Wikipedia is easily the largest online encyclopedia known to man. Or should I say known to man for editing? Let’s check out some interesting facts about Wikipedia.
1. Official theme song
Wikipedia has its official theme song and it’s based on 1976 Eagle’s track “Hotel California” and is called Hotel Wikipedia, how original, right? I thought that too! There is a page called Wikipedia Oriented Rock (WOR) which describes it as their official theme song. You don’t believe me!? Go check it out for yourself.
It has been claimed by the site that the single was released in the spring of the year 2004 but there is no source which can back up their claim. Although the choice to edit that is available but a text reads there: “If you edit it, you are proposing an official change! Much bureaucracy will be involved!”
2. A B’day committee
There’s a B’day Committee on Wikipedia that wishes happy birthday to Wikipedians who list their birthday on WP’s conversation page. Committee homepage features different banners that can be utilized to say HBD to the fellow Wikipedian. It also states that “More than one person from the committee may send messages to the same person.”
3. Least popular, Yet active
There is a language called Cheyenne and has in it only 57 articles at the time of penning down this piece. The contributors are only 10. Ideally, this much lesser number means no editing allowed and is eventually slated for shutdown. But it still exists. Waiting to find out what becomes of Cheyenne Wikipedia page.
4. Policy of “No Angry Mastodons”
There are numerous policies of Wikipedia that on the face of it may appear as idiotic but are very logical if pondered over. The policy of “No Angry Mastodons” means, don’t edit an article when you’re not in control of your emotions. That takes away the neutrality in editing/writing of the article. A bias will be evident about a particular subject. See, how clever?
Control of your emotions can be understood as when you’re angry or under the influence of some hate. What happens as a result is that you start bashing people and don’t necessarily contribute objectively.
5. Conservapedia
The US feels that Wikipedia has a liberal bias and in order to curb down latter’s influence, the former has launched an online encyclopedia Conservapedia (I kid you not). Its purpose is to serve as a counterweight to the supreme Wikipedia.
6. Competition to guess last article on Wikipedia
No rewards are known of as a result of correct guess but if you ever intend to play the Sorcerer Supreme (read Doctor Strange), you can participate in the guessing pool of Wikipedia. Imagine if you could name the last article to be ever written on Wikipedia. You’d be the man of the century or centuries to come.
7. DAFT
Deleted articles with freaky titles (DAFT) page is a place where you can have fun exploring if you ever feel bored. Freaky titles who wouldn’t want to visit that page? I certainly would love to know why or what made Wikipedia delete a particular titled post. Go on, have some piece of it.
8. Observe in real time
We all know that Wikipedia is the big base of articles (big is an understatement). However, if you wish to see whether or not there is truth to the stats;1 billion edits, 17.6 million articles, 27 million users (at the time of writing this article), try refreshing the page a couple of times and you’ll observe the shift in numbers.
9. Wikiversity
One of sister projects of Wikipedia but relatively new. It offers collective learning, teachers create and revise course materials so that everyone can benefit mutually. No degree sorry but again mutual benefit is the idea and anyone can teach or take lessons by signing up at Wikiversity.
10. SuggestBot
SuggestBot is a feature of Wikipedia that will give you suggestions based on your past editing history if you have been an active user. For some, it becomes a daunting task when they have edited one item on Wiki. This is where SuggestBot steps in to relieve you of your worry and recommend what needs your or what you can do next to contribute/help. Ain’t that a thing of beauty?
Now don’t tell me you knew all those above facts before I told you.
Author Bio: Laura Belmonte is a blogger by profession and has been writing for Dissertation Writing Help for a very long time now. She specializes in topics such as life hacks, tech, digital marketing and such.
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