Wikipedia English Tops 2 Million Articles

Wikipedia has become an essential part of the fabric of the Internet. It reaches across both physical and lingual borders, and it’s role as a reference to millions upon millions, built “by the people, for the people,” gives it a weight of especial importance. It is, no doubt, something to be admired.

It’s been compared to many things – rightly so, as it is very much a multi-faceted invention – but it also cannot simply be categorized as one thing. Yes, it is an online encyclopedia in its barest form, but it’s also much more than that. Recent controversies surrounding edits of its articles performed from within various corporate and governmental institutions are proof positive of that fact.

Therefore, it’s a website worth celebrating on occasion, frequently even, and what better a moment to do so than now, as it surpasses another milestone, this time in size. Wikipedia’s English language section, by far its largest, on September 10th, documented the creation of its two-millionth article. Appropriately enough, the subject of the page was as ordinary and random as could be: a Spanish-language television program called El Horminguero. Its initial creator is, also appropriately enough, known to his/her fellow Wikipedians only as Zzxc.

I could go on and on in swooning over the immeasurably valuable Wikipedia. There’s just so much stuff within its pages that one truly cannot find anyplace else, all of it collected together in a way that would, despite the sneers and jeers of the OED’s current heads of state, make Trench, Coleridge, and Furnivall proud. It’s a communal creation, much like the OED in its earliest stages, only it is in fact exponentially more impressive, considering its worldly span and influence.

So take a moment today (if you haven’t already done so, which is highly unlikely, considering the site’s current placement among the Web’s most popular) and rummage through the place a bit. Take a look at the featured article for today, or get your fix of interesting historical factoids. Both of these segments are right on the front page, for your convenience. There’s lots more, too. (Obviously.)

Enjoy.

By the bye, as of the moment I finished this piece, the tally of total English language articles at Wikipedia counted 2,006,570. Something tells me we’ll see the site reach another impressive milestone fairly soon.