Katherine Ehmann wrote:
<mailto:wikitech-l@wikipedia.org>
Hello,
I am conducting a research project on Wikipedia as part of my master's program and
I'm wondering if there is a way to access a list of new articles/pages created on a
specific date. I tried using the New Pages page
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Newpages
<https://exchange.mcgill.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Newpages>
) to go back in time, but I need to go back to February 2007 and considering how many
pages are added each day, this method is rather time-consuming and imprecise. Is there a
way to retrieve a history of new pages created on a specific date?
Thanks,
Katherine
As a matter of fact, there is. Using a "specific" SQL query
against the
database would yield results. However, you cannot access the Wikimedia
databases just like that. You can either ask someone to do it (someone
who has an account on the Toolserver or a Wikimedia sysadmin; I don't
think this would work) or download a dump and do it yourself :) If you
need the query, send me a private email.
Filip