^

June 5, 2007 10:41 PM

Fun with Wikipedia. Try Catfishing, where you guess the article based on the often idiosyncratic Wikipedia categories to which it has been assigned. The related Wiki'd Game involves guessing a topic based on the first seven Wikipedia internal links to it. Or find the shortest path between two concepts (try using the fascinating Omipelagos, which does so automatically) or race to get from one topic to another. Most recently, Something Awful developed the concept of Wikigroaning. [A few challenges inside]
posted by blahblahblah (31 comments total)

Your easiest challenge is a Wik'id game. Which FPP topic posted about in the last 24 hours is described with the following first (I actually removed one, because it was too obvious) seven "what links here" Wikipedia links: Atlas Shrugged, Antipope John XXIII, Battle, Black Death, Bermuda Triangle, Crime, History of Comoros?

Slightly harder is this Catfishing: Albanian cuisine, Armenian cuisine, Romanian cuisine, Greek desserts, Bosnian cuisine, Bulgarian cuisine, Cuisine of the Republic of Macedonia, Cypriot cuisine, Confectionery, and Turkish cuisine.

Or try this one: USA-centric,Weather hazards, Space plasmas, Limited geographic scope

A final challenge is this Wiki'd Game (again, the first seven "what links here" minus the obvious ones): Windex, Garfield, DnL, 2000s fads and trends in North America, Sev, Mountain Dew, Time and Time Again.

Feel free to post your own.
posted by blahblahblah at 10:42 PM on June 5, 2007

Omipelagos is cool and very interesting. It's like that show Connections but without James Burke.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 11:52 PM on June 5, 2007

This show, that is.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 11:53 PM on June 5, 2007

Catfishing is no longer a fish-pole and a creek (pronounced crick), wtf? How did it all get so complicated?
posted by taosbat at 11:59 PM on June 5, 2007

That wikigroaning link really made me laugh.
posted by painquale at 12:01 AM on June 6, 2007

Someone should do one of those map graping analysis of the network of Wikipedia references.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 12:03 AM on June 6, 2007

The Simpsons will be the most highly-connected node.
posted by nowonmai at 12:07 AM on June 6, 2007

Wikigroaning really made me despair for our species.
posted by lekvar at 12:18 AM on June 6, 2007

Ethereal Bligh: Wikiviz. There are others, though.
posted by zamboni at 12:38 AM on June 6, 2007

Yeah, The Simpsons definitely wins. Here's a list of all the articles that link to The Simpsons. There's nothing more exasperating than the gratuitous Simpsons or Star Trek reference. Do the pages for Augustine of Hippo and Phrenology really need to link to the Simpsons?

Wikigroaning is lots of fun!

Pythons
Monty Python

Cultural Impact of the Falklands War
Cultural Impact of Wonder Woman

Ballet
Dance Dance Revolution
posted by painquale at 12:50 AM on June 6, 2007

wikigroaning is a scream:

Vegetable
Vegeta...
posted by growabrain at 1:14 AM on June 6, 2007

This resource written by nerds sure has a lot of detail on nerdy things. I am shocked and stunned.
posted by zamboni at 1:17 AM on June 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

growabrain: my favorite thing about that vegetable entry is the Venn diagram that makes up much of the articles content, though the Vegeta article seems remarkably coherently written.
posted by blahblahblah at 4:35 AM on June 6, 2007

Doomsday Book
Doomsday (comics)
Doom
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:44 AM on June 6, 2007

Magnetism
Magnet
Magneto (comics)
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:48 AM on June 6, 2007

No guesses to my questions?
posted by blahblahblah at 7:15 AM on June 6, 2007

Yeah, The Simpsons definitely wins.
I thought I was just snarking.
posted by nowonmai at 7:28 AM on June 6, 2007

A final challenge is this Wiki'd Game (again, the first seven "what links here" minus the obvious ones): Windex, Garfield, DnL, 2000s fads and trends in North America, Sev, Mountain Dew, Time and Time Again.

Clever, blahblahblah.
posted by yohko at 10:19 AM on June 6, 2007

Albanian cuisine, Armenian cuisine, Romanian cuisine, Greek desserts, Bosnian cuisine, Bulgarian cuisine, Cuisine of the Republic of Macedonia, Cypriot cuisine, Confectionery, and Turkish cuisine.

Turkish Delight?
posted by jtron at 10:38 AM on June 6, 2007

jtron got one.
yohko almost certainly got one.
posted by blahblahblah at 11:30 AM on June 6, 2007

wiki'd game was eventually renamed al capone banjo and then no more, because it was too easy to cheat by finding the least-musical reference and work your way back from any musical links it contained.
posted by paul_smatatoes at 11:45 AM on June 6, 2007

(i should probably mention that it was strictly musical at stereogum)
posted by paul_smatatoes at 11:57 AM on June 6, 2007

Wikigroaning is damn funny. Thanks for pointing me to this.
posted by piratebowling at 12:14 PM on June 6, 2007

Okay, I posted the answers in the Dolphins vs. Unicorns thread. Cause why not?
posted by blahblahblah at 1:49 PM on June 6, 2007

blahblahblah, I think the solution to your catfishing question is baklava.
posted by cog_nate at 3:32 PM on June 6, 2007

World
World of Warcraft

Wikigroaning is fantastic. I used to play a similar game comparing the pages of Canadian Prime Ministers to Transformers. Wilfred Laurier is on Canada's $5 bill, and Wikipedia has less to say about him than Grimlock. Way less.
posted by Gary at 3:42 PM on June 6, 2007

yohko almost certainly got one.

Well, I didn't want to be calling anybody bad names.
posted by yohko at 4:05 PM on June 6, 2007

United States of America
Captain America

Filter (water)
Metafilter
posted by Gary at 4:37 PM on June 6, 2007

(Wow, I'm an amazing trifecta of dense, slow and thread-illiterate this evening.)
posted by cog_nate at 5:23 PM on June 6, 2007

Nice!
posted by caddis at 7:32 PM on June 6, 2007

OK, well here's a good Wikigroaner:
Robert Burton (scholar) (1577-1640), English scholar and cleric, author of The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton (statesman) (1747-1825), North Carolina delegate to Continental Congress
Robert Burton (speedcuber) (born 1985), American speedcuber
posted by cog_nate at 9:14 PM on June 6, 2007