MetaFilter posts tagged with wiki and encyclopedia

At Her Feet

dontjumplarry — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:11:57 -0800

wikiFeet is the celebrity feet encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Its users post, rate and ogle the feet of notable women including Britney Spears (1270 photos), Yvonne de Carlo (26 photos), Eva Braun (7 photos) and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (1 photo).

A notable issue with Wikipedia

Artw — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:47:17 -0800

Here’s what we think the Editor Trends Study tells us: Between 2005 and 2007, newbies started having real trouble successfully joining the Wikimedia community. Before 2005 in the English Wikipedia, nearly 40% of new editors would still be active a year after their first edit. After 2007, only about 12-15% of new editors were still active a year after their first edit. Post-2007, lots of people were still trying to become Wikipedia editors. What had changed, though, is that they were increasingly failing to integrate into the Wikipedia community, and failing increasingly quickly. The Wikimedia community had become too hard to penetrate. - The Wikimedia Strategy March 2011 Update discusses wikipedia's declining ability to retain new editors. Meanwhile the case of the deletion (and restoration) of the article on the remarkably notable Old Man Murray highlights the bad decisions that can occur when insular admins and editors favor deletionist sentiment and bureaucratic rule-waving over the input of outsiders and a basic level of research.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Humanity

Rhaomi — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 11:00:08 -0800

Everybody knows TVTropes is the best and most time-killing-est way to learn about the clichés and archetypes that permeate modern media. But dear reader, there is so much more. Enter Useful Notes. Originally created as a place for tropers to pool factual information as a writing aid, the subsite has quietly grown into a small wiki of its own -- a compendium of crowdsourced wisdom on a staggering array of topics, all written in the site's signature brand of lighthearted snark. Though it reads like an irreverent and informal Wikipedia, its articles act as genuinely useful primers to complex and obscure topics alike, all in service of the project's five goals: "To debunk common media stereotypes; to help you understand some media better; to educate, inform and sometimes entertain; to promote peace and understanding (maybe); and... to facilitate world domination." Sounds about right. Click inside for bountiful highlights... if you dare. [note: not all articles are hosted in the /UsefulNotes/ subfolder, but all grew out of the original page and are indexed there. If you find any material that's messy, weak, or inaccurate, remember: it's a wiki!] Main UsefulNotes Index A small sampling from the major categories: Geography: (including detailed subcategories for most major nations) The Americas - Europe - Asia - Africa - Oceania - Major World Cities

Excerpts from an example subcategory: The United States: "The general feeling among Americans about these parties is that one of them is evil, and the other is incompetent. Which is which depends on whom you ask. " Main Index - American Political System - U.S. Presidents - U.S. States - U.S. Military - Legal System - Educational System - Newspapers - Holidays - Weights and Measures - Accents Other major national pages: Canada - Mexico - Brazil - United Kingdom - Germany - France - Spain - Italy - Russia - South Africa - India - China - Japan - Indonesia - Australia

Media: Mainstream Media - Video Games - Subcultures - Irony - Heavy Metal - History of Hollywood - History of Animation - The 50 Greatest Cartoons History: Classical Mythology - Trojan War - Pre-Columbian Civilizations - Economics - American Revolution - Russian Revolution - Cold War - Arab-Israeli Conflict - World War II - 1950s - 1990s Famous People: William Shakespeare - The 47 Ronin - Marie Antoinette - Mark Twain - Theodore Roosevelt - Adolf Hitler - Albert Einstein - Joseph Stalin - Barack Obama Military: Militaries by Nation - Nuclear Weapons - Naval Warfare - Military Aviation - Modern Battlefield Weapons - The Laws of War Religion: Christianity - Islam - Buddhism - Hinduism - Judaism - Atheism - Gnosticism Sports: Football - Baseball - Basketball - Soccer (And that's just scratching the surface...)

Knowledge but bite sized, often surreal with lots of jokes

finite — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:38:03 -0800

Ten Word Wiki is an Encyclopedia for the ADD generation.
We describe everything in ten words exactly. Here's the Index.

Like many posts, this one starts with a Wikipedia link for general background.

grouse — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:35:09 -0800

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that ~~anyone~~trusted users can edit. If the MediaWiki FlaggedRevisions extension is enabled, the general public will see changes to articles only after approval by a trusted editor. Wikipedians conducted a poll on whether Wikipedia should enable the feature for a limited trial. Almost 60 percent of voting editors answered in the affirmative. Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales's subsequent request to enable the feature anyway has been opposed by some, claiming that the margin of votes does not meet Wikipedia's consensus standard. While it might help avoid embarrassing incidents of vandalism, the proposed trial could lead to a big change in the Wikipedia way.

Duh?

washburn — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:57:07 -0800

Have you noticed quite a number of stupid things lately? Perhaps now you will find them documented in the Encyclopedia of Stupid.

WiserEarth

alms — Wed, 09 May 2007 19:28:44 -0800

WiserEarth is a user-editable relational database that aspires to list, categorize, and describe every non profit and civil society organization on Earth. It currently includes 1 0 4,3 0 4 o r g a n i z a t i o n s which can be viewed by name, location, or areas of focus. You can perform complex searches. You can post (or search) jobs, events, and resources. You can discuss areas of focus, such as Urban Forestry, Evolutionary Ecology, or government oversight and reform. You can also visualize the networks connecting these areas of focus and the various organizations.