An awkward coming of age: Wikipedia

https://espresso.economist.com/fa3ac9e7b5e2ed174bc1104f1c9ec9b6 -- Jan 15th 2019

An awkward coming of age: Wikipedia

• awkward 令人尴尬的；使人难堪的；难对付的；难处理的

Wikipedia was born 18 years ago today, when Jimmy Wales, a co-founder, typed “hello world” into a primitive web editor and clicked “publish”.

• primitive 简单的；粗糙的

Now the world’s fifth-most-popular website, with 27bn words in 293 languages, is a crucial reference.

• crucial 至关重要的；关键性的

But fewer new people are joining up to edit it, as the work involves no pay and no management.

The dominance of phones is one reason.

• dominance 优势；控制；权势

When full-sized computers were the primary way to go online, popping over to Wikipedia to tinker with a pet topic was easy.

• pop over 赶到；弹出通知；去一下
• tinker with 修复；笨拙地修补

But as people start working exclusively on phones and tablets, that reduces the number who can comfortably edit Wikipedia.

• exclusively 仅仅；专门地；特定地；排外地

And its community sometimes struggles to welcome outsiders.

• outsider 外来者

A discussion page on the issue states that a “lack of collaboration and ‘lone wolf’ culture repels new editors.”

• discussion page 讨论页
• lack of 缺乏
• collaboration 合作；协作；合作成果（或作品）；通敌
• repel 抵制
• editor 编辑；校刊者；校订者
• lone wolf 独战士（ someone who likes to be or work alone）

Like any other community online or off, Wikipedia must find a way to change and grow while keeping existing denizens happy.

• denizen 暂住某处的人;常去某处的人