Andrew
@generalising.bsky.social
Not another one to try and remember. We'll see.
Librarian. Scholarly communications, historic MPs, Wikipedia, inter alia other things. Misplaced Scot.
Librarian. Scholarly communications, historic MPs, Wikipedia, inter alia other things. Misplaced Scot.
Checked back in the notes. In 2023 @heald-j.bsky.social worked out 30.8 million items had 1+ sitelink, and we refined that down to 21-22m after an estimate for internal pages.
Current 1+ figure is 33.6, so pro-rating, maybe now 24m topics?
Current 1+ figure is 33.6, so pro-rating, maybe now 24m topics?
November 28, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Checked back in the notes. In 2023 @heald-j.bsky.social worked out 30.8 million items had 1+ sitelink, and we refined that down to 21-22m after an estimate for internal pages.
Current 1+ figure is 33.6, so pro-rating, maybe now 24m topics?
Current 1+ figure is 33.6, so pro-rating, maybe now 24m topics?
I think it's one of those things that rapidly strains the query service (since you have to filter sitelinks to WP only, and then filter out ones identified as non-article), but I haven't tried it for a few years.
November 27, 2025 at 11:26 PM
I think it's one of those things that rapidly strains the query service (since you have to filter sitelinks to WP only, and then filter out ones identified as non-article), but I haven't tried it for a few years.
And finally, 21. It has been nice to see Wikipedia graduate from "silly project with no grasp of the challenges or the practicalities" to something more along the lines of "core piece of internet infrastructure" and I'm proud I helped that along, in my own little way.
On to the next twenty years.
On to the next twenty years.
November 27, 2025 at 10:08 PM
And finally, 21. It has been nice to see Wikipedia graduate from "silly project with no grasp of the challenges or the practicalities" to something more along the lines of "core piece of internet infrastructure" and I'm proud I helped that along, in my own little way.
On to the next twenty years.
On to the next twenty years.
20. It's amazing how many things we don't quite know about Wikipedia. How many (distinct) topics do we cover across all languages? It's not easily recorded anywhere. Maybe twenty million.
November 27, 2025 at 9:54 PM
20. It's amazing how many things we don't quite know about Wikipedia. How many (distinct) topics do we cover across all languages? It's not easily recorded anywhere. Maybe twenty million.
19. There has been a steady drift from "articles should be consistent with each other across topics" to "articles should be consistent across the project", and I think this probably causes more trouble than it's worth (see #9/10 above)
November 27, 2025 at 7:34 PM
19. There has been a steady drift from "articles should be consistent with each other across topics" to "articles should be consistent across the project", and I think this probably causes more trouble than it's worth (see #9/10 above)
18. I noted earlier that the only thing that really threatens Wikipedia is LLMs - the seductive lure of easily generatable rubbish is just too attractive for many people. A small step towards sanity today with a (minimal) new guideline, hurrah. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
Wikipedia:Writing articles with large language models - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 24, 2025 at 11:28 PM
18. I noted earlier that the only thing that really threatens Wikipedia is LLMs - the seductive lure of easily generatable rubbish is just too attractive for many people. A small step towards sanity today with a (minimal) new guideline, hurrah. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
On the intensely minor miracle of the colander: blog.plover.com/religion/st-...
I guess if you got there and discovered all the other artists had claimed "saving children from death" and "bringing forth a spring in the mountains", you'd want to liven up the colander story with some badgers
I guess if you got there and discovered all the other artists had claimed "saving children from death" and "bringing forth a spring in the mountains", you'd want to liven up the colander story with some badgers
November 23, 2025 at 10:37 AM
On the intensely minor miracle of the colander: blog.plover.com/religion/st-...
I guess if you got there and discovered all the other artists had claimed "saving children from death" and "bringing forth a spring in the mountains", you'd want to liven up the colander story with some badgers
I guess if you got there and discovered all the other artists had claimed "saving children from death" and "bringing forth a spring in the mountains", you'd want to liven up the colander story with some badgers
I had a flatmate once who went hiking in Corsica for a week and came back with a beard - "well, I didn't want people to see it half grown". Turns out you can really commit to that approach...
November 23, 2025 at 9:58 AM
I had a flatmate once who went hiking in Corsica for a week and came back with a beard - "well, I didn't want people to see it half grown". Turns out you can really commit to that approach...
Here you go - Owen Garriot with a well-groomed 1973-style moustache on the ground (left) and a ... less so ... one on orbit (right)
November 22, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Here you go - Owen Garriot with a well-groomed 1973-style moustache on the ground (left) and a ... less so ... one on orbit (right)
If you go back to the early long-duration flights, the Gemini 7 crew looked pretty unshaven by the time they got out.
In terms of intentional facial hair, I think one of the Skylab 3 crew had a moustache.
In terms of intentional facial hair, I think one of the Skylab 3 crew had a moustache.
November 22, 2025 at 11:49 PM
If you go back to the early long-duration flights, the Gemini 7 crew looked pretty unshaven by the time they got out.
In terms of intentional facial hair, I think one of the Skylab 3 crew had a moustache.
In terms of intentional facial hair, I think one of the Skylab 3 crew had a moustache.