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I've contributed casually and anonymously in the past without problem, but it's been a while and I thought I'd take you up on your challenge. But there's a com

I've contributed casually and anonymously in the past without problem, but it's been a while and I thought I'd take you up on your challenge. But there's a complication: Wikipedia appears to be TOO COMPREHENSIVE. I can no longer find a subject of general interest which isn't fleshed out to near (or beyond) my level of knowledge. All my local landmarks are well represented, as are the interesting areas I've travelled. Do you have any ideas on an article Wikipedia needs? I'd be happy to spend some of my own time on research and submit it anonymously.

DanBC 13y ago
Here's a list of requested articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles Here are some stubs that might need expanding into proper articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Stubs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Stubs Here are articles that need more information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_in_need_of_updating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_in...
- nl 13y ago
  It's been a few years, but I've started a number of articles on the "Requested Articles" list. Most are pretty obscure, but thankfully Google Books and Amazon "search inside" gives access to information published before the web was born. There are also some services where you can ask a librarian online to look something up in a book for you. I've had some luck previously with http://www.nla.gov.au/askalibrarian http://www.nla.gov.au/askalibrarian
  - voltagex_ 13y ago
    Hey, that's my "local" library! Trove is also amazing, but fairly biased towards Australian history (for obvious reasons). http://trove.nla.gov.au/ http://trove.nla.gov.au/
MattGrommes 13y ago
I've often wondered why Wikipedia doesn't push the Simple English Wikipedia more: http://simple.wikipedia.org/ http://simple.wikipedia.org/ It only has 100k articles but I've found a bunch of excellent stuff there.
- xerophtye 13y ago
  It's great for kids. I usually tell my 10 yr old sister to use it (English is her second language but she's pretty good at it)
snogglethorpe 13y ago
Hmm? In my experience, that's exactly where Wikipedia often shines: many articles offer quite broad coverage of their subject, approach it from multiple points of view that do a good job of making it accessible for people of many levels of knowledge. This especially seems to be true of articles on math. Whereas something like mathworld.wolfram.com usually offers a concise, accurate, and well-written article on a subject, it's quite often at a fairly high-level, and may be hard to understand for someone missing some background. The equivalent Wikipedia article on the other hand, is often much longer, because it approaches the topic from many points of view: concise technical explanations suitable for a mathematician, more intuitive (but maybe less rigorous) explanations aimed at a general audience, implementation hints and algorithmic summaries for those interested in using it in a computer application, etc. This sort of shotgun coverage can result in rambling, lengthy, and sometimes redundant articles (it's usually pretty clear that many different authors have edited it, and the collaboration mechanisms are far from perfect), but I've found it immensely helpful when trying to understand something which is just a bit beyond my level. Seeing the same subject explained from multiple points of view is often just what's needed to make things click. That's one of the reasons I love Wikipedia... it's not always the most elegant, but it's proved a very practical and helpful resource.
xerophtye 13y ago
This looks like a good place to start. I dont have much information about any of these but some of these look interesting (like the Hunter-gatherer Algorithm) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles/Applied_arts_and_sciences/Computer_science,_computing,_and_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles/A...

DanBC 13y ago

Here's a list of requested articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles Here are some stubs that might need expanding into proper articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Stubs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Stubs Here are articles that need more information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_in_need_of_updating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_in...

nl 13y ago
It's been a few years, but I've started a number of articles on the "Requested Articles" list. Most are pretty obscure, but thankfully Google Books and Amazon "search inside" gives access to information published before the web was born. There are also some services where you can ask a librarian online to look something up in a book for you. I've had some luck previously with http://www.nla.gov.au/askalibrarian http://www.nla.gov.au/askalibrarian
- voltagex_ 13y ago
  Hey, that's my "local" library! Trove is also amazing, but fairly biased towards Australian history (for obvious reasons). http://trove.nla.gov.au/ http://trove.nla.gov.au/

MattGrommes 13y ago

I've often wondered why Wikipedia doesn't push the Simple English Wikipedia more: http://simple.wikipedia.org/ http://simple.wikipedia.org/ It only has 100k articles but I've found a bunch of excellent stuff there.

xerophtye 13y ago
It's great for kids. I usually tell my 10 yr old sister to use it (English is her second language but she's pretty good at it)

snogglethorpe 13y ago

Hmm? In my experience, that's exactly where Wikipedia often shines: many articles offer quite broad coverage of their subject, approach it from multiple points of view that do a good job of making it accessible for people of many levels of knowledge. This especially seems to be true of articles on math. Whereas something like mathworld.wolfram.com usually offers a concise, accurate, and well-written article on a subject, it's quite often at a fairly high-level, and may be hard to understand for someone missing some background. The equivalent Wikipedia article on the other hand, is often much longer, because it approaches the topic from many points of view: concise technical explanations suitable for a mathematician, more intuitive (but maybe less rigorous) explanations aimed at a general audience, implementation hints and algorithmic summaries for those interested in using it in a computer application, etc. This sort of shotgun coverage can result in rambling, lengthy, and sometimes redundant articles (it's usually pretty clear that many different authors have edited it, and the collaboration mechanisms are far from perfect), but I've found it immensely helpful when trying to understand something which is just a bit beyond my level. Seeing the same subject explained from multiple points of view is often just what's needed to make things click. That's one of the reasons I love Wikipedia... it's not always the most elegant, but it's proved a very practical and helpful resource.

xerophtye 13y ago

This looks like a good place to start. I dont have much information about any of these but some of these look interesting (like the Hunter-gatherer Algorithm) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles/Applied_arts_and_sciences/Computer_science,_computing,_and_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles/A...