Wikipedia Searches I Have Performed

[starlooker]

I have recently revived my hobby of looking up random stuff on Wikipedia for fun and amusement. I am hoping other people do this as well, and basically, I am desiring inspiration for future searches. Here is a list of recent random s*** I have Wikipedia-ed for kicks.

Onions
Cats
Tulips
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Toothbrushes
Rastafarians
Grand Theft Auto
Naked Mole Rats
To Kill a Mockingbird
Pepper
Book

[neo-dragon]

I wouldn't even know where to begin listing the random s*** I've looked up. Between wikipedia and tvtropes I think I've wasted a significant portion of my life.

[CezeN]

I wouldn't even know where to begin listing the random s*** I've looked up. Between wikipedia and tvtropes I think I've wasted a significant portion of my life.

This^

Except, I avoid tvtropes because I can get lost for ages on that site going from one link to the other; it's like a labryinth.

[neo-dragon]

And as long as you're wasting time on wikipedia you may as well make a game of it. Decide on something random like "glue". Select a random article, and see how many clicks it takes you to get to "glue" from your starting point. It's like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon

For example:

List of German rocket scientists in the United States
Engineer
Applied science
Technology
Craft
Decorative arts
Arts and crafts
Bookbinding
Adhesive (redirects from "glue")

[Platypi007]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: ... Philosophy

I'll just leave this here.


http://xkcd.com/903/ in the mouseover comment. :D I love XKCD.

[megxers]

Except, I avoid tvtropes because I can get lost for ages on that site going from one link to the other; it's like a labryinth.

I came to Pweb to escape the fact I have been stuck on TV tropes.

For the past three hours.

I still have 6 tabs open, that range from YA authors I don't even really like to popular fantasy series I've read all of that I also don't really like & have serious qualms about the next 10 books based on the latest. So why am I so compelled to read them all??

[VelvetElvis]

[LilBee91]

I was going to skim through my history and list some of my wikipedia searches here.

Then I came across "anal bleaching," with no idea why I ever looked that up, and decided that I did not want to know what else I had looked up, let alone publish that data online.

For the record, I think it was some wiki-tangent from researching female circumcision for my anatomy class. But I don't know for sure.

[starlooker]

Um.

I've never been to tvtropes before.

And now I can't seem to find a way out.

Well, s***.

[LilBee91]

Um.

I've never been to tvtropes before.

And now I can't seem to find a way out.

Well, s***.

Me neither. I'm avoiding it like the plague. Wikipedia, Cracked, Digg, and IMDB are bad enough.

[Mich]

Then I came across "anal bleaching," with no idea why I ever looked that up, and decided that I did not want to know what else I had looked up, let alone publish that data online.

This is weird, but I know that exact problem. I mean, exact.

Somehow "weird things people worry about" came up in conversation, and I brought up anal bleaching and knew all about it because I had randomly looked into it once. But I have no idea when I did this or why I did or how I came to gain the knowledge that anal bleaching is.

[Platypi007]

Yeah, tvtropes is very much more dangerous than Wikipedia.

[Dr. Mobius]

I now want to look up anal bleaching because you guys have made me curious. However, I'll have to put if off for now because it sounds like something I probably shouldn't look up at work.

[starlooker]

Okay. I'm totally looking up anal bleaching next.

Also, I blame you people for introducing me to tvtropes and causing me to stay up well past my bedtime last night and spend the entire day yawning my head off. Which I'm sure my clients loved. (Actually, I know them all fairly well and they mainly laughed at me. But, still.)

(Also, yes, I know it was my own damn fault.)

[Mich]

What I don't understand is people that don't find TV Tropes interesting. Then again, I'm not entirely sure why I find it interesting.

Another thing(s) I love reaching about on Wikipedia are the articles on sexual fetishes. I find fetishes to be really, really interesting, and Wikipedia tends to have insight into the subcultures and some history that is always good for an interesting read.

[zeroguy]

What I don't understand is people that don't find TV Tropes interesting. Then again, I'm not entirely sure why I find it interesting.

I guess I'm one of those people. I have people tell me about getting "lost" in tvtropes, but... I don't really get it. I use it to try and fine similar shows/comics/etc that match some trope (which isn't really a good way to find new stuff to watch/read IMO, but I do it anyway), and sometimes I just look up things I like just to see the articles on them ("Prequel"). But I don't feel a lot of motivation to keep clicking... the whole thing just seems like someone coming up with their own classification for really boring information and having fun explaining it. I mean, there's not a problem with that, but I wouldn't want to listen to someone's system of categorizing toilet paper brands, which is what tvtropes sorta is for me.

[neo-dragon]

I can't really explain the appeal of tv tropes either. For me I'll often look up a show, movie, or book that I've seen or read recently just to see what tropes others have noticed which I may or may not have. Then I'll often come across a trope that I'm not familiar with, so I'll click on that trope for more information, and that leads to more movies/shows/books, which leads to more tropes... hours of my life gone.

Then there's the Wild Mass Guessing (WMG) section, which is a LOT of fun to read. I guess the bottom line is tvtropes allows me see and think about stories that I'm familiar with in different ways.

[zeroguy]

Also, on the thread topic:

hexadactyly
anal bleaching (thanks, pweb)
[there's about a week gap here, just by the way]
swag
.dk
incognito
Baldur's Gate
Justin Wong
Street Fighter 4
Konami Code
Jamie Oliver
Blue Submarine Number six
WIG (I was looking for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle )
snow crash
pumice
James Franco

It's interesting how quickly I forgot some of this. I had no idea who Jamie Oliver and James Franco were when I looked at this list, and had to look them up again just now.

[Luet]

You don't know much pop culture, do you Zero? (referring to the Jamie Oliver and James Franco double look-ups)

[zeroguy]

You don't know much pop culture, do you Zero? (referring to the Jamie Oliver and James Franco double look-ups)

If it helps, I've at least seen several of the movies that James Franco stars in. As for Jamie Oliver... the only "cooking" show worth watching to me was the original Iron Chef.

[LilBee91]

I had to wiki Jamie Oliver, but James Franco I knew.

I guess I don't watch a lot of cooking shows.

[Gravity Defier]

Everything Shannon said, only change "a lot" to "any." Only exceptions to that, ever, are when I'm hanging out with someone who does.

[Syphon the Sun]

Baldur's Gate

Whaaaaaaaaaat?

[starlooker]

Serial Killer
Nuchal Translucency Scan

[Noodle]

Hexadectaly... hmmmmm... where would one have seen that word?

[zeroguy]

Baldur's Gate

Whaaaaaaaaaat?

Just because something's on the list doesn't mean I had no idea what it was.

Although I admittedly haven't played it.

[Platypi007]

Just a selection from the last 7 days history of stuff I viewed on Wikipedia:

Abney Park (band)
Allison Scagliotti
Eureka (TV series)
February 2004
Half.com
Metamorphoses (play)
Summer Glau
Syfy
The Guild
Wombat

[Platypi007]

And you can add Baldur's Gate to that list because I didn't know what that was. But most of the things I've read about this week on Wikipedia weren't because I didn't know what they were.

[neo-dragon]

Lush.

That is all.

[mr_thebrain]

i love that i can say that i don't use wikipedia. i think it's a stupid website.

[neo-dragon]

No offense, but that's pretty ignorant.

[mr_thebrain]

finding my information elsewhere is hardly ignorant.

i am fully aware of what wikipedia has to offer, and choose not to use it.
i am always able to find my information in other places so i'm hardly lacking knowledge or information.
and i don't consider that using or not using a particular website will make someone uneducated or unsophisticated.
it doesn't make me discourteous, rude, or easily angered.

[neo-dragon]

finding my information elsewhere is hardly ignorant.

It's more the taking pride in ignoring a source of information and then belittling it.

[Noodle]

Out of curiosity, why do you think that Wikipedia is a stupid website?

I know there have been studies that found Wikipedia as more accurate as Brittanica (though the most recent one I can find is from 2006). But, I don't use it in that way. If I was going to write an academic dissertation I wouldn't use Wikipedia as my source for that information. Instead I use Wikipedia much like others here seem to. As a quick place to find out the basics of a subject with which I'm not very familiar.

For a briefing of a subject that usually goes beyond a single paragraph description, I find that Wikipedia can't be beat. It's easily accessible, usually listed in the top of any search results, and accurate enough for almost any purpose.

What sources do you use that you don't find "stupid?"

[mr_thebrain]

It's more the taking pride in ignoring a source of information and then belittling it.

a source of information that i don't trust terribly much, and don't feel is important. yes, i totally take pride in not using it, and i don't feel it is an important website for research, even if everyone swears by it. so i have no problem belittling it. is that ignorant? i don't think so, at least not by any definition of ignorant that i can find. unless you think i'm being unduly discourteous or rude to the website.... i could totally apologize to wikipedia if that will make you feel better. but that's just silly.

everything Noodle wrote

i feel it's a stupid website and i don't use it because there is no guarantee that the information there is correct without cross referencing. which kind of defeats the purpose entirely even for a quick bit of info. i don't research things very often, but when i do, i don't mind taking the extra 5 minutes to read a more in depth description if it means that i know it's correct. as for sources, there isn't any one place i find my information. but i generally take my information direct from the source whenever possible, a credible news source, and pretty much anywhere else that i deem trustworthy. it's not that i have never used wikipedia. i just choose not to. it is the very last place i will go for information. and being more accurate than brittanica isn't all that hard to accomplish.