Editing Talk:214: The Problem with Wikipedia

I was unable to find the fatal hilarity link from the Batman page. I call shenanigans. [[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 23:16, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

:Could that be a reference to the Joker? --[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 19:35, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

This always happens to me on Wikipedia! Glad to know I'm not alone :) {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.240}}

If I had a dollar for every wiki article I read that had nothing to do with the initial reason I opened Wikipedia, I'm guessing I could buy myself that motorcycle I've always wanted.
Also, it's been a long time since I last read any Asimov, but didn't he describe, in the Foundation series if I remember correctly, something very similar to Wikipedia? I wonder if that was any inspiration to the creators of Wikipedia. [[User:Militon|Militon]] ([[User talk:Militon|talk]]) 09:22, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

:That would be the "Encyclopedia Galactica." Perhaps more resembling the "Encyclopedia Britannica" than Wikipedia.  The Encyclopedia project was embarked because the collapse of the Galactic Empire and consequent decline into a dark age was already too far along to avoid, but with an Encyclopedia covering all scientific knowledge, with copies in every major library in the Galaxy, science won't need to be re-discovered, and the dark age period would be shortened from 30,000 years to a mere 1000.  It is subsequently revealed that the whole Encyclopedia project was a hoax designed to trick the people working on the project into being exiled to the edge of the Galaxy, where, in order to survive the growing barbarism around them, they would be forced to form a technologically advanced civilization -- the namesake Foundation -- and it is that Foundation, rather than the Encyclopedia, that would facilitate the end of the dark age within a mere 1000 years. [[User:Danshoham|Mountain Hikes]] ([[User talk:Danshoham|talk]]) 04:19, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

::Perhaps Milton was referring to Asimov's essays, in particular "The New Teachers" and "Future Fantastic" in which he envisioned a future where every home had a computer linked up to the sum of human knowledge, letting each child, while receiving  rudimentary and fundamental physical and social skills by others, is allowed to learn about whatever suits the child's fancy, to follow in-depth, to discover new interests, to receive instructions and lessons from experts, to give lessons and share their own knowledge when ready, to add to the global knowledge library, and when, and if (as Asimov hoped) the drudge work of day-to-day existence was given over to automation and robots, a new Renaissance could be born. DavidM. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.251|172.69.70.251]] 07:48, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

This happens to me on explainxkcd. This should be added to explanation, which will make it self-referential comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.67|108.162.222.67]] 15:10, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

So I thought I would try and complete the wikipath to Lesbianism in Erotica while on a break at work... Bad move, all the 'What Links Here' pages are pornography related, and my boss just happened to appear at the wrong moment. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:29, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

I once spent over eight hours on Wikipedia and at the end I had over fifty tabs open. Next time I'll try for a Graham's number. ~Sub6528

I get this way when I read XKCD, actually. Tonight I've wound up from this to Pietro Aretino to poor marketing decisions aimed at millenials, to Postmates. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.47|108.162.217.47]] 13:22, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

Actually, this happened before the web. When I was a kid, whenever I looked something up in a good encyclopedia, I was likely to follow the "see also" titles at the bottom of the article, and then the subsequent see alsos, et cetera. — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 04:06, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Just straight-up {{w|WP:SOB|sea of blue}}. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.65|172.71.146.65]] 18:04, 13 October 2022 (UTC)