Dutch Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Favicon of Wikipedia Dutch Wikipedia
Screenshot
The Dutch Wikipedia in April 2021
Main page of the Dutch Wikipedia in April 2021
Type of site
Online encyclopedia
Available inDutch
HeadquartersMiami, Florida
OwnerWikimedia Foundation
Created byDutch Wikipedia community
URLnl.wikipedia.org
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional
Launched19 June 2001; 22 years ago (2001-06-19)

The Dutch Wikipedia (Dutch: Nederlandstalige Wikipedia) is the Dutch-language edition of the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. It was founded on 19 June 2001.

As of March 2024, the Dutch Wikipedia is the sixth-largest Wikipedia edition, with 2,154,270 articles. It was the fourth Wikipedia edition to exceed one million articles, after the English, German, and French editions. Many articles however have been created by bots and are only a few lines of length, the article depth is very low.[1][2] In April 2016, 1154 active editors made at least five edits in that month.

Dutch is consistently the most popular Wikipedia in the Netherlands.[3] In Belgium, Dutch is sometimes the most popular Wikipedia, but French is usually the most popular; in Suriname however, the only Dutch-speaking country outside Europe, Dutch Wikipedia is second after English.

In Curaçao and Aruba, as well in Caribbean Netherlands, it has a presence, but has fewer pageviews than English.[4][5]

History[edit]

Evolution of the origin of viewers on the Dutch Wikipedia

The Dutch Wikipedia was started on 19 June 2001, and reached 100,000 articles on 14 October 2005. It briefly surpassed the Polish Wikipedia as the sixth-largest edition of Wikipedia, but then fell back to the eighth position. On 1 March 2006, it overtook the Swedish and Italian editions in one day to rise back to the sixth position. The edition's 500,000th article was created on 30 November 2008.[6] In a 2006 Multiscope research study, the Dutch Wikipedia was rated the third-best Dutch-language website, after Google and Gmail, with a score of 8.1.[7]

The Dutch language Wikipedia has the largest ratio of Wikipedia pages per native speaker of all of the top 10 largest Wikipedia editions. Its rate of daily article creations spiked in March 2006, rapidly growing to an average of 1,000 a day in early May 2006. After this number was reached, growth dropped to an average of only about 250 a day, comparable to the averages around December 2005. Since then, there have been more article-creation surges, one of the largest peaking at 2,000 new articles per day in September 2007, but the growth rate has always returned to the lowest average of around 250.

In 2008, Dutch businessman Bob Sijthoff attempted to sue "the Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland" and "the Stichting Wikimedia Nederland" to force the removal of his Dutch Wikipedia article, which he stated contained "false and abusive" information.[8] On 10 December 2008, the court rejected his request. The judge ruled that he had sued the wrong entity and that legal responsibility for the content of the articles would not lie in the Netherlands, but with the American Wikimedia Foundation.[9]

Internet bots[edit]

The majority of articles in Dutch Wikipedia (59%) were created by internet bots.[10] In October 2011, several bots created 80,000 articles (then equivalent to 10% of the entire edition's article count) in only 11 days.[11][12]

The Dutch Wikipedia's one-millionth article was created in December 2011, after another surge of bot activity saw 100,000 added articles in only 10 days. In late March 2013, the Dutch Wikipedia surpassed the French Wikipedia to become the third-largest edition of Wikipedia. In June 2013, it overtook the German Wikipedia to become the second-largest Wikipedia edition.

Quality[edit]

Depth[edit]

The depth or editing depth of Wikipedia is a rough indicator of the encyclopedia's collaborative quality, showing how frequently its articles are updated.[13] The depth is measured by taking the average number of edits per article multiplied by the extent in which articles are supported by discussion (among other things, talk pages). Among the nine language editions with one million articles, the Dutch, Swedish, and Polish Wikipedias in that order have depth parameters much lower than the other six.[14] As of March 2012, for the English version the article depth is 666, for the German 88, for the French 153, for the Spanish 160, for the Dutch only 18.[15]

Bytes per article[edit]

Compared to most other Wikipedia editions with a similar number of articles, articles on the Dutch Wikipedia have less content with an average of 1,598 bytes per article (as of February 2014). This is roughly 40% of that of the French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish editions (3,986–4,277 bytes/article as of February 2014).[16]

Culture[edit]

Dutch Wikipedians responding to a Wikimedia survey described the atmosphere on the Dutch Wikipedia as quarrelsome and distrustful, with ego and stubbornness named as the premier causes of conflict. There is a small hardcore group of users in effective control. An ability to argue is deemed indispensable to be heard. New users are discouraged by moderators from joining discussions in the Dutch equivalent of the Village pump.[17][18]

Article growth[edit]

Graph showing article growth of the Dutch Wikipedia between June 2001 and December 2018
Date Number of articles[19] New articles per day (avg.)
19 June 2001 1 1
08/03/2003 10,000 13
02/07/2004 20,000 53
27 January 2005 50,000 125
14 October 2005 100,000 270
24 May 2006 200,000 625
26 December 2006 250,000 250
28 May 2007 300,000 250
17 January 2008 400,000 435
30 November 2008 500,000 344
30 April 2010 600,000 167
19 June 2011 700,000 625
18 September 2011 750,000 175
22 October 2011 800,000 10,000
12 July 2011 900,000 10,000
17 December 2011 1,000,000 10,000
14 September 2012 1,100,000 3,333
3 September 2013 1,200,000 10,000
18 March 2013 1,250,000 3,333
22 March 2013 1,300,000 10,000
4 January 2013 1,400,000 10,000
4 December 2013 1,500,000 10,000
14 June 2013 1,600,000 10,000
14 October 2013 1,700,000 127
8 March 2020 2,000,000 254

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ For instance 781.604 stumps on biology: "Categorie:Wikipedia:Beginnetje biologie", Wikipedia (in Dutch), 26 January 2021, retrieved 14 January 2024
  2. ^ Article depth of Dutch Wikipedia is 18.89 (Wikipedia article depth - Meta (wikimedia.org)) That of the English version for instance is 1220.82, of the German version is 93.42
  3. ^ "Wikimedia Statistics - Pageviews in Dutch Wikipedia by country". stats.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  4. ^ "Wikimedia Statistics - Pageviews in Dutch Wikipedia by country". stats.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  5. ^ "Wikimedia Statistics - Pageviews in English Wikipedia by country (for comparison)". stats.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  6. ^ 500.000e artikel (in Dutch). Retrieved 7 December 2008.
  7. ^ "Nederlandse Wikipedia groeit als kool" (in Dutch). Multiscope.nl. Retrieved 27 December 2006.
  8. ^ 'Ik wil niet op Wikipedia!' Archived 8 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine, DAG, 25 November 2008[dead link]
  9. ^ "LJN: BG6388, Voorzieningenrechter Rechtbank Utrecht, 257718 KG ZA 08-1118. Print uitspraak" [LJN: BG6388, preliminary relief judge, District Court of Utrecht, 257718 KG ZA 08-1118. Print judgment]. Rechtspraak.nl (in Dutch). 10 December 2008. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011.
  10. ^ Wikipedia Statistics
  11. ^ List of Wikipedias on 20 October 2011 (archived). Wikimedia. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  12. ^ List of Wikipedias on 31 October 2011 (archived). Wikimedia. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  13. ^ Wikipedia article depth; Wikimedia
  14. ^ "List of Wikipedias". Wikimedia. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  15. ^ Find out more-Wikipedia; Utrecht University Library
  16. ^ Wikimedia Statistics, Wikipedia statistics, bytes per article. Retrieved 18 February 2015
  17. ^ de Volkskrant: Leve de Wikipediaan sympathieke online betweter (Dutch), published on 30 November 2015, Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  18. ^ NRC Handelsblad: NRC Handelsblad De grote Wikipedia bewerkingsoorlogen (Dutch), published 4 February 2019, Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  19. ^ "Statistics of the Dutch Wikipedia" (in Dutch). Nl.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 18 June 2013.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]