#55: How Wikipedia edits

💎 Word gems

How the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is Playing Out on English, Ukrainian, and Russian Wikipedia (Slate / Stephen Harrison)

It always fascinates me how Wikipedia remains a somewhat utopian version of the web. This article shares a fascinating insight into the edit wars related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that are shaping how it’s being recorded in Wiki history. I also never thought about the different language version of Wikipedia being different editions, rather than just translations, which adds another layer of complexity.

According to Samuel Breslow, an experienced Wikipedia editor and an information journalist, one of the trickiest elements of covering the Russian invasion is writing the encyclopedia articles at the right level of detail. Wikipedia aspires to take a long-term world-historical view similar to a traditional encyclopedia like Encyclopedia Britannica. That means presenting a summary rather than an overly detailed description of historical events. But with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s not immediately clear what events will have long-term historical importance. “For instance, we don’t know whether the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ will ultimately be a significant part of the narrative of the invasion or just a momentary internet rumor,” Breslow said in an email. (If you’re curious, the Ghost of Kyiv’s wiki page describes it as an “unconfirmed MiG-29 Fulcrum flying ace” credited with shooting down six Russian planes. The page also notes that the Ghost is most likely an urban legend that has had the effect of boosting Ukrainian morale.)

Don’t Hate the Phone Call, Hate the Phone (The Atlantic / Ian Bogost)

I know making phone calls is seen as uncouth today, but it’s something I still enjoy. But something I never thought about before: the quality of phone calls has actually gotten worse as a result of the digitization of phone switches and the development of smartphones.

IP-based communications like IM and iMessage are subject to the same signal and routing issues as voice, after all. But because those services are asynchronous, a slow or failed message feels like less of a failure—you can just regroup and try again. When you combine the seemingly haphazard reliability of a voice call with the sense of urgency or gravity that would recommend a phone call instead of a Slack DM or an email, the risk of failure amplifies the anxiety of unfamiliarity. Telephone calls now exude untrustworthiness from their very infrastructure.

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens (Scientific American / Ferris Jabr)

This is a wonderfully insightful look into how our brains read text on screen and paper.

In most cases, paper books have more obvious topography than onscreen text. An open paperback presents a reader with two clearly defined domains—the left and right pages—and a total of eight corners with which to orient oneself. A reader can focus on a single page of a paper book without losing sight of the whole text: one can see where the book begins and ends and where one page is in relation to those borders. One can even feel the thickness of the pages read in one hand and pages to be read in the other. Turning the pages of a paper book is like leaving one footprint after another on the trail—there's a rhythm to it and a visible record of how far one has traveled. All these features not only make text in a paper book easily navigable, they also make it easier to form a coherent mental map of the text.

💩 Cool shit

Museum of Endangered Sounds - Old tech sounds to fill your nostalgia.

Lonely Ape Dating Club - I honestly can’t tell if this is real, but it’s square in the middle of the NFT’s are a form of access trend. It’s a dating app exclusively for owners of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.

Sharkle - No, this isn’t a shark-based wordle clone. Get randomly sent to something awesome online.

Hoxna - I’m skeptical of just about any metaverse idea. This one appears to be backed by a mortgage broker, with the aim of linking “virtual and physical real estate”.

Stride - I’ve seen gamified running apps before, but this is the first multiplayer one I’ve come across. Running to control your local territory is a novel idea.

Big Glass Mic - I love data visualizations, especially ones that make the invisible visible. This one visualizes vibrations in a fibre optic cable.

Text Chat Animator - Just in case you’re in quick need to create fake text exchanges.

Everything is Everything - For the New Yorkers, this is a truly wonderful map ranking the best bagels in the city.

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