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User:Eugene van der Pijll/random pages

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Procedure: take 20 random pages from the on-line Encyclopedia Britannica; find the corresponding Wikipedia article.

Normal random pages tests emphasize the long tail of minor articles and stubs, and then often conclude that Wikipedia is doing badly. However, these articles are still better than what you would find in paper encyclopedias, simply because those don't have articles on those subjects at all.

My test looks at the articles that also exist in EB. This makes a level playing field.

September 2006

[edit]

I have just noted the wordcount of both articles; it is clear that Wikipedia wins on most subjects, at least in quantity. My impression of all of the pages listed here, is that the Wikipedia articles also are at least of equal quality as the EB ones.

Britannica article Wordcount Wikipedia article Quality
[1] ~500 Hubble Space Telescope Featured Article, ~7500 words
[2] ~330 Bertha von Suttner ~250 words
[3] ~80 Time-lapse ~2300
[4] ~130 Sasuntzi Davith (red) 0
[5] ~390 Burakumin ~3650
[6] ~170 Mizrahi Jews ~830
[7] ~100 Catch-as-catch-can Redirect to larger article Catch wrestling
[8] ~260 Ted Hughes ~660
[9] ~100 Castelo Branco (freguesia) (red) Same info found in larger article Castelo Branco.
[10] ~70 Siemianowice Śląskie ~50
[11] ~310 Flag of Liberia ~130
[12] ~600 Nuremberg Trials ~3300
[13] ~130 Eleazar Wheelock ~450
[14] ~130 Alain-Fournier ~175
[15] ~150 Palacio de Bellas Artes ~425
[16] ~100 Addax ~250
[17] ~140 Zala ~50
[18] 5 Thursday ~675
[19] ~440 Jezreel Valley ~375
[20] ~160 Ira Aldridge ~860

November/December 2005

[edit]

Result: 30% good, 35% OK, 15% stubs, 15% substubs. Not bad!

Britannica article Wordcount Wikipedia article Quality
Süleyman (Ibrahim) II 164 Suleiman II OK
James Bradley 856 James Bradley EB1911 article
tiger snake ??? Tiger snake short, OK
cholecystitis 164 Cholecystitis Good
Buenaventura 151 Buenaventura, Colombia stub
Glauber, Johann Rudolf 125 Johann Rudolf Glauber (unmarked) stub
Díaz Ordaz, Gustavo 108 Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Good
tsunami 980 Tsunami Good
Katmai National Park and Preserve 282 Katmai National Park and Preserve short, OK
biblical translation 829 Bible translations OK
Molle Islands 144 Molle Islands National Park Very short stub
Dhofar 380 Dhofar OK
Jawa Tengah 339 Central Java Stub
Güira de Melena <75 - -
Windaus, Adolf 184 Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus Substub
Lovech 132 Lovech Good
Kálnoky von Köröspatak, Gusztav Sieg mund, Count 243 Gustav Kálnoky EB1911 article; {{cleanup}}
Lu Xun 1204 Lu Xun Good
Tokutomi Soho 249 Tokutomi Soho Substub (unmarked)
Latvian language 181 Latvian language Good