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> Alternatives to Wikipedia, Competitors to the beast
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DawnofMan
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I've been wandering the internet wasteland in search of alternatives to Wikipedia. Here's what I've found so far:

Brittanica: follows the traditional model of an encyclopedia written by experts, although it does allow some input allowed from readers. Seems to be failing slowly and falling behind more open models.

[Encyc]: is a tiny effort that is even more dysfunctional and anti-social than Wikipedia.

Neturalpedia: a start-up narrowly focused focused on criticisms of mainstream climate coverage including Wikipedia's cabal driven effort.

Wikinfo: a more open community allowing original research, attribution, articles critical of subjects, and creative writing and research. The most successful alternative I've come across so far although most of its content seems to consist of copies of Wikipedia articles. I don't really understand how that part of its content is useful. Created and governed in large part by Fred Bauder who is an admin in good standing on Wikipedia? More information on this forking of the Wikipedia effort and its founder would be interesting.

Encyclopedia Dramatica, a sarcasm and humor site.

Uncyclopedia, an "unencyclopedia" site that provides an opposite day type alternate universe to Wikipedia where deleted articles, irrelevancies, and the inappropriate are the focus.

Wikademia: a Wikiversity alternative? Not really an encyclopedia.

What have others found?

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DawnofMan
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I'm not discouraged by the responses here (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif) and I remain hopeful that a more healthy alternative to Wikipedia can and will be developed.

As far as existing alternatives I think they are interesting efforts with some approaches and innovations that are worth discussing, such as Wikinfo's use of "criticism of" alternative articles for every subject. I think forking that way can be useful in many cases where there is a need to alleviate the stress and tension of competing content interests. Giving appropriate balance and weight to negative assessments of a subject seems quite reasonable, although including such a link in every article seems a bit over the top. I think the way the criticism of articles were deleted across Wikipedia with the Chosen One's election was pretty ridiculous. Does anyone really think criticisms of Bush, Obama, Cheney, or other controversial figures isn't a notable subject all its own?

I also think that approaches to dealing with the BLP issues raised here are worth considering (one alternative would be to have an encyclopedia with no biographies of living people or only very notable people or only very public people or to segregate them in some way). But I think a template noting that biographical content is assumed to have been contributed in good faith and that errors are possible is enough when combined with a proactive approach to dealing with vandalism (such as having a community more focused on content contributors instead of just vandals and vandal fighters). I think starting a smaller and more limited community might be an effective approach. Or a system where anonymous edits and edits from noobs were reviewed. But of course that's a whole can of worms all it's own and not a huge concern of mine personally. Nasty things are said about people in the media and on the web all the time. Maybe an opt out clause would work?

Gregory, I'm not sure how to answer your question about who I am because I'm not sure what it is you're asking exactly. I'm well past my teens. And I'm not interested in drama. I do think an encyclopedia project can be built that lives up to the aspirations established on Wikipedia, but that haven't been lived up to there, such as respect for participants, maintaining a level playing field, and fair play. A place that actually embodied these ideals would be a big improvement.

Does thinking about an alternate Wiki make me Alice? Is Wikipedia Review a looking glass?

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thekohser
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QUOTE(DawnofMan @ Tue 16th March 2010, 6:25pm) *

Gregory, I'm not sure how to answer your question about who I am because I'm not sure what it is you're asking exactly. I'm well past my teens. And I'm not interested in drama.


The problem is that I've chosen not to share my valuable professional time and advice with people who approach me on the street with a dark hood over their head and one of those "60 Minutes"-style voice modulators to disguise their voice.

Same goes for anonymous new guys here on Wikipedia Review.

You very well may deserve my effort, but before you just rob me of it, don't you think introductions are in order, first? It's what human beings have been doing for at least 4,000 years.
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Posts in this topic
DawnofMan   Alternatives to Wikipedia  
thekohser   What have others found? I've found that you...  
MZMcBride   Just who are you? http://img715.imageshack.us/img7...  
DawnofMan   Why have only one option for an online encyclopedi...  
thekohser   Why have only one option for an online encycloped...  
Sarcasticidealist   Anti-social tendencies? How'd I get these 322...  
Eva Destruction   As far as Wikipedia Review, it's focused on a...  
GlassBeadGame   As far as Wikipedia Review, it's focused on ...  
NuclearWarfare   Speaking of which, anyone seen the new Alice yet? ...  
Milton Roe   [quote name='MZMcBride' post='226316' date='Tue 1...  
GlassBeadGame   What have others found? The alternative to Wik...  
Emperor   It seems to me that Encyc functioned just fine in ...  
Eva Destruction   I hear Wipipedia is very good. Lots of interesting...  
anthony   What have others found? Well, the first rule of...  
John Limey   The alternative to Wikipedia is not one site but s...  
WikiWatch   Commercially, there are also several competitors ...  
GlassBeadGame   The alternative to Wikipedia is not one site but ...  
DawnofMan   That's an interesting list Limey, and I know t...  
anthony   Who wants to put up with the bullshit on Wikipedi...  
DawnofMan   Who wants to put up with the bullshit on Wikiped...  
Cock-up-over-conspiracy   If I had any idea how to do anything with websites...  
Moulton   In terms of alternatives to WP, don't overlook...  
NotARepublican55   Has anyone thought of doing a complete import of W...  
anthony   Has anyone thought of doing a complete import of ...  
NotARepublican55   Has anyone thought of doing a complete import of...  
anthony   [quote name='anthony' post='226664' date='Wed 17t...  
John Limey   Has anyone thought of doing a complete import of ...  
anthony   [quote name='NotARepublican55' post='226662' date...  
WikiWatch   You're really much better off starting from s...  
Jon Awbrey   Has anyone thought of doing a complete import of ...  
GlassBeadGame   Has anyone thought of doing a complete import of...  
WikiWatch   People willing to spend countless amounts of time...  
GlassBeadGame   [quote name='GlassBeadGame' post='226680' date='T...  
Cock-up-over-conspiracy   The theory that Wikipedia has good content but bad...  
GlassBeadGame   The theory that Wikipedia has good content but ba...  
Moulton   The articles in traditional encyclopedias are writ...  
John Limey   If the content on Wikipedia is good enough to ju...  
John Limey   [quote name='GlassBeadGame' post='226680' date='...  
thekohser   They are experts who work as part of the general ...  
GlassBeadGame   [quote name='GlassBeadGame' post='226728' date='T...  
Straightforward   [quote name='GlassBeadGame' post='226728' date='T...  
GlassBeadGame   [quote name='John Limey' post='226779' date='Thu ...  
Straightforward   [quote name='John Limey' post='226779' date='Thu...  
thekohser   Come off it! I'm not an idiot and I...  
thekohser   Come off it! I'm not an idiot and I...  
thekohser   [quote name='thekohser' post='227710' date='Tue 2...  
thekohser   [quote name='thekohser' post='227710' date='Tue 2...  
Somey   Bumping this. I may have missed it, but Straightf...  
thekohser   Bumping this. I may have missed it, but Straight...  
Somey   Somey, could you remind me again why we don't ...  
WikiWatch   But it should never reach that point, and you...  
timbo   I'd like to see the discussion return to the ...  
Guido den Broeder   [quote name='Straightforward' post='227678' date=...  
GlassBeadGame   [quote name='GlassBeadGame' post='227466' date='M...  
Straightforward   In order to criticize Wikipedia you do not need t...  
Cock-up-over-conspiracy   Of course anyone can say "Wikipedia is a pile...  
dogbiscuit   And of course many editors don't really under...  
Straightforward   [quote name='Straightforward' post='228486' date=...  
Milton Roe   No, surely the better approach is to insist that ...  
Cock-up-over-conspiracy   No, it means more than that, for there's somet...  
WikiWatch   No, it means more than that, for there's some...  
Cock-up-over-conspiracy   As long as Google has a relationship with wikipedi...  
dogbiscuit   Jimbo once opined that if a fact is true, it ough...  
Moulton   Jimbo once opined that if a fact is true, it ought...  
CharlotteWebb   How many people shot JFK? How do you know? htt...  
GlassBeadGame   [quote name='GlassBeadGame' post='228353' date='T...  
Straightforward   Your "sensible and mature"criticism acc...  
GlassBeadGame   Your "sensible and mature"criticism ac...  
Straightforward   How unbelievably shallow. Spend some time readin...  
GlassBeadGame   How unbelievably shallow. Spend some time readi...  
Straightforward   Ignore my advice at your own peril. You seem to ...  
Milton Roe   Is it the case that in the world of WR, anyone wh...  
Straightforward   There are others of us who are in your "eng...  
Kelly Martin   Wouldn't thee BLP situation be a lot better (I...  
Milton Roe   No, it means more than that, for there's som...  
Straightforward   The PRINCIPLE per se is the principle behind acad...  
CharlotteWebb   Hmm, lukewarm support for my position. But why o...  
Straightforward   Hmm, lukewarm support for my position. But why ...  
Milton Roe   [quote name='Milton Roe' post='228726' date='Sun ...  
anthony   It is true that Britannica doesn't reference ...  
NotARepublican55   This would of course not be allowed on Wikipedia ...  
John Limey   The theory that Wikipedia has good content but b...  
Tarc   Wikipedia alternatives? There's always encyc....  
Emperor   Wikipedia alternatives? There's always encyc...  
Moulton   Well, I too had a silly notion that Wikipedians sh...  
Moulton   My favorite alternative to Wikipedia is the monste...  
Moulton   WikiCulture doesn't work for me. Then again, ...  
Text   Wikipedia Has all of the search engine reach Pos...  
Emperor   Wikipedia Has all of the search engine reach Po...  
Text   Any blog or forum could also be a very good alte...  
Text   Adding coal to the bonfire: there should be more p...  
gomi   Adding coal to the bonfire: there should be more p...  
thekohser   Adding coal to the bonfire: there should be more ...  
Text   That means that in substance, Wikipedia has only c...  
WikiWatch   That means that in substance, Wikipedia has only ...  
Cock-up-over-conspiracy   Jimmy has an the interest in keeping the boom town...  
lilburne   I dug out an old CD copy of Britannica (1999) the ...  
Emperor   I dug out an old CD copy of Britannica (1999) the...  


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