Wikimedia Blog/Drafts/EnWP 4 Million Article Milestone
 |  This page is currently a draft. More information pertaining to this may be available on the talk page. Translation admins: Normally, drafts should not be marked for translation. |
This is now published on the WMF blog here:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/13/english-wikipedia-crosses-4-million-article-milestone/
 | As you are very likely aware, English Wikipedia is, as of this writing, at 3,999,181 articles and should be reaching 4 million pretty soon. This is a massive milestone that the Wikimedia Foundation wants to be sure is celebrated in its blog, as it did the 3 millionth. Since it's an English Wikipedia specific accomplishment, they felt like it might be appropriate to bring the community in on writing up the event. Help us document this for our blog readers! This is open for editing in the usual manner of our work, but anybody with an interest in contributing who doesn't want to edit directly is also welcome to add suggestions or comments at the talk page there. By-lines, of course, for all major contributors...unless you'd rather opt out. |
EnWP 4 Million articles[edit]
- English Wikipedia now has 4 million articles
- The 4 millionth article was Izbat Al Burj.
- The person who created the article was User:Meno25.
- English WP passed 1M articles (Jordanhill railway station) on March 1, 2006, 2M articles (El Hormiguero) on September 13, 2007 and 3M articles (Beate Eriksen) on August 17, 2009.
- English Wikipedia is the largest Wikipedia, but several others have passed the 1M article milestone. [add dates for when they did?]
- The next to pass the milestone will be [add here?]
- Despite this large number, it doesn't mean there is no more work to do. The WikiProjects have rated more than 3.5M of the articles and have designated the priority areas for article improvement. Please jump in and help.
- If you are interested in stats, there is a whole lot more at http://stats.wikimedia.org/ / http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/ / http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/geo en:Wikipedia:Milestones....
- Other angles?
For comparison: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/17/3000000/
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_Publishes_Millionth_Article
- Other potential points of interest: w:Wikipedia:Wikipedia's oldest articles; w:Wikipedia:Milestone articles
- Per the known stats, around 100,000 are B or above, and around 225,000 C or higher, out of 3,300,000 which have an assessment.
Draft article[edit]
Wikipedia has succeeded through the dedication of its volunteer editors, who have created over 22 million articles across 285 language Wikipedias in just eleven years. Today, the English Wikipedia, the largest of the Wikipedias, celebrated its four millionth article, a remarkable milestone.
The four millionth article was Izbat Al Burj (Arabic: عزبة البرج), a city in Damietta Governorate in Egypt, with a population of 70,000. The article was written by volunteer editor Mohammed Farag (محمد فرج), a former admin and checkuser on the Arabic Wikipedia and a former admin on English Wikipedia. Farag, whose user name on-wiki is Meno25, lives in Alexandria, Egypt.
"I am proud that I helped Wikipedia to reach 4 million articles and become the largest encyclopedia in the world," Farag wrote in an email. "With about only 20 000 good and featured articles, I believe that all of us Wikipedians should concentrate more on the quality of the encyclopedia rather on the number of its articles."
Though 4 million articles is a very large number, there is a great deal of work to be done. There are also new topics emerging each day which deserve coverage, and in a best case scenario, the great majority of Wikipedia articles could do with some improvement. Only about 20,000 articles out of these four million have been given good or featured article status, which are assessment grades given by editors based on comprehensiveness, research quality, and writing style. They are awarded to articles only after they undergo a peer review process.
English Wikipedia celebrated the one millionth article on 1 March 2006 (Jordanhill railway station), and reached the 2 million milestone on 9 September 2007 (El Hormiguero) and 3 million on 16 August 2009 (Beate Eriksen). The German Wikipedia reached one million articles on 27 December 2009, the French Wikipedia on 21 September 2010, and the Dutch Wikipedia on 17 December 2011. The Italian, Spanish and Polish Wikipedias are all near the 1 million article mark as well.
Other articles created near the four millionth include articles on highways in Idaho and Ontario, such as Idaho State Highway 48, the Siersza Power Station in Poland, Mushtum, an Uzbek humor magazine, Albert C. Baker, an early 20th-century American judge, Brazilian cruiser Rio Grande do Sul, an early 20th-century warship, and Intelsat 605, a satellite launched in 1991.
Wikipedia, and the other Wikimedia Foundation projects, aim to provide accurate and useful information to every person around the globe. This is being accomplished by the generous support of volunteers who provide their time, knowledge and expertise to the projects. While we celebrate what is certainly a major milestone, consider joining our community and helping to fill the admitted gaps in our coverage.