Wikigroaning

[tandfman]

Now that's a word that's gives you 161,000 Google hits but that apparently never has previously appeared on these Boards. Until two days ago, when the Wall Street Journal had a short feature on wikigroaning, I had never heard of it.

Wikigroaning is comparing two Wikipedia articles by length (and by content quality if you wish) to see how Wiki deals with classical learning as compared with pop culture.

The examples cited by the WSJ included these:

John Locke (the 17th century philosopher) - 3,800 words
John Locke (the character on TV's 'Lost') - 7,400 words

Constantine (Roman emperor) - 4,900 words
Palpatine ('Star Wars' emperor) - 8,500 words

Gray's Anatomy (the medical textbook) - 1,000 words
Grey's Anatomy (the TV medical drama) - 6,900 words

Raphael (the Renaessance artist) - 2,700 words
Raphael (the teenage mutant ninja turtle) - 2,800 words

Using some of the pairs suggested by first link shown by Google, I found the following amusing pairs:

Archaeology - 5,200 words
Indiana Jones - 5,800 words

The Latin language - 2,000 words
The Klingon language - 4,800 words

Enjoy your Wikigroaning!

[bad hammy]

I hate being ignorant. Where do you find word counts on Wiki articles?

[Daisy]

I hate being ignorant. Where do you find word counts on Wiki articles?

I expect they cut and paste them into a word processing programme.

[tafnut]

Doh, so close!

Track - 398
Field - 386

[bad hammy]

That seems sort of painful. There is a real easy way to find the number of bytes, which sort of equates to the number of characters. This is viewed on the History page for each article. But I've not seen word counts.

[tafnut]

uh oh

tafnut - 0
squackee - 0
gh - 99!

[bad hammy]

J.J. Johnson - Be Bob Jazz Trombone Master: 2,675
J.J. Johnson - U.S. Sprinter: 0

[Daisy]

uh oh

tafnut - 0
squackee - 0
gh - 99!

Not sure how you did it but this is what I get.

pc - 709
gh - 86

Now we are in more familiar territory.

[bad hammy]

uh oh

tafnut - 0
squackee - 0
gh - 99!

Garry Hill the soccer guy?? Looks like more than 99 words: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Hill

[Daisy]

J.J. Johnson - Be Bob Jazz Trombone Master: 2,675
J.J. Johnson - U.S. Sprinter: 0

Jimmy Johnson NASCAR 2783

Jimmy Johnson American football coach 2326

[tafnut]

uh oh

tafnut - 0
squackee - 0
gh - 99!

Garry Hill the soccer guy?? Looks like more than 99 words: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Hill

No, literally: tafnut, squackee, and gh.

[tandfman]

I hate being ignorant. Where do you find word counts on Wiki articles?

I did it the way Daisy suggested. Copied the article into a blank doc in Word, then did the word count function in Word (under Tools).

[bad hammy]

That's what I did for the J.J. Johnson post, but that is too many steps!! (Life in an ADD world!)

[eldrick]

I hate being ignorant. Where do you find word counts on Wiki articles?

I did it the way Daisy suggested. Copied the article into a blank doc in Word, then did the word count function in Word (under Tools).

you have waaaaaaay too much time on your hands :P

[tafnut]

you have waaaaaaay too much time on your hands :P

says the guy who can throw up 12 different mathematical equations to prove 1+1 = 2 (sometimes)