We’re hugely devoted to Wikipedia. The non-profit organization is the largest amount of knowledge that has been accumulated by a group of people ever. Read Amazing Facts About Wikipedia here!
While the idea of a community-owned, free online encyclopedia was in the making for a while, Wikipedia, as we can see it today, was officially launched by publishing its first version in January. 15th, 2001. This was just two hours after its domain had been officially registered with Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.
Suppose in the past 20 years, you’ve used Wikipedia to study or work or to satisfy random spurts of curiosity, resolve disputes, or cheat on Zoom quiz evenings. In that case, we’re all grateful to the incredible free service.
To celebrate Wikipedia’s anniversary of 20 years, we’ve shared more than 20 facts about Wikipedia that you didn’t even have…
1. The stats on Wikipedia are staggering. There are currently greater than 55 million pages in more than 300 languages.
2. There are over 280,000 editors who are willing and contribute content to Wikipedia each month.
3. The Wikipedia website is visited via 1.5 million unique computers worldwide each month.
4. There’s a Wikipedia Monument (or “Pomnik Wikipedia” If you want to refer to it as the locals are doing) situated within Slubice, Poland. Armenian artist Mihran Hakobyan created the statue. It pays tribute to Wikipedia contributors. The statue was officially unveiled at Frankfurt Square in October 2014.
5. You’re probably not able to guess who was the first person who has a Wikipedia page was named after them. It’s not a celebrity of the moment or the world’s most famous person — but somewhat randomly, the 18th-century Scottish Philosopher Thomas Reid.
6. Enhancements to Wikipedia pages on vacation cities and destinations can affect tourism, raising the number of nights people decide to stay in the city by 9.9%, as per Italian researchers.
7. When you click upon the initial link that appears in the text of the Wikipedia page, repeating the process for any subsequent articles is almost always going to result in being able to access the Philosophy article. In February of 2016, it was the case for an astounding 97% of the articles on Wikipedia.
8. In 2017, NASA astronaut Paolo Nespoli recorded his spoken voice on the International Space Station for use in his Wikipedia article, which was a tiny step for him, however, a huge step in the direction of Wikimedia. Wikimedia movement. This is the first time that content was created specifically for space-based Wikipedia.
9. Wikipedia is among the 10 top most popular websites worldwide and is the world’s sole major site run by a non-profit group.
Also, read 60+ Did You Know Facts!!
10. Print Wikipedia was an art project created by Michael Mandiberg that printed 106 of the 7,473 volumes of English Wikipedia as it existed on April 7th, 2015. The project showcases how the pages were laid out in the initial 1,980 volumes that comprise the set and is complemented by 106 physical volumes, which run up to 700 pages. Table of Contents makes up the pages of 91 700-page volumes. Denny Gallery in New York City exhibited the work. Denny Gallery in New York City in summer 2015.
11. Many Wikipedians are fans of plushies. Just look around at the Wikimedia Cuteness Association. It is managed through”the “Board of Cuties” that includes Peter the Platypus — with the aim for “encourage the use of plush toys as well as encourage cuteness in Wikimedia.” Wikimedia initiative.”
12. On various language versions of Wikipedia, editors show their respect for one another by gifting each other online “barnstars.” In the Ukrainian version, the virtual tins are condensed milk. And often, they’ll give them IRL.
13. Are you in love with Wikipedia enough to display your love of its sleeves? You kinda can. In its spring/summer 2020 collection, which will be available in 2020, Etudes, the French Etudes fashion brand Etudes worked together with Wikimedia Foundation to create an apparel line that incorporated Wikipedia’s themes that includes cozy hoodies as baseball caps.
14. More than 18,000 participants at more than 1,260 events across the world have taken part in Art + Feminism edit-a-thons, which resulted in the creation or enhancement of more than 84,000 pages published on Wikipedia along with various other Wikimedia projects.
15. A dedicated editor has produced over 47,000 edits to fix the expression “comprised by.” This editor, Giraffedata, describes the motivation behind the project in great detail in this article. The reason is that “comprised by” is considered poor English.
16. Nearly 7 million people backed Wikipedia by donating last year. Let’s hope for even more this year.
17. Each year, Wikipedia members around the globe organize Wiki Loves Monuments, the world’s largest competition for photos. Over 60,000 people from over 40 countries have submitted more than 1.7 million photos of the world’s cultural heritage since 2010. It will still be in 2020, however, under the Covid-safe guidelines.
18. Every article published on Wikipedia includes a transparent revision history. You can look back to the beginning of time to look at how each article was created and step by step.
19. The people who work on Wikipedia are referred to as Wikipedians. The creation of the world’s most comprehensive database of information by collaborating with individuals from all over the world could be a challenge. Wikipedians create rules and guidelines and essays to help others understand the value of being Wikipedians. Wikipedian. “No mastodons that are angry” is an essay that recommends that you don’t edit while you’re hungry or drunk. Excellent advice.
20. A single of the initial Wikipedia article ever written was on the typical Poodle. It stated, “A dog by which all other dogs are judged.” This English Wikipedia page on Poodle has grown to more than 6000 words long, and also includes the many names that people have come up with to describe poodles cross-bred with other breeds of dogs such as Labradoodle, Poochon, Cockapoo, Spoodle, Maltipoo, Goldendoodle, Schnoodle, Pekapoos, Cavapoo, and Bernedoodle.
21. Wikipedia includes an asteroid named for it. It is a Vestian Asteroid that orbits in the middle of the asteroid’s belt. It is approximately 1 km (0.6 miles) in diameter.
22. Wikipedia evolves at a speed of more than 1.9 editing per second. Editors make these edits from around the globe. In other words, if this article took you 5 minutes to go through, there were 570 edits completed on Wikipedia before you had concluded on this page.
Wikimazing
We hope that these Wikipedia-related facts have entertained you and now know more about Wikipedia’s free Encyclopedia than you did before.