Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-11-07/News and notes

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< Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost | 2005-11-07

News and notes

By Ral315, 7 November 2005

800,000th article created

The English Wikipedia celebrated their 800,000th article this week. It is believed that the milestone article was History of Sudan (Transitional Military Council).

Merriam-Webster creates Open Dictionary

Merriam-Webster, a Britannica subsidiary, has created a new Open Dictionary. Despite the name, the copyright status of entries is not given, and entries with profanities are not accepted. At press time, the dictionary included 1,697 entries.

Wikipedia breaks Alexa Top 40

Wikipedia has entered the Alexa Global Top 40, ranking in at #38. Wikipedia has eclipsed Google Spain, and is poised to pass Google Canada and the popular online weblog site Xanga.

Conventional news media scooped

When Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand co-leader Rod Donald died on Saturday, Wikipedia was the first major news source to recognize his passing. At 11:47 UTC on November 5, Alan Liefting first updated Donald's entry with the news. According to Google News, the first conventional news source to confirm his death was an Auckland radio station, who first posted the story at 2:35 UTC on November 6. ([1])

Wikiversity vote ended

The vote on whether to create a new Wikiversity project ended today. Wikiversity, which currently resides on Wikibooks, started a vote on September 15 to move to wikiversity.org, currently hosting a near-dormant German Wikiversity project. A two-thirds majority, required to submit the proposal, has been reached, and board approval is all that is required to start a project beta period. The issue is on the agenda for the next board meeting, scheduled for November 12.