Show HN: WikiRoulette – Randomly browse Wikipedia | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: WikiRoulette – Randomly browse Wikipedia

wikiroulette.co

8 pointsminouye9 comments

Is this somehow different from the random article link in Wikipedia?

Roughly the same: https://github.com/minouye/wikiroulette/blob/master/src/over...

If you didn't see the Chrome extension, it's worth a try - I really like the feeling of serendipity every time I create a new tab. It's a little distracting, but I think in a good way.

The random link on the sidebar is my go to time waster.

I had a similar prototype idea that I never built, but it was this:

* start a user off on a random wiki page. * Don't encourage them to start afresh .. they can instead click through to a different page from the current one. * Keep track of these traversals, and then allow the 'trail' to be shared with others.

It could be cool to see the wiki-trails people leave as they spend time soaking in the pages. Or compare trails of people from the same page.

You have some of it ready.. please steal this idea :)

I thought this sounded familiar, and I managed to find this app[1] that claims to feature a "2D mind map to keep track of your journey and suggest new paths".

[1]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikilinks-smart-wikipedia/id...

I dig it, but the main content area is too narrow.

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Edit: My previous endorsement is now retracted, installing the Chrome extension changes the default new tab behavior. Hijacking default browser behavior is terrible. Bad form on the part of the author

Throw this in your favorites, and have fun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

Nice interface, but gosh that makes me feel dumb. So much I don't know.

Could be the basis for a nice party game, along the lines of Trivial Pursuit.

TheWikiGame[0] is my favourite go to Wikipedia based game. Mostly because a non-automated version can be played even on the most restricted networks that just allow Wikipedia.

I have endless fun working out how to get from Norse Mythology to Arithmetic Logic Unit.

[0] http://thewikigame.com/

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