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English Wikipedia participation peaked ten years ago and is down about 20,000 active users a month from its high point. Three big factors often get cited: deletionism, poor mobile editing options, and a lost spirit of inclusiveness. Everipedia wants to address all three with the latest attempt at an encyclopedia of everything. I spoke with co-founder Sam Kazemian about the project, which often pops up as a top search result for college-related news and people. Can they crack the code of next-gen participation?

When I wrote about Wikipedias deletion of "Chickenhead," I opined that a component of bias led to its deletion. The song is a Dirty South anthem that features underground legend Project Pat and La Chat, a notable female rapper in that subgenre. Wikipedia editors meticulously detail locomotive engines and software programs, while topics like fashion and female scientists get short shrift. However, even a lot of young white nerdy guys who form Wikipedias base have been driven from the project by deletionists, who search and destroy anything too detailed or obscure, respectively labeled fancruft and non-notable in Wikipedia lingo.

Unlike Wikipedia, Everipedia has an extensive entry on Chickenhead, including gifs from the music video and links to many sources which confer its notability. In Wikipedia jargon, the opposite of deletionism is inclusionism, and theres an inclusionist spirit to Everipedia. I joined under the name DeletionistsKillWikis to give it a test run and found it to be much more user-friendly, especially on a mobile device.

When they say its OK to include everything, they mean it. Shortly after my article on the deletion of hemovanadin, Everipedia user DaveLiebowitz enhanced Everipedia's version of Wikipedias article on me (called a fork in Wikispeak) with some gifs and links. Dave also has an Everipedia entry and even created an article titled Dave's Sriracha Shirt, about his favorite shirt emblazoned with Huy Fong Foods' Sriracha bottle:

Sriracha is a curious obsession on Everipedia. Others have written about their Sriracha onesies:

While this would immediately be deemed unworthy on Wikipedia and deleted, these articles reflect the fun Everipedia is trying to inject back into collaborative editing.

Its been a few months since I last checked in. One aspect of the fun is the gamification of editing, where editors get IQ points for edits. I stopped at 73 IQ because I thought that was funny next to my name. Everipedia's Chickenhead page is still up, but it hasnt had much activity since I did a little test drive. Still, it's vastly better than Wikpedia's deleted page.

Hip-hop culture has a large presence on Everipedia, reflecting its college-age users and their interests. That is also reflected in the interest of their co-founder and guiding spirit Mahbod Moghadam, who got involved after leaving the Rap Genius project he co-founded, bringing in angel investors like Theodor Forselius. Moghadam told me in an email, "I think that just like Genius, Everipedia is transforming the Internet. Sam, our CEO, is the most talented person I've ever met - he is the next Zuck!!" So I reached out to Kazemian for some background on the site he co-founded in 2015.

Above: Kazemian, Forselius, Moghadam

BB: What are Everipedias five most-viewed pages?

BB: Thats interesting, because none of those women or people of color have their own articles on Wikipedia. How does Everipedia distinguish its content and approach from fan-powered sites like Rap Genius or Wikia, which has a Hip-Hop database?

BB: Wikipedias visual editor was released to poor reviews. Wikis live and die by their active user base. What are you doing to attract and retain users that's different from competitors?

BB: What can you tell me about your typical editor, and what trends have you seen in editing patterns?

BB: I first came across Everipedia because users were constructing articles about whatever internet drama or viral news item was blowing up that day, often about people or events Wikipedia would consider non-notable. In that sense, your site competes with Heavy.

BB: One article I read was a summary of a 4chan investigation on the identity of anti-Trump protester Eric Clanton. Some of the information was disputed, and the article stated he committed crimes before he had been charged. What steps are you taking to protect living people from defamation?

BB: It still seems that there's potential for misuse. How would you deal with an article about or referring to someone who doesn't want to be covered?

BB: Have you had to delete any articles yet? Is so, can you describe them?

BB: Have you had to ban any users, and if so, why?

BB: Is there a limit to what is worthy of a page?

Time will tell with Everipedia, but shaking up the status quo is what always leads to advances in knowledge. At the very least, let's hope it prompts Wikipedia to take a harder look at its ongoing issues of including more diversity in both its articles and editors. The two go hand in hand.

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Can Everipedia remake collaborative encyclopedias to be inclusive and enjoyable? - Boing Boing