[Wikipedia-l] [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia must change with Googling (was: Dartmouth follies)

[Jens Ropers]

CB low
On 26 Aug 2004, at 08:50, wikien-l-request at Wikipedia.org wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:45:17 +0800
> From: Andrew Lih <andrew.lih at gmail.com>
>
> (...) what has bothered me lately is the fact
> that Googling for "wikipedia foo" likely brings up one of our mirrors
> first, and not Wikipedia itself. So when I see a blatant error
> magnified "n" times on the many mirrors on the Internet, it sends a
> chill up my spine.
>
> Worse, because those sites are mirrors, and don't accept changes, it
> makes it easy for readers to walk off and say, "What a crackpot
> project."
>
> So increasingly, the dynamic is changing, and in large part it's due
> to Google search results. Whether these mirrors are gaming the search
> algorithm or whatever, increasingly "Wikipedia content" does not
> reside in a true wiki, because the fruits of publishing are being
> removed from the mechanisms of fixing errors. I feel the dynamic of
> inclusionism/deletionism and the promptness of when things are fixed
> must take this into account.
>
> -- 
> Andrew Lih
> andrew.lih at gmail.com

This is _one *more* reason_ why I think it is so important that we 
implement our own domain name across the board:
I have in the past proposed -- and am proposing again -- that we use:

wikipedia.org -- as our main site

AND the following as redirects:

wikipedia.com (already active)
wikipedia.net (already active)
wikipaedia.org (cybersquatted by a German Wikipedia imposter)
wikipaedia.com (cybersquatted by the same German Wikipedia imposter)
wikipaedia.net (I recently registered this domain myself and am still 
seeking to donate it to the Wikipedia Foundation)

In addition I believe we should also control the *important* ccTLDs, 
such as:

wikipedia.de (German, already active)
wikipaedia.de (German, cybersquatted by the same German Wikipedia 
imposter)
wikipedia.co.uk (owned by us, but _BROKEN_ "Wiki does not exist" error)
wikipaedia.co.uk (currently unregistered)
and possibly more

The ccTLDs should redirect to the respective language version of the 
Wikipedia (not strictly applicable w/ .co.uk as AFAIK there isn't a 
separate British English Wikipedia).

That should shut out the most disturbing cases of Wikiplagiarism and as 
a side effect pimp us in terms of Google rankings.
I am very much for us moving ASAP to get the cybersquatted domain names 
surrendered to us (which we're entitled to under the terms of the ICANN 
UDRP).

NB: I have extensively discussed the aforementioned German 
cybersquatter/WP imposter at 
http://www.ropersonline.com/Area_51/wikipaedia.html (user: guest, 
passwd: 1ns4nI+y)

- Jens [[User:Ropers|Ropers]]