Hi,
The french wikipedia just made it to 50 000 articles today.
I must say... I cheated, so as to ensure I would do the 50 000 article :-) I prepared a collection of stubs and saved them in a row at the right moment :-) The trick was to save the right article for the 50 000...
Cough.
When I first edited the french wikipedia, it was mostly a collection of stubs, perhaps 5 serious articles and 100 stubs. Then months after months, articles got better, more complete. And while they grew, more and more contributors started complaining against stubs, which they judge dishonest toward the readers and not worth for the project.
In summer 2002 (the wikipedia was still in the first version of the software then, so there was no notion of namespaces, and about 700 pages all included), a new editor joigned, Tim (Athymik). Tim has now left wikipedia.
Tim often wrote stubs; he wrote many in human biology. One day, he wrote a stub, which could even be called substubs, the most famous of which was the article on the apple.
The '''apple''' is a [[fruit]].
http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Pomme&oldid=18085.
This one, and with it, several other articles on fruits (the pear is a fruit etc...) was really borderline :-)
After Tim wrote several of those, some people protested (definitly, me included).
A reference of this discussion is here http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discuter%3APoire (this is the discussion page of the pear).
The article on the apple is now here : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomme
A year later, ''the apple is a fruit'' had become a real article. The pirannah affect was born.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia%3AEffet_piranha
Tim throw a few bits on a page, and the other editors ate them. I think that "the apple is a fruit" became a historical reference.
Later, Tim grew tired of Wikipedia, and after he dropped his sysop status, he left. I regretted him, because we both played a lot having anonymous funny exchanges on Wikipedia.
Today, I made as the 50 000 article, la n�fle, the medlar.
The medlar is a fruit.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=N%C3%A8fle&oldid=784091
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A8fle
The expression "Des n�fles" also means in french "something of little value"
Just as a stub is in itself of little value.
In doing this, the stub-n�fle, I wished to remind editors that if a stub has nothing very exciting, it is a start. Our collective additions give our common project its value.
I also wished to remind that even if Wikipedia is quite young, Wikipedia also has an history. And I wanted to thank all those who brought quite a lot and who are now gone, such as Athymik and so many others, who left some memories, who left content and who are now gone.
Thanks to all of them for what their participation.
I'll see what the n�fle article is in one year from now. Hopefully in 10 years :-) Hehe.
ant
Les plus anciens se souviendront de cette histoire que je vais vous relater. Il existait dans les temps anciens un contributeur nomm� Tim. Tim est parti depuis de long mois maintenant, mais il fut un contributeur important � une �poque.
Dans ces d�buts, la majeure partie de l'encyclop�die �tait constitu� de stubs (je pourrais probablement dire que le projet comptait environ 100 stubs quand je l'�ditait - anonymement - la premi�re fois. Au cours des mois, les articles se sont am�lior�s enrichis. Et de nouveaux contributeurs se sont mis � ronchonner contre les stubs, jug�s peu dignes du projet.
Un jour, Tim �crivit une s�rie de stubs, � la limite de l'indignit�. Un de ces stubs fut celui de la [[pomme]]. Je vous invite � voir l'article de l'�poque : http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Pomme&oldid=18085. Apr�s que Tim eu �crit plusieurs articles du m�me genre, plusieurs personnes protest�rent (dont moi, car en effet, ce genre de stub ne m'enchante pas). Vous trouverez une petite r�f�rence ici : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discuter%3APoire (la poire ayant subi le m�me outrage que la pomme).
L'effet pirannah �tait n�. Tim jeta en pature quelques miettes, et les autres �diteurs firent le reste. Presque deux ans plus tard, vous pouvez lire ce qu'il deveint de la [[poire]] (certes moins belle que la pomme). Voir ainsi [[Wikip�dia:Effet piranha]].
Puis Tim s'est lass�, et, apr�s avoir quitt� son statut d'admin, il est parti. Je l'ai regrett�, car j'aimais jouer � l'�diteur anonyme avec lui (jeu r�ciproque).
En recr�ant comme 50 000 article la [[n�fle]], j'ai voulu � la fois rappeler aux m�moires que, m�me si un stub n'a rien d'excitant, c'est un point de d�part, et que nos ajouts collectifs donnent sa valeur � notre projet commun. J'ai voulu aussi rappeler que m�me si jeune, Wikip�dia a d�j� une histoire, et remercier ceux qui ont d�j� beaucoup apport�s, et sont partis, comme [[Utilisateur:Athymik]] ou [[Utilisateur:Curry]] (suspendu en plein vol), ou [[Utilisateur:Tibo]] ou tellement d'autres, qui sont pass�s, qui ont laiss� leur trace, et qui sont repartis. Merci � eux et � vous tous :-)
ant
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