Wikinfo
From Free net encyclopedia
Wikinfo, formerly known as Internet-Encyclopedia (renamed in January 2004), is a fork of the English Wikipedia initiated by Fred Bauder in July 2003. It is hosted by ibiblio. Although there are not subdomains on Wikinfo to separate articles of different languages, Wikinfo does welcome articles in languages other than English and requests that articles on the same topic in different languages link to each other. Existing links to Wikipedia articles in other languages are retained in the case of articles copied from Wikipedia.
Contents |
Wikinfo's point of view policy
Rather than adopting a neutral point of view, Wikinfo's policy on a contributor's point of view is to edit for a sympathetic point of view. It uses a point of view which endeavors to present a subject or concept in a favorable light. The main article is written from a sympathetic point of view which is described as "a way of encouraging a pluralism of content, rather than limiting content to an unattainable encyclopedic goal." [1] Critical articles in the style of any title: A critical view are encouraged. A set of articles about a particular topic are split into a number of articles with a specified point of view—thus it tries to have several points of view on each topic.
Users of Wikinfo, called "Wikinfoans" or "Wikinfos", feel Wikinfo is a way of escaping debilitating edit wars, which they perceive to be frequent on Wikipedia. They do not want to become like Wikipedia, "hamstrung by squabbling sysops getting legalistic about their biases", as Wikinfo user Proteus put it [2]. Some Wikinfo users appreciate the fact that their submissions are not edited as frequently as on Wikipedia. Some people are users of both Wikinfo and Wikipedia.
Importation and modification
Like Wikipedia, Wikinfo uses the GNU Free Documentation License for most of its text, which allows verbatim copying and modification as long as derivative works remain licensed under the same terms. Wikinfo also supports signed articles, which are not subject to substantial editing by others and can be released under a license other than the GNU FDL. [3] Wikinfo does not permit editing of its articles by anyone other than its registered users. As of February, 2006, there is some activity on Wikinfo, with a handful of articles edited each day.
By September 2005 Wikinfo had over 33,000 articles, most of which have been copied from Wikipedia with minimal modification. The process of importing articles has been accelerated by using a fork of the MediaWiki software called GetWiki. Instead of red links, GetWiki uses green links to point to articles which do not exist locally.
When the user follows such a link, GetWiki tries to dynamically fetch it from the wiki designated as an external source (in Wikinfo's case, the English Wikipedia), renders and displays the article text. A local copy is created only if the page is edited. Effectively, Wikinfo therefore provides a transparent "wrapper" around Wikipedia pages which have not yet been copied.
Wikipedia user pages
One source of tension has arisen from the fact that Wikinfo also fetches Wikipedia personal user pages, where users can put information about themselves and the reasons they contribute to Wikipedia. Such user pages are displayed like any article would be, and some Wikipedia users feel that this creates the false impression that they contribute to Wikinfo. It is possible to prevent dynamically loading a Wikipedia user page on Wikinfo by editing it - this practice is actively discouraged, however, on the Wikinfo account creation page.