# Wikipedia article depth

(Redirected from Depth)

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Trend during 2008.

The depth or editing depth of Wikipedia is one of several possible rough indicators of the encyclopedia's collaborative quality.

## Definition

The formula assumes that a relatively high number of page edits and the presence of support pages means articles have been updated. And the latter support pages are assumed to be a more important factor.

In the list of Wikipedias, depth is currently defined as:

$\text{Depth}=\frac{\text{Edits}}{\text{Articles}}\cdot \frac{\text{NonArticles}}{\text{Articles}}\cdot \left( 1-\frac{\text{Articles}}{\text{Total}} \right)$

The depth can be simplified to the equivalent formula below:

$\text{Depth}=\frac{\text{Edits}}{\text{Total}}\cdot \left( \frac{\text{NonArticles}}{\text{Articles}} \right)^{2}$

NonArticles are talk pages, redirects and user pages. Total is simply NonArticles + Articles.

Article depth is a rough indicator of a Wikipedia’s quality, showing how frequently its articles are updated. It does not refer to academic quality, which cannot be computed, but to Wikipedian quality, i.e. the depth of collaborativeness—a descriptor that is highly relevant for a Wikipedia.

English Wikipedia has depth of 767 = 20.34 × 37.7 and is the deepest one for Wikipedias with number of articles greater than 10000. The largest depth according to the definition given above has the blocked Kanuri Wikipedia which has only 1 article and the depth is equal to 355886 = 52.93 × 6724. The largest depth for the unblocked Wikipedias has Ewe Wikipedia which has the depth 2605 = 7.4 × 352.19. The smallest depth has Aromanian Wikipedia which has the depth 3459.6152 = 60.29 × 57.3845.

## Background

The measurement of depth was introduced after some limitations of the classic measurement of article count were realized. This insight is similar to the various suggestions to redefine the ordering of Wikipedias that appear on the international front page www.wikipedia.org. See Top Ten Wikipedias and Talk:Www.wikipedia.org portal.

Still in early February 2006 the list of Wikipedias only listed the article count. But on February 10, 2006, this changed into a table format that also listed the total edit count, number of users and admins.

The depth column first appeared on November 29, 2006. The initial definition was edits/articles, giving the English Wikipedia a value of 62. This definition changed already the next day to (Edits/Articles) × (Non-Articles/Articles), giving the English Wikipedia a value of 209. The next definition change occurred on October 9, 2007, when the Stub-ratio factor was appended. The stub ratio is (1-(Articles/Total)).[1] The new value for the English Wikipedia was 288. The formula changed again on October 17, October 28, and finally on April 11, 2008.

The discussion of the introduction of the depth parameter is found in Talk:List of Wikipedias/Archive 4. Early on, there were discussions of whether depth implies quality. The changes in October 2007 were discussed in Talk:List of Wikipedias/Archive 5#Depth 2.0.

## Trends

The table shows how the depth of the largest 30 languages of Wikipedia has developed over time.

Date en de fr pl ja it nl pt es ru sv zh no fi ca uk tr ro vo cs hu eo sk da id he ar ko lt sr
Today 767 89 163 18 64 95 10 112 170 106 21 100 28 46 26 38 214 88 15 39 100 18 18 66 112 249 234 82 18 64
1 Jan 2009 413 81 115 9 41 57 23 66 94 74 24 71 20 32 17 15 95 30 8 28 64 13 10 26 30 177 117 36 15 52
Change % in 2008 Q4 +7 +3 +5 +13 +2 +12 +5 +6 +25 +10 +9 +3 +0 +3 +6 +15 +22 +11 +0 +4 +8 +8 +11 +4 +11 +8 +13 +0 +7 +4
1 Dec 2008 408 80 113 9 41 54 22 65 88 72 23 70 20 32 17 14 89 29 8 28 61 13 10 26 30 174 110 36 15 51
1 Nov 2008 396 80 112 9 40 53 22 63 82 70 22 70 20 32 16 14 83 28 8 27 60 12 10 26 28 169 107 37 13 51
1 Oct 2008 386 79 110 8 40 51 22 62 75 67 22 69 20 31 16 13 78 27 8 27 59 12 9 25 27 164 104 36 14 50
Change % in 2008 Q3 +4 +2 +8 +0 +5 +8 +4 +6 +8 +6 +15 +23 +0 +3 +6 +30 +18 +8 +0 +3 +15 +0 +12 +4 +12 +3 -3 +5 +0 +8
1 Sept 2008 376 78 105 8 39 50 21 61 73 66 21 65 20 31 16 12 74 26 8 26 58 12 9 24 26 164 99 35 14 49
1 Aug 2008 372 78 103 8 38 49 21 60 71 65 20 56 20 30 16 11 70 26 8 26 53 12 8 24 25 161 116 35 14 48
1 July 2008 368 77 101 8 38 47 21 58 69 63 19 56 20 30 15 10 66 25 8 26 51 12 8 24 24 159 108 34 14 46
Change % in 2008 Q2 +10 +4 +8 +0 +8 +9 +5 +3 +16 +5 +18 -9 +5 +3 +15 -9 +22 +19 +14 +8 +15 +0 +0 +9 +9 +14 +0 +13 +7 +12
1 June 2008 357 76 98 8 37 45 21 62 67 60 18 64 19 30 14 10 63 24 8 25 49 12 7 23 24 158 110 32 13 45
1 May 2008 345 75 96 8 36 44 21 60 63 59 17 62 19 29 14 11 59 22 7 25 48 12 8 23 23 143 110 31 13 43
1 Apr 2008 334 74 93 8 35 43 20 56 59 60 16 62 19 29 13 11 54 21 7 24 44 12 8 22 22 139 108 30 13 41
Change % in 2008 Q1 +10 +5 +17 -11 +6 +0 +0 +14 +15 +7 +6 +5 +5 +7 -7 -8 +25 +23 +133 +0 +12 +9 +14 +4 +10 +5 +0 +11 +8 +17
1 Mar 2008 321 74 90 8 20 62 16 18 28 22
1 Feb 2008 316 71 87 7 20 58 16 18 28 21
1 Jan 2008 302 70 79 9 33 43 20 49 51 56 15 59 18 27 14 12 43 17 3 24 39 11 7 21 20 132 107 27 12 35
1 Dec 2007  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ??
1 Nov 2007 286 68 58 7 32 42 19 46 48 53 14 58 18 26 12 12 39 15 1 23 36 11 7 20 18 133 96 27 11 30
Date en de fr pl ja it nl pt es ru sv zh no fi ca uk tr ro vo cs hu eo sk da id he ar ko lt sr
1 Oct 2007 339 105 71 16 34 66 25 29 42 33
1 Sept 2007 331 104 69 16 37 62 24 30 41 33
1 Aug 2007 325 103 64 15 36 61 23 31 40 33
1 July 2007 320 100 59 15 36 59 23 31 39 32
1 June 2007 308 98 56 15 36 58 23 30 39 31
1 May 2007 293 95 52 14 35 54 22 29 38 29
1 Apr 2007 274 93 48 13 34 51 21 27 37 28
1 Mar 2007 254 91 45 13 34 60 21 28 36 27
1 Feb 2007 240 90 43 13 33 52 20 27 35 26
1 Jan 2007 224 87 45 12 32 37 19 25 34 24