Editing 214: The Problem with Wikipedia

This {{w|Comics|comic}} {{w|Illustration|illustrates}} the {{w|Problem|"problems"}} of {{w|information explosion}} coupled with a {{w|Density|dense}} {{w|World_Wide_Web|web}} of {{w|hypertext}} {{w|Hyperlink|links}}. Through most of human history, written media has been both slow and linear. Hypertext allows a new type of information consumption, through small chunks of information linked together in a web of related concepts, and by being digital, each new chunk can be retrieved quickly and effortlessly. Wikipedia applies this principle very strongly, and because it covers so many topics, it is common for a reader to skim an article about a topic they need or want to know about, and end up following a series of links out of curiosity. Since each new page also has several links, the overall navigation pattern resembles a tree that branches out, "exploding" in size with each new level of link-clicking, thus resulting in many wasted hours (over three in this case) of reading stuff unrelated to the original goal, and lots of open browser tabs holding a wide variety of articles, which are seemingly unrelated, but have common "ancestors". (The problem, for [[Randall]], of wasting time on Wikipedia was later referenced in the title text of [[1501: Mysteries]], and the more general problem of getting trapped following a never-ending chain of interesting links was covered in [[609: Tab Explosion]]). The large diversity in end links may also be a reference to {{w|Wikipedia:Wiki Game|the Wikipedia game}}.

One can also see this effect occur in other {{w|MediaWiki}} powered wikis such as this very website, where one comic can lead to another of similar relation or category. In the [[#Table|table]] below a possible route for each entry has been found.

The title text refers to two of the articles that were supposedly reached at the bottom. {{w|William Howard Taft}} was the 27th President of the U.S., in office from 1909 to 1913, who was notorious for being so overweight that he became stuck in the White House bathtub. A {{w|wet T-shirt contest}} ''is an {{w|Exhibitionism|exhibitionistic}} competition typically featuring young women contestants at a nightclub, bar, or resort.'' Clearly the combination of these two would be rather bizarre.

There is an online game that involves trying to get from one Wikipedia page to another in the shortest possible route http://thewikigame.com/

==Table==

*The table below will list one valid route for each destination article, though it is not necessarily the most efficient route. ''Note that these routes may become invalid as articles are edited.''  

**They have all been updated on 2015-03-21 with possible routes.  

***Note that all links can be found directly on the page by searching with find. This was not the case in the original version of the paths, where some links were in hidden parts of the page. Thus some of these new paths are longer on this account.

|{{w|Tacoma Narrows Bridge}} > {{w|Suspension Bridge}} > {{w|New York City}} > {{w|Washington Irving}} > {{w|Batman}} > {{w|Batman (1989 film)}} (this extra link now needed to go to the final page) > {{w|Fatal hilarity}} (this page now redirects to ''Death from laughter''. On the previous page the link to that page is called ''laugh to death'')

:The Problem with Wikipedia:

:[Lines lead down both left and right to two new frames with the following text]  

:[Two more lines lead down from the left frame and one from the right frame, and each line ends on a wiggling line. Below this line in square brackets are the following text:]

:Three hours of  

:fascinated clicking later

:[Below this there is a similar wiggling line, from where six lines leads to new frames. From the fourth frame there follows yet another line to yet another frame. And from the last frame the same happens twice. Below text in frames from left to right, with extra text below indicated by indentation of the text:]

:Batman

::Fatal hilarity

:Cotton

::T-Shirt

:::Wet T-shirt contest