In the spirit of Wikigroaning, I have, for some time now, engaged in the act of "Wikicrawling". Urban Dictionary, that venerated internet tome of slang, defines Wikicrawling as follows:
1) Start with one topic, then click on a link from that page to head to the next one. For example, the other day I briefly looked up the article on the movie Predators, from there, I went to the page of the actor Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, who was in the film. Then I clicked on the link from his page to that of the article on Ahmadiyya Islam, the religion that he follows. This is a Wikicrawl, although a brief one.
2) When you go to search for a new topic and type in a new search term, that is a "Jump". The object of my version of Wikicrawling is to stray as far away from the original topic as possible while making the fewest jumps possible. This way you can trace a sort of path back to the original topic from whence you started the Crawl. For example Ahmaddiya Islam > Mahershalalhashbaz Ali > Predators (2010 film). There are zero jumps in that particular crawl. However, there may be a crawl such as "Lady Jane Grey" =/=> Jean Grey-Summers > Rachael Summers > The Phoenix Force. That is a Crawl with one jump, because Lady Jane Grey reminded me of the comic book character Jean Grey, and so I searched the article about her instead of staying on the path of links that lead away from the original article about Jane Grey.
I'm toying with the idea of posting my own Crawls on here from time to time, and I encourage my readers to post their own Crawls in the comments of my blog. You might already be a Wikicrawler and probably had no idea there was even a term for what you were doing. Make it a fun way to read about things you didn't know before. Maybe learn about stuff you didn't even know existed!
P.S - I highly recommend the above link to the Wikigroaning article by John "@fart" Hendren. It is by far one of the most entertaining Wikipedia games I've ever played, and it goes nicely with Wikicrawling. Here, I will provide the link again for everyone's enjoyment: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/wikigroaning.php
"The act of clicking every link on a wikipedia article, then every link in those articles, and every link in those articles ad naseum until you've got more tabs than fit in your browser."I developed a few guidelines for this habit, thereby making it more of a game for myself and less like a complete waste of time.
1) Start with one topic, then click on a link from that page to head to the next one. For example, the other day I briefly looked up the article on the movie Predators, from there, I went to the page of the actor Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, who was in the film. Then I clicked on the link from his page to that of the article on Ahmadiyya Islam, the religion that he follows. This is a Wikicrawl, although a brief one.
2) When you go to search for a new topic and type in a new search term, that is a "Jump". The object of my version of Wikicrawling is to stray as far away from the original topic as possible while making the fewest jumps possible. This way you can trace a sort of path back to the original topic from whence you started the Crawl. For example Ahmaddiya Islam > Mahershalalhashbaz Ali > Predators (2010 film). There are zero jumps in that particular crawl. However, there may be a crawl such as "Lady Jane Grey" =/=> Jean Grey-Summers > Rachael Summers > The Phoenix Force. That is a Crawl with one jump, because Lady Jane Grey reminded me of the comic book character Jean Grey, and so I searched the article about her instead of staying on the path of links that lead away from the original article about Jane Grey.
I'm toying with the idea of posting my own Crawls on here from time to time, and I encourage my readers to post their own Crawls in the comments of my blog. You might already be a Wikicrawler and probably had no idea there was even a term for what you were doing. Make it a fun way to read about things you didn't know before. Maybe learn about stuff you didn't even know existed!
P.S - I highly recommend the above link to the Wikigroaning article by John "@fart" Hendren. It is by far one of the most entertaining Wikipedia games I've ever played, and it goes nicely with Wikicrawling. Here, I will provide the link again for everyone's enjoyment: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/wikigroaning.php
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