Wikipedia: Swap “en” with “simple” in the URL

The Simple English Wikipedia has a preference (not a rule) that words be chosen from the Basic English lexicon where possible. See http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Simple_English_Wi....

It may come as a surprise that the word "random" does not show up in even the quite inclusive Basic English combined wordlist, http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Basic_English_com....

Karunamon• 14 years ago

An old trick but a neat one, especially on the more technical articles where you want to explain something to friends but the article is jargonized to the point of being useless outside of that specific domain.

mcherm• 14 years ago

Or, of course, you could work to raise your English reading level. (For instance, after reading simple.wikipedia.com, go read the same article on en.wikipedia.com now that you know what it means.) Ultimately, a larger vocabulary is better -- it allows one to convey information in significantly more compact form including subtle shades of meaning that would otherwise not be conveyed at all.

p4bl0• 14 years ago

I don't see how this is a "trick". Moreover it won't work most of the time. Simple English is just another Wikipedia lang, just like French or Spanish. There can be articles existing in Simple English but not in English and vice versa.

delinka• 14 years ago

I feel an anti-intellectualism tinge when I read this. This is what hyperlinking was invented for. This is why we have search engines. Don't understand something? Digress with a new tab, open the extra links, use your favorite search engine ... get some answers and learn something. Finally, return to the original equipped with your newfound powers of understanding.

I've had these habits from the moment I had access to the Internet. It lets me quickly learn new things. I think the people around me see this and want the same thing. Well, you can't have it-- you can't read and understand that quickly unless you're willing to put in the time to learn to operate like this.

It's going to take time, so stop being lazy and invest the time.

metalruler• 14 years ago

I've seen forum participants give matter-of-fact, state-the-obvious replies which I'm pretty sure must have come from simple.wiki. I don't think it's a bot, just someone copying and pasting, however the simplified language could be very useful for genuine AI development.

cema• 14 years ago

A link to the Simple English version of an article will appear, if available, in the "Languages" menu on the left margin of the article.

(True for any language.)

Wikipedia: Swap “en” with “simple” in the URL

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