Wikipedia surpasses three million milestone

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Users’ appetite for creating and consuming online content continues to grow as Wikipedia has just announced its community has created more than three million articles so far.

The milestone-breaking article in question focuses on Norwegian actress and film director Beate Eriksen.

Wikipedia’s success comes after a period of uncertainty when the site’s founder Jimmy Wales had to call for additional funds to help keep the non-profit organisation behind the encyclopaedia going. The plea for help resulted in $6 million in donations.

“Your continued support will also serve as a much-needed financial safety net if economic conditions continue to worsen globally,” Wales said in a subsequent ‘Thank You’ letter to benefactors.

“You have proven that Wikipedia matters to you, and that you support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet, free of charge and free of advertising. You've helped make and keep Wikipedia available for the whole world. I deeply appreciate your support.”

While Wikipedia is doing very well and clearly has lots of ambition when it comes to using technology in an innovative way, it isn’t immune to the odd hiccup either.

Just last month, for example, its site crashed for an afternoon, re-directing users to Google instead.

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