Wikipedia is a great place to find information on any subject that interests you. But it can also be a great place to discover interesting topics that you didn’t even know about. These tools help you discover new Wikipedia pieces and track what you want to read.
Here are 5 tools to improve Wikipedia Articles
In case you didn’t already know, the Wikipedia home page offers a featured article every day, as well as current topics. If you don’t visit the home page, you’re missing one of the best places to get new information every day. You should also consider the benefits of creating a Wikipedia account , so that you can track your interests and save pages for later.
1.Wiki Good Article(Twitter): daily random article to read
Did you know that Wikipedia has a few criteria for what makes a good article? In fact, he made a list of those “good articles” that you can read. But of course, that would be too much in one day, so follow the Wiki Good Article bot on Twitter, which tweets a random link every day.
The six factors of a good article are that it is well written, verifiable without original research, broad in its cover, neutral, stable and illustrated. There are also a few disqualifying factors, but for the most part, these six are enough to eliminate uninteresting coins.
Above all, an entry loses its status as a “good article” if it becomes one of the featured articles on Wikipedia. This list therefore becomes a good way to find interesting articles that you would not have been able to find easily otherwise.
2.Copernix(Web): world map with Wikipedia entries
Copernix is a mix of Google Maps and Wikipedia. It’s a fascinating way to explore the world map and learn new ones. Whether it’s history, geography, or news, it’s the coolest map experience since Google Earth.
The map is filled with pins from interesting Wikipedia articles on any region. But it is not based solely on points of interest. This means that you don’t need a physical structure for Copernix to place a pin. The pin is about what’s interesting in this area, whether it’s a person, an event or something else.
You will see pins like the Prophet Muhammad in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 in Ethiopia, etc. These are not landmarks in the physical sense, but they are landmarks in the history of our world, which is worth reading.
At any time, you can browse a precision of all the pins in a pane on the left. Click on a pin to expand its entry and learn more about it. And there is always a link to read the full Wikipedia entry. Just warning, spend a few minutes on Copernix and you are forced to go down the rabbit hole.
3.Weeklypedia(Web): Weekly list of major changes in Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a good indicator of important events. When a major event takes place around the world, publishers switch to related articles on that event and start updating it. The number of changes in an article therefore indicates what you should pay attention to.
These modifications are available via the open source tools of Wikipedia. Weeklypedia tracks changes and lists the 20 most edited articles in a week, turning them into a newsletter. It’s like a summary of what’s going on in the world, in your inbox. The interesting part is that the modified articles are not always linked to the news.
In addition to the 20 most edited articles, Weeklypedia also follows other activities on Wikipedia. The first five discussions, where the editors talk about hotly debated topics and what to say and what not to say, are a great place to see all sides of an argument unfolding. And the top 10 of new articles created in the week is like a little newsletter.
There is simply no reason not to subscribe to Weeklypedia. Think of it as leisure reading, as and when you want.
4.WikiTweaks(Chrome): better monitoring of Wikipedia and history
As incredible as Wikipedia, its design could be much better. The amount of space wasted on a page does not seem to be optimized for reading, especially when there are tables, graphs or images.
The WikiTweaks Chrome extension makes some cosmetic changes to Wikipedia that use space more efficiently, which improves reading. It’s an old extension that also adds previews if you hover over a link, but it’s no longer necessary now that Wikipedia has made it an official feature.
WikiTweaks also tracks your Wikipedia story, which is a valuable tool for those who are used to falling into the rabbit hole. Click on the extension icon and you will see the last Wikipedia pages you have visited, instantly reminding you how you landed on the page you are reading.
Download:WikiTweaks forChrome(free)
5.EpubPress(Chrome, Firefox): Create an Ebook from several Wikipedia links
Once you have your topics, you should be able to read them anywhere, even offline. Wikipedia offers its own tool for creating and downloading a PDF with several links . But currently, the Book Creator tool is undergoing changes and you cannot get these PDFs.
EpubPress is a great alternative to Wikipedia Book Creator, and much easier to use. Install the extension in your browser and open Browse Wikipedia as you would. At any time, click on the extension to see a list of all open tabs. Choose the ones you want to add to the ebook. Give it a name and description, then download. The tool takes a while to finish downloading and compiling all the pages, but it’s worth the wait.
The only restriction is that your final file is in ePub format, not in PDF. But this is not a problem as most readers will support ePub. Alternatively, you can still convert the ePub to PDF or any other file format with free online tools.
Download:EpubPress forChrome|Firefox(free)
Alternatives and improvements to Wikipedia
Wikipedia is arguably the largest user-edited encyclopedia in the world, but it’s not the only resource you should trust. It is in your best interest to look for alternatives and try to improve it as much as possible.