New “WikiTok” web app allows infinite TikTok-style scroll of Wikipedia

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artvandelayIIII

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  • #2
    For now, the feed is truly random, and WikiTok creator Gemal is currently resisting calls to automatically tailor the stream of articles to the user's interests based on what they express interest in.
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    Thank god. I do not need another damn "feed based on my interests". It just becomes a snake eating its tail type of situation.

    When using the random Wikipedia option in their own app, I love how often I'm just taken straight to a page about some obscure Australian cricket player, or some random type of brine shrimp or whatever. That is the kind of stuff that, while it seems irrelevant, sets random gears going in your head that you don't even know are going.

    Love that way more than opening up Reddit and it pigeonholing me right into stuff that is basically already what I've expressed interest in. How boring.
     
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    195 (196 / -1)
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    coonwhiz

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  • #3
    Personally, I feel like a fun game along the lines of daily challenges like Wordle would be a game based on 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Everyone starts on the same random Wikipedia page and has to get to a randomly chosen Wikipedia page in 6 clicks. Eg everyone starts on the Happisburgh Footprints and has to get to Kendrick Lamar in 6 clicks (pulled random links from today's main page for an example).
     
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    98 (98 / 0)
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    hooplehead

    Smack-Fu Master, in training
    38
  • #4
    Had to check because I used to use the wikipedia "random article" link on the sidebar quite often. It is still there but hidden in the menu. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with the occasional doom scroll or video clip binge but it is a real problem for some and this is a neat alternative!
     
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    mdrejhon

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  • #6
    For once, I think I need to capitulate and donate on Wikipedia's pleas.

    Because, you know. [Relevant Ars article about enshittification of the web]

    But I may do that under a different account to keep the nags down a wee bit.

    The neat thing is that Wikipedia's nags hasn't worsened -- it's the same identical nags I got 10 years ago, albiet they do wax and wane over the years.
     
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    vantharion

    Seniorius Lurkius
    26
  • #21
    artvandelayIIII said:
    Thank god. I do not need another damn "feed based on my interests". It just becomes a snake eating its tail type of situation.

    When using the random Wikipedia option in their own app, I love how often I'm just taken straight to a page about some obscure Australian cricket player, or some random type of brine shrimp or whatever. That is the kind of stuff that, while it seems irrelevant, sets random gears going in your head that you don't even know are going.

    Love that way more than opening up Reddit and it pigeonholing me right into stuff that is basically already what I've expressed interest in. How boring.
    Click to expand...
    Ouroboros can have a little ouroboros as a treat

    I do think there is some value in doing interest-sized dealing rather than tailoring to interests.

    Rather than treat every article as having size 1. Give articles that are interesting a larger size (to a max). When an article is dealt, it is set to not be dealt for a while. That way 'Garble: The town of Garble" style pages don't get seen quite as often.
     
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    cosmotose

    Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
    141
  • #28
    Fatesrider said:
    My non-normative brain is still processing this.

    How is this "thrilling'? Is random bored scrolling really a thing? What need does it fill? Or is it just killing time in a manner that's not as damaging to many folks mental state?

    I'd always assumed that TikTok and other propagandist bullshit sites were designed to cater to people's interests and drive them toward extremist bullshit (at least, that's the impression I've gotten from them based mostly on articles about them).

    Maybe my "interests" are more focused and I'm not open to random shit just because I'm bored.

    All that said, I figure random factual information beats the everloving fuck out of a stream of increasingly toxic bullshit. So there is that benefit for society, assuming people are more interested in learning tidbits of facts and not watching a Darwin Award nominee wearing a graham cracker costume two sizes too small pouring marshmallow sauce and chocolate on themselves then setting themselves on fire and biking off a cliff while playing Yankee Doodle on a kazoo and calling it the "Patriotic S'mores Challenge" (or whatever the suicidal "challenge" of the moment happens to be these days).

    So, cool idea. Doubt it will draw a lot of attention, though. Darwin Award hopefuls are rather compelling viewing at times. It just seems to me, overall, that while learning about Schwenkles is interesting, it's probably not as compelling to most people as watching someone faceplant in a painful manner while everyone else laughs.

    And I'd say that's part of the reason why the human race is so fucked now.
    Click to expand...

    oooo yes this raises a very interesting question/comparison of addictive variables... does the gambler's randomized chance to win [aka find cool wiki article] beat out the innate human tendency to seek out more of our own biases??

    fascinatingly cool stuff!
     
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    5 (6 / -1)
    A

    alecTwhite

    Smack-Fu Master, in training
    50
  • #29
    coonwhiz said:
    Personally, I feel like a fun game along the lines of daily challenges like Wordle would be a game based on 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Everyone starts on the same random Wikipedia page and has to get to a randomly chosen Wikipedia page in 6 clicks. Eg everyone starts on the Happisburgh Footprints and has to get to Kendrick Lamar in 6 clicks (pulled random links from today's main page for an example).
    Click to expand...
    That would be really fun, my friends and I used to do this but it was how few clicks we could get to Hitler's Wikipedia page. Which for a large range of topics is surprisingly small.
     
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    16 (16 / 0)
    K

    Kebba

    Ars Scholae Palatinae
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  • #32
    coonwhiz said:
    Personally, I feel like a fun game along the lines of daily challenges like Wordle would be a game based on 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Everyone starts on the same random Wikipedia page and has to get to a randomly chosen Wikipedia page in 6 clicks. Eg everyone starts on the Happisburgh Footprints and has to get to Kendrick Lamar in 6 clicks (pulled random links from today's main page for an example).
    Click to expand...
    We used to "race" each other in highschool. 2-4 people next to each other loading a random page and then shortest time to some page we always used won. Can't remember which page however. Surpricingly fun for us nerdy teenagers
     
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    9 (9 / 0)
    sigmasirrus

    sigmasirrus

    Ars Scholae Palatinae
    1,137
  • #34
    Fatesrider said:
    My non-normative brain is still processing this.

    How is this "thrilling'? Is random bored scrolling really a thing? What need does it fill? Or is it just killing time in a manner that's not as damaging to many folks mental state?

    I'd always assumed that TikTok and other propagandist bullshit sites were designed to cater to people's interests and drive them toward extremist bullshit (at least, that's the impression I've gotten from them based mostly on articles about them).

    Maybe my "interests" are more focused and I'm not open to random shit just because I'm bored.

    All that said, I figure random factual information beats the everloving fuck out of a stream of increasingly toxic bullshit. So there is that benefit for society, assuming people are more interested in learning tidbits of facts and not watching a Darwin Award nominee wearing a graham cracker costume two sizes too small pouring marshmallow sauce and chocolate on themselves then setting themselves on fire and biking off a cliff while playing Yankee Doodle on a kazoo and calling it the "Patriotic S'mores Challenge" (or whatever the suicidal "challenge" of the moment happens to be these days).

    So, cool idea. Doubt it will draw a lot of attention, though. Darwin Award hopefuls are rather compelling viewing at times. It just seems to me, overall, that while learning about Schwenkles is interesting, it's probably not as compelling to most people as watching someone faceplant in a painful manner while everyone else laughs.

    And I'd say that's part of the reason why the human race is so fucked now.
    Click to expand...
    It’s thrilling because you might learn something new that you never thought you wanted or needed to know. It’s exactly like turning to a random page in an encyclopedia. I think it’s fun!
     
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    27 (27 / 0)
    J

    johnz

    Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
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  • #36
    I live a pretty algorithmic free life, but I think this'll get some use from me. I like that it's something to read with randomness enforced. I could pull up random wikis, but I don't. Having an easy interface that mandates random wikis will make it more likely that I pass time reading random articles. Better than looking at dumb pictures on lemmy.

    If @Aizk is still reading, saving it to my homescreen on android makes a blank white icon. Could be my machine, but it would be nice having a site icon there.
     
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