Arabic Wikipedia

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This page is a descriptive article on the Arabic Wikipedia, feel free to add any comment.

Many of the answers here are courtesy of Isam Bayazidi

Facts[edit]

Started: Although the home page of Arabic Wikipedia says it started in July 2003, it did not really start until February 2004. Elian sent an email to Arabeyes Mailing List ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabeyes). Following is the email: http://lists.arabeyes.org/archives/general/2004/February/msg00023.html

Areas of strength

  • TK

Areas of weakness

Who is the competition (print, online)?

  • TK
  • Arab-ency.com

Prominent milestones/events[edit]

  • TK

What has its impact been?

  • TK

Features[edit]

What language features are challening?

  • Arabic is read right-to-left, and Arabic wikipedia didn't even have an Arabic interface originally. Isam Bayazidi volunteered to translate the interface, alongside others. Reference
  • Finding translation for the names creatures like Clarkia Amonea and Pithovirus

What would surprise the outside reader about the community?

  • TK

What are some unique practices/characteristics?

  • TK

Who were the earliest participants, who started it?

  • Isam Bayazidi

Other prominent Wikipedians?

  • Meno25
  • Ciphers

Statistics[edit]

First test made by Toira on 25/02/07[edit]

Using alt-shift-x (to display a random page) 20 times I got:

  • 13 articles with decent content [65%], of wich 04 are about arab personalities.
  • 3 stubs. [15%]
  • 4 date articles, half of them have some content. [20%]

Second test made by SegeWiki on 6/01/11[edit]

Viewing a random article 20 times I got:

  • 3 one-lined stubs (15%)
  • 10 stubs (50%)
  • 1 good date article (5%)
  • 4 weak articles, not stubs (20%)
  • 2 fair articles (10%)

Third test made by Rich Farmbrough on 2012-01-31[edit]

(Note this only reflects the distribution of articles, see some of my research for more details.) Viewing a random article 20 times I got:

  • 3 one-lined stubs (15%)
  • 13 stubs (65%)
  • 1 good date article (5%)
  • 2 weak articles, not stubs (10%)
  • 1 fair articles (5%)