Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-02-25/In the news

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In the news

By Enochlau, February 25, 2008

Scots Wikipedia arouses discussion

Scots finds home on gey muckle website - The Scots-language Wikipedia has been described as an "embarrassing parody", and it contains articles on relatively unimportant individuals while more prominent individuals do not yet have an article. The Scots Wikipedia "gets people accustomed to reading a huge range of different things in Scots and not just literature", says the director of a Scots dictionary. However, Scots is said to suffer from inconsistent spelling, and it is disputed whether it is a language or a dialect.

Wikipedia blamed for French encyclopedia's downfall

France's favourite encyclopaedia falls victim to Wikipedia - Quid, a French encyclopedia, has had its 2008 edition cancelled because of a lack of interest. Sales are said to have fallen to 100,000 last year from a high of 400,000 in the mid-1990s. The demise of Quid has been taken to indicate that the Internet is affecting the viability of "reliable" sources of information, and the founder of Quid criticises Wikipedia for being written by unknown contributors. (See related article)

Other mentions

Other recent mentions in the online press include:

• The Wisdom of the Chaperones - The large majority of content on websites such as Digg and Wikipedia are created by a small number of people.
• Why Wikipedia's Competitors Are Failing, And Why Knol Might Not - Wikipedia's competitors have shown little interest in forking Wikipedia, whereas economic incentives in Google's Knol may encourage users to copy and paste from Wikipedia.
• Wikipediots: Who are these devoted, even obsessive contributors to Wikipedia? - Wikipedians are profiled and suggestions are made on how others can participate on the website.

Also this week: Michael Snow interview — Controversial RFA — Sockpuppeting administrator — Print encyclopedias — WikiWorld — News and notes — In the news — WikiProject report — Dispatches — Features and admins — Technology report — Arbitration report
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