Lexicanum

The Lexicanum is an unofficial wiki based on Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000 product lines; like this wiki, it uses the wikimedia format, distinguishing it from the rival Warhammer 40k Wiki, which uses Wikia. They are both fully dedicated to record every bit of fluff there is, EVERY BIT. They do, however, refuse to record any kind of crunch on Warhammer 40k characters for legal reasons, though many Warhammer players prefer to look up the crunch on units rather than fluff. However, there are a large number of people who don't play the tabletop game for various reasons (cost being one of the biggest ones, Warhammer 40k miniatures are very expensive). Many people are interested in the fluff of the Warhammer universes out of general interest or an interest in one of the game's other iterations, i.e. video games or roleplaying games. Both wikis also have a very stringent policy on everything from how articles and images are to be created and uploaded, to the nature of personal comments on talk pages. The rules are stringent enough that you'll rarely see any non-Warhammer 40k related humor in any of their talk pages or articles.

Regardless, the Lexicanum and the Warhammer 40k Wiki are both good places to look up fluff on anything Warhammer as they've recorded almost all of it. When compared to the Warhammer 40k Wiki, the Lexicanum's articles tend to be shorter due to Administrator Inquisitor S's paranoia, but are more numerous, so while the WH40k Wiki's Carnifex article is much longer and more detailed than the Lexicanum's, the Lexicanum has more information on many aspects of the various alien races of the Warhammer universe which the WH40k Wiki does not. If you want every bit of information that has been collected about a specific WH40k topic, the Warhammer 40k Wiki is the better bet; though there is the caveat that the WH40k Wiki may or may not have an article for that particular thing. But if you want to be sure of finding at least a short article for even the most obscure WH40k topic, the Lexicanum is your wiki.

The WH40k Wiki and the Lexicanum have something of a rivalry, but there is little doubt that the Lexicanum is the better known of the two sources, as the WH40k Wiki came into existence in its current incarnation only in May 2010, while the Lexicanum was created in 2005. This differential also explains why the WH40k Wiki has a smaller number of articles than the Lexicanum.

To simplify it: While WH40k Wiki has generally more information and higher quality of information on any given topic, it suffers from the fact that it once allowed fan-made imagery in. The Lexicanum, on the other hand, is more reminiscent of official Games Workshop material (often word for word), such as the tabletop game's Codexes, but it sometimes lacks as much depth on a particular topic.

While the Warhammer 40k Wiki's pages are of far superior quality, it lacks the sheer number and scope of articles that Lexicanum has and allows fan-art on the site, though the site's rules indicate that fan art will only be accepted in certain very rare cases.

Warhammer 40,000 Wiki cites all sources used at the bottom of each article rather than using footnotes. The lack of in-line citation, however, means that the authors must be trusted, making it far more difficult to check each article's facts. However, the small, professional staff is quick to fix errors that are pointed out by the community.

Comparison

Lexicanum	Warhammer 40k Wiki
More articles on obscure fluff	Fewer articles on obscure fluff
Shorter, condensed, simpler articles	Longer, more in-depth articles
Slower to update	More recent information
Only official everything - EVERYTHING!	Fanart used when considered applicable/needed
Well known in community, better established	More recent creation, rapidly expanding
In-text links to citation footnotes	Citations only at the end of the page
Rampant paranoia about new edits, more veteran editors	More open, smaller staff of professionals because the fans could not be trusted
Your edits WILL BE REVERTED and YOU WILL BE BANNED	Your edit will probably be reverted, so go away
Few ads	You will DROWN in advertisements if you don't register (or have Adblock Plus)
Does have Warhammer Fantasy information. Most of it is crap and outdated, though. The German version has generally more information and media than English version. It is still crap and outdated.	No Warhammer Fantasy information (you have to rely on a different wiki for that here)