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How Not to Abbreviate “Wikipedia”

  • Thursday, 6 December 2007 – 18:10 pm
  • Posted in Software

Or, “Pet Peeve #3,007.”

Please, please, for the love of knowledge and factual accuracy, don’t abbreviate Wikipedia as Wiki. That’s like saying “Look in Book for more to read” when you really mean, “See the relevant article in volume 17 of the Encyclopædia Britannica.” A wiki is a general type of website, an idea of how to edit material collaboratively, and this general idea has been implemented many times, in many different programming languages: MediaWiki (PHP), Instiki (Ruby), Twiki (Perl), etc.

Remember, even Conservapædia is a wiki.

(Image: an irate Wikipe-tan at Wikimedia Commons. Conservapædia has one, too.)

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7 Comments

  1. Can I ask for a can of coke and accept Pepsi?

  2. I’m really not all that bothered by abbreviation to Wiki. There seems to reasonable short form otherwise. WP is harder to say and just as long. Pedia sounds weird.

  3. Erk, that should have been “no reasonable short form”. :-\

  4. And, when you consider the ever-increasing diversity of wikis which are not Wikipedia, wiki is not a “reasonable short form” either.

    I don’t know anyone who abbreviates “Wikipedia” as “wiki” in spoken English, either — believe me, I listen for it, because I do not lightly give up the pleasure of righteous irritation. It’s a written thing, a phenomenon of typed discourse.

    Next you’ll be wanting stir-fried wiki. . . .

    • stogoe
    • Posted Friday, 7 December 2007 at 14:52 pm
    • Permalink

    Meh. That’s all I have to say. Seems like way too dumb a thing for anyone to get bothered about.

  6. You expect a post which starts off with “pet peeve #3,007″ to be about something important?

  7. I only use wiki in that sense as a transitive verb. As in, “wiki for it”. In this case, context makes it obvious that I am talking about Wikipedia.