Wikinfo
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Wikinfo, formerly known as Internet-Encyclopedia (renamed in January 2004), is a fork of Wikipedia initiated by Fred Bauder in July 2003. It is hosted by ibiblio. Wikinfo makes no attempt to be multilingual, although existing links to Wikipedia articles in other languages are retained in the case of articles copied from Wikipedia.
Wikinfo's policy on point of view is different from Wikipedia: rather than adopting a neutral point of view, the set of articles about a particular topic are split into a number of articles (http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Internet-Encyclopedia:Set_of_articles) with a specified point of view—thus it tries to have several points of view on each topic. 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] (http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Internet-Encyclopedia:Sympathetic_point_of_view)
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. [2] (http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=Wikinfo:Signed_articles) However, Wikinfo does not permit editing of its articles by anyone other than its registered users.
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 [3] (http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=Wikinfo:Village_pump/Archive_2#Promoting_Wikinfo). Some Wikinfo users appreciate the fact that their submissions are not edited as frequently as on Wikipedia.
By the end of November 2004, Wikinfo had over 30,000 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 a 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.
One source of tension has arisen from the fact that this includes 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.
External links
- Wikinfo main page (http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.phtml)
- Wikinfo's Developer and Sysops (http://www.wikinfo.org/?title=Internet-Encyclopedia:Internet-Encyclopedia_editors)
- Comparisons to Wikipedia (http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=Wikinfo:About/Comparisons_to_Wikipedia)de:Wikinfo