Wikipedia

10 Tricks to Make Yourself a Wikipedia Master

It’s the most famous and most open encyclopedia in the world, so obviously there’s more to Wikipedia than just checking episode summaries for Breaking Bad. Find out how you can make the most of the free encyclopedia. 1. Create ebooks and PDFs for offline reading Wikipedia has a built-in Book Creator tool that you can…

Wikipedia Reveals Which Pages the “Right to be Forgotten” Law Killed

Earlier this week, Europe’s controversial “Right to be forgotten” legislation started going after Wikipedia pages. Now we know more: Wikipedia has revealed the five pages removed from Google searches, adding up to more than 50 links in total. The Wikimedia Foundation posted the notices of removal online today. Pages on Italian criminal Renato Vallanzasca, Irish…

Wikimedia Won’t Take Down This Photo Because a Monkey Took It

Time and time again, British nature photographer David Slater has asked the editors of Wikipedia to stop using his photos without permission. Unfortunately for Slater, at least in the eyes of the Wikimedia Foundation, they’re not quite his photos—because the monkey pressed the shutter. Slater (or depending on where your loyalties lie, the selfie-loving primate)…

Europe’s “Right to be Forgotten” Law Kills Its First Wikipedia Page

Europe’s controversial “Right to be forgotten” ruling has claimed its first Wikipedia page victim, according to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Wales told The Observer that the E.U. legislation is “completely insane and needs to be fixed.” The Wikipedia page will stay up, but it will not appear in Google search results. Google, like Wales, is…

Someone At Congress Got Banned From Wikipedia for Trolling

Trolling is fun, until you get caught. And that’s exactly what just happened to someone in Washington, who got a Congressional IP address banned for trolling Wikipedia. It all started when the Twitter account @CongressEdits started tracking (and tweeting) the anonymous edits Congressional IPs were making to Wikipedia. It seems that someone (a staffer no…

Congress Is Still Editing Wikipedia a Lot — Here’s How We Know

Ever since members of Congress got busted for rewriting Wikipedia articles in 2006, anonymous editors of the online encyclopedia on Capitol Hill have become more circumspect. But the days of under-the-radar editing are over, with a new bot that monitors each and every change in real time. (Photo: Shutterstock) Created less than a week ago…

One Man and His Bot Have Written Almost 10% of Wikipedia

You’ve probably never heard of Sverker Johansson, but you probably should have. He is, afterall, the most prolific WIkipedia author on the internet—having written 2.7 million articles for the online encyclopaedia. TheWall Street Journal hasa wonderful profile of the 53-year-old Swede, whose output outstrips any other Wikipedia editor. Holding degrees in linguistics, civil engineering, economics…

Tracking the Bizarre Edits Congress Makes to Wikipedia

The elected representatives you chose to represent you in the legislative branch of the United States of America aren’t just making modifications to national law. They’re also editing the Wikipedia pages for “Horse head mask” and “Step Up 3D.” Or at least their staffers are. And thanks to @congressedits, you can keep tabs on it.…

New changes to Wikipedia’s terms of use mean that anyone who is paid to edit articles will have to disclose that arrangement. Which is a good thing.

When Reading the Article Takes Too Much Time, There’s TL;DR Wikipedia

One of the best/worst things about Wikipedia is the temptation to spend hours trawling its depths. Poring over a long article. Clicking through to other entries. Opening a tab for each of the cited sources. It can be a lot to digest. But for those who would rather avoid all that reading, there’s TL;DR Wikipedia…

I Wish I Could Read Wikipedia Like This

I love Wikipedia, but too often the articles are just not that easy to read. It’s not that my English isn’t good enough. My English good. There is Simple English Wikipedia, but it doesn’t cover as many topics and it’s not as thorough. No, what bothers me about reading Wikipedia isn’t the language, it’s the…

Harvard’s Hiring a Wikipedian-in-Residence

Do you like Wikipedia? Are you a fan of obscenely wealthy educational institutions with unspeakable power? Then you’ll love the job listing that just went up at Harvard. They’re hiring a Wikipedian-in-Residence. It pays by the hour. You might be wondering what exactly a Wikipedian-in-Residence does, and you’d be wise to wonder whether or not…

How to Make a More Readable Wikipedia

We love Wikipedia. The idea of a constantly updated knowledge base where everyone is welcome to read and contribute is staggering, and we dip into this great pool of content on an almost daily basis at 1910. However, having spent the last three years learning more about typography have made us aware of it’s limitations.…

Wikipedia’s Adding Voice Recordings to Famous People’s Biographies

Imagine being able to hear a great historical figure’s voice. It would add such richness to the facts and dates about her or his life. Starting today, Wikipedia will make that possible with the Wikipedia Voice Intro Project, adding short voice recordings to the online encyclopedia. And that’s truly awesome. https://gizmodo.com/listening-to-this-incredible-recording-of-einstein-will-1464557213 WikiVIP announced the program…

To address the problem that 80 percent of new contributions to Wikipedia are abandoned before they’re submitted, the online encyclopaedia now offers a drafting feature to help ease a little of the pressure.

How I Became Gaming’s Most Popular and Anonymous Photographer

I’m a very accomplished photographer. My photos have been in magazines, newspapers, textbooks, blogs, online videos, television and any other medium that you can think of. My work has been seen by millions and will be one of the most important resources for the history of video games. The only catch is that I’m almost…

How the Bible Is Helping Crack Your Passwords

The Bible might not be quite the good book it claims to be. According to an Ars Technica report on the future of password cracking, the holy book is being employed to help crack passwords to great effect. The article explains how security researchers Kevin Young and John Dustin have been using books acquired from…

This Crazy Program Turns Wikipedia Into 3D Models of the Real World

Google puts a lot of work into creating a virtual map of the world with Street View, sending cars and backpackers everywhere with huge cameras. But what if a computer program could do all that automatically? Well, there’s one that can. All it needs is Wikipedia and Google Images. Developed by Bryan Russellat Intel Labs…

Microsoft Wanted Google to Censor a Wikipedia Page About Microsoft

After asking Google to censor Microsoft.com, Microsoft has given Google a copyright takedown request for a Microsoft Wikipedia page. Microsoft must want to scrub all mentions of itself on the Internet or something. It’s the only sensible explanation for its vigilance! Or, I guess, the other reason for vomiting out inane takedown requests like this…

The 10 Most Controversial Wikipedia Topics Around the World

Give a bunch of scientists a dataset like Wikipedia to play with, and it’ll keep ’em amused for a long old time. Now, a team of researchers from Oxford University have mined the rich seam to work out the ten most internationally controversial topics on the online encyclopaedia. By analyzing edit wars—where one editor changes…