Comparing Wikipedia to other wikis - WikiEN-l - lists.wikimedia.org

List overview All Threads
Download

Comparing Wikipedia to other wikis

Re: [WikiEN-l] If anyone ever says...

Copyright question

Carcharoth

24 Jul 2009 24 Jul '09

1 p.m.

I recently came across this page, on another wiki, where they compare themselves to Wikipedia. Interesting or not? What good points do they make? http://groupprops.subwiki.org/wiki/Groupprops:Groupprops_versus_Wikipedia Does anyone else know of any other "comparison" essays out there? Carcharoth

Reply

Show replies by date

Gwern Branwen

24 Jul 24 Jul

1:11 p.m.

On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 7:00 AM, Carcharoth<carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote:

I recently came across this page, on another wiki, where they compare themselves to Wikipedia. Interesting or not? What good points do they make? http://groupprops.subwiki.org/wiki/Groupprops:Groupprops_versus_Wikipedia Does anyone else know of any other "comparison" essays out there? Carcharoth

Well, there was a nice comparison of de and en I read a while back in userspace. Unfortunately because of our recent mania to NOINDEX each and every thing possible, it is now impossible to google for that essay, and I have no way of refinding it. (Gosh, I wonder if anyone foresaw *that* while enthusiastically advocating yet another restriction & lockdown?) -- gwern

Reply

Carcharoth

1:26 p.m.

On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 12:11 PM, Gwern Branwen<gwern0(a)gmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 7:00 AM, Carcharoth<carcharothwp(a)googlemail.com> wrote:

I recently came across this page, on another wiki, where they compare themselves to Wikipedia. Interesting or not? What good points do they make? http://groupprops.subwiki.org/wiki/Groupprops:Groupprops_versus_Wikipedia Does anyone else know of any other "comparison" essays out there? Carcharoth

Well, there was a nice comparison of de and en I read a while back in userspace. Unfortunately because of our recent mania to NOINDEX each and every thing possible, it is now impossible to google for that essay, and I have no way of refinding it.

See my search below, using Wikipedia's internal search. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Elian/comparison

(Gosh, I wonder if anyone foresaw *that* while enthusiastically advocating yet another restriction & lockdown?)

It was foreseen, I was worried as well. I've now readjusted to using the internal search. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&redirs=1&… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2006-05-01/News_a… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Elian/comparison The reason most searches fail is that it is in user space, so you have to go to the advanced search options and select that, or try the "everything" option. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&redirs=1&… First hit, there. It is seventh hit if you search everything. Note that searching on the word "comparing" won't work, as that word doesn't appear in the userspace essay. Now, turning to Google... http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=german+wikipedia+english+compari… First hit there. What were *you* searching for that meant you failed to find it? To be fair, using the word "comparing" instead of "comparison" in the search terms, means you fail to find it using Wikipedia's internal search function (though the Signpost article still pops up), but Google, it seems, can be clever and "comparing" still works. Carcharoth Carcharoth

Reply

Gwern Branwen

25 Jul 25 Jul

7:45 p.m.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 7:26 AM, Carcharoth wrote:

What were *you* searching for that meant you failed to find it? To be fair, using the word "comparing" instead of "comparison" in the search terms, means you fail to find it using Wikipedia's internal search function (though the Signpost article still pops up), but Google, it seems, can be clever and "comparing" still works. Carcharoth

The same search terms; when I searched, all the hits were for news articles about when de was blocked by German courts (I didn't bother to click through to see which incident exactly). I notice that even so general a search term as 'english german wikipedia' now brings up the occasional blog post comparing the two Wikipedias (though not Elian's). Given my past experience with Google's updating (eg http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/92xdg/is_it_not_only_pointless_bu… ), this would seem to be another example of searches rebalancing Google's results. In the future, when I make claims about things that can't be found in Google, perhaps I'd better start taking screenshots so people don't think I'm making things up! - -- gwern

...PGP SIGNATURE...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEAREKAAYFAkprRLIACgkQvpDo5Pfl1oINlACfRbkxv2tUtiTHB/gLp7FLaBxM sngAoIIeASwz6eqnMX8OuD6ervQgORlr =gRxX -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Reply

Joseph Reagle

24 Jul 24 Jul

3:47 p.m.

Conservapedia is almost wholly a reaction against Wikipedia and describes differences: http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservapedia:How_Conservapedia_Differs_from_W…

Reply

Charles Matthews

4:06 p.m.

Carcharoth wrote:

I recently came across this page, on another wiki, where they compare themselves to Wikipedia. Interesting or not? What good points do they make? http://groupprops.subwiki.org/wiki/Groupprops:Groupprops_versus_Wikipedia

You realise that User:Vipul has contributed similarly to enWP? This person seems to be essentially the only contributor there. Such a wiki can serve a useful and more traditional purpose: documenting what a small group of specialists know about a well-defined area. I would take the claim to have a distinctive content policy with a pinch of salt, because it looks mainly like an old-style wiki and not a WP-style set-up with people arguing from general principles. In other words "WP is not typical", which is an old chestnut. Charles

Reply

5382

days inactive

5383

days old

wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org

Manage subscription

5 comments

4 participants

tags (0)

participants (4)

Carcharoth
Charles Matthews
Gwern Branwen
Joseph Reagle