The English Wikipedia is the English language edition of the Wikipediaencyclopedia. Founded on 15 January2001 and reaching a million articles by March 2006,[1] it was the first edition of Wikipedia and remains the largest. As of 2007, approximately one-fourth of articles in all Wikipedias belong to the English-language edition, this share having gradually declined from over half in 2003.[2] As of March 2007, it has over 1.7 million articles.
The encyclopedia is intended to be international in scope without giving disproportionate space to issues and views important in English-speaking countries.
The English Wikipedia's Main Page on February 16, 2007
The English Wikipedia was the first-established Wikipedia edition and has remained the largest. As such, it has pioneered many conventions, policies and features that have been adopted by other Wikipedia editions. These include "featured articles",[3] the neutral point of view policy,[4], navigation templates,[5], sorting of short "stub" articles into sub-categories,[6] dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation and arbitration,[7] and weekly collaborations.[8]
Many of the most active participants in the Wikimedia Foundation, and developers of the MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia, are also English Wikipedia users.
Among the controversies in the English Wikipedia is a debate over which national variety of the English language is to be preferred, with the most common candidates being American English and British or International English.[9] There has been a similar issue in the Chinese language Wikipedia, although with a different solution. Many suggestions have been proposed by editors, ranging from standardizing upon a single form of English to forking the English Wikipedia project. The policy, however, is to prefer an appropriate form of English for articles of regional scope (e.g., Canadian English for subjects related to Canada) but otherwise to allow the use of any variety of English, as long as the variety of English is consistent throughout the text of an article.[10]
As the largest Wikipedia edition, the English Wikipedia has been the site of some of the largest edit wars of any Wikipedia projects. Edit wars often take place over issues that many English-speaking users regard as controversial, such as abortion and creationism. However, prolonged edit wars have also taken place between users whose native languages are not English.[11]
[edit]Users and editors whose native language is not English
As the largest Wikipedia edition, and because the English language is such a widely used language, the English Wikipedia draws many users and editors whose native language is not English.
Users whose native language is not English may nevertheless seek information from the English Wikipedia rather than the Wikipedia of their native language simply because the English Wikipedia contains more information. This is especially often true for obscure topics which may not have articles at all in Wikipedia editions for other languages.
Sometimes, editors whose native language is not English have been criticized by editors whose native language is English for making edits with poor grammar or other language mistakes. However, many successful collaborations have developed between non-native English speakers who add content to English Wikipedia and native English speakers who act as copy editors for those adding content.
The English Wikipedia has a newspaper known as the "Wikipedia Signpost",[12] established to detail various events and happenings of the now very large site. It is a community-written and community-edited newspaper, covering events and stories related to the English Wikipedia. Major news from other Wikimedia Foundation projects is also included as occasion permits. It is published weekly on Mondays, being first published on 10 January2005.[13]
