Saw this posted in a ADHD com a few days back. Every comment was just like “oh no…”. I opened it and like 20 minutes later realized, oh no. I can and have spent many entire days just reading Wikipedia and following linked subjects. So much so I run out in areas. I can’t handle a lot of visual and audio stimulation, short form content is such a nightmare for me, can’t watch it. But give me pages of the most dense info and I’m hooked. I just need the option to download every paper referenced from every Wikipedia page I visit.
As someone who loved the random article feature and will sometimes peruse Wikipedia at random, this is extremely fascinating to me.
If someone made this for TV Tropes, I would never get anything productive done again
Everyday I read wikipedia and everyday, I learn something new. Fucking love this free resource
My God my general but shallow knowledge of many things will grow more powerful
WikiTok
Not sure if there’s an app yet, I found one on the Android store by Arakassia…
Most “apps” are just http web hooks to a regular website backend with extra tracking telemetry. So a website working as a PWA should be enough for everyone.
I hate how everything has to be a fucking app, because it doesn’t need to be.
If phone OSes made it so there’s less friction to save a web page as an icon on your desktop it would help to resolve that issue I think.
It’s just two taps in browser to get it on home screen.
It’s so easy, even on iOS. Just tap share and add to Home Screen. It’s probably just as easy on android.
It’s very easy.
Chrome let’s you do “install” websites to home screen, Firefox allows saving shortcuts to home screen.
The annoying thing is that you can’t save them to the app drawer (at least on vanilla android), so if you have a clean home screen you have to sacrifice that.
I’m still scrolling. Will it ever stop???
help me.
Seems to work fine as a PWA-esque shortcut on iOS for the time being
On android:
- Open link in Firefox.
- Tap the three dots.
- Tap “add to start screen”
There’s your app!
On iOS through Safari:
Tap the Share icon
Scroll down a little.
Add to Home Screen.
Profit?
Wikipedia already has a “random article” function. I guess the tiktok ui is nice for some folks.
This is awesome. :3
Sadly the design is pretty bad on desktop monitors.
Does it have an algorithm of some kind?
I usually hate them but for something safe like wikipedia i would love to have it tailored to my interests.
Are you asking if the app made specifically without an algorithm has an algorithm?
Its not presented as being specifically made without.
There is plenty of room for more ethical algorithms and to get technical. It definitely does have a algorithm.
A very basic formula that simulates randomness to pick one Wikipedia page after the other.
I just wish i could customize that to my interests. So for example it favors articles tagged as ancient mythology and minimizes politicians from the 90s
Its not presented as being specifically made without? Wat
Developer creates endless Wikipedia feed to fight algorithm addiction
and spend spare moments of boredom without reaching for an algorithmically addictive social media app.
without an invasive algorithm tracking you and pushing you toward the lowest-common-denominator content.
Gemal is currently resisting calls to automatically tailor the stream of articles to the user’s interests based on what they express interest in.
“I have had plenty of people message me and even make issues on my GitHub asking for some insane crazy WikiTok algorithm,” Gemal told Ars. “And I had to put my foot down and say something along the lines that we’re already ruled by ruthless, opaque algorithms in our everyday life; why can’t we just have one little corner in the world without them?”
“I have no grand plans for some sort of insane monetized hyper-calculating TikTok algorithm,” Gemal told us. “It is anti-algorithmic, if anything.”
Ill just repeat that last line again for you:
“It is anti-algorithmic, if anything.”
The code is on github, go for it.
Also, read the article for once. Jesus.There is no need to communicate like this. I actually had already learned about this app and checked it out yesterday on a different community with way less people and there was no article there. I just saw the opportunity of this post as way to discuss it.
I like to make a few things clear that seem to cause confusion.
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I made my post in full understanding that it probably does not feature a “preference based algorithm”, trying it out did not gave it the impression it did. But i want to be more sure there is nothing along those lines included and tried to engage in discussion about the need for preferential settings. Its somewhere between a genuine and rhetoric question.
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Call me pedantric, trough i prefer autistic but “algoritm” has like i explained a specific meaning to me. Its mathematical formula for a specific purpose. The app in question is code, code is math. Randomizing code (which are never truly random btw) uses an algorithm. You can not tell me that the app uses NO algorithm, well oc you can but to my brain that does not compute. Any form of customizing the feed, even a hack, would be algorithmic in nature.
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I disagree this (and many things) require a full fledged article, just a clear few line description or like including those quotes you put up here would do for me. I know the internet likes to make everything into “news” but i don’t have to like or partake in that. I prefer to spend my time engaging on lemmy about the topic directly because that (this diverted discussion included) helps it grow.
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endless feed
to fight algorithm addiction
endless
feed
to fight algorithm addiction
Uuuuuh that’s not the way to fight an addiction, right? Who is this person working for, exactly?
I don’t think there’s an algorithm involved actually. Just lovely facts.
Well, there has to be some kind of algorithm. Even picking a random Wikipedia article technically is an algorithm, just not one that adapts to the user
An algorithm usually involves lots of complex calculations and weights. Picking a number from a pool of numbers at random is as simple as it gets.
In comsci, there are no real random numbers. They are all seeded psuedo-random number algorithms. (Unless you integrate with some third party random as a service setup)
Yes but the common interpretation of “the algorithm” is that of the social media and YouTube style one. Recommending items of interest etc but easily manipulated by bad actors.
Wiki random is about as opposite to that as possible.
That’s a common misconception. You can measure a lot of ambient noise and extract entropy. Like time between inputs or how long it took an HDD to seek.
Most modern PC CPUs even have dedicated hardware for generating random numbers from electrical ambient noise. I don’t trust them however.
I can feel my butthole unclenching already 🥲
“Some people just wanna watch the world learn.”
Web 1.0 cures web 2.0 again.
Would be cool if the official Wikipedia mobile app integrated this functionality! It does have a ‘random articles’ card, but it’s nothing like this.
Not sure ‘addiction’ is being defeated here, though 😆 Like if I’m addicted to sausages, giving me bacon instead isn’t really solving the root of the issue. The issue being those sexy, sexy pigs.
The addiction isn’t being defeated, it’s just being redirected from something worthless to something useful. Well, at least less useless.
