Template:Wikipedia: Difference between revisions

'''Wikipedia – ''The Free Encyclopedia''''' — is 'the free wiki [[:Category:Encyclopedia|encyclopedia]] that [[:Category:OpenEdit|anyone can edit]]'.

The brainchild of [[:Category:American|American]] internet entrepreneur [[Jimmy Wales]], among others, and the original '{{WMF.org|Our projects|project}}' of the subsequent {{tag|Wikimedia Foundation}} (WMF), [[:Category:Wikipedia|Wikipedia's]] stated {{Cambridge-Dictionary|objective}} is to have an officially '{{Wp|Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|neutral point of view}}' ([[:Category:NPOV|NPOV]]).  Sadly, <u>many</u> articles suffer from {{Cambridge-Dictionary|systemic}} bias; Wikipedia is often justifiably {{Wp|Wikipedia:Conflict of interest|accused}} by people on one side of an issue of being biased toward the other side, and vice-versa.  This is true across the political spectrum, as well as for many other issues and [[:Category:Wiki Topic|subjects]] covered.  Wikipedia is the biggest fish in the global [[:Category:All|wiki]] pond, and receives far more traffic, ''and'' [[:Category:Wiki Edit Mode|editing]] activity, than any other [[WhatIsWiki|wiki site]].  However, despite Wikipedias' claim to being an '{{Cambridge-Dictionary|encyclopedia}}', many [[:Category:Education|academic]] institutes and other [[:Category:Professions|professional]] organisations recommend that Wikipedia is <u>not</u> used as a primary source of information, due to the fact that many articles are frequently incorrect, and can be routinely adversely biased.  Furthermore, many Wikipedia articles have a seemingly extremely low threshold of '{{Wp|Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources|reliable source}}' references and {{Wp|Wikipedia:Citing sources|citations}}.  Indeed, <u>many</u> Wikipedia articles fail their own {{Wp|Wikipedia:Verifiability|verifiability}} criteria, and can remain for many years without any citations, despite highly visible warning banners highlighting the lack of said citations (and threatening to delete said unreferenced articles); this even includes biographical articles for {{Wp|Category:Living people|living people}}.  Also, the [[English Wikipedia]] allows articles to be 'promoted' to a {{Wp|Wikipedia:Good articles|good article}} (GA) status; despite failing their own {{Wp|Wikipedia:Good article criteria|criteria}} on having adequate reliable source citations, editorial {{Cambridge-Dictionary|conjecture}}, and even {{Wp|Wikipedia:No original research|original research}}. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160205045501/http://Eng.Anarchopedia.org/Criticism_of_Wikipedia]

When launched in [[:Category:Founded in 2001|2001]], Wikipedia was initially powered by [[:Category:UseMod Wiki|UseMod Wiki]], a wiki engine software package developed by [[Clifford Adams]] used to {{Cambridge-Dictionary|moderate#verb|moderate}} (''verb'') the quality of posts on [[:Category:Usenet|Usenet]].  Wikipedia used this UseMod Wiki software during its first year of 2001, until 25 January [[:Category:Founded in 2002|2002]], when it started to use the '{{Wp|Wikipedia:Phase II software|Phase II software}}' as developed by [[Magnus Manske]].  On 20 July 2002, 'Phase III software' (a complete rewrite of Manskes' Phase II by [[Lee Daniel Crocker]]) was released and used on the [[English Wikipedia]], and at the same time, was renamed [[:Category:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]]. [http://usemod.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Comparison_Of_Usemod_With_Mediawiki]  The MediaWiki [[:Category:Wiki engine|wiki engine]] has subsequently been extensively developed and expanded, through continued collaborative {{Cambridge-Dictionary|evolution}}s.  As well as being used all 900-or-so wiki sites of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), MediaWiki is also used by many thousands of other [[:Category:Independent|independently]]-hosted wiki sites, and many [[:Category:Free MediaWiki wiki farm|free]] and commercial [[:Category:MediaWiki wiki farm|wiki farms]].

In respect of content [[:Category:Wiki license|licensing]], historically, when Wikipedia was founded in 2001, it released all textual [[wiki]] content under the 'copyleft' [[:Category:Wiki GNU Free Documentation License|GNU Free Documentation License]] (GNU Free Doc License, or GFDL).  However, during [[:Category:Founded in 2009|2009]], all existing Wikipedia wiki sites migrated to a new license: the [[:Category:Wiki Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike|Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 unported license]] (CC-BY-SA 3.0); and all content published until that migration date could be retro-released under either or [[:Category:Wiki Multi-license|both licenses]].  All content published ''after'' the migration date is released under only the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license, as are any newly created Wikipedia language version wiki sites. [https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/05/21/2317253/wikipedia-moving-from-gfdl-to-creative-commons-license]

*Chen, Adrian (August 2011); [https://www.gawker.com/5827835/wikipedia-is-slowly-dying Wikipedia is slowly dying]; ''www.Gawker.com''; BDG Media Inc.; 315 Park Ave S, 11th Floor New York, [[:Category:New York State|NY]] 10010, USA.