Misplaced Pages

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'''''Misplaced Pages''''' is a ]-based, ] ] that is written collaboratively by volunteers. It consists of 195 independent language editions sponsored by the ] ]. Entries on traditional encyclopedic topics exist alongside those on ], ] and ] topics. Its purpose is to create and distribute, worldwide, a 💕 in as many languages as possible. ''Misplaced Pages'' is one of the most popular reference sites on the Web,{{ref|PopularityRef}} receiving around 50 million hits per day.

''Misplaced Pages'' contains approximately 1.5 million articles, over 500,000<!--DON'T CHANGE THIS TO {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}--> of which are in its ] edition, over 200,000 in the ] and over 100,000 in the ]. It began as a complement to the expert-written ] on ] ]. Having steadily gained in popularity,{{ref|Popularity}} it has spawned numerous conceptually related sister projects such as ], ] and ]. Its articles are edited by volunteers in ] fashion, meaning articles are constantly subject to change by anyone. Misplaced Pages's volunteers enforce a policy of "neutral point of view". Under this, the views presented by notable persons or literature are summarized without attempting to determine an ] truth. By its open nature, ] and inaccuracy are problems in Misplaced Pages.

''Misplaced Pages's'' status as a ] has been controversial. It has received praise for being free, editable, and covering a wide range of topics. It has been criticized for lack of authority versus a traditional encyclopedia, ], and for deficiencies in traditional encyclopedic topics. Its articles have been cited by the ] and ]. ''Misplaced Pages's'' articles are available under the ], and, while having been mirrored and forked by ]s, have not been distributed on physical media on a large scale.

==Wiki==
]
''Misplaced Pages'' is described by ] President ] as "an effort to create and distribute a 💕 of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language."{{ref|WalesGoal}} It is created on the wikipedia.org ] using a type of software and philosophy known as ] or WikiWikiWeb. Wales intends that ''Misplaced Pages'' should achieve a "] or better" quality and be published on physical media.

Numerous other ] exist or have existed on the ]. Traditional editorial policies and article ownership is used in some, such as the expert-written '']'' and defunct '']''. More casually, websites such as ] or ] serve as general guides whose articles are written and controlled by individuals. Projects such as ''Misplaced Pages'', '']'', and the '']'', are ]s in which articles are developed by numerous authors and there is no formal review process. ''Misplaced Pages'' has become the largest such encyclopedic wiki by article and word count. It is distinguished from many projects in licensing its content under the ].

===Free content===
]

The ], the license under which ''Misplaced Pages's'' articles available, is one of many "]" ] licenses which permit the redistribution, creation of ]s, and commercial use of content provided its authors are attributed and this content remains available under the GFDL. When an author contributes to original material to the project, the ] over it is retained with them, however they agree to make the work available under the GFDL. Material on ''Misplaced Pages'' may thus be shared with, or incorporated from, resources which also use this license. ''Misplaced Pages's'' content has been ] or ] by hundreds of resources from database dumps. Although all text is available under the GFDL, a significant percentage of ''Misplaced Pages's'' images and sounds are non-free. Items such as ]s, song samples or copyrighted news photos are used with a claim of ]. Material has also been given to ''Misplaced Pages'' under no-] or for-Misplaced Pages-only conditions.{{ref|NonFreeImg}}

''Misplaced Pages'' has been used by the media, academics, and others as a reference or supplement. News organizations have referred to ''Misplaced Pages'' articles as sources or in sidebars containing related information on the Web, some regularly.{{ref|Lih}} According to lists maintained by ''Misplaced Pages's'' editors, its articles have been cited most frequently in the ].{{ref|UsePress}} Less frequently, it has been used in academic studies, books, conferences, and court cases. For instance, the ] website refers to ''Misplaced Pages's'' article on ] in the "further reading" list of ].{{ref|C38}} Noncomprehensive lists are maintained by Wikipedians of .

===Language editions===
]

''Misplaced Pages'' encompassed 92 "active" language editions in ].{{ref|LangCount}} Its five largest editions were, in descending order, ], ], ], ] and ]. In total, ''Misplaced Pages'' contained 195 language editions of varying states with a combined 1.5 million articles.{{ref|AllLangArticles}}

Language editions operate independently of one another. Editions are not bound to the content of other language editions, and are only held to global policies such as "neutral point of view". Articles and images are nonetheless shared between ''Misplaced Pages'' editions, the former through pages to request translations organized on many of the larger language editions, and the latter through the ] repository. Translated articles represent only a small fraction of the articles in any edition.{{ref|LangTrans}}

The following is the list of major editions in the order of the article number in ].{{ref|ListOfLangEditions}}
# ] (516,000)
# ] (215,000)
# ] (106,000)
# ] (90,000)
# ] (65,000)
# ] (60,851)
# ] (60,527)
# ] (45,000)
# ] (36,000)
# ] (33,000)
# ] (27,000)
# ] (22,000)

==Editing==
] ].]]
Any visitor may edit ''Misplaced Pages's'' articles and have their changes be instantly displayed. It is built on the belief that collaboration between users will improve articles over time, in much the same way that ] develops. Its authors need not have, nor receive any distinction for having, expertise or formal qualifications in the subjects which they edit, and users are warned that their contributions may be "edited mercilessly" by anyone who so wishes. Its articles are not controlled by any particular user or editorial group, and decision-making on the content and editorial policies of ''Misplaced Pages'' is instead done by ], though ] retains final judgement.{{ref|Despotism}}

By the nature of its ], "edit wars" and prolonged disputes often occur when editors do not agree.{{ref|EditWar}} Members of its community have explained its editing process as a collaborative work of art, a ]-like ] process, or an adversarial "battlefield of ideas."{{ref|WikiExp}} Articles are always subject to editing, such that ''Misplaced Pages'' does not declare any article finished. Vandalism has been a constant problem for Misplaced Pages. In a study of the page histories of ''Misplaced Pages's'' English language edition, ] and ] researchers Viegas, Wattenberg, and Dave found the mean time to correct "mass delete" and "mass delete obscene" vandalism to be 7.7 days and 1.8 days, and the median times 2.8 minutes and 1.7 minutes respectively. In contrast, the average persistency of a revision marked "all content" was found to be 22.3 days, the median time 90.4 minutes.{{ref|VWD2004}}

===Policies===
''Misplaced Pages'' requires that its contributors observe a "neutral point of view" when writing and not include original research. Neutral point of view, itself a "non-negotiable" policy,{{ref|NPOVnegot}} articulates the encyclopedia's goal as "''representing'' disputes, ''characterizing'' them, rather than engaging in them."{{ref|NPOVwp}} If achieved, ''Misplaced Pages'' would not be written from a single "objective" point of view, but rather fairly present all views on an issue, attributed to their adherents in a neutral way. It states that views should be given weight equal to their standing. This policy has been criticized as having an unattainable goal, being unnecessary with widely discredited material, and allowing the representation of "morally offensive" views.{{ref|NPOVwp2}} Opinions or theories that have not been previously published are considered "original research", which is not allowed. The "No original research" policy states that such material cannot be properly attributed under neutral point of view, and that editors' own novel ideas or perspectives are not to be introduced.{{ref|OriginalResearch}}

''Misplaced Pages's'' contributors additionally maintain a variety of lesser policies and guidelines. In contrast to other wikis of its time, such as ]'s ], Wikipedians use "talk" pages to discuss changes to articles, rather than discussing changes within the article itself. ''Misplaced Pages'' contributors often modify, move, or delete articles which are felt to be inappropriate to an encyclopedia, such as ] definitions or original source texts.{{ref|Unsuitable}} Often, ''Misplaced Pages'' editions establish style conventions.

===Authors===
Every user is intended to be of equal status when editing articles, and edit articles to reach consensus among editors. Many maintenance tasks are performed by a group of volunteer developers, stewards, bureaucrats, and administrators which number in the hundreds. Admistrators are the largest such group, privileged with the ability to prevent articles from being edited, delete articles, or block users from editing in accordance with community policy. During ], ''Misplaced Pages'' had approximately 13,000 users which made at least five edits that month; 9,000 of these active users worked on its three largest language editions.{{ref|AuthorsCount}} A more active group of approximately 3,000 users made more than 100 edits per month, over half of these users having worked in the three largest editions. According to Wikimedia, one-quarter of its traffic comes from users without accounts, who are less likely to be editors.{{ref|WikiMediaPedia}}

Former ''Misplaced Pages'' editor-in-chief ] has said that having the ] license as a "guarantee of freedom is a strong motivation to work on a 💕."{{ref|Britannica}} In a study of ''Misplaced Pages'' as a community, Economics professor Andrea Ciffolilli argued that the low ]s of participating in ] software create a catalyst for collaborative development, and that a "creative construction" approach encourages participation.{{ref|Ciffolilli2003}} ''Misplaced Pages'' has been viewed as a social experiment in ] or ]. Its founder has replied that it is not intended as one, though it is a consequence.{{ref|Social}} In a page on researching with Misplaced Pages, its authors argue that ''Misplaced Pages'' is valuable for being a social community. That is, authors can be asked to defend or clarify their work, and disputes are readily seen.{{ref|Researching}} ''Misplaced Pages'' editions also often contain ]s in which the community answers questions.

==Evaluations==
:''See also: ]''

''Misplaced Pages's'' claim to be or status as an ] has been controversial. ''Misplaced Pages'' has been criticized for a perceived lack of reliability, comprehensiveness, and authority. It is considered to have no or limited utility as a ] among many ]s, ]s, and the ]s of more formally written encyclopedias.

Critics argue that allowing anyone to edit makes ''Misplaced Pages'' an unreliable work. In a 2004 interview with '']'', librarian Philip Bradley said that he would not use ''Misplaced Pages'' and is "not aware of a single librarian who would. The main problem is the lack of authority. With printed publications, the publishers have to ensure that their data is reliable, as their livelihood depends on it. But with something like this, all that goes out the window." Similarly, '']'s'' executive editor Ted Pappas said to the ''Guardian'': "The premise of ''Misplaced Pages'' is that continuous improvement will lead to perfection. That premise is completely unproven."{{ref|Who}} Discussing ''Misplaced Pages'' as an academic source, Dana Boyd said in 2005 that "t will never be an encyclopedia, but it will contain extensive knowledge that is quite valuable for different purposes."{{ref|Boyd}}

In an oft-cited 2004 piece ''The Faith-Based Encyclopedia'', former ''Britannica'' editor ] criticised the ] approach, writing "owever closely a ''Misplaced Pages'' article may at some point in its life attain to reliability, it is forever open to the uninformed or semiliterate meddler."{{ref|McHenryFBE}} Aaron Krowne wrote a rebuttal article in which he criticised McHenry's methods, and labelled it ], the marketing technique of "fear, uncertainty, and doubt."{{ref|Krowne}} In another rebuttal, Jean-Baptiste Soufron attributed to ''Misplaced Pages'' a political importance similar to the '']'' in ] "because it is not only aimed at making some knowledge available to the public but it is also aimed at being free."{{ref|Soufron}}

German computing magazine '']'' performed a comparison of three encyclopedias in October 2004: '']'', '']'', and Misplaced Pages. Experts evaluated 66 articles in various fields. In overall score, ''Misplaced Pages'' was rated 3.6 out of 5 points ("B-"), ''Brockhaus Premium'' 3.3, and ''Microsoft Encarta'' 3.1.{{ref|Kurzidim}} In an analysis of online encyclopedias, ] professors Emigh and Herring wrote that "Misplaced Pages improves on traditional information sources, especially for the content areas in which it is strong, such as technology and current events."{{ref|EmighHerring}}

''Misplaced Pages'' has been accused of deficiencies in comprehensiveness because of its voluntary nature, and of reflecting the systemic biases of its contributors. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' editor-in-chief Dale Hoiberg has argued that "people write of things they're interested in, and so many subjects don't get covered; and news events get covered in great detail. The entry on ] is five times the length of that on ], and the entry on '']'' is twice as long as the article on ]."{{ref|Who2}} Former ] editor-in-chief ] stated in 2004, "when it comes to relatively specialized topics (outside of the interests of most of the contributors), the project's credibility is very uneven."{{ref|SangerAntiElitism}}

Its style is described by Emigh and Herring as being "largely indistinguishable" from '']''. They further argue that "a few active users, when acting in concert with established norms within an open editing system, can achieve ultimate control over the content produced within the system, literally erasing diversity, controversy, and inconsistency, and homo-genizing contributors' voices." Editors on ], a fork of Misplaced Pages, similarly argue that new or controversial editors to ''Misplaced Pages'' are often unjustly labelled "]s" or "problem users" and blocked from editing.{{ref|WikiInfoCritical}}

==History==
''Main article: ]''
]''.]]
''Misplaced Pages'' was initially intended by its editors as a space for articles to be developed in ] fashion prior to formal peer review for inclusion in ], a free online encyclopedia project written by experts through a formal process. Nupedia was founded on ] ] by ], with ] hired as editor-in-chief and the project underwritten by Wales' ] Internet company. ''Misplaced Pages'' was begun under the same management as a single English edition on ], ] at wikipedia]. The projects existed side-by-side until ], in which time the latter's output fell and its text was incorporated into Misplaced Pages. Under a similar concept, ] existed alongside ''Misplaced Pages'' in its early years. It subsequently became inactive and its creator, ] figure ], lent his support to Misplaced Pages.{{ref|Stallman}} While it came to be the largest encyclopedia on the ], neither Nupedia nor ''Misplaced Pages'' were the first ]s. Nupedia and ''Misplaced Pages'' were initially unique in making their articles ].

] ], two and one-half months after starting.]]

''Misplaced Pages's'' principle of "neutral point of view" was developed in its early months. By the end of its first year, it consisted of 18 language editions. It had 26 by the end of 2002, 46 by the end of 2003, and 161 by the end of 2004.{{ref|HistLangCount}} Citing fear of commercial advertising and lack of control in a perceived English-centric Misplaced Pages, users of the ] forked from ''Misplaced Pages'' to create the '']'' in ]. Later that year, Wales announced that ''Misplaced Pages'' would not display ]s, and moved its website to wikipedia].

From ''Misplaced Pages'' and Nupedia the ] was created on ] 2003.{{ref|Wikimedia}} ''Misplaced Pages'' and its sister projects thereafter operated under this ]. ''Misplaced Pages's'' first sister project, "In Memoriam", had been created in ] to detail the ]; it gained ], a collection of quotes, a week after Wikimedia launched, and ] the next month. Wikimedia has since started a number of other projects, detailed below.
''Misplaced Pages'' has traditionally measured its status by article count. In its first two years it grew at a few hundred or less new articles per day. The English ''Misplaced Pages'' reached a 100,000 article milestone on ] 2003. During 2004 its article growth rate was approximately 1,000 to 3,000 per day. In all editions, it reached 500,000 articles on ] 2004.{{ref|HalfMillion}} ''Misplaced Pages'' reached its one millionth article among 105 language editions on ], ].{{ref|WikimediaMillion}}

==Software and hardware==
]

''Misplaced Pages'' is run by ] ] ] on a cluster of dedicated servers located in ]. Increasing demand has been a recurring problem for ''Misplaced Pages's'' servers, with slow-downs or outages resulting.

MediaWiki is Phase III of the program's software. Originally, ''Misplaced Pages'' ran on ] by ] (Phase I). At first it required ] for links; later it was also possible to use double brackets. ''Misplaced Pages'' began running on a ] ] with a ] ] in ]. This software, Phase II, was written specifically for the ''Misplaced Pages'' project by Magnus Manske. Several rounds of modifications were made to improve performance in response to increased demand. Ultimately, the software was rewritten again, this time by Lee Daniel Crocker. Instituted in ], this Phase III software was called MediaWiki. It was licensed under the ] and used by all Wikimedia projects.

''Misplaced Pages'' was served from a single server until ], when the server setup was expanded into an ] distributed architecture. In ], the project ran on 39 dedicated servers located in ]. This configuration included a single master database server running ], multiple slave database servers, 21 web servers running the ] software, and 7 ] servers.

Page requests are processed by first passing to a front-end layer of ] servers. Requests that cannot be served from the Squid cache are sent to two load-balancing servers running the ] software, which then pass the request to one of the Apache web servers for page-rendering from the database. The web servers serve pages as requested, performing page rendering for all the Wikipedias. To increase speed further, rendered pages for anonymous users are cached in a filesystem until invalidated, allowing page rendering to be skipped entirely for most common page accesses. Wikimedia has begun building a global network of ] with the addition of three such servers in ].

''Misplaced Pages's'' ongoing status is listed at an on ].

==Awards==
''Misplaced Pages'' won two major awards in ]{{ref|MayAwards}}: The first was a Golden Nica for Digital Communities, awarded by ]; this came with a 10,000 ] grant and an invitation to present at the PAE Cyberarts Festival in ] later that year. The second was a Judges' ] for "Community". ''Misplaced Pages'' was also nominated for a "Best Practices" Webby. In ], the ] was awarded a Web Creation Award from the Japan Advertisers Association. This award, normally given to individuals for great contributions to the Web in Japanese, was accepted by a long-standing contributor on behalf of the project.

''Misplaced Pages'' has received plaudits from sources including ], ], ], ], ], the ], and ]. All awards to the ''Misplaced Pages'' project and selected press clippings .

==Sister projects==
]
''Misplaced Pages'' has the following sister projects as part of the ] family:
*], a free ] project
*], a free ] project
*], a free ] of ]
*], a multilingual ] of free source texts
*], a shared media respository
*], a free ] source

There are many other conceptually related projects, including ].

==See also==
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]

==References==
<!-- LEAD -->
#{{note|PopularityRef}}According to ], "" (28 March 2005).
#{{note|Popularity}}See plots at "", Misplaced Pages Statistics, 1 January 2005.
<!-- WIKI -->
#{{note|WalesGoal}}], "", 8 March 2005, <wikipedia-l@wikimedia.org>.
<!-- FREE CONTENT -->
#{{note|NonFreeImg}}For example, see statistics and licenses on the English edition at "", Misplaced Pages (9 March 2005).
#{{note|Lih}}Andrew Lih, "" (]), ''5th International Symposium on Online Journalism'', April 2004.
#{{note|UsePress}}"", Misplaced Pages (28 March 2005).
#{{note|C38}}"", LEGISINFO (28 March 2005).
<!-- LANGUAGE EDITIONS -->
#{{note|LangCount}}"", Meta-Wiki (28 March 2005).
#{{note|AllLangArticles}}"", Misplaced Pages statistics, 21 March 2005.
#{{note|LangTrans}}For example, "", Misplaced Pages (9 March 2005).
#{{note|ListOfLangEditions}}"", Meta Wikimedia (28 March 2005).
<!-- EDITING -->
#{{note|Despotism}}"", Meta-Wiki, 10:55 4 Apr 2005.
#{{note|EditWar}}"", Misplaced Pages (26 March 2005).
#{{note|WikiExp}}"", Meta-Wiki, 23:30 24 Mar 2005.
#{{note|VWD2004}}Fernanda B. Viegas, Martin Wattenberg, and Kushal Dave, "", CHI 2004 April 24-29 2004. Preliminary report "" available on IBM website.
<!-- POLICIES -->
#{{note|NPOVnegot}}Jimmy Wales, "", 5 November 2003, <wikien-l@wikimedia.org>.
#{{note|NPOVwp}}"", Misplaced Pages, accessed 4 March 2005. Italics original.
#{{note|NPOVwp2}}"Misplaced Pages:Neutral point of view".
#{{note|OriginalResearch}}"", Misplaced Pages, (4 March 2005).
#{{note|Unsuitable}}"", Misplaced Pages (4 March 2005).
<!-- AUTHORS -->
#{{note|AuthorsCount}}Paragraph's statistics taken from "" (Misplaced Pages Statistics, 21 March 2005).
#{{note|WikiMediaPedia}}"", Meta-Wiki, 08:02 30 Mar 2005.
#{{note|Britannica}}], "", ], 25 July 2001.
#{{note|Ciffolilli2003}}Andrea Ciffolilli, "", ] December 2003.
#{{note|Social}}Jimmy Wales, "", 26 January 2005, <wikien-l@wikimedia.org>.
#{{note|Researching}}"" (Misplaced Pages, accessed 28 March 2005).
<!-- EVALUATIONS -->
#{{note|Who}}"", '']'', 26 October 2004.
#{{note|Boyd}}Dana Boyd, "", ], 4 January 2005.
#{{note|McHenryFBE}}], "", ], 15 November 2004.
#{{note|Krowne}}Aaron Krowne, "", ], 1 March 2005.
#{{note|Soufron}}Jean-Baptiste Soufron, "" (16 November 2004).
#{{note|Kurzidim}}Michael Kurzidim: Wissenswettstreit. Die kostenlose Misplaced Pages tritt gegen die Marktführer Encarta und Brockhaus an, in: ] 21/2004, 4 October 2004, S. 132-139.
#{{note|EmighHerring}}William Emigh and Susan C. Herring, "", paper presented at the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004.
#{{note|Who2}}"Who knows?"
#{{note|SangerAntiElitism}}Larry Sanger, "", ], 31 December 2004.
#{{note|WikiInfoCritical}}"" ], 07:28 30 Mar 2005.
<!-- HISTORY -->
#{{note|Stallman}}], "", ], 1999.
#{{note|HistLangCount}}"", Misplaced Pages, 30 March 2005.
#{{note|Wikimedia}}Jimmy Wales, "", 20 June 2003, <wikipedia-l@wikimedia.org>.
#{{note|HalfMillion}}"", Wikimedia Foundation, 25 February 2004.
#{{note|WikimediaMillion}}See "", Wikimedia Foundation, 20 September 2004.
<!-- AWARDS -->
#{{note|MayAwards}}"", Meta-Wiki (28 March 2005).

==Further reading==
*Misplaced Pages:
*Misplaced Pages:
*Misplaced Pages:
*Misplaced Pages:
*Misplaced Pages:
*Misplaced Pages:
*Misplaced Pages:
*]:
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==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Commons|Wikimedia}}
*, multi-lingual portal
*, ] edition
*, policy-related and technical discussions regarding ]
*

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Revision as of 20:49, 10 April 2005