Wikipedia is a site that everyone who uses the internet, knows about. The name of the site comes from combining two terms, ‘wiki’ and ‘pedia.’ Wiki is a word that means ‘a shared or collaborative website’ whereas ‘pedia’ is the shortened word for the encyclopedia.The latter part of the name refers to the fact that the site is one of its own kind and offers free encyclopedias to all of its visitors. This site is said to be the largest encyclopedia that has ever been created by humanbeings.
Wikipedia is a non-profit and non-promotional site. It is run by volunteers who edit it and add new information by creating new pages on the site. Even though Wikipedia is not designed to produce any profit for the founders, the site is one of the most influential sites that exist on the internet. Not only that it is one of the most influential, but also one of the most interesting sites on the internet, this article is to list down 5 most interesting, surprising, and funny facts about Wikipedia. Read on to have a good laugh, some surprises, and along with that, some general facts about the site.
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Wikipedia and Its DAFTs
Wikipedia pages are being edited now and then by its editors in order to ensure quality content that can be trusted. In the process, a Wikipedia page creator does not only create but also delete Wikipedia pages. However, there is a catalog on the site that is only named as deleted articles (DAFT) while in reality, it is a collection of the weirdest articles that are sent to the site as entries. The abbreviation of DAFT is created to refer to the collection of “Deleted Articles with Freaky Titles.” Some of the names that were given to the articles are as follows: ‘Cake Cannon,’ ‘The Role of Clowns in Modern Society,’‘Beer for Dogs,’and ‘Angry Donkey.’
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Wikipedia has more Articles than the 15th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica
15th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica was launched in 2010, and it had 32 volumes with 32640 pages. This version of the encyclopedia had 65,000 articles, and yet, it cannot beat the amount of information that is packed in 4.3 million English articles that Wikipedia owns and shares free of cost to the world.
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The Most Edited Wikipedia page Up Till Date is?
The pages on Wikipedia gets edited frequently because of its policy of accepting edits by everyone who visits it. Mostly the information that is edited is controversial or is constantly upgrading to new developments. However, the page that has been edited the most belongs to an ex American president, Mr. George Washington Bush.
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Wikipedia as a Multilingual Site!
People who visit Wikipedia belong to different cultures and lingual backgrounds. Also, people who work voluntarily as Wikipedia editors or Wikipedia page creator belong to different cultures, regions, and lingual backgrounds. This is why the site supports a number of different languages so that more and more people can connect. The site currently supports more than 285 languages, yet the top languages of the site are as follows: Italian, German, English, Dutch, and French.
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Wikipedia Community
Although Wikipedia was launched with an aim that the site will only allow experts to edit it, it is now an open source that can be edited by anyone. Now, almost 32.5 million people use the site, and they are registered on the site with their usernames. The site has a community based on Wikipedia contributors who include Wikipedia page creator, editors, and writers. The members of the community are called Wikipedians who are mostly men. The site along with its sister sites receive 10 edits per second and almost 600 new articles per day. This is a lot of new info adding up to the existing size of Wikipedia on a regular basis, ensuring that the site keeps growing.
These are a few of the most interesting facts about Wikipedia. There are plenty of more facts as the site is an online encyclopedia with volunteers to run it. This very introduction of the page is surprising and interesting for the readers who did not know it.
Resource:- www.wikiprofessionalsinc.com