Hebrew Wikipedia

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The logo for the Hebrew Wikipedia.

Hebrew Wikipedia is the Hebrew edition of Wikipedia, named ויקיפדיה: האנציקלופדיה החופשית (Vikipedia: HaEntziklopedia HaHofshit /vikiˈpedia haʔentsikloˈpedia haχofʃit/^[1]). This edition began in July 2003 and has over 48,000 articles, as of November 14, 2006.

1 Milestones
2 Features
3 Emphasis on quality
4 Controversy
5 Notes
6 External link

[edit] Milestones

July 8, 2003: The Hebrew edition of Wikipedia kicked off.
October 25, 2003: The 1000th article was written.
July 22, 2004: The first meeting of Hebrew Wikipedians took place in Tel Aviv, Israel.
September 2004:The 10,000th article in the Hebrew Wikipedia appeared.^[2]
September 20, 2004: The Hebrew version of the Flag of Kazakhstan article became the one millionth articles for all the 105 multilingual Wikipedias.
March 2005 A new main page was created.
May 2005 The Hebrew Wikipedia reached its 20,000th article.
July 2006 The Hebrew wikipedia reached its 40,000th article.

[edit] Features

Taking into account the relatively small number of native Hebrew speakers, the Hebrew Wikipedia's community is one of the most active and productive communities. It is composed of a core of 55 very active users, most of them students of the natural sciences (mathematics, physics, biology, medicine, engineering, etc.) ^{[citation needed]}

The Hebrew Wikipedia is renowned for its high standards of mathematical articles^{[citation needed]} which cover topics from the basics of calculus and linear algebra up to advanced topics of functional analysis and abstract algebra.

Another major area of work is history with a focus on Jewish history, the history of Israel and military history. Such articles often include original photos taken by the writers, who spent time researching, reading and traveling before writing the articles.

The Hebrew Wikipedia has some unique projects such as the Elections in Israel project which surveys Israeli elections since the establishment of state until the latest election, held in April 2006. Each election has its own article containing historical background, a description of the campaign, the election results and the aftermath.

[edit] Emphasis on quality

The Hebrew Wikipedia Community is very concerned about maintaining quality. In many circumstances, they prefer to delete a badly worded article, or stubs, rather than trying to improve them. As of July 2006, the Hebrew Wikipedia has one of the highest amounts of bytes per article, and the highest of all editions on Wikipedia with over 20,000 articles.[1] Whereas the English Wikipedia requires a general consensus for deleting articles (hence AfD's are not considered votes), the Hebrew Wikipedia has adopted a policy of deletion upon a 55% majority, with no minimum number of votes.

Some system administrators have openly stated that they prefer a few very good authors to having many contributors, although this is not the consensus.

[edit] Controversy

The Hebrew Wikipedia's general written and unwritten policies are somewhat different than those used in the English Wikipedia. This difference is a major source of controversy. While the official policy states that all Wikipedians are equal, unofficially, registered users' opinions get more respect (with one sysop openly stating this) (Hebrew).

These, and other, trends have culminated in the February 2006 "Wikipedians for Change" movement, which tried to usher the community into a more peaceful nature regarding non registered users' edits, the speedy deletion of esoteric articles and a general trend towards rule-based management.

The movement failed to achieve community consensus. Moreover, the controversies surrounding the relationship between users and administrators are still frequently cited. It is claimed^{[citation needed]} that many users left the Hebrew Wikipedia for what they consider to be overly harsh behaviour by administrators.

[edit] Notes

^ The Hebrew letter vav (ו) is pronounced as v in Modern Hebrew, although it was once pronounced w. Some Hebrew speakers of Eastern origin still pronounce vav as w. This is why it is pronounced "Vikipedia" and not "Wikipeida". However, some speakers pronounce it as a combination of the correct pronunciation and the Modern Hebrew one, resulting in "Vuikipedia".
^ ויקיפדיה העברית (Hebrew). Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation (2006-06-25). Retrieved on 2006-06-25.