h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There was an article on Slashdot yesterday saying that the Wikipedia has 300,000 articles (actually that's just the total for English).

How does H2G2 compare?

I'm sure there used to be somewhere here where the latest stats were available but I can't find it now.

Þ

Traveller in Time running with a measuring tape flying behind
"I am not sure but somewhere around a cubic parsec."

Nephew Who wondering what Traveller has been measuring
"I think they ask for the Edited Guide
Current status: 6425 Edited entries, hmm sounds small.

But have you seen how wide H2G2 is?
Some five an a half million postings!
And some 57682 viewable entries in total, there must be thousands more, 'deleted' == hidden by the researchers. "

Traveller in Time on top
"Hey, wait a minute this is not a contest!
It is just HooToo is the greatest site on the internet."

H2G2 has an emphasis on quality.

The EG entries go through a rigorous procedure to get into the guide with <./>peerreview</.> checking the quality control and factual content, subbing and then final polishing by the Editors. Some are given a specifically designed graphic and all have their day on the frontpage.

If you wanted to add in all the unofficial entries - that would be a huge number too.

Mort

Wikipedia is still bigger, even including all dna site articles (nearly 282 thousand) many of which are repeats, deleted or hidden in various ways. Wikipedia is also of better quality factually and under better supervision and revision.

Wikipedia is also a little dull in places and ugly to look at - it's writing by committee, whereas hootoo is written by individuals.

Wikipedia has no underguide, no post...

It's horses for courses really, it depends what you want.

sprout

"Wikipedia is also of better quality factually and under better supervision and revision."

I don't trust Wikipedia as an encyclopedia any more than I trust a mute person as a radio host.

I've just seen so many errors in Wikipedia entries, and anyone can change entries at any time - right before I read it or years before. If I'm writing entries here, I only use it as a jumping off point to get ideas. But I don't trust it on the details.

Some of those 300,000 entries are also rather useless, or appear to be completely formulated (like entries on small towns)

My point is that I think h2g2 is doing very well because Wikipedia is cheating

Comes in handy on occasion for a bit of research though, and I like the linking. Although I admit I don't trust their facts until I've verified them somewhere else.

Jodan's right, a lot of the content can't be trusted, and also a lot of their 300,000 articles are "stubs" and consist of one or two sentences and a link. (No edited guide entries are like that.)

Many edited guide entries *were* like that though! Some still aren't much more despite re-editing. They also contain rather tenuous links. A946 was demoted at some point. A937 is still in the EG and A559 is hardly thorough. That was just from the first few I looked at. I already know that h2g2 content can't be trusted from having seen the mistakes and falsehoods in articles. The wikipedia entries I've seen have been better but I certainly haven't read them all.

It's true that some older edited guide entries were short, but many of these have been demoted or updated. However short entries make up only a tiny part of edited guide entries, whereas on Wikipedia almost half of the articles I come across are stubs.

I think both sites contain some errors (would you like to give examples of all the errors you've found on h2g2?) but Wikipedia is so much easier to change and therefore more likely to contain dodgy things. Personally I've found more errors in Wikipedia but then of course it all depends on what type of articles you're reading (e.g. scientific, historical etc.)

Anyway there's no point in having a Wikipedia vs. h2g2 argument - there are heaps of them all around both sites, and most people have their opinions and aren't going to change.

A559 is being updated as we speak by Mina (it is in PR) TPTB recognise that many of the older entries are sub current standards so the update forum is being promoted.

If we see something that we think doesn't meet the standards then point it out to the Eds and they will take a look. i have done this and had something removed from the EG. It would be impossible to manually go through all the early entries so it is a case of as and when someone points them out.

Like all sites, things change and we can help keep it current.

And of course, if you do see mistakes in Edited Entries on h2g2, you can always let us know via Editorial Feedback.

Traveller in Time on a florum
"Where they get neglected, lost, found again, read, lost again, used as compost for another forum, dug up by archeologists, reread and finally after extensive research used to alter the use of a capital in a footnote. "













Traveller in Time on a wire
"Well, perhaps not quite according to this procedure, but not always completely unlike it.

How Big is HooToo?
What other side of the internet supports nearly 2 million Fora? "

Well it don't matter what I try, I can only make H2G2 about 13inch wide

manda

Nephew Who adding a new chain to his wide matrix dotter
"Ever tried a hardcopy of all the threads on <./>askh2g2</.> ?"

"I don't trust Wikipedia as an encyclopedia any more than I trust a mute person as a radio host."

Still better than Steve Wright.

B