Wikipedia:Wikirace
- See also Wikipedia:six degrees of Wikipedia, Wikipedia:Wiki Game, Wikipedia:Wiki-Link Game, and Wikipedia:N degrees of separation.
A Wikirace (wĭk-ē`rās) is a race by as many people as you wish, using wikilinks to travel from one Wikipedia page to another. The first person to reach the destination page, wins the race.
How to Wikirace
To Wikirace, first select a page off the top of your head. Using "Random page" works well, as well as the featured article of the day. This will be your beginning page. Next chose a destination page. Generally, this destination page is something very unrelated to the beginning page. For example, going from apple to orange would not be challenging, as you would simply start at the apple page, click a wikilink to fruit and then proceed to orange. A race from cars to Jesus would be more of a challenge, however. Once you have selected a beginning page and an destination page, the race begins and the first person to reach the destination page wins. Finally, the racers are usually located in the same room, to be sure that one hasn't cheated.
Rules
- Clicking year wikilinks is not allowed. They make it too easy to travel between pages, as Wikipedia asks page creators to have years as wikilinks.
- Disambiguation pages are allowed to be used.
- Using a browser's find option is not allowed. The find command ruins the fun and excitment of a Wikirace.
- Categories are not allowed as any category can be reached from another.
- Obviously, editing your beginning page to have a link to the destination page is not allowed. Not only does this defeat the point of the race, but it will anger other Wikipedia users.
Hints
There are a few useful links that are on a number of pages. They include Christianity, computers (or any sort of present day technology), and music. The reason that these in particular are so wide spread, is that they are found in all parts of our present day lifestyles. Music, in particular, is good for Wikiraces because song, album, and the band member names can all be disambiguated to link you closer to the destination page. The page on the United Kingdom is very useful for crossing from topic to topic due to the List of United Kingdom-related topics containing links on most subjects. National ranking pages provide a link to most countries.
Good Target Pages
- ECDL - Evil to find when not using categories. Requires going totally off topic to reach.
- Hello Kitty - Amazingly hard to get to. The only Wikirace that we never finished.
- Charlotte Dacre - Several links, but they're almost all years!
- Goderich Airport - Nearly impossible, requires either going completely off topic, or using some mad wiki geography skills, scanning across Ontario.
Creation
Wikiraces were first started by a group of Canadian Grade 11 highschool students, in March 2005. Similar events may have taken place before said date, but this is their first documentation, under the name "Wikirace", on Wikipedia. Also created simultaneously by students at the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School under the same name.