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by crazygringo 507 days ago
This is super fun!

But I'm not super clear why it's a site of its own, rather than a list on Wikipedia?

Surely it's a list as serious as:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions

Or is there something less objective about it?

1 comments

The “curator’s rationale” page maybe sheds some light on that, indirectly.

That Wikenigma aims to be about “known unknowns” and igniting curiosity. While Wikipedia is about gathering knowledge (“known knowns”). Possibly.

https://wikenigma.org.uk/curators_rationale

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia

Although Wikipedia also has articles covering known unknowns.

I guess a reason for having Wilenigma is that it’s a place you can go and explore many different known unknowns without getting sucked into articles about known knowns. Possibly.

For example, both Wikenigma and Wikipedia have features for jumping to a random article. If you are looking specifically for known unknowns, it would be much better to use the link for random article on Wikenigma than on Wikipedia.

I am reminded of an animation I one time saw about a guy that was collecting questions. I can’t find it now, but if anyone knows which one I’m thinking of, please link it. I think watching that short animation illustrates a similar kind of idea to what seems to be the idea behind Wikenigma.