Memenen

I have been thinking about what Wikipedia will be like in about two or three years. In that time, nearly all the basics of nearly all subjects will be filled in and explored. Dilettantes will find nearly nothing to do--only in increasingly specialized areas will there be room to explore. By then, the encyclopedia will be overrun by open-minded scholars, who look at results rather than degrees, and who love the idea of working together to report on even the most detailed results in their fields. --Larry Sanger 2001 (source)

There is no end in sight for the expansion of Wikipedia. Even if dilettantes will find nearly nothing to do, that will not stop them from doing it. If Wikipedia is to be overrun by open-minded scholars then there needs to be a way to promote that process.

The history of Wikipedia Current Events

By the start of 2002, a link to "Current Events" existed on the Wikipedia Home Page, but was not as prominent as "Recent Changes".

Wikipedia Archives

A system for archiving the Current Events page seemed to have started in about the start of 2003.

The "Current Events" pages archives seem to go back to the start of 2002 but it is hard to reconstruct the true nature of the Current Events page from the existing Wikipedia archive (compare to Internet Archive).

See this page section for the results of my Wikipedia archives search, and doubts about the existence of archives at Wikipedia for "Current Events" before 2002.

Internet Archives

oldest archived Home Page for wikipedia at www.wikipedia.com. I find no evidence of a Current Events page (Mar 31, 2001).

The July 2001 Internet Archive entry does not have evidence of a Current Events page.

The oldest Internet Archive version I could find with a Current Events page was listed as "Sep 25, 2001". I'm not sure that that date is correct since the link for "Recent Changes" leads to:

Updates in the last 2 days List new changes starting from October 23, 2001 1:44 am.

There is one mention of "Current Events": Current events 12:21 am (3 changes) [Breaking news: Sinn Fein calls for Provisional IRA to Disarm after the wake of 11th of September.] . . . . . Aristotle

In the history of that October 23, 2001 version of the Current Events page it says "Last edited November 5, 2001 6:41 am" (Revision 81 according to the history) and the oldest entry is:

Revision 24: View Diff . . (edit) October 7, 2001 5:30 pm by The Cunctator

This suggests that the Current Events page did not start long before October, 2001. I suspect that the events of September 11, 2001 were a stimulus to the Wikipedia community to start paying closer attention to current events.

The oldest archived Current Events page for www.wikipedia.org (it says "Sep 25, 2001" but has pages from as late as November 5) seems to link to the same pages as described above for the "Sep 25, 2001" www.wikipedia.com Internet Archive entry.

September 11

If memory serves, Current Events began as the September 11 banner on the front page. I forget who initially put it up (within minutes of the attack), but I became the primary contributor/organizer of the September 11 pages over the following two weeks. Eventually the September 11 banner was replaced by a more general Current Events banner. There was some dispute over the proper naming of the separate page when it was created. But my memory is spotty. --The Cunctator 8 July 2005 01:46 (UTC)

Thanks for the account; it is good enough for me. --Memenen 8 July 2005 02:03 (UTC)

Logical extensions of wikipedia's Current Events are Wikinews and Wikinews broadcast. --Memenen 20:39, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

To do

For people who can't be bothered with discussion pages

Memenen, Note for you in Talk:Depolarization

Thx,

Synaptidude 5 July 2005 22:57 (UTC)

Thank you! (I guess). I didn't realize there was some meaning to being red. If you really want to help, help save my aritcle scientist fun from deletion. I'm curious as to how this "award" changes me to un-red.

In my watchlist, user names are red for anyone who has nothing on their user page. --Memenen 8 July 2005 00:18 (UTC)

I like you resting potential article. I covered much the same material in membrane potential, but they are complimentary. Synaptidude 9 July 2005 06:32 (UTC)

Not to do

Forget your password

I started this Memenen account one day when I could not log into my original User:JWSchmidt account. Now I find it useful because I can keep a short watch list on this account and a long watch list on the other account. --Memenen 04:36, 28 September 2005 (UTC)