Alpha (Star Trek), a cultural archive seen on an episode of the original Star Trek . A rivalry with Wikipedia s Trek articles has since developed, because many fans are unsure of where to contribute. For example, both sites cover episode lists, but Memory Alpha s coverage is far superior; on the other hand, Wikipedia s articles on articles from the out-of-universe perspective (such as Trek s influence on society or the question of gay Trek characters) tend to be untouched upon on MA.

The contents of Memory Alpha are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license. Because this license does not allow commercial reuse, it is incompatible with the GNU Free Documentation License, and material from the site cannot be copied into projects that use the GFDL.

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