Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikify/News/March 2011/Editorials
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Last month, I realized that the word "wikify" did not apparently have a definite birthday. Hence, I set out on a tedious journey to discover the origin of the word. WikiProject Wikify, founded in August 2006 by Draicone, is over four years old—indeed older than the Guild of Copy Editors (2008), but considerably younger than WikiProject Military History, which has been around since 2002. On a whim, I took a U-turn and headed away from the Wikipedia namespace, ending up at the omnipotent {{wikify}} template, which was created on 1 September 2004 by Frazzydee. To say the least, the earliest version of the template looks rather bland compared to today's color-coded, streamlined banner—another example of WikiEvolution in action. From the wikification template, I headed toward the most obvious site of all—WP:Wikify, which ungratuitously redirected me to the Wikipedia glossary. Upon arrival, I was glad to find that noun form of "wikify" is, in fact, "wikification", and that the gerund form happens to be "wikifying". However, after my curiosity peaked, I was more astounded to find that the word "wikify" was incorporated into the very first edition of the glossary, which dates back all the way to October 2002! (Luckily, I knew my history of Wales, which places Wikipedia's origin at January 2001.) My journey finally came to an end, or as far back as I could trace it, at wikt:Talk:wikify, where some kind soul (Hippietrail) had decided to trace the origins of the word "for fun" back in 2004. The first usage reported by the user? This simple Google Groups post from 8 February 2001 anouncing "I wikified it", apparently for the first time. It is now clear that the word "wikify" is at least a decade old, that is to say, almost as old as Wikipedia itself. (A round of applause, please!) Regardless of its age, the term "wikify" has become a part of wiki culture, especially that of Wikipedia, undoubtedly the most successful wiki (and the largest English encyclopedia) in human history. Undeniably, the term "wikification" has found its way into the wider world. | |||
